I’ll see if I still have a digital version of an interview I did with them for my zine
Ok, here’s part of it
Me: So, you guys came back (to Japan) finally, after ten years. Why did you decide to finally make it back?
僕:10年後やっと(日本に)戻ってきましたね。今回はどうして来日することにきめたんですか?
Rod (Bass): Comeback kid was coming here and, and their manager asked us if we wanted to come and we thought… sounds good
ロッド:カムバック・キッドがここに来るという事で、彼らのマネージャーが僕たちに一緒に来ないかって聞いてきて、ああいいんじゃない、みたいな。
Me: Cause I had heard that NOFX had asked you on their last tour to come over with you guys, but…
僕:先の日本ツアーに、一緒に来ないかってNOFXから誘われたって聞きましたが。
Rod: Well, it seems like more fun than NOFX
ロッド:うん、(カムバック・キッドとツアーする方が)NOFXより面白そうだったから。
Me: How many times in Japan then is this for you?
僕:今回、日本は何回目ですか?
Jord (Drums): Our third time
ジョード:三回目。
Me: Next one, number 3. Just to get it out of the way, what interview question do you get asked the most? Or do you dread the most?
僕:次ぎは三つ目の質問。どうせだから、インタビューで一番よく聞かれる質問は何ですか?それと聞かれて一番嫌な質問は?
Jord: “Are you still on Fat?”
ジョード:「まだファット(レコード)にいるの?」
Todd: Or “How’s the tour goin’?” “Why are you so handsome?”
トッド:「ツアーはどんな感じ?」、「なんであなたはそんなにイケメンなんですか?」
Me: So today I think Earth Day is happening, like in Tokyo. And you guys, are obviously concerned about a lot of environmental things. I saw Chris last night has his…
僕:そういえば今日アースデーですけど、特に東京とかでは。(アースデーにまつわるイベンドやってるらしいけど?)皆さん、環境保全についてもちろん関心持ってますよね。
昨日クリスが・・・
Todd: Sea Shepherd Society…
トッド:シーシェパード・ソサエティー
Me: Sea Shepherd Society shirt, and he also had a little placard on his guitar there, do you know what that was about?
僕:そう シーシェパード・ソサエティーのT−シャツを着ていて、で、彼のギターにも小さなチラシ立ててあって。
あのチラシには何て?
Todd: Japanese hunting dolphins maybe?
トッド:日本のイルカ漁労についてかな?
Me: And you guys are all strict vegans. When was the last time a dead animal entered your pie-hole?
僕:で、皆さんベーガン(絶対菜食主義者)ですが、最後に死んだ動物を口にしたのはいつですか?
Jord: My pie-hole…
Todd: Uh, I ordered a vegetable samosa about 3 or 4 years ago, it had a fuckin’ flake of …
トッド:うーん、3−4年前ベジタブル・サモサをオーダーしたら、小さな・・・
Me: Meat in it?
僕;肉のかけらが入ってた?
Todd: Yeah. Hideous.
トッド:そう。気持ちワル。
Me: When did you first become though, vegan?
僕:ベーガンになってどの位になりますか?
Todd: Oh, um…like 1992 or something? 93?
トッド:うーん・・・多分’92年頃から? ’93年?
Jord: I think I started experimenting with vegetarian stuff when I was 19, would have been ’89. And then over the next few years I slowly progressed to become more strict with it.
ジョード:19歳の時ベジタリアニズムを試し始めて、だから’90年からだと思う。で、それから数年徐々にベーガンに近づいて行って。
Me: OK. And Beav, are you in on that too?
僕:ok, ビーヴもベーガンですか?
Beav (Guitar): Yeah.
ビーヴ:そう。
Me: How long?
僕:いつから?
Beav: I went vegetarian when I was 18, so around ’97, and vegan, not until I was 25, so that would be have been, 2004.
ビーヴ:18歳のときにベジタリアンになったから、’97年頃から。ベーガンになったのは25歳になってからだから、たぶん’04年からかな。
Me: OK. And this is for the Japanese kids that might have heard of anything about animal rights or vegetarianism, but what were some of your reasons for giving up meat?
僕:OK この質問は、ベジタリアニズムや動物保護について聞きかじった事がある日本の若い子たちの為に聞くんですけど、肉と食べないと決めた理由は何ですか?
Jord: I think for me uh, I read uh, ‘Diet for a Small Planet’, this book by Frances Moore Lappe which was really influential to me at the time. I think mainly out of moral concerns about not having anything against animals, was my first motivation. I had cats and dogs growing up an stuff like that, I wouldn’t eat them, so why would I want to eat a cow or… you know, anything else?
ジョード:僕は、うーん・・・フランシス・ムーア・ラップの”小さな惑星の緑の食卓”っていう本読んだ時、結構感化されて。やっぱり、一番は、倫理上動物保護に反する事はしたくないっていうのが最初の理由かな。子供の頃犬や猫を飼ってて、で、ペットは食べないなら何で牛やその他の家畜なら食べるのかって。
... for a bit of background, I started off with this because although Japanese people are just starting to hear about veganism and the effects of animal ag on the environment now (Japan is about 20-30 years late with global social trends), this interview was maybe 15 years ago, when the word was virtually unknown here. So I wanted to introduce the idea that punk bands have political messages (which in Japan, for the most part they don’t).