Luzmelt and the fool are currently doing a few shows in Europe together for the “Jap-Ro Festival” organized by Astan Magazin. The festival only consists of two shows, the first being in Bonn (Germany) and the second being in Utrecht (The Netherlands).
Originally this interview was supposed to be done separately (one interview for Luzmelt, and one interview for the fool), but due to serious time-related issues I was asked to combine both interviews into one instead, so vocalists Gunji (the fool) and Yuhma (Luzmelt) needed less time to answer all questions. Time they could spent preparing for the show instead.
Additionally this was the second interview I ever did, but due to time related issues on my end this interview was actually published officially before the first interview I ever did! Are you confused yet? Honestly, so am I.
So let’s get into this interview!
This is a little sudden for me so I apologize for being a little surprised throughout this interview. I have to improvise most of my questions now to fit both of your projects at the same time. So let’s start at the very beginning, could you both please introduce yourself to the readers?
Yuhma: I’m the vocalist of Luzmelt, Yuhma.
Gunji: And I’m the vocalist of the fool, Gunji.
For both the fool and Luzmelt it’s the very first time you’ve actually been able to visit Europe. And even though it’s only for two shows you’ve at least managed to see a little bit of the continent. What do you think of the trip so far?
Yuhma & Gunji: We’ve actually not seen much of Europe at all. But despite that we’re having a great time here and we’ve both already decided that we want to return for more shows in the future because of the great time we’re having now. And hopefully we can see more of Europe during those future tours as well.
How did you first get in touch with music? Were you inspired by other artists or was there something else? And if your desired career as a musician didn’t work out, what kind of profession would you like to have then?
Yuhma: I grew up during the time visual kei was actually on the rise in Japan thanks to bands like X JAPAN and LUNA SEA. They inspired me at an early age already to want to become a member of a band. When I got older I started to write and compose music myself. If this doesn’t work out I want to teach children in elementary school.
Gunji: When I was little my brother Goo (who is one of the guitarists of the fool now) would always be playing the guitar in his room. This actually inspired me to listen to music, so for the last ten years I have been listening to many styles of music and taking it all in in order to create my own style. This is the style you can see and hear from the fool today. Like I just said, that same brother is one of the guitarists of the band now! (laughs) If this career doesn’t work out I want to become a vet instead.
Both “Luzmelt” and “the fool” are rather interesting names. How did you come up with these names for your projects? Was there anything that inspired you for example?
Yuhma: “Luzmelt” is a combination of some of the favorite words of the members. “Luz” comes from Spanish and means something like “sparkle” or “sparkling”. We combined this with the English word “melt”, so to us Luzmelt means something like “the melting of the sparkle”, or maybe even glitter. We don’t know for sure, but what we do know is that we really liked this name!
Gunji: For me it’s a lot simpler. We’re all a little bit “foolish”! (laughs)
Both of your projects have a style unique to it, both taking influence from different genres within the visual kei genre. But what makes visual kei the style for you, instead of something more mainstream like let’s say general rock-fashion (like casual jeans and a T-shirt) for example?
Yuhma: We want to bring a message with our band. We bring this message through our lyrics, music and outfits. Our outfits don’t only match our image and ideas, they’re also a big part of the entire project.
Gunji: The style created itself, rather than us creating the style specifically for the fool. What we look like is heavily influenced by our own music.
Like I already told you before we started this interview, I had to cut some questions due to time pressure. So that means we’ve already reached the end of the interview (for now, perhaps we can do another interview in the future!). Do you have a parting message for everyone reading the interview?
Yuhma: It’s the very first time for us in Europe, and even though we haven’t performed here in The Netherlands yet, we really want to come back again already!
Gunji: We really want to thank the fans already, and we hope they will appreciate our music here. Fans can interact with each other through our MySpace, OHP (official home page) and even our Ameba blogs, and we really hope that they will do this too! Like Yuhma already said for Luzmelt, we as the fool really want to return here again and again as well!
Extra information
Like mentioned earlier already, both Luzmelt and the fool were in Germany and The Netherlands as part of the Jap-Ro Festival organized by Astan Magazin.
We also took photos of their performances at Tivoli de Helling (Utrecht, The Netherlands). You can find these photos on our photography portfolio, Arlequin Photography, by clicking the images below!
(In 2021 Arlequin Photography was officially changed into a full photography portfolio, while all interviews and news were moved to a new domain called Arlequin Magazine. At this time neither Luzmelt nor the fool were still active in the music industry. This is why there are no social media section for this article.)
雪 (Yuki) is the owner and driving force behind Arlequin Magazine & Photography.
She started in 2009 as a photographer with Arlequin Photography, but due to a growing interest in journalism, translation and behind-the-scenes work in general the project burst out of it's seams in 2021 and expanded through the addition of Arlequin Magazine.
雪 (Yuki) is a native Dutch speaker and maintains both the English and Dutch sections of both Magazine and Photography with original content, translations and photography as well as all the behind-the-scenes work for both websites.
She speaks Dutch, English, Japanese and German.