Man With A Mission, one of the strangest rock bands to come out of Japan is getting ready for its latest European tour this June, that will include the half wolf-half human musicians’ first ever show in Budapest, Hungary. This is the original, English version of the Zoom interview that we did with the band’s guitarist and co-vocalist Jean-Ken Johnny for a Hungarian media outlet to promote that show. Besides the usual subjects, like the band’s outlandish origin story or their songs made for famous anime series, we also touched upon a couple of things that they rarely discuss in foreign interviews, including their Japanese musical influences and we also tried to figure out why there are so many genre-bending bands in Japan. Read on and dig deep into the world of this unique band!

This will be your first time in Hungary in June and while you have many fans here that are more or less familiar with the band, for others it will be the introduction to Man With A Mission. Can you quickly summarize your background story? Why are you wolves and why are you playing rock music… as wolves?

So, time for Man With A Mission: the background story! We are artificial humanoids and androids that were made by a mad professor a long time ago. We are androids that have the head of a wolf and the body of a human and in the old days we had nothing to do with music. The mad professor made us do the most evil duties anybody could imagine, but one day he thought that he went too far, so he decided to stop us and put us on ice in the Arctic. And we have been iced there for a long time. But we had the power to listen to the music that was going on all over the world while we were iced. And it was just beautiful you know, listening to music, rock music. It really moved our hearts and we thought that music was one of the most beautiful things invented by human beings. And in those days we promised ourselves that if we will ever have a chance to get out ice, we would definitely do something with music. And then, in 2010, because of global warming, the ice melted just enough for us to get out.

So, that’s how we got out and as we promised, we started a band. It’s been 16 years since and it’s been great so far, we enjoy music and we started a rock band as it was rock music that moved our hearts the most.

And of all the animals, why wolves? Why not… lions, tigers or, I don’t know, penguins for example? Or any other animals?

Penguins!? Well, I am really glad he didn’t use penguins, but the professor, he was the one who chose wolves, he was the one who made us and I don’t know why he ended up using wolves. But it’s great, because it is easy for us. Well, it would be definitely a lot more easier if we were normal human beings, but we are happy with what we are.

What do you think, why there are so many Japanese bands with strange background stories? Like you, or Babymetal for example?

Well, there are also bands like that elsewhere, like Ghost, but the Japanese, I guess, are a lot more open to that? I mean people sometimes take music very seriously. And of course, it is serious, the message and the philosophy, it should be serious, but at the same time, it is also enjoyed as entertainment in a way. Having a background story and not showing too much about the human aspect sometimes helps people to focus only on the music. If you are a “normal” band, or, if you are a good looking guy or girl, a lot of people are curious about what you wear, what you eat, what you think about and while it sometimes amplifies the music aspect, sometimes it gets in the way. And whenever you have a backstory, or, as in our case… if you are wolves, they never care about such things, We look completely the same each and every day, 356 days a year. So, people do not have the human aspect and somehow that makes them more easily focused directly on the music. It gets the other kinds of emotions and thinking out of the way. And I guess that helps a lot, and while it makes it all a lot more mysterious and funny, it also makes it more pure at the same time. That’s probably why Japanese people enjoy that kind of format a lot.

You did a lot of interviews throughout the years and you’ve talked a lot about you being Influence by Americans rock bands like Nirvana and genres like alternative rock, metal and grunge. But did you have any direct influence from Japanese rock bands?

Yes, definitely! We have been listening to music that’s been going on in Japan for a long time. I would say a huge influence for us was the punk rock band called Hi-Standard. And not only the band itself, but the whole movement that was going on in the ’90s. Hi-Standard was actually organizing a big festival called Air Jam and it was a really great festival (editor’s note: it was held in ’97, ’98 and 2000 and featured bands like Garlic Boys, Yellow Machinegun, Back Drop Bomb, Cocobat, Husking Bee, ShakkaZombie and many others). It wasn’t strictly a punk rock festival, it had a mixture, hybrid sound, mixing heavy metal, ska punk and so on. A lot of genres were brought together and I believe that era, the ’90s had the attitude when it was cool to collaborate and just enjoy the collaboration with other kinds of genres. And I guess we were really influenced not only by the band, but that attitude. Other bands, like the Boom Boom Satellites were also a huge influence for us. If I had to choose bands that influenced us, I would probably choose those kinds of bands.

Talking about hybrid sounds, you also mix a lot of different genres in your music. Alternative rock, metal, funk rock, punk and so on. And in Japan you belong to the so called “loud rock scene” which is an umbrella term used for bands with a similarly mixed sound. What do you think, why did the mixing of different genres became such a common thing in Japan that there is a whole separate scene with acts with a hybrid sound, that take influences from a wide selection of genres?

I am a really big fan of bands that stick to one genre, for example bands with an alternative rock sound. And most bands are like that, consistently playing only music that belongs to their chosen genre. And that is really beautiful. But I guess Japanese people are different, because of the culture in Japan… I mean it is an island, that is really isolated from the rest of the world. And we have a very genuine way of thinking, especially in music, you know. We really don’t care if it is one genre or another: if it is awesome, it is awesome. Bands might have a hybrid sound, that picks elements from all kinds of different genres, but as long as the music comes from the band, they feel that it is their own, original music. And I really think that it is also a beautiful thing, but in a different way. Japanese bands really prefer to mix things, to come up with something new, something hybrid in their music. And I think, because of this, they evolved in a different way from the Western side of the rock genre.

In your songs, you prominently use both English and Japanese language. Why did you decide to have bi-lingual lyrics?

As I was a huge fan of Western bands, bands from the US and the UK, listening to that language was really natural for me. And at the same time I was dreaming about performing music and playing all over the world, and it was just natural for me to choose English as the communication language to perform music. But at the same time, when we are performing in Japan, obviously we do use Japanese as well. And it is also a beautiful language and if you are signing for a Japanese audience, it is a lot more comprehensible for them, they understand it a lot more. So, it was kind of self-evident for me to use both.

There are a lot of Japanese acts that also use both English and Japanese, but in a very different way: they sign in Japanese, but throw in random English words or lines. What do you think, why did it become such a wide-spread practice in Japan, while this sort of language mixing very rarely happens in other non-English places for example in French, Spanish or German speaking countries?

Yes, they normally stick to one language. And… I don’t know! Probably because, as I said just before, that they really think it is cool combine things and make their music sound different and new that way. And I am not really sure if I am right, but I think Japanese bands, at least my friends from the scene, they were also influenced Western music, so, probably, just like me, they use some English because it sounds cool to them. And, because of this, even if they are mainly singing in Japanese, it was natural for them to write lyrics like that and use a couple of English words that they thought were inspiring or strong, to make their music sound different.

And back to your own music: the last time you released an album was in 2021 / 2022 when you dropped your double album, Break and Cross the Walls I & II. And since then you only released a couple of singles and XV, a four track EP last year, to commemorate your 15th anniversary. When can fans expect a new album coming from you?

We are actually kind-of in the studio these days to record new stuff, so, while nothing is set yet, but hopefully next year?

And can we expect a new musical direction or will you stick to sort of music that you were doing in your past releases?

During these 16 years, the rock scene has moved a lot, a lot of changes were going on. And not only the platforms changed, but rock music has changed a lot genre-wise as well. And even pop and hip-hop did. But during these past years, I kinda felt that where I came from, the ’90s music scene, especially the alternative music scene is rising up again. I see Western artists right now that prove that. For example, Ecca Vandal, she is a great artist and I can definitely see how much she loves the Pixies and the ’90s alternative attitude and chord progression. Or there is Turnstile. I kind of see that the ’90s kind of attitude is emerging again. I am really proud and very excited about this. So, definitely we would love to go for a new music style and at the same time, I will probably gonna dig a lot deeper into what I’ve been listening to.

And this actually brings us to my next question: is there any new music that influences you? Anything that make you stop and say “oh, ok, that is some great stuff!” or are you mainly build from what you heard and grew up with back in the ’90s?

Oh no, every time, the inspiration comes from new artists. Just for example, as I said, with Ecca Vandal: I see the ’90s influence, but also how she re-innovated it at the same time. And that’s what is beautiful about music. That we inherit it, but we try to innovate it at the same time. So, for us, the inspiration always comes from the upcoming artists. But also, digging into the old stuff also always gives me new inspiration, with something that I might have missed or whatever. All the time. But, while I was a big fan of the ’90s era, the artists today are just as fabulous and amazing.

And what themes do you usually touch upon in your lyrics?

Mainly they are about confronting and facing all the struggles, all the troubles, the walls and tides that you can face during your life. And about how to face them and how to deal with them. About how, at the bottom line, it’s always about yourself. You are the only one who can change your life, you’re the only one who can make a decision and nobody knows if it’s right or wrong, but you just have to choose anyways, and have to believe in it. You know, everybody hurts, everybody bleeds, but you just have to go on. So, they are about those kind of struggles. But at the same time, also about feeling the beauty and the beautiful moments of your life. Probably those two are the main themes that we have always been singing about.

About ten or fifteen years ago, it was still kind of a weird thing for someone to listen to Japanese rock bands in Europe or in the US, but nowadays it is becoming a lot more common and normal, with bands like One OK Rock doing international arena tours and with a lot of other rock bands, like you for example, touring around the globe, filling bigger and bigger venues. What do you think, why did this attitude change so much in recent years?

One thing probably is how much internet extended all over the world and a lot of people are able to discover new bands from anywhere around the world. In the ’80s it was all about MTV, it was all about America, it was all about the entertainment going on there, but thanks to the rise of the internet nowadays everybody can find their own hits. And it is really fast, everything rises and goes down very quickly. But I guess it has opened a lot of possibilities for artists all around the world. And also Japanese animation, it certainly pushed the culture of Japanese music as well. It’s definitely the most well known part of Japanese culture that effects the world. That’s why Japanese music is getting bigger and bigger compared to those days a decade or so ago.

You have also done several theme songs for Japanese animation movies and series, including some of the biggest hits of this past decade, like Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia and besides these you also wrote songs for live-action movies, including Inuyashiki and the infamous Hentai Kamen. Did you write these songs for these specific series and movies or did they just take some already finished tracks and used those?

Actually, usually they ask us to write a song that suits the theme. And as a band, it is pretty difficult to balance writing a song directly for animations, but also make them natural for us to sing. I’m always aware of that balance, but usually it helps that there’s already a story in this method, that these series or movies always have a concrete and solid massage or philosophy, and all we have to do is find a common thing that we like about the story, one that makes it natural for us to write and sing about. But I’m always aware that the fans of animation are easily pissed off, so it’s always about writing a great song and make it in a way that it isn’t just natural for us, but also suits that animation.

You have been touring a lot both internationally and domestically… what was the crazies thing that you saw or that happened to you during a show or tour?

Hmmmm… what was it? It is not on tv, so it might be OK to talk about such things: when we tour outside Japan, we usually see a lot of people that have trouble with drugs and stuff like that. But one time when we were going to a live house, there were so many needles all over the street, that we were like “wooooh, this city has a problem!” It was shocking to see what the real life is like at some places around the world. It is crazy, but at the same time, we have to be aware of those things, we have to be aware that the world isn’t safe everywhere.

And time for the last question: nowadays, plastic surgery can work wonders. Have you ever thought about asking a plastic surgeon to turn you into actual human beings?

Haha, yeah, noways everyone is using plastic surgery, everyone! Our faces have changed during this decade and a half, but to tell you the truth… we are still wolves, so I can assure you that we will never become human beings. I mean sure, Slipknot, for example did it, but it will not happen to us. We are pretty proud of what we are today, we are grateful and we are having fun with the music that we are doing. A lot of people might think that, one day, them, Man With A Mission might become human beings, but I am pretty sure that day will not come!

Thanks a lot to Man With A Mission and Live Nation for making this interview possible!