INTERVIEW: VERSAILLES (2016)

 Before Their EU Tour

After six years, VERSAILLES will finally be reaching their European audiences! Before VERSAILLES embark on their first overseas tour since hiatus, VKH Press had an opportunity to interview them. VERSAILLES talk about their creative process, how the band has developed, and more!

VKH: Your songs are known to tell a single story. Do you mind sharing what happened since Versailles’ hiatus and where the story is now?

KAMIJO: Our new story is not started yet. The new songs in our best of album, which we released recently, is talking about Versailles’s own story, focused around our rebirth.

VKH: How much do you collaborate with each other when creating new songs?

KAMIJO: I usually work on some construction details and to brush up all melodies.

TERU: Actually, we send data to each other, but sometimes we share our ideas while playing together in the studio.

HIZAKI: I build songs, but I'm always thinking about what the other members would like to play. 

VKH: What specifically have you done to the tracks on your greatest hits album to make them sound different?

KAMIJO: I sang as if I had forgotten the old recording.

MASASHI: There is not a special arrangement, but I think that it does sound different.

TERU: I didn’t change much in my guitar phrases.

YUKI: I changed a little bit, small details.

HIZAKI: The superposed guitar parts are done in a different way, to make them more heavy.

VKH: What do you (the band) get to experience in Versailles, that you can't find in your other recent projects?

KAMIJO: To share time, and to stimulate each other.

MASASHI: Playing overseas more.

TERU: The height of the sense of beauty.

YUKI: Same as KAMIJO.

HIZAKI: Being a rose.

VKH: Do you feel like Versailles is able to fit back into the visual kei scene with the same level of popularity and influence that you had before?

KAMIJO: I expect to be the best band in the world.

MASASHI: I've set my target higher.

TERU: There is no sense in doing this if I can’t exceed the past.

YUKI: I will exceed the past.

HIZAKI: Of course we will, and we get younger as we go.

VKH: You promised your fans that you would return when the time was right, and despite some doubts you kept that promise. Did you ever doubt yourselves that it would be possible to reunite?

KAMIJO: Of course we believed! That’s why we suspended our activities.

MASASHI: I always believed that we would come together again.

TERU: No doubt.

YUKI: Of course, no doubt.

HIZAKI: I thought that time would result like that.

VKH: The scenery at Versailles lives has always been special. What do you want to see from your fans in the audience as you tour across Europe next year?

KAMIJO: I want to see them sing with me.

MASASHI: Look forward to seeing Versailles become more attractive.

TERU: Please come to see us in your best dress.

YUKI: I want to see large audiences.

HIZAKI: Be totally unruly!

VKH: What can your fans expect to see from you?

KAMIJO: We are unbeatable, so anything you want!

MASASHI: Maybe new songs, or stage performances?

TERU: Look for us in our beautiful new costumes.

YUKI: Our powered-up appearance.

HIZAKI: I will embrace them.

VKH: As a band, you have had a very consistent aesthetic since Versailles' debut, even through multiple changes in activities. Have you ever questioned that style, or considered diverting to something new?

KAMIJO: Ridiculous question.

MASASHI: I don’t have any idea.

TERU: We are always looking for new ways to create art work in our designs.

YUKI: No.

HIZAKI: Even more showy.

VKH: What practices do you use to develop the strong character presences that you show on stage in a conceptual visual kei group like Versailles?

KAMIJO: It’s the vampire's secret.

MASASHI: Doing my best, even during rehearsal.

YUKI: Being conscious of the stage.

HIZAKI: Doing my best from the pre-rehearsal.

VKH:Visual kei culture has changed drastically since its origin, and you all have a lot of tenure in the scene. Do you welcome the change as a natural progression, or would you like to see more people maintaining a classic sense of visual kei as you have largely done?

KAMIJO: I think that it must not change. “Lineage” is us, Versailles.

MASASHI: It’s good to do what you want. This is a chance to express what you want freely.

TERU: It's better to be loyal to the origin. There are many bands that use visual kei as a means.

YUKI: If we go too far from the origin, we can’t use the title visual kei anymore.

HIZAKI: It’s normal that the visual kei scene is changing, because the time is changing. We don’t change because for us it seems natural not to.

VKH: Is there anything that you have wanted to try as a musician that you haven't felt capable of yet?

KAMIJO: There are so many things. I will tell you once I can do them.

MASASHI: There are so many things that I can’t do, which is why I want to challenge myself.

TERU: Yes, there are. Having struggles make us rich. Because we can’t do something yet, we have to challenge ourselves.

YUKI: I'm always challenging myself, because I want to evolve.

HIZAKI: Playing guitar with a tempo of 250...

Zdroj: https://www.vkh-press.com/2016/12/interview-versailles-before-their-eu_31.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR2vY0s4Bj_oqK6RcGcnpHWAfh7mE5P_1wslShbXZZQFeMyTE9bI2-cgsbc