―― I imagine the situation around you has undergone some big changes since the latter half of 2007, but what sort of differences are there compared to before? Nocchi: We’ve gotten used to the busyness. Kashiyuka: We’ve grown tough. Nocchi: I think we got tough both in relation to our schedules and the volume of work. At first it felt sort of like “Are they going to hold us captive inside this TV station for the entire day? (laughing)”, but we’ve gotten used to that recently, and now I think this is the type of work singers do (laughs).

―― About when did you concretely start to feel that your work had gotten busy? Kashiyuka: Our campaign around the timing of GAME’s release was really hectic. A~chan: Probably February or March [of 2008], I guess. January had the release of “Baby cruising Love” so we were busy from the end of the year to the beginning of the new one, and then we had recording for GAME immediately after releasing that, so it felt stuffed from around January to about April. Then our tour began at the end of April, so it’d be that whole period.

―― Did your schedule feel more hectic going into 2008 compared to 2007? A~chan: Hmm. 2007 was unbelievable, too (laughs). The campaign for “Polyrhythm” was crazy. It was like, “Give us dozens of comments all at once!” (laughs) Kashiyuka: We’d never done so much press before, so I felt like I might faint at times. We got to a point where we didn’t know what to talk about. A~chan: It was so intense we were almost running out of oxygen! (laughs) We’d have seven two-hour interviews in a day. That was something we hadn’t ever dealt with before, so it was hard on us.

―― Aside from changes in yourselves, has there been any sort of change in the staff around you? Kashiyuka: Obviously, the number of people working with us has increased. There are so many new faces we can’t keep up with them all, so I feel like that’s been the biggest change. The amount of staff who work with us on live shows has really blown up more than the other divisions. We’ve gotten so many new staff members ever since our tour, and that’s the team we toured with, so we got to know everyone, but there were even more new additions around Budokan a while ago and that made us lose track. Since there were people putting together our stage who were included in that as well. A~chan: We got one more manager. That was a big deal, to go from having one between the three of us to two now. We have one manager who handles us in person and another who oversees our schedule. And a chief who comes with us. We’ve also started to be driven around in a car. We’re still riding the train now, but we used to only go from place to place by train, and now Amuse has bought a “Perfume mobile” for us.

―― As the number of staff around you has increased and you’ve gotten busier, I believe your recognition among the public must have spread right before your eyes as well, but do you ever think your fanbase has changed? Kashiyuka: We’ve gotten more young fans. They come to our shows, and we also have a regular radio program we do, so we’ve gotten tons of messages from kids younger than us, like middle and high schoolers, who ask us for advice. It shocked us to find out that people our age and even younger are listening to our music now.

―― Does it feel like the number of boys and girls have both increased? Nocchi: They’ve both increased. A~chan: Yeah! We’ve gotten more girls. Before, there seriously weren’t many girls, like an 8:2 ratio, but now they’ve really been showing up [to live events]. We’ve started getting more people coming from various genres, too. We’re seeing rock fans and other people with non-mainstream sort of interests. Thanks to that, we’ve been getting to appear at festivals. The age range of our audience has been shifting, too, but I really think it’s expanding.

―― Has performing at festivals played a big role in that? A~chan: It’s been big. In 2007, we appeared as an opening act at Summer Sonic only in Osaka. The crowd there was so wild we couldn’t believe it. I’d thought for sure that the three of us would be out of place there, so I was really happy. We also performed at Countdown Japan 07/08 and closed out the year with a festival vibe (laughs). It’s just a whole lot of fun.

―― You made an appearance at Summer Sonic in 2008 as well, but did it feel like more of an “away game” for you in 2007? Kashiyuka: It really did (laughs). We didn’t think we were fit to be in that place. And we never thought we’d be invited either! It was a shock when so many people came to see us, too.

―― Had you gone to festivals in your private lives before then? Perfume: Yes.

―― Then you must’ve understood the atmosphere well. However, I heard you drew such a large crowd at Summer Sonic that admission to the audience had to be restricted. What were your objective feelings on being in that situation? Nocchi: It made me realize how remarkable the power of TV really is. A~chan: What?! That!? (laughs) Nocchi: Since going on TV, more people have started to see us. People who’d never come to watch us at our own concerts are checking us out on the side at cool events like Summer Sonic instead. Of course, there were people who came specifically to see Perfume, too. Really, so many people showed up, and they had to restrict admission. Summer Sonic in Tokyo was so dangerous. A~chan: Rock In Japan was incredible, too. Nocchi: It was really amazing. A~chan: All of the people in the audience were practically like an ocean! It felt like an ocean horizon. So maybe they were a “‘people’ horizon”? (laughs) People, people, people… I can’t forget that. All these people lined up, screaming at the top of their lungs. There was a whole lot of heat and passion coming from everyone (laughs). Looking at them from up on stage, I thought I absolutely wouldn’t want to jump in there. Everyone’s power was really out of this world!

―― Do you naturally get excited when you see that? A~chan: We did get excited. Before we went on, we heard the staff say, “We restricted admission just now.” All three of us reacted like “Whoa!” and “Yay!” The whole time, we were just like, “Isn’t this crazy?” (laughs) Kashiyuka: We’d always sort of dreamed about having a packed show with restricted admission at a festival, so it felt like “Yes! We did it!” (laughs) A~chan: The staff at Rock In Japan said they should’ve given us one of the bigger stages, and that got us going again.

―― I imagine you did a wide variety of work in 2008, from TV and radio to festivals, but which job left an impression on you? A~chan: When we appeared on SMAP×SMAP and when we went on Hey! Hey! Hey! with “Baby cruising Love.” There was an incident then where Porno Graffiti said to us, “I’ve never seen anyone get that excited in a talk segment before.” We’d actually been super nervous (laughs). Other than that, maybe the filming for Music Fair that we did recently. We got to appear together with SPEED, and we sang together on that. I don’t think I can narrow it down from these three. ...But if I had to mention just one, it’d probably be our appearance with SPEED. Kashiyuka, Nocchi: Same here!

―― All of you were SPEED fans. With that in mind, what did you think when you heard you’d be able to appear together with them? A~chan: I just died! Perfume: (burst into laughter) Kashiyuka: We couldn’t even believe it at all, so instead of screaming for joy, our reactions were all weak. Just like, “What!?” A~chan: It was when we were given our schedules [that they found out about the appearance]. When we get our next list of schedules, it’s usually the last thing that happens after we finish work, so all of us are worn out and lethargic. Then we hear, “Coming up next is Music Japan, and for Music Fair, you’ll be appearing together with SPEED.” Everyone’s reactions were strange, like, “Huh!? We’re going to sing with them!?” It was like, “No way!” Kashiyuka: It was strange (laughs). We could only feel sorry and guilty that they were going to sing with us. Nocchi: Like, “Us?” A~chan: We were like, “Will there be a rehearsal? If we’re going to be dancing, we want to dance perfectly! We hate doing things sloppily!” (laughs) All of us were brimming with motivation. Nocchi: I was excited to know what kind of song we’d be singing together. We all wondered which one we could do with them. A~chan: We made predictions about it. Like “It has to be ‘White Love,’ right!?” and “No, it’s gotta be ‘Wake Me Up!’ or ‘Go! Go! Heaven’!” It was really fun when we talked about that. Nocchi: They’d disbanded, so we never would’ve thought… We’d even given up on doing an appearance together. A~chan: It really moved us deeply.

―― What was it like to actually work with them? A~chan: They were really good people. When someone you like is an even better person than you imagined, it makes you love them all the more. That made us nervous, too, but we did our best not to get in their way. SPEED said, “If you need help with the choreography or anything, please tell us,” but we felt guilty and we’re fans at that (laughs), so we couldn’t ask them. We were all working it out between ourselves like “Does this part start from the right? Or the left?” and they’d say “You’re right, it’s the left.” The consideration they showed us was really unbelievable. Kashiyuka: Everyone was so nice. A~chan: There was also a talk segment, so we chatted and stuff, too. During the filming, they asked us, “How old are you?” When I said “I’m 19,” they were like, “So young!” Even though SPEED themselves were way younger than us when they were together. The whole reason I enrolled in the [Actors’] school was because I admired SPEED, too. Nocchi even said she wanted to be SPEED back then. So it was really just like a dream for us.

―― Next, I’d like to talk about your Budokan concert held on November 6th and 7th, 2008. Please tell me what each of you thought as you stood on stage and saw the audience in front of you that first day. Kashiyuka: Usually the audience would be in front of us on stage, but for our opening set at Budokan, the audience was surrounding the stage, and being able to hear their cheers even from behind us was new. However, for our first block of three songs, it was one cool song after another with “Computer City,” “edge” and “Electro World,” so I was thinking about how I couldn’t let myself get overwhelmed by the audience. But I was shocked to see people crying in the audience from the moment we came out, and that made me happy.

―― You were able to see them in such fine detail. Kashiyuka: We see quite a lot. A~chan is really quick to pick out interesting people. We all look at the audience’s faces. Nocchi: The program was really elaborate right from the beginning, so I couldn’t look at the audience’s faces very well, but every single face that I could see was smiling from ear to ear as they watched us, and that really moved me. During rehearsals, though, there were nothing but seats, and they were so cold and far away from us, I couldn’t imagine that people were going to be there. When I saw each and every person in the audience during the actual show, they were so close, and there were so many faces, it was like, “Wow, this many people came to see us.” That’s when it sunk in for me that we were really going to do a concert at Budokan. A~chan: I really felt similar to Kashiyuka. I thought it was a relief that [the direction of their eyes in “Computer City’s” opening pose] started off facing diagonally upwards (laughs). We’re normally serious about it. I started looking at the audience more closely from around the second song, “edge,” and I was like, “Wow, this is incredible.”

―― I believe you’ve mostly done performances with a standing audience so far, so did you feel any sort of difference between that and this concert? A~chan: Usually, if there are seats, people will sit down for the talk segments and things like that, right? There was none of that in this concert, and the audience stayed on their feet for us the whole time. I didn’t notice it then and there, but I realized that afterwards. I thought that was incredible. I was a little happy at the feeling that we’d made them so absorbed in us that they couldn’t sit down even though there were chairs. Everyone had big smiles the whole time, and they were really into it and enjoying themselves. Nocchi: And it’s safer. A~chan: There won’t be an avalanche of people. Nocchi: I felt firsthand how Perfume’s audience is full of good people, or like I recognized that all over again. They really get into it.

―― I think you’ve also begun to appear more frequently on TV, but is it different to be on TV compared to performing live? Perfume: They’re completely different. Kashiyuka: We aren’t facing the same recipient. In both cases, we’re trying to express something to the audience, but whether or not there’s [an audience] in front of us makes a huge difference in the atmosphere. When we can see the movements and reactions of the audience, it makes us excited, too, and then we feel like we want to reciprocate that energy. You can tell a lot from that, like what things got the crowd hyped or what songs girls especially like. When we film for TV, we’re facing the camera in front of us, so it’s like we’re viewed as just one part of that in a good way. Concerts are something we can enjoy, too, and although it is work, what’s important is that it doesn’t feel like work. TV feels like work.

―― Is there anything you keep in mind when performing in front of cameras for TV? Nocchi: I’m not good at facing the camera and maintaining a smile. A~chan: None of us can do that well. Kashiyuka: Because we always stay in our poses (laughs). Even when they ask us to look at the camera, we look past it. Looking above the camera is typical for us. Nocchi: We have a hard time on TV. A~chan: And avoiding words that are banned for broadcast. This is my #1 issue (laughs). We didn’t know which words were prohibited, and we just found out around our regular program that began in April. We had a radio show in Nagoya called “Perfume no Panpaka Party,” and they taught us the words we couldn’t use on broadcast then. We were like, “What! These weren’t allowed? We’ve been saying them all this time.” (laughs) I realized that the stuff we said had been cleverly cut by the managers all along. I think we have to be mindful of that. It’s inexcusable (laughs).

―― Do you feel strongly about concerts being your main field of activity? Nocchi: We do feel like that. Even when we go on TV, we always hope that people will see us on TV and then want to go to our concerts. The final destination for us is always a concert. A~chan: I think only people who really love that artist go to concerts. That the audience came because they wanted to see us means they really love us. No, really, I think that’s so incredible. So whether they discovered us on TV or on the radio or in magazines, ultimately, they came to see our concert because they wanted to enjoy that time together with us. When it comes to concerts, it won’t be fun for us if only the audience is having fun, and it won’t be fun for the audience if only we’re having fun. People will just write something simple like “I had fun” in their reports, but if you feel even a little bit of uncertainty or have any regrets, that reduces your enjoyment by half and brings the regrets to the forefront, so you tend to be left with more negatives than positives. So I think it’s actually really difficult to say “Let’s all have a good time together!” in a concert. Because they’ve come to the trouble of being there, though, I want to make it a fun experience for the audience, and seeing the audience like that makes it fun for us as Perfume, too, which makes it fun for our staff who are watching as well. I think concerts are exactly the place where you can appreciate the feeling of that revolving circle. I feel like our recent Budokan performance turned out like that. Like a circle. So that made me happy, and I felt that I wanted to thank a lot of people. It’s something that only the people who were there at that time on that day can truly appreciate, and they’re people who chose to take that time out of their day to come to see us. I can have confidence and say that Budokan was really great.