ali
MAN WITH A MISSION, as the ultimate life form, what message are you bringing to the world? As a band and in your music?
Johnny: First of all, we’re not really allowed to really tell you about the whole mission, but maybe listening to our music, digging into our CDs, coming to our lives. Very few human beings can get what our mission is like.
What challenges have you experienced interacting with humans on your mission?
Johnny: We’re having a good time in this world. It’s our first time here in the U.S. and we haven’t done a lot of shows yet, but I think we’re getting a pretty good reception.
You’re going to be in Knotfest this year. Do you have plans for any international dates just yet? A fan wanted to know when you might be in the U.K., for example.
Johnny: We’d love to. We haven’t planned any just yet, but we want to in the future, yes.
Before you started your U.S. tour, what were you looking forward to the most?
Johnny: Actually, we’ve been here three or four times, but we haven’t done any activities or tour like this [most recent] one. We were looking forward to a lot of things like showing the U.S. people what kind of band we are.
I’ve seen photos of the wolves sightseeing and sharing different photos. Were there any particular places that you were looking forward to seeing the most while you were on tour?
Johnny: Colorado. I like Colorado, that’s where the comedy South Park was made here, right?
Yes!
Johnny: Yeah, I love that comedy. I was really looking forward [to visiting].
The U.S. is different from region to region in terms of weather. How have you enjoyed the different types of weather on tour?
Johnny: Well, like in Japan, it’s really humid. In America, it gets pretty hot, but not humid. It’s pretty darn dry, so I think we were pretty comfortable about that.
A fan asked if you could give us some details of the members.
Johnny: I’ll introduce the other members. We have on vocal, Tokyo Tanaka, the leader of our band. He’s good in all those extreme sports like snowboarding, skateboarding – all that kind of stuff. That’s Tokyo Tanaka. [Next] we have a bass player called Kamikazi Boy. He and I are the two songwriters in the band. He drinks a lot – he actually lost his iPhone during our tour, probably drank too much. DJ Santa Monica; right now we’re in California and he’s never been to Santa Monica before so he might have a chance to go there. Yeah, so he’s a DJ. Parties a lot. He forgets to scratch [sometimes]… The drummer is called Spare Rib. Looks good. He plays the drums very well. He eats a lot. And me, the one who’s speaking, Jean-Ken Johnny. I’m the only one who speaks, so if you want to speak to the wolves, run it by me.
If we bumped into one of the wolves at Knotfest, how do we communicate?
Johnny: Actually, I understand what they [the wolves] would want to say. It’s not that they don’t understand you guys’ language, they just can’t speak. I’m the one who translates and sometimes I get pretty nervous.
You’ve only been active since 2010, but we’ve heard that you’ve grown a lot over the years. Has your fast rise of popularity been a surprise or a challenge?
Johnny: We’ve been looking forward to that. It really is exciting and we never expected to see it this fast. We’re having fun, we’re having a great time. We still believe that we have a lot left to accomplish. I guess we’ll go on and see how far we can get.
Do you have any upcoming news that we should be aware?
Johnny: We’ll be part of Knotfest as you know. We might come back to the U.S. in the Fall or Winter. That would be good.
You’re doing festivals in Japan as well as the U.S.; will you be part of festivals anywhere else overseas?
Johnny: Internationally… we haven’t planned any concrete solutions right now. In Japan, we’ll be in the Fuji Rocks Festival, but nothing yet overseas. We’ve been to Europe a few years ago; we haven’t been there recently so maybe we should try going there again.
Do you have a human form that you might show us in the future?
Johnny: I don’t think so. This is the way we look and I think that will probably never change.
Do you have a message for your international fans?
Johnny: Not many people really know us yet so please take your time, check us out and enjoy MAN WITH A MISSION.
Interview by: Ali
Our thanks to Johnny and MAN WITH A MISSION for their time.