Hello all, as i am stuck at home sick and bored... i decided to try a hand at translating the one-hour long interview with both Ken Lloyd and Inoran in the Stepping Stone DVD. There are 21 parts (22 for Ken since he added a INORAN part 2) for each of the guys and i am doing them bit by bit. I have done the 1st 3 of Ken's...

Since it's a free talk interview, i chose to take the liberty of skipping parts and rearrange them at my own judgement. *** indicate parts i cannot catch what the interviewee is saying.

One thing i wish to say is that I think this translation suck so if there's any mistakes you think i have made PLEASE PLEASE do point it out. Thank you!!! ^_^

(What started me on music)

I originally got into music very late... the time when i really got interested in music was in junior high school year 1 (13 years old). But that was only becos my seniors were into music and since i admired my seniors so much, i was listening to pretty much what they were listening to. They were in a (copy)band and i thought they were cool and just listened to whatever they did, like MOTLEY CRUE and POISON. Kinda an ambiguous way to get into music though.

But that was all i knew back then. I was in a boarding school back then (from 11 to 15 years old) and the school was extremely strict. The world beyond the school walls was like a totally different world. We could only listen to whatever we had within the dormitory. That's why I ended up listening to only what my seniors listened to... like Motley Crue etc.

During the 3rd year of junior high school i moved to an American school, and that was when i began to widen the range of music i listened to. That was also the time when Nirvana had their break, and gradually i was heading towards a good direction. It was not like i had interest in this kind of music, and i was into them late too. ****

And before that i was listening to like really vague stuffs... like the Ghost Busters OST. The first album i was given, was Dancing with ET ~disco remix~, by my dad. It had pointless music in it, but my dad bought it for me and i was extremely happy then. And when i went to a Japanese school, my mum sent me Michael Jackson's BAD.

The first record i bought myself was Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil. And it wasn't really becos it was good but more like becos my seniors was listening to them, and i just got it. In fact it was some 5 years after it was released. ****

(Influence from being in London)

Totally no influence in my opinion. That's why i get puzzled when interviews and articles always write how because i have English blood in me, my melody sounds the way it is. I think there's totally no connection but well i really won't know. But i think it's more because when i listen to music, i absorb the music totally like a sponge since i am so into music. So i would think that there is where my music sense is derived from.

(Origin of a joke)

My dad is really into classical music and opera and i was always made to listen to them back them. But to an 11 year old, no matter how you are told 'this is good', you still get sleepy from listening to them.

When we all go for orchestra concerts, my mom would be sleeping at the side and i would be dying from boredom. Only my dad would be all attentive and listening.

The most memorable concert is one that when the conductor suddenly stopped in the midway of a piece. While a conductor does stop in between movements, as far as i know, something was definitely wrong since he should never stop midway of a movement. And when i was thinking that something has definitely gone wrong, it seems that the conductor has dislocated his shoulder as he was too vigourous in his conducting.

This is the most enjoyable memory i have of classical concerts since someone even asked if there was another conductor to take over the orchestra. [Is this going to be alright?!?!] I was wondering then.