── With that mindset in place, you set up your own label called "Alien Liberty International".
Leo: Personally, this is my third major debut in 10 years of my music career. In the old days, I didn’t like the kind of environment where I needed to be liked by a certain person in the music industry in order to get have any shot of success.
Of course, I couldn’t help it because I simply didn’t have the ability, but in 2019 I happened to meet Shintaro (our currently A&R) in Shibuya.I was able to believe that I could trust and work together with this person. I’m already 33 years old now, so I should [be able to] do pretty much everything by myself, and since I’ve been working very hard so far, there were many people helping me along the way, which made my sense of responsibility increase even higher.
During the first year there were various incidents between the members and we’ve gone through a lot of troubles, and now I’ve finally reached this major debut. It was tough but fun (laughs).
──That means you have a strong desire to sign with a major label. Since the band is also registered as a private label company, I believe you’ll be able to do what ALI desires to pursue.
Leo: That’s why I have to take responsibility for my major debut. You have to deliver the message to a lot of people. The majors will prepare the environment for you to take pride in your work, so we just have to always keep three things in mind: to meet those expectations, to believe in yourself ourselves, and to appreciate the environment that you we are in.
── What’s your personal feedback regarding ALI since you’ve joined?
Leo: When I first started, I deliberately decided not to create any social media, but except our website. The only way to find out [about us] was to go to our live performance or personally know the member’s personal Instagram or Twitter accounts. And for some magical reason, various people found us out.
I still feel like I’m being guided by that magic. While We couldn’t perform live due to the pandemic, there were more reactions than I expected when we performed at, "THE FIRST TAKE FES".
Tens of thousands of people came to watch our online live show. It’s still far from what I’m aiming for, but I am happy to know that the vision I have is vaguely somewhat starting to come true.
