On March 20 at 3 PM, Mari was interviewed by "DJ Toasty" on his radio show "Japanese for Everyone," which airs on KDVS. The DJ's friend Reed was a co-host. That station is a college radio station operated by the University of California at Davis. There was about thirty minutes of interview, and he also played Sudden Kiss, More than yesterday, and For a little while. This is a transcript of the interview.
DJ Toasty: Hello, Mari, you're on the air.
Mari: Hello.
DJ Toasty: Yes, I'm very happy now.
Mari: Oh, good.
DJ Toasty: You're live on KDVS, welcome to the show.
Mari: Thank you for having me here.
DJ Toasty: Well, thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to call.
Mari: You're welcome. I'm glad I could be on the air finally.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, sorry about the whole technical difficulties.
Mari: That's okay.
DJ Toasty: That's the problems of me being an amateur radio DJ.
Mari: That's okay.
DJ Toasty: So for those of you listeners who don't know, Mari Iijima is extremely famous everywhere, except here for some reason.
Mari: Except where?
DJ Toasty: Oh, except for here in America. I talk to people, and they say, "who's Mari Iijima?", and I say, "how can you not know who Mari Iijima is?" but...
Mari: Some people know here in America, too.
DJ Toasty: That's true, you are breaking out though. But in Japan, you're much more famous, and...
Mari: Ah, I used to be very... I used to be very famous, I guess, but since I started to live in America I don't know about that any more.
DJ Toasty: Okay, well...
Mari: But, I hope that people still remember me, of course.
DJ Toasty: Of course.
Mari: Yes.
DJ Toasty: Well, Mari got her start with Robotech, of course. Well, Macross in Japan.
Mari: Yeah. Macross, yes.
DJ Toasty: But, it came over here as Robotech, and I think Robotech is kind of what began the whole introduction of Japanese culture into the United States. I think that's, I don't know, that's one of the more important, I guess, animes out there. I'm kind of greatful to you for that, because without your work I probably wouldn't be here doing my radio show...
Mari: Really?
DJ Toasty: Such as it is, I guess.
Mari: Wow! I didn't...
DJ Toasty: I don't know if that's good or bad.
Mari: I really had no idea that Macross was that kind of a... Macross gave that kind of huge influence for American people. I had no idea until, like, two years ago.
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: I started using Internet, and then people wrote me, a lot, and then they told me how big Macross was here.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, because a lot of people I know, they used to watch it when they were children.
em>Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: The best way to get people to like something is when they're kids.
Mari: Hmm, okay.
DJ Toasty: So that's where the whole introduction of Japanese culture came in, so thank you for that...
Mari: You're welcome.
DJ Toasty: We do appreciate it. But, ah, you have done other things since Macross, of course. You've been...
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: very, very busy--released many, many of your own albums.
Mari: Yes.
DJ Toasty: And, ah, right now, I guess today on my show we played your... Is this your first English release?
Mari: Yes.
DJ Toasty: It's, ah, her album is called No Limit, it's self-released, it's quite... actually, I just played a track off it, as I said before. That was...
Mari: Thank you!
DJ Toasty: Sudden Kiss, it was quite excellent. So, I was looking through the liner notes, and this is completely self-released, you're not signed to a label here in the U.S. or anything.
Mari: For this album, yes. I did everything independently, yes.
DJ Toasty: How was... how was that? Was that pretty difficult?
Mari: Um, for that album, three of them, three of the songs are completely new for that album. Other songs
were previously released, for my older albums...DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: So, already there were some tracks for that, so you know, I didn't need to start from the scratch for
every song, so that kind of saved some money for me. So, but if I have to start from the scratch for every song, I think it's going to be very hard.DJ Toasty: Is it pretty difficult to, like, release an album and distribute it here in the U.S.?
Mari: Um, you mean, all by myself, or...
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: to get a deal?
DJ Toasty: All by yourself, trying to get people to listen.
Mari: Of course, yeah, I needed some help. My ex-husband helped me to make it happen, and I couldn't have done anything without his help. But, otherwise, I think I did pretty okay, and all the animation conventions that I attended, those people helped me a lot.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, at Fanimecon, that's where I first got the idea of interviewing... there were so many people there at your... trying to talk to you in your line.
Mari: Were you there?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I was... I was actually in line to try to talk to you, but...
Reed: We were ejected.
Mari: Oh, how come?
DJ Toasty: Ah, because...
Mari: Were you wearing some weird costume, or something?
DJ Toasty: No, we were dressed like normal people. My co-host Reed and I went. We were like, hey, there's a line... there's the signing line after the concert.
Mari: Uh-huh.
DJ Toasty: And, ah... apparently, the security guys required everyone to have tickets from the concert.
Mari: Oh.
DJ Toasty: We had gotten there late...
Mari: That's too bad.
DJ Toasty: So we, like, double missed out I guess. We first, you know, didn't get to see you live, which was, I mean, obviously a bummer for a whole experience for us, and then they kicked us out of line too.
Mari: Oh, no! I'm sorry to hear that.
DJ Toasty: Oh, don't worry, that's okay. We get to talk to you now, so everything's all better, right?
Mari: Yeah!
DJ Toasty: So, do you really enjoy going to the conventions, because I know people enjoy seeing you.
Mari: Oh, I... I hope they did. Fanimecon was my first convention I attended last year, and they treated me very well, so I went back there. I hope people enjoy seeing me. What do you think?
DJ Toasty: I... from the people I heard, I talked to some friends of mine who were there, and they had seen you live, and they said it was amazing. So...
Mari: Oh, good. I like doing gigs, so it was a good chance for me to perform in front of many people, yes.
DJ Toasty: When you do your live performances, do you have a band with you, or is it just, like, karaoke?
Mari: I... for this Fanimecon I sang with me playing piano by myself and I used maybe TV mix, you know, like karaoke, and I played karaoke like to maybe two or three songs, maybe just two songs, and I played... I was playing piano with it and singing. So, I didn't have a band, but when I have my own band, that's the most amazing time.
DJ Toasty: Right, right.
Mari: I love to do that.
DJ Toasty: And the next time you're going to be live is at Anime Expo this summer, is that... ?
Mari: Well, actually I haven't invited yet, I don't know if they're going to invite me. Last year, it was amazing, I had a band with me, and it was like the biggest show I did in United States. So, I'm thinking to start giging more in town, in Los Angeles. I would like to do like once or twice a month, regularly, if I could.
DJ Toasty: Right on. Do you like living in LA? Is it treating you pretty well down there?
Mari: Yeah! I love LA, yes.
DJ Toasty: Excellent.
Mari: I've been here for almost... almost, like, ten and a half years already.
DJ Toasty: Wow, that's a long time! So, that's good stuff. And the reason you moved was because of otakus right?
Mari: Hmm?
DJ Toasty: I heard that the reason you moved to LA from Japan, cause you had a bunch of otakus stalking you, or something? I don't know if that's...
Mari: No, no, no! That's just a rumor!
DJ Toasty: That's just a rumor I've heard.
Mari: So funny!
DJ Toasty: Oh, no!
Mari: People have so many rumors.
DJ Toasty: Cause I heard that it was because there are so many Japanese fans, otaku...
Mari: No, no, I would never say anything bad about otaku people. I mean, I have bad experience about it too, and I respect them completely, and... otaku is a cool word for American anime fans, right?
DJ Toasty: Ah, it depends.
Mari: Yeah?
Reed: I think it doesn't hold the stigma that it does in Japan, cause of the recent murders in 1992 that happened in Japan, it became like a derogatory term, but here it's...
Mari: Yeah?
Reed: Here, it's a term of pride that like, so...
Mari: Yeah?
Reed: It's like a brotherhood thing between us...
Mari: Yeah? No, no, I mean, no, otaku people had nothing to do with me moving...
DJ Toasty: Oh, okay.
Mari: I just got married with American musician, and that's why I moved here, to be with him. But, I'm not with him any more. Oh, my gosh!
DJ Toasty: Okay. But you're still here, lucky for us.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: So, you're going back to Japan in April I think, is that when your website said?
Mari: Yes, yes.
DJ Toasty: And you're going to go back and play for your fans there, too?
Mari: Yeah, you know, I have to take care of my Japanese fans, too...
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: You know, I don't want them to start feeling like I became completely American, something... California girl. So, I will go back there, and you know, I have a fan club, so I will do a little tour, travelling with them.
DJ Toasty: Oh, that's amazing.
Mari: And I will spend entire two days with them, and of course I will do... I will perform in front of them, and we will do many, many stuff, like playing sports, and eat dinners, and my fans sing with karaoke and stuff. So, it's going to be fun.
DJ Toasty: I wish the other Japanese artists would take care of their American fans like you do your Japanese ones. But, I guess we're not that lucky.
Mari: I am... I am nice to you guys too. I do anything you guys ask.
DJ Toasty: Well, you're here, I guess that's... that's good enough for us.
Mari: Yeah.
Reed: I had a question. You said your ex-boyfriend, is that the one you released the Tokyo Rose album, like, with?
Mari: He had nothing to do with my personal life! You mean Van Dyke Parks? Van Dyke Parks is happily married, and he has been married for a long time, I know his family, and... No! My ex-husband is... actually, we produced this No Limit album together, and we've been a musical team since 1987, maybe. We've worked together for a long time, and we are still good friends.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: We are raising two children together.
DJ Toasty: Excellent!
Mari: And, we live close to each other, and today we have a, you know, baseball game, so we have to go there soon. Yeah, I have twin boys. They are going to be ten years old day after tomorrow.
DJ Toasty: Oh, so Reed was asking me, what does the title of your new album mean, No Limit, does it have any special significance?
Mari: "No Limit" means that... usually, my songs somehow cheer everybody's heart up, so I always try to give people very positive messages, so "No Limit" is like, you are limit is no... no limit, you don't have any limit, you're limit like, you know, sky, big.
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: So, just follow your dream, and don't give up, that's my message.
DJ Toasty: Okay. Yeah, that track there is the title track on the album is No Limit, it's a very excellent, very uplifting, I think. That's kind of the tone you were hoping for, I think.
Mari: Yeah. Thank you!
DJ Toasty: The rest of the tracks on the album are very nice, very well produced. You composed all the music yourself?
Mari: Oh, yes.
DJ Toasty: And you have the artists come in and play what you've composed, is that how it works?
Mari: Yeah, I write songs and, you know, lyrics, and we do pre-production at our home studio... I mean, not "our" any more, my ex-husband's home, he has a home studio, so I went there and we did pre-production and then we went to the real studio and did a lot of overdubbing, and we started to mix... many, many process. But, it's really fun.
DJ Toasty: Excellent.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: Are you planning to do any collaborations with anybody in the future?
Mari: For now, I don't have any plans, but I hopefully, hopefully am going to start making my next album soon and I'm planning to work with different producer next time, and I can't say the name yet, but I'm trying to work with this person that I admired him for so long.
DJ Toasty: Tetsuya Komuro?
Mari: Huh?
DJ Toasty: Tetsuya Komuro?
Mari: No way!
DJ Toasty: No? Oh, I think you'd be good together.
Mari: oh, come on... no, no, no! I want to work with some person who has a lot of respect for women.
DJ Toasty: Oh, okay. Okay...
Mari: Sorry, I'm serious, I... I just... I don't know, TK, Komuro, Mr. Komuro, I knew him, I talked to him before, we maybe debuted at around the same time, so... I'm happy for him, he became such a huge, you know, huge artist. But, I don't have any plan to work with him.
DJ Toasty: Okay. I was just wondering, with techno music becoming so popular, have you ever thought about doing any techno remixes of your previous work, like some DJ remix, or something like that?
Mari: Techno, what kind of music is techno to you?
DJ Toasty: To me?
Mari: Mmm-hmm.
DJ Toasty: It's a very fast music with lots of bass...
Mari: Mmm-hmm.
DJ Toasty: Kind of a
Mari: Like a disco? Maybe a little disco music?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, something like that.
Mari: Yeah, actually a long time ago I wanted to make that kind of album, you know. My first album's producer was Ryuichi Sakamoto, he was in YMO, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and...
DJ Toasty: Oh, excellent!
Mari: Around that time, I was the first artist he... he has ever produced.
DJ Toasty: Really?
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: I never knew that.
Mari: So, I had a lot of influence from him for my first album, but, I don't know, my album.. there's a album called Europe, it has a little music like that, a little disco, but not so much like '70's, it's more, you know, hip, so maybe next time maybe I'm going to send you one copy...
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: You can check it out.
DJ Toasty: Thanks!
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: I appreciate that. I was wondering, did you have any bands or people that you drew inspiriation from as an artist, like, is there anyone that you particularly like the sound of, you're like, "wow, I wish I could sound more like..." or...
Mari: So I... I got many influence from the bands and the artists when I was younger, of course...
DJ Toasty: Uh-huh.
Mari: But now, I... I don't think like I want to be something like that or I want to be someone like that, I just, I am trying to be myself, I'm just kind of trying to figure out what my style is. That's the main think. I don't dream like I want to be like Mariah Carey or something like that, you know?
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: They are more rivals to me, like I don't want to, you know, be less than them, I want to be above or I want to be, you know, the same quality...
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: As those artists. But I like few bands, like, I like rock bands, and I listen to them all the time, like the other day I went to Third Eye Blind concert...
DJ Toasty: Uh-huh.
Mari: And unfortunately, my favorite guitar player in that band quit the band, so he wasn't there on stage, and I was really sad about that.
DJ Toasty: That's no good.
Mari: Um, like that, Goo Goo Dolls and King's X... King's X...
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: I'm not talking about sex.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I know... I know who King's X is.
Mari: Okay, they were maybe more famous early '90's...
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: But they keep making records, great records...
DJ Toasty: Yup, okay.
Mari: And, you know, The Squeeze, I actually know them, they are like, my friends... The Squeeze from England.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: Like that... many bands. Like, I like Silver Chair. I like the guitar-oriented bands.
DJ Toasty: Right on. All right...
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: Well, I was thinking of playing a couple tracks of your new album...
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: And we can come back and have maybe a couple closing remarks.
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: Cause... ah... stuff to do today, I guess...
Mari: Yeah, okay.
DJ Toasty: So we'll be back in a couple of short minutes. You're listening to KDVS 90.3 FM, currently interviewing Mari Iijima, idol extraordinaire. Here's something off her new American English... first English release in America, this is track number five off of her newer album No Limit, this is More than yesterday...
More than yesterday was played.
DJ Toasty: Okay, Mari, you're back on the air.
Mari: Hi.
DJ Toasty: So we just played track number five off your album No Limit, it's your first English release, the track's title is More than yesterday.
Mari: Thank you!
DJ Toasty: It's very beautiful, very soothing, I guess.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: Very pretty music that you make, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
Mari: Okay, thank you so much.
DJ Toasty: Do you have anything you'd like to say about that track, or is there...
Mari: Well.... you're pronouncing my name really good, and for American people I think somehow it's hard for them to pronounce my name, but... sorry, I'm trying to explain how this... how I wrote this song. Some person called my name perfectly, and then he called his Japanese friend to make sure that he called my name correctly, and then when he called me it was perfect, and so beautiful. That inspired me to write this song.
DJ Toasty: Ah, okay. Well, I took some Japanese a while ago so...
Mari: Oh, good.
DJ Toasty: I might as well try to pronounce your name slightly correctly, so I don't sound like to much of a gaijin.
Mari: Yeah? Can you speak Japanese?
DJ Toasty: Ah... chotto.
Mari: Chotto? Okay, that's nice.
DJ Toasty: But, ah...
Mari: Do you read?
DJ Toasty: A little bit. The kanji's... kanji is pretty difficult.
Mari: Kanji is. Kanji is very difficult for us too...
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I know.
Mari: For Japanese people. There are so many.
DJ Toasty: I know.
Mari: And when... yeah, when I look at them, like I get... I start getting confused, like, oh my gosh, I don't remember.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, that's what my teachers say too.
Mari: That's true, yes. That's good.
DJ Toasty: Good. My co-host Reed had a couple question for you, about...
Mari: Of course, yes.
DJ Toasty: What you think about, I guess... well, he can do it.
Mari: Yes.
Reed: I was wondering, do you keep up with the contemporary J-pop scene?
Mari: Yes, I... You mean, I... do I know who's popular now, and stuff?
Reed: That's what... yeah, that's what I was asking.
Mari: Yeah. I... I check Japanese newspaper every day. Yes,through Internet, so... I check whose record is on the chart, and stuff, yes, I do.
Reed: Yeah, cause I wanted to ask, what did you of, like, the, ah, the new girl idol groups like Morning Musume, and, like, Utada Hikaru, and stuff like that.
Mari: Actually, I haven't... I haven't heard of their records yet, so I don't know how it's sounding. It's... but, to me, they look like idol singers, but do they sound good too?
DJ Toasty: Well, I think they sound okay.
Mari: Oh, yeah? Yeah, that's good... I mean, you know, every... if someone's popular, I think there is a reason for that, maybe they are pretty, they sing well, they dance well, so I respect for it.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: Yeah.
Reed: So you're saying a idol singer, as opposed to being, like, a musician?
Mari: Mmm-hmm.
Reed: Oh, okay, that's...
Mari: Yeah, the... it changed, since, like, '80's, or something, you know. Maybe at first idol singers could sing, and then after that they couldn't sing any more, and now... It's like, everybody writes songs and they sing, so everybody became artists, like that, and if they are pretty, that's good. That's a plus.
Reed: You think it's overly commercial now, like...
Mari: Well, if they really can sing, and if they really can write, that's great, but... you know, if it's just a trend... trendy thing, I don't know if it's really good, and... I don't know, every time when I go back to Japan... I don't want to sound snobby, or anything, but when I listen to the radio, something, I... sometimes I feel sad that... am I competing with, you know, those music, and... it doesn't mean that I'm the best in the world, but, sometimes I feel like the music is not really real music.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: And the real musicians are having hard time to sell in Japan. So, some people, they want to get out of that country, or something, you know? Like my friend, her name is Eppo, she was popular around the time that I was popular, she tried to release album in London, and, you know, tried to do many thing, and now... I don't know what she's doing, but... there are a few very talented artists in Japan struggling, selling their albums, so my heart goes out for them. And... but if the music is not real, I hope the people will know later that, you know, it's not really great music, and I hope they will stop buying records, but... I think in Japan, if something is trendy, they follow that trend, so it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, do you agree?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I think so.
Mari: Yeah, and here I feel better, being in America because, like, sometimes I'm sure there are some artists that... who can't really sing, and stuff, but usually they can. They can play and they can sing. And if they make some bad records, or they do some bad gigs, people notice that, and they don't buy records any more. Right?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, that's pretty much true here.
Mari: Yeah, so I like that, and... I think I'm a real musician, so if I compete, I want to compete with real musicians.
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: I hope...
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: I hope I'm making my point clear.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I... I hear what you're saying.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: How do you feel about the kind of age lowering that's been happening in Japanese music, where the singers keep on becoming younger and younger and younger? Like, I believe some of the girls from Morning Musume are only fourteen.
Mari: Mmm.
DJ Toasty: Doesn't that... I don't... I just want to know what you thought about it, cause I think it's kind of disturbing, personally.
Mari: Well, yeah. I think that... I don't know, I... I think that Japanese guys, they like young girls, don't they?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, I... I'm not a Japanese guy, I don't...
Mari: Yeah, I, I... I just kind of... from my point of view, I think they like virgins.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: Sorry...
DJ Toasty: That's okay.
Mari: So, if, you know, girls are not virgins, maybe they are not interested in them, or something. There is some... some weirdness to it, I don't know, maybe I'm misjudging about that, but... You know, in Japan maybe when woman became twenty-five years old, they think it's old, like, that girl is old.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, that always bothered me, cause I think that's just about the right age.
Mari: Yeah, I know. And, you know, I'm much older than twenty-five years old, but I feel great, and I think my mentality is like a teenager, because when I was a teenager, I was studying, and... you know, studying piano, and I worked so hard, and I was a professional musician when I was, like, twenty, so I didn't have my real teenage years...
DJ Toasty: Uh-huh.
Mari: So now, I'm kind of free, and I have children, but they are... like, they can share fun with me, so I'm having so... so much fun living... Anyway, why am I saying this?
DJ Toasty: Oh, it's okay. It's okay.
Mari: Anyway, so I... I hope that, you know, that kind of thing, like, you know, Japanese guys judge girls by age, I hope they stop doing that.
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: It's a part of, maybe, Japanese culture, you know?
DJ Toasty: I don't... I'm not really too familiar with that...
Mari: Really? Here, you know, guys... they think if... if I'm beautiful... I'm not saying I'm beautiful, okay? If I am beautiful, the age doesn't matter, people tell me I'm beautiful, and I love that. I love that.
DJ Toasty: That's true.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: I have a question about your kids...
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: I can't resist. I like Pokemon myself...
Mari: Uh-huh.
DJ Toasty: I was wondering, do you...
Mari:
DJ Toasty: Uh-oh, you know what I'm going to ask, right?
Mari: No, ask me, please.
DJ Toasty: Do your children like Pokemon too?
Mari: Now, they are in the house, and they were never this quiet before, but I told them, "please be quiet, Mommy has a job, very important." So they are in their room playing Gameboy together.
DJ Toasty: Oh, no!
Mari: Using link cable. They love it, and they are so good at games. Yeah.
DJ Toasty: So did they... did they torture you with Pokemon, make you memorize all the names of the...
Mari: I'm not really into that. But, I have few names that I know, few names that... you know, that cure characters...
DJ Toasty: Do you have a favorite one?
Mari: Like EV...
DJ Toasty: EV?
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: That's your favorite one?
Mari: Cute, right?
DJ Toasty: Yeah.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: My girlfriend likes that one too.
Mari: Oh, good. Even after he evolved, is that a girl or a boy?
DJ Toasty: So how... I'm not sure.
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: I think there must be girl and boy EVs.
Mari: Oh, really?
DJ Toasty: Or else there wouldn't be any little ones.
Mari: Yeah, after she evolved, she was still cute, so I was so happy about that.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: Like, you know, Mew 2, something, Mew became like a evil character, right?
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: So I didn't like that.
DJ Toasty: Okee doke.
Mari: Yeah.
DJ Toasty: See... I think that pretty much wraps up everything I had to say. Reed, do you have any other questions for her?
Reed: Yes, I had a question. Like, you say you make a distinction between yourself as a musician and, like, what you call as idol singers. Didn't you start off as an idol singer?
Mari: Well, people thought so. Maybe my record company sold my image that way. But, I was never... like I told you, my first album was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and I've written every song on the album. I was completely a singer/songwriter, but the way I looked, the way I dressed, people took me as an idol singer. And... it succeeded, though. I sold a lot of records, and... But, I was so surprised that my... when my record was in the idol section in the store...
DJ Toasty: Huh.
Mari: I was really surprised, and my fans were trying to move that to the artist section and stuff. And, now it's not happening that way, but... I was really surprised when that happened, when people thought I was an idol singer.
DJ Toasty: Okay. How was it working as a voice actress? Just in general, what was it like? Was it pretty fun, or...
Mari: For... actually, I did only Macross in my whole entire career.
DJ Toasty: Yeah, well, I'm just... I'm just talking about that.
Mari: Yes. Of course, I didn't know anything about... about that job, and now being seiyuu is like a huge thing, right? I just... I just had fun, I tried to, you know, I tried to not bothering people, you know, in the studio, because there were many veteran actors...
DJ Toasty: Uh-huh.
Mari: You know, in the studio. So I was just trying to be natural and did as much as I could, and... I guess I was pretty natural about that, yeah. I had fun, and I made friends, and I learned a lot from the veteran actors, too.
Reed: Do you know Megumi Hayashibara?
Mari: I think... I don't think I met her before. I might have, in the studio, when I did a radio in Tokyo, like two years ago. Do you like her?
Reed: Ah, no, she's just pretty famous, so I just though...
Mari: You can say you like her.
Reed: Yeah, she's pretty cool.
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: Pretty much in my mind when I think seiyuu, her name and your name come up. That's pretty much...
Mari: Oh! Okay.
DJ Toasty: And you're both pretty popular, pretty famous, so...
Mari: Oh, thank you.
DJ Toasty: I guess that's good, I'm not sure...
Mari: That's a good compliment. Thank you very much.
DJ Toasty: So, pretty much overall you enjoyed doing Macross, is I think the...
Mari: Oh, yes, yes. Yes.
DJ Toasty: Do you have any last words for your fans, I guess?
Mari: Okay. Thank you for... thank you for having me.
DJ Toasty: Oh, it's not a problem for me.
Mari: This kind of college radio I think helps... helps me a lot. Actually, this was the first radio that I did in USA, well... you know, officially. This kind of thing, you know, it helps the artist exposure, right?
DJ Toasty: Right.
Mari: So I would like to do more and more, and if you could recommend with me to someone else, please.
DJ Toasty: Okay.
Mari: And for my fans, thank you for supporting me all the time, and I'm sure my Japanese fans are listening to this through Internet...
DJ Toasty: Well, I don't know.
Mari: Can they?
DJ Toasty: Yeah, they can. I don't know how many are listening right now. Our server...
Mari: Yeah, they are. They... they know that it's on. I... I posted about this on my web site, so...
DJ Toasty: Oh, well thank you.
Mari: They are doing that. So, thank you, and if you like my album, what you heard today, you could purchase it through my web site. Can I say my website address?
DJ Toasty: Ah, yes, you can.
Mari: Okay. It's www.marimusic.com. Use marimusic.com. And you can write me email too. So, thank you so much!
DJ Toasty: Well, thank you for being on. Can I just ask one more favor of you?
Mari: Yes.
DJ Toasty: Could you say something for me?
Mari: Yes.
DJ Toasty: Could you say, "KDVS is the best station for J-pop"?
Mari: Can you... can you tell me one more time, slowly?
DJ Toasty: Oh, sure. Can you say, "KDVS in Davis is the best station for J-pop"?
Mari: Okay... KDVS is the best station for J-pop!
DJ Toasty: Thank you, Mari. It's been extremely fun having you on the show. I'm... I'm surprised I'm still conscious, I was really nervous at the start, but...
Mari: Oh...
DJ Toasty: Thank you very much, I'm going to...
Mari: You were great.
DJ Toasty: Well, thank you. You were excellent too.
Mari: Thank you.
DJ Toasty: Reed and I really enjoyed ourselves, and we're going to play one more track off your album, so thank you once again for calling. I appreciate it.
Mari: Thank you so much.
DJ Toasty: And hopefully I'll be talking to you later on, when you release your next album. Cause I'm...
Mari: Okay.
DJ Toasty: I'm eagerly waiting for it, now that I've heard No Limit, I can't wait.
Mari: Okay, I'll let you know.
DJ Toasty: All right, thank you.
Mari: Thank you so much.
DJ Toasty: Bye bye.
Mari: Have a nice day.
DJ Toasty: Bye.
Mari: Bye.
DJ Toasty: And that was Mari Iijima...