SEKAI NO OWARI in MTV World Stage Malaysia [Presscon 12 Sept 2015]

MTV World Stage Malaysia 2015 , one of the biggest Southeast Asian music nights of the year, was punctuated with amazing MTV moments for fans. The stellar line-up of performers such as a Grammy caliber artist Carly Rae Jepsen, Kpop hottest girl band A-Pink, American super star Jason Derulo, and Malaysia’s #MostWanted local act, Stacy, delivered explosive performances to a live audience that almost 20,000 fans gathered at Surf Beach, Sunway Lagoon on Saturday night, 12 September 2015. However the appearance of SEKAI NO OWARI, the hottest band in Japan right now, was absolutely as appealing as other performers coming.

SEKAI NO OWARI appeared in the press conference room around 12 noon after A-Pink and wore flashy white costumes. Fukase wore a thick white fur coat, Nakajin with the long black hat, Saori with ice queen-ish dress, and DJ Love with a white strapped suit. SEKAI NO OWARI’s costumes have always become part of the show and when they were asked about their inspiration in synchronizing the costumes, Fukase said that they are inspired a lot from manga or movie. The costumes they wore that time in Malaysia for instance, were inspired by the movie called Tokei Jikake no Orenji. Fukase also added that he is the one who combines these ideas for the costumes.

During the presscon, SEKAI NO OWARI’s main vocal, Fukase, has mentioned many times that not only he has been very nervous to perform in Malaysia but he’s also super excited to meet their SEA fans. However when the host asked about how SEKAI NO OWARI feels for becoming the first Japanese artist performing in MTV World Stage Malaysia, Fukase said humbly that they are both honored and nervous but more than that, he mentioned that he doesn’t want to emphasize the “first Japanese who participates” part too much because they are worried that other Japanese musicians may get upset. In the end they don’t really talk about their participation in World Stage Malaysia that much in Japan. Other host supports them though and he said that SEKAI NO OWARI is here because they are the hottest band right now in Japan.

When being asked about their preparation for MTV World Stage and the difference with their other concert, Saori paused for some times and Fukase teased her that she needs time to think. Saori tried her best to answer the question in English in the beginning though “We made only English songs…”, but then reverted back to Japanese to correct it. She said that when they have concerts in Japan, SEKAI NO OWARI will mostly sings Japanese lyrics but in Malaysia they will prepare English songs and they will sing one song in Japanese.

When they talked about the difference performing in Japanese and in English, Fukase said that when they sing in English they will make many mistakes so they practice more than when they are singing in Japanese. They may end up practice singing one song for around 20 times more than usual. In addition, before performing Fukase mentioned that he always does voice training with the help from Saori who will play piano beside him. Fukase said that he always drinks black and ginger tea to help him taking care of his vocal cord. Saori said the energy from fans is also necessary to liven up the live, but sadly the night before she only met two female fans so she hopes to see more fans coming to see SEKAI NO OWARI in the event even though SEKAI NO OWARI has never performed in SEA before.

Cute questions then coming out about how they can describe SEKAI NO OWARI in five words. Fukase lets a very long sigh before answering this question, and then he said SEKAI NO OWARI is fancy, dark, shiny, and Saori added that they are childhood friends and that they are starlight. Since it’s been known they are childhood friends, Fukase also shared his roughest moment with the band. He said the hardest part for them was when they started the band. They borrowed money as much as 15 million yen to change a factory into a live house themselves. Fukase added that there was no turning back and to overcome their difficulty they just need to believe that they have to succeed no matter what.

Starting as indie band, Nakajin stated that there is nothing much has changed in their relationship as a band since they are still living together and they are still passionate in making music but of course the number of fans and supporters have gradually risen up and they also have a bigger number of team now in order to realize what the band wants to accomplish. About what the band wants to accomplish, when being asked about their music element in the future Fukase mentioned that, “Saori-chan hopes she can write a sexy song in our future production.”

Lastly, maybe many of manga, anime or drama lovers know that one of SEKAI NO OWARI’s song is used as the closing soundtrack for Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) titled ‘Anti Hero’, so we also asked about the impression they want to give for the listeners about the song. Attack on Titan itself has been very famous in SEA and it was aired in some big cities all over Indonesia. Kojacon realized that the song suits Eren’s character nicely (Eren is the lead role of the movie) but then Fukase who came up with this song said that what he wants to tell the listener is about a bad guy’s love song. Fukase depicts the bad guy’s love story in this song. It is about how the guy protects the one he really treasures.  The bad guy doesn’t want to think about what others may think or comment about him as long as he can protect his loved one and keep believing what he believes.

The press conference ended in only 20 minutes yet there are so many questions about their performance. Indeed the curiosity is getting bigger and bigger that noon because of the costumes they wore and guess what, their performance in that night is the show stealer! The stage, the laser lightings, the EDM sounds, and even the blend of Fukase’s vocal and the instruments are highly recommended for the first-time-listeners! If you missed the show or you want to reminisce last weekend then stay tuned with their performance only in MTV! The show will premiere on MTV in Asia on Saturday, 26 September at 1.30pm (TH/WIB), 2.30pm (PH/SG) and 3.30pm (MY), Saturday, 10 October at 9pm (JP) and Sunday, 11 October at 12am (KR).

Photo credit : Kojacon Report,  MTV Asia & Aloysius Lim