‘Man with a Mission’ NYC Interview: Jean-Ken Johnny at Irving Plaza (Video)

Man with a Mission’s Jean-ken Johnny spoke to The Natural Aristocrat® at Irving Plaza hours before the band’s NYC concert.

Jean-Ken Johnny at Irving Plaza. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV): What’s been your biggest surprise live reaction to a song on tour?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: We’ve seen a lot of things. Everything’s happening, like crowd surfing kind of stuff, especially when we play overseas. It’s really amazing to see how everybody actually knows each and every song.

Man with a Mission stage before concert at Irving Plaza. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

They’re really singing to it, even though it’s in Japanese or English or whatever. It’s really great to see the audience really understanding and knowing all of the songs and we appreciate it.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Can you walk us through the recording process for your latest single, “I’ll be there”?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: The technical kind of stuff would probably bore you guys! (laughs) So the story was, first, that song was meant for an actor, a pretty huge famous actor in Japan. He was releasing his new album or something like that. We wrote a song for him to sing on it too. And like a year or later or something like that, he was supposed to take part in a drama series in Japan.

Man with a Mission co-vocalist Jean-Ken Johnny on The Natural Aristocrat® TV

And he came up with an idea of using the song that he sang, maybe self covered by Man with a Mission ourselves. It was an honor and a great pleasure to have that opportunity.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: What’s been your favorite part of New York City?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: It’s probably the largest, busiest city in the whole wide world! I really enjoy it because all the movies and TV shows took part in this huge city. Just recalling all the dramatic scenes that I’ve seen in those movies and walking around New York excites me a lot. That New York City feeling in the air!

Jean-Ken Johnny at Irving Plaza. Photo Credit: © 2024 Nir Regev / TheNaturalAristocrat.com

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Your collaborative song with milet, “Kizuna no Kiseki” is at 100 million+ listens on Spotify. What does that mean to you and the band to reach that milestone?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: I mean, we were really aware of how huge the animation, ‘Demon Slayer’ is in the whole wide world, so we were expecting quite a lot of reactions from that. But yeah, I never imagined how much we would have with it today.

It’s probably the most listened to song that we’ve ever written and it was a real pleasure taking part in that.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Speaking of Spotify, your theme song for anime ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ is your most listened to non-collaborative track on Spotify with 45 million+ listens. What made track ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ a standout in your opinion?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: We worked it with the Linkin Park producer, Don Gilmore, a very great producer from the United States.

We focused on how the melody and the lyrics should be really simple, but persuasive at the same time. I guess that vibe really makes for a good reaction from the audience overseas. It’s a really simple song about all the guilt you can have in your ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, as in religion kind of stuff.

I feel that story was really persuasive to you guys. The song has a really happy and kind of a profound vibe, it’s like a rock anthem. It’s really big, huge really, great to hear in the live shows, even in bigger locations. So yeah, I guess that’s why they love it so much!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: What’s the most challenging song to perform live compared to the studio?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Each and every song is a lot of fun to perform! But I feel really fast songs like “evils fall”, stuff like that. We’ve been in this band for 14 years and believe me, I mean we are the same like you guys. We get old too (laughs), so the fast songs are pretty hard for us to perform today.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: A fan on Reddit was putting together a list of all your English songs for a playlist. Does this kind of thing have an impact on including more English in the recording process vocally? Or no impact creatively.

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Yeah, I mean, ever since we formed the band, it was all about not only playing in Japan, but performing throughout the world! We are big fans of the bands in the western side of the world. It was all about writing in English and Japanese really freely, it didn’t really matter for us to choose the language.

If the fans want it in English, we’re more than ready to give them exactly that.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: What do you feel is the biggest difference to performing live overseas compared to a Japanese audience?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: I mean, yeah but everybody who loves rock music, they have a lot of energy. They’re enthusiastic, it doesn’t change that much. But I guess a lot of people go ‘bigger’ in the states sometimes. They’re loud, they’re crazy!

They’re probably more open to rock music than you see in Japan. Their energy is pretty hype! Well, not actually only that, but it takes us quite a long time to come over to the other countries. So I guess that makes them more excited!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: How do you decide the setlist city by city?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Not a spoiler, but we don’t change ours that much! (laughs) This tour was powered by Crunchyroll, a really huge animation company distributor in the States and in the whole wide world.

So I guess the set list is mainly with all the songs that you can listen to in the animes. Also, some songs from our older works that we’ve done because we haven’t performed old songs that much in the States. It’s that kind of combination.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: On Reddit, a Jujutsu Kaisen anime fan named your band alongside Survive Said the Prophet for his choice for an opening theme. What does that mean to you?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: That’s great! I kind of hope it was a guy from the company, so it might come true. (laughs) But yeah, it’s really flattering.

I mean that’s another huge animation really cutting through the world, so yeah. We appreciate it. If we get the chance we’ll take it!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: The drumming intro on song ‘database’ is a real highlight, measured and tight. I know you’re huge Nirvana fans, so I immediatley thought of a favorite song of mine “Breed”. Can you tell us about the day you came up with the intro to ‘database’?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Oh wow. Yeah, we are definitely influenced by the music that was going on in the nineties. I mean, we are huge fans of Nirvana like you said. All the alternative scene that was going on in that era, it made a huge impact to us.

We’re still inspired from the music that was going on in that era. So I’m not really sure if I can describe how we came up with it, but I guess it’s in our blood, you know, in our heritage!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: milet couldn’t help a light laugh the first time encountered the wolves of Man with a Mission on The First Take… Has she never met a wolf you think?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: (laughs) That was not our first encounter, but yeah, that program has a pretty serious atmosphere. It was probably silly and awkward seeing a wolf taking part in that program, I guess that made her chuckle.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Any inspiration from The Prodigy’s song “Run with the Wolves” for the band?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: (sings lyrics) “Run With The Wolves and Shout It Out Loud!” That’s a really cool song from that album ‘Invaders Must Die’. We are a big fan of The Prodigy, so like I said before, it’s definitely in our blood.

They are always in our mind, but not a particular inspiration or something like that. But I love that song too!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Do you pop in and read the Man with a Mission subreddit and Discord fan channels occasionally?

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Oh, actually you gave me the link to it, so I checked it quickly. But I never noticed the whole site ever. But yeah, maybe I can write something down.

It’s anonymous, right? (laughs)

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Yeah, as long as you call yourself something anonymous.

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: (jokes) I’m gonna say all the bad things I can say on that! (laughs)

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Thank you!

JEAN-KEN JOHNNY: Thank you very much!

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