GPK Interview by J-ROCK-JAPAN

His name is GPK
~Interview with the Gothique Prince~

 J-ROCK-JAPAN travelled to the Visual Shock ~VK & J-Rock Fest~ in Paraguay to meet GPK and do an exclusive interview, for his "The Beginning of the End of the World" tour 2012.

 

J-ROCK-JAPAN: “The Beginning of the End of the World” is the name of your tour. Why did you choose that name?

GPK: I think it’s very funny because it’s 2012 and everyone’s thinking it’ll be the end of the world and I think it’s practically a beginning, to end something and bring something new to future things… for me (laughs).

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Is the South American crowd different from the other countries?

GPK: They’re very, very excited and glad, so I’m very happy about that, yes.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: How do you feel being the first international artiste of your style performing in Paraguay?

GPK: I’m very honored to be here and I’m very happy, because as you said, actually I’m one of the first performers. I’m very happy.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: You’ve been singing for 5 years, are you satisfied with your current success? Or what were your expectations?

GPK: I’m still learning, I’m not a very good singer and I will do my best so maybe I can sing better in the future (laughs).

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Do you think social networks are important to promote your work?

GPK: I think social network can be the only way to promote my works (laughs). So I’m very happy about this.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: What are your favourite songs to perform live?

GPK: All my songs are my favourite songs, so I don’t know. Maybe, I don’t know, Sublimis, probably because that could be the best song that I actually really like, so… Yeah.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Is there any country that you have never performed yet and you would like performing?

GPK: I can’t think of any, but maybe North Korea (laughs).

J-ROCK-JAPAN: After the disaster happened in Japan, you came back to Australia. Do you miss Japan? Would you like to come back someday?

GPK: I would love to, but due to the disaster the situation it’s getting worse so I don’t think I can come back anytime soon.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: If you weren’t a singer, what profession would have you chosen?

GPK: I’m not too sure, maybe I’d be… a monk (laughs). I don’t know.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Is there any musician you would like to work with, if you haven’t performed with it yet? Who would be?

GPK: I’d really wish to work with Michael Jackson but unfortunately he’s dead so…

J-ROCK-JAPAN: What about Lady Gaga?

GPK: No, no, NO!! (Laughing)

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Why did you call your first solo work as Phoenix?

GPK: Because it’s a new beginning and it has a lot of esoteric meaning behind. It’s a symbol and I would like to use this word to explore the beginning of a new era for my artistic work.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: This year you were looking for someone to participate with you in a video clip, did you find that person?

GPK: It was actually planned to release the music video before my European tour, but I have no enough time to getting to work on it. Maybe I can do it next year if I have the time, because I’m very busy, and I’ll come back to make some music video for other time.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: In GPKISM you released 2 albums: Atheos and Reliquia. If you had to choose one of them as your favorite, which would be?

GPK: Most certainly Atheos, because it has the significant of the basis for concept of GPKISM I wanted, because it’s not just about, let’s see… surface concepts like Elizabeth Bathory, that’s not my intention. My intention is to create a holistic and personal mythos to express my artistic vision.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: And which one do you think your audience like most?

GPK: I’m not too sure because in Atheos I was experimenting with ideas and I was trying to find my style. Later in Reliquia the songs were very organized already, I have done all new to create my songs. In a way, I think it become to prepare something that has more experiment and patience to it and something that I already have been done before. That’s why I wanted to explore that idea in my solo project. Maybe you have to listen to that in the future.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: What will be your next release? Another single, a mini album or a full album?

GPK: I’m not so sure about it, depends on how much time I have before I get on to the next tour and because I wish to produce something before I go overseas, so keep listening to my new song. I’m not too sure about it yet, but I’ll do my best.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: What do you like most of this South American tour, compared to the other ones?

GPK: Well, I like the fact that I’m the first artist of the visual style, but I don’t really like be named it that way because I worked with many artists in Japan. I’m very happy that I’m actually the first to tour Paraguay and that has to be the most important achievement of the tour.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: What are your expectations for tonight’s show?

GPK: I certainly wish to not have an expectation of any kind with my work, because if I expect too much I might get disappointed, but I like to live the moment and try to do my best on stage, so everyone could understand my message and accept the way I work.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Would you like to do a more extensive tour next year, and visit other countries you couldn’t go in this tour?

GPK: I’m a planning a next South American tour as we speak, I will announce after we find everything. And right now I don’t think I wish to discuss anything right now because it’s all premature, but when the time comes I will tell you about it.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Your South American tour finishes today, and you were one and a half month in South America. What did you do all that time, outside of the performances?

GPK: I actually kinda enjoyed the beach in Brazil because I really love nature. I think sometimes we lose ourselves because we went too much consumed by the mass media, commercialization, and of course, these things makes me happy. I think to find happiness you have to enjoy the moment and really find yourself, so I think to be at the beach it’s very useful for me.

J-ROCK-JAPAN: Would you like to give a message for all of your fans that couldn’t come to see you live? What would you say to them?

GPK: It’s unfortunately sad, you cannot make it to the show, but I hope we’ll be able to see each other again in the future. I will do my best to make it happen, thank you very much.


We want to think GPK and his manager for his time and kindness, and thank all the Visual Shock Fest staff, specially one of the main organizers, Bara no Hime,  for their invaluable help and readiness.


Interviewer: Martín "Mizaki" Antoñuk.
Translator: Erik Von D Dircheis.
Edition: RocioZero.