| Q: |
For
the people who don't know you: Who is Cornelius? |
| A: |
I
have the most difficult time when someone asks
me "what kind of music are you doing?"
For example my aunt would ask me: "So what
kind of music are you playing, it's rock right?
It's rock". And just to get rid of her i'll
say: "Yeah, it's rock". But for me,
whatever title is fine. To me it's music. |
 |
|
| Q: |
The
name Cornelius is not exactly Japanese. Where
did it come from? |
| A: |
Basicly
i got it off the Planet of the Apes, and it's
a character in the movie, named Cornelius. It
just happened by chance that when i was starting
my soloproject, i came home one day and turned
the tv on, and POTA was on and that's where i
got it.
Later on i found out that Pierre Boulle, the writer
of this story, was actually writing about his
own experiences as a prisoner of war in World
War 2 in Japan and he made that story into the
Planet of the Apes. He was the prisoner of war,
where he was like the human and the Japanese were
the Apes and Cornelius is like the middleperson
who understands the Japanese people, or the apes,
and the humans. He understands both so i like
that as a character too. |
|
|
| Q: |
What
music did you grow up with? |
| A: |
I
grew up listening to all kinds of music. Both
my parents were also musicians who played Hawaiian
poppish kind of songs. So there was that kind
of music coming in, and from Junior High i started
listening to rock music. |
|
|
| Q: |
Your
father actually played on one of your cd's. Was
that 69/96? |
| A: |
It
was on the remix-album of 69/96 which was called
96/69. I had my dad's band actually play, instead
of remixing, just play. |
|
|
| Q: |
Four
years have passed since the release of your last
album "Fantasma". Why did it take so
long? |
| A: |
Fantasma
was the first release outside of Japan, which
was released in Europe and in the States. And
i did a follow up tour which took about 2 years
and then i did various remixes, and produced some
things during that time and that took about 2
and a half years. Basicly i started recording
for this album last year and it took a year. |
|
|
| Q: |
What
were your influences for this particular album? |
| A: |
It
wasn't necessarily just one thing, but things
that happened just in the normal daily environment,
the recent moods that i'm feeling. Just normal
experiences or feelings felt within, like just
normal life. |
|
|
| Q: |
When
listening to your last album i got the idea: This
guy is affraid of silence. Everytime a song was
fading out your crammed in loads of samples in
order to avoid a gap between the songs. This new
album is actually the opposite of that. Why this
different approach? |
| A: |
Basicly
Fantasma involved lots of information, lot's of
cut up images. This time i selected the necessary
sounds that i felt, that i needed in there and
let the music breathe more. Basicly i wanted to
make it more simple this time. |
|
|
| Q: |
Fantasma
was your international breakthrough and it was
filled with drum 'n' bass and samples. There's
not much left of that on Point. Aren't you affraid
that your international audience might not get
what they expect? |
| A: |
I
didn't know what people were expecting, so i can't
really say. But i feel that it's a bit different
then last time's album. |
|
|
| Q: |
Then
was Fantasma a small trip into another direction,
because this album is more in line with the older
albums, your first albums and the work you did
with Flipper's Guitar. Was Fantasma just the odd
one out? |
| A: |
I
feel that it was different then the previous releases,
whereas the first one was maybe like, a pop album
and the second one involved more rock and then
Fantasma was more like Disneyland. I feel that
i'm making it different each time. |
|
|
| Q: |
You
have said in a previous interview that every album
is like a soundtrack to you. That you guide your
listeners through different landscapes and countries.
What image or feeling do you want to give your
audience with this new album? |
| A: |
My
concept wasn't about creating the whole full story
for the listeners, but mixing my music with each
individuals experience and/or atmosphere. For
example it's like, when explaining what a cigarette
is or drawing one. It's not drawing what the cigarette
is but the things around it. So it's like mixing
the atmospheres. Giving the atmospheres but putting
your thought with the music. |
|
|
| Q: |
There's
one song on the album that seems a bit out of
place. Which is not as poppy as the rest of the
album. I hate hate is an aggressive speedmetal
track. What are you trying to say with this track? |
| A: |
With
"I hate hate", I got together my stressfeelings,
anger and negative feelings and just compressed
it and put it into one little spot and made it
fast. Basicly by having this one track it makes
the rest of the album sound more gentle. And there's
an irony about the title which is "I hate
hate". This meaning there's still hate within
myself. |
|
|
| Q: |
There's
one song that's a cover. The song Brazil. It's
a cover of the famous theme from the movie Brazil.
Why did you cover it? Weren't you affraid that
it would be critizised. Because the original has
a certain swing and this one sounds a bit artificial
because the vocals were programmed. Why did you
do this cover? |
| A: |
Basicly,
a cover is a cover so i can't do anything about
that. First i was offered to do music for Honda's
commercial where Honda made a robot and the robot
comes out in the commercial and sings the song.
It made me think of the film Brazil more where,
in the movie, there's a high society and the people
want to go back to the past style of life and
live that way. The interesting part i thought
about this commercial was that the robot, it's
2001, and the robot is singing that he wants to
go back to the past and live the past lifestyle.
I made the full version because he thought it
was interesting and included it in this album. |
|
|
| Q: |
Drop
will be the first single off this album. The Japanese
version only had one track. Will there be additional
remixes on the European release? |
| A: |
The
remixes included on the maxi-single will be from
Kings of Convenience and Matthew Herbert. |
|
|
| Q: |
Last
year you had a second remix-album planned, CM2,
but it was cancelled. Why was that and when can
we expect it now? |
| A: |
The
timing with the release-date of this album and
the timing with when the remixes were made, didn't
quite match. And there was one remix with which
we had some trouble to clear the rights, but i
plan to release it this coming year. |
|
|
| Q: |
There's
going to be a tour this spring in Europe. What
can people expect from a Cornelius concert? |
| A: |
I
haven't started the rehearsal yet, so i don't
know. Basicly it's gonna be with the same members
as last time and i'll use the visual aspects too
and it'll be quite simular to that but i don't
know the details of it yet. I'm gonna come up
with a concept, an idea, when i get back to Japan. |
|
|
Related Links:
Cornelius Official website
Cornelius Matador site
Kink FM
|
