Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski took some time during their promotional visit to Japan for John Wick: Chapter 2 to speak with Takeru, frontman of the Japanese visual kei band SuG.
SuG’s song “Agaku” was written in collaboration with the neo-noir action thriller that opened in Japanese theaters last Friday (July 7).
Takeru posted a photo of the three of them together on his Twitter page, and the interview was released on YouTube to coincide with the film’s release.
????????????2???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????MV?????????????????????????– pic.twitter.com/eZ2LZVMHLu
— ??@SuG9?2???? (@sug_takeru) June 13, 2017
Takeru begins the interview by commenting that the way the soundtrack accompanies the film felt almost like a music video, and Stahelski speaks in depth about the process that went into scoring the film.
He uses the museum scene as an example to explain that Reeves’ gun action was so rhythmically solid that composer Tyler Bates used it to replace the bass and viola in the original Vivaldi score.
“So [that’s why] it felt like a music video,” Takeru comments in English, without using an interpreter.
Before asking about the long-standing working relationship between Reeves and Stahelski, Takeru explains that SuG has been together for 10 years. Reeves asks, “Same members? No changes?” to which Takeru answers in English, “One member [changed].”
Reeves, who famously played bass in alt-rock band Dogstar immediately says with certainty, “The drummer?” and seems delighted to discover that he is right. “It’s always the drummer,” he laughs.
Reeves describes his role in movies as being a part of a meticulous “choreography” that is “fun when it works,” and Stahelski compares the process of making feature films to “a big band” in which “Everybody’s gotta do their part, otherwise it all goes (down).”
Watch the full interview here: