Interview - Toshiya 2014

GiGs Feb 2014 Toshiya interview

Part 4 Answers derived from the stance of fighting the world.
The thing that lead to the birth of their new song SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH’s simple sound was a proposal from Toshiya.
The other members were in agreement with Toshiya and carrying it out, they have surely broadened all the more the possibilities of Dir en grey.
It was a big move. What thoughts has he kept secret? Let’s approach his true motive.

“It’s comfortable to do work that is buried, but you need courage to do work that has space.”

When you entered into creating the song and arranging it what were you thinking in regards to the form of the bands next sound?
Toshiya: Around January of this year (2013) we talked about it together and putting it simply, decided to try making the song in a simple way. Although even saying the song’s flow and riffs will be simple, I think there’s still many things (in the song) but we talked about wanting to as a whole make something with parts a bit more simple and frank. We like constructing and we’ve been making constructed arrangements but above being based on that it’s something that has broken through it. It’s hard to say but I wanted to make something that doesn’t lose it’s purity. And I also felt that when constructing, the part that is the core of the song becomes dim. We pile up ornaments but I wanted to see how it would turn out if we set out on creating something that has a bit more coherency and simpleness. When I tried it in reality it was difficult. Because I like constructing there were parts that I was unsatisfied with. I was aiming for a simple direction but then I say such things… (laughs)

Hageshisa to was also straight and simple and held a different dimension to what had come before. Is the nuance different this time compared to that time?
Toshiya: The mode is different but the nuance is similar. Hageshisa to had its own riffs and gimmicks but hearing it once it left a simple impression, right? When compared to other songs. It depends on the song but we talked about wanting to make it without messing around with it too much but while entering Dir en grey-ness into it.

Was there a reason you guys started thinking like that?

Toshiya: Speaking about my own personal thoughts, when we play at overseas festivals etc, the time is too short to show our world view on the stage. Firstly it’s hard to prepare an environment like that at our concerts in Japan. Inside we can’t dim the lights or do the work to produce our world view. When it came to that I realized that it was more necessary to prepare songs that would express our worldview. So I wanted frank things. I think if we’d continued to play only in Japan I wouldn’t have began thinking like that but if we want to expand our possibilities then from our side we must do work towards that. We grab hold of chances, so if it doesn’t go well at that time then we got our priorities wrong. Because I have confidence in our world view, I thought it would be good if we prepare things that would lead people into it and because I want to draw in every one, have them enter from frank things, and have them see our unique world view.

I heard that it took a long time for SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH to become it’s current arrangement. While working on it, even when many possible directions seemed to unfold you dared to express your opinion of making it simple to the other members?
Toshiya: Yes. It was difficult. The more simple it becomes the more common it sounds etc. And it means that there would be no decorations right? Everyone thought a lot about making allowances for those parts. And since we were doing it like that I wanted to attempt something new too. But I didn’t think we should add just anything. If there’s addition there must also be subtraction. If not it would become a musical selection. In a piece without limits firstly you make something that is “this” then think about how you’re going to add the essence into that, or subtract it. It’s like cooking. You choose your ingredients, then add this as flavoring, then decide what kind of seasoning and condiments you’ll add.

But this time you dared to shorten the stewing time.

Toshiya: Instead of that we sufficiently drew out the flavour of the ingredients with a pressure cooker. (laughs)

Is the change in Shinya’s drumming approach that was brought about in that process very big?

Toshiya: Yes it’s big. There are good points to doing pre-production on a computer but there’s also a bad side to doing it all on it. There was often times when he couldn’t play in reality what he had created on the computer. This time he actually created the phrases while playing his drum kit which I thought was a dramatic change. I change my bass approach normally too. And this time before recording we all actually played together a number of times and did work like a band, like “Let’s do the arrangement like this” and “The flow of the song is off isn’t it?” etc. You could say we’ve returned to the foundations, but unexpectedly that was important.

Was there many things you understood from that?

Toshiya: Very much so. Joining together with the other members, and combining everyone’s different grooves. I had a back and forth with Shinya, like “I want to do it this way.” So we’d play together then match this part up then decide on things etc.

In SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH you use a phrasing that makes good use of the pulling of strings by your fingers and in a tribal groove it also gives an sharply pointed thrill.

Toshiya: From the time I did pre-production on a computer it’s been in this feeling. The tempo is a big feeling, and I also thought about heading in a simple direction, and the drums have also naturally become this current approach. I thought of things that would be easy to match with that, and easy to feel.

By any chance did you think up this feeling while pretending to be playing live on stage?

Toshiya: That’s right. To start with for every song I make them while thinking about playing them live, but I was particularly conscious of that with this song. I think I was all the more conscious of it because we actually did work together. I wasn’t doing anything particularly difficult, like you said I just made frequent use of that kind of pull.

The second time the A melody plays, the metallic sound of your finger pull and the drum snare ringing out at the same time makes an impact.

Toshiya: Yes yes, I thought it would be good if that was the hook so I matched them up.

Did you use a tweeter (a special type of loudspeaker that is designed to produce high audio frequencies) as well?

Toshiya: The speaker is the same Basson as always but in a different channel I also added the tweeter. In the second A melody I also used an eventide effector a little and increased the octave. Then I added delays etc.

Have you also changed your string gauge? I thought there was a good lightness in it.

Toshiya: That’s right. I think it has more of an overbearing feeling than normal. The gauge of (the strings in) the phrases I’ve played up until now was .125 and for the hook etc I used strings with a .130 gauge. But for this song all strings were .125. Unusually I think that lowness is still expressed. (the higher the string gauge/diameter the lower the sound generally)

With your stance of trying to aim for simpleness, did you exert a great deal of influence over the guitarists?

Toshiya: Hmm I wonder. But everyone has been attempting new things. I think using the wah pedal for the hook was good and I think the hook had a chord feeling that hasn’t been there before. I get the feeling that that kind of tempo hasn’t been in our songs for a while. We also tried adding electro elements. If you add too many things it becomes like something of today’s youth (laughs) I think the amount we added was just right.

So trying to add things was your idea? You said before that you tried out bass effectors too.

Toshiya: Ah no that was the guitarists idea.

Ah of course, since the electronic sounds from the intro in the A melody were made on the guitar. It seems like many sounds have been piled up but in fact it’s a song that’s only been made with the band’s straight sound.

Toshiya: That’s right. We didn't really pile things up. We’ve eased up a bit on the work buried in sounds we’d been doing up until now. It’s comfortable to do work that is buried, but you need courage to do work that has space. And in that I think the key word “Simpleness” can be applied. Due to that we can express a more frank band feeling and it has a flavor that is like us. I think we were able to do something different from what we’ve done up until now.

Ruten no tou (acoustic version) is especially frank. Including everyone’s back and forth with each other and I thought ah so this is how this band makes ensembles.

Toshiya: If you think that while listening to it to it you may be able to see the breadth of the music of the band named Dir en grey. Up until now we’ve released rearrangements a countless number of times but I don’t think we’ve done an acoustic rearrangement to this extent before. We also had the idea that if we had more time it would be interesting to change every song from DUM SPIRO SPERO in that way. But of course, we didn’t have the time to go that far. It’s like even though they’re our songs, they’re not our things. But in doing work that’s like making them our own things again, doing it acoustically was interesting. I used an acoustic bass to create it, which was different from an electric one and I thought the strictness/severity of it was interesting, and I learned from it.

Finally, making this latest song in a new way of thinking, did you take hold of any feelings?

Toshiya: Now, each of us is working towards the next album. I don’t know if I grasped it from this song, but I hope it will become a guide post towards the next album.

Zdroj: https://direngreytranslation.tumblr.com/post/78535008962/gigs-feb-2014-toshiya-interview