The ideal figure that the guitarist who leads the band as a leader got while struggling, and the reason for his unstoppable pursuit.
“Without ‘BLUE BLOOD’ I wouldn’t really be who I am now”
“After all, I’ve always liked dark and hopeless stuff, that kind of things”
“I’m the type of person who wants to be affected by cd jackets and lyrics”
“Sometimes I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere”
Notes before reading: This is the second part of the personal interview of Kaoru from the magazine Headbang Vol.27 released on 18th August 2020. The interview is 11 pages long and this part covers the last 5 pages.
As Toshiya and Die’s interviews, 2nd part is focused on his roots as a guitarist.
You can get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan.
Read Toshiya’s interview here
Read Die’s interview here
Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing.
Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :)
—–
Text by: Yohsuke Hayakawa
“Without “BLUE BLOOD” I wouldn’t really be who I am now”
-Then, the topic of the talk changes from here. I would like to ask you about the story behind the 20 albums that you selected regardless of era or reasons but, you chose 10 albums from Japan and 10 foreign albums.
K: Is that true? (laughs). It’s a coincidence, but it was very difficult to narrow down when it came to choose again. So, I chose mainly the ones I listened to a lot before I started the band and when I started doing it. They are just albums that influenced me.
-I have the impression that Japanese music was a kids who read WeROCK’s thing.
K: Hahaha. Yes (laughs).
-First of all…. COLOR’s mini album “FOOLS! GET LUCKY !!” (1989) is also included. I have to ask about why you picked this one.
K: Well, I really love it (laughs). Even though it was “X in the east, COLOR in the west”*, I was really into it, so I went to see their live performance. I like their punkish songs and they have many fast songs. At that time, if a song wasn’t fast, it was a “no” for me. I also liked ROSE ROSE.
*(This makes reference to X Japan being from the Kanto region (East) and COLOR being from Kansai (West) as both band emerged around the same time.)
-Then D'ERLANGER. DIR EN GREY participated in D'ERLANGER’s tribute (announced in 2017 ‘D'ERLANGER TRIBUTE ALBUM ~ Stairway to Heaven~ “). Was the album "LA VIE EN ROSE” (1989) a shock for you?
K: That’s right, “LA VIE EN ROSE” too but also CIPHER (G) himself. Well, I think it was at ”BURNN! JAPAN”, CIPHER appeared in a solo photo on one page in colour.
-Oh, it’s a shot in which you can see him standing with a flashy Les Paul guitar. It was before kyo (D’ERLANGER vocalist) became a member.
K: That’s right. I though “What on earth is this person?” After that, they were releasing a CD (“LA VIE EN ROSE”) , so I made a I made a reservation right away.
-Also, a band you can’t miss from those times is DEAD END. It never gets old because it’s respected across generations.
K: I chose “Shambara” (1988), well, it’s a masterpiece. Just listening to the opening song “EMBRYO BURNING” made me sick. When I first started listening to metal music, I was a bit reluctant but with DEAD END, the melody that MORRIE sung got me very quickly, I got into them without any resistance. I didn’t have the impression that DEAD END was so-called “metal”. Since I started playing in bands, I was overwhelmed by the seriousness of YOU’s guitar technique.
- Next is ZI: KILL is “ROCKET” (1993). Initially, the dark positive punk style was strong but with that last album, their musicality expanded dramatically and there are even piano jazz songs.
K: It’s an album that feels like something has been reached. I got into ZI:KILL since the early albums and after making their major debut, I got the impression that their albums got milder. However, when I listened to “ROCKET”, it seemed like an insanely cool album. I still listen to it.
K: Yes, at first I hated it! But somehow, I didn’t care about it at all. Still, TUSK (Vo) lyrics and the songs were addictive. It made a deep impression on me, that’s why I read ZI:KILL lyrics carefully as well.
-Do you care about the lyrics when it comes to Japanese artists?
K: I check the booklets properly. After all, the lyrics reach my ears at the point in which the words make you feel something.
- And, needless to say, you also chose X’s “BLUE BLOOD” (1989). At the Vol. 20 of this magazine, you chose it as a “metal album that changed your life”. So, as expected, if you choose an album from X japan, would be this one?
K: Without this album, I wouldn’t really be who I am now.
-You were influenced by everything, both the music and the guitar play….is that so?
K: The guitar too, right? Well, it’s not at that level anymore.
-Ah, that’s not the level (laughs)
K: I was just listening to it earnestly and thinking “amazing!”, it just something that I like, there is no particular reason (laughs).
“Western music (I listened to) was also greatly influenced by HIDE. That’s why everything it’s related to HIDE (laughs)”
- On the other hand, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi and Cocco are also included.
K: I’ve always liked Nagabuchi. Like “Tonbo” (1988), there was a tv drama about that.
*(”Tonbo” (Dragonfly) was also a tv drama in which Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi played a member of a yakuza gang who is trapped in a violent existence.)
- Oh, after that was “Shabontama” (1991).
K: I also like the movie “Orgel” (1989), I was really into Nagabuchi at that time. The “Showa” (1989) album I chose this time is the album that got me hooked. The masterpiece “Gekiai” which is my favourite song was recorded around that time.
-You liked Nagabuchi’s drama series.
K: Yes, they are rather dark series. I don’t know much about the brighter/cheerful ones.
-The ones like “Family Game” (1983)?
K: That’s right. Those are not the ones that I prefer. After all, I’ve always liked dark and hopeless stuff, that kind of things.
-(Laughs) However, the radical portrayal of Nagabuchi’s drama shocked your heart as a young boy. Probably such a drama couldn’t be made in this era.
K: Yes, you can’t. There isn’t even a rebroadcast of these ones.
-Certainly. Also, I remember that Cocco was around in the scene at the same time than HIDE (g).
K: Yes. When I listened to her album, it didn’t feel like I was listening to a Japanese cd. I felt like it was a western heavy band, so I got into it with that kind of image.
-I feel that foreign music, the alternative vibe is overall stronger, but do you like that?
K: After all, HIDE’s influence in foreign music (I listened to) is huge. At that time, I was buying various magazines and looking for some more, I checked the names that appeared in HIDE’s articles and I’ve been listening to the ones I liked all the time.
- I have the impression that HIDE had a great influence on you listening to bands like Jane’s Addiction at that time. What about Vanessa Paradis and Japan ( English new wave band)?
K: That was also due to the influence of HIDE. That’s why almost everything is related to HIDE (laughs). Also, this album of hers (released in 1992, “Vanessa Paradis”) was produced by Lenny Kravitz, who liked to go to her lives. She’s still good, but I especially like her early days, I’m attracted to that voice.
“I’m the type of person who wants to be affected by cd jackets and lyrics”
- So that’s it. The only work related to HIDE that you chose was with X Japan but, what about his solo works?
K: Well, of course I like his solo, but in my case, I like HIDE in X Japan the most.
-Other than that, I can tell that you like strong sounds, heavy riffs and industrial.
K: That’s right. As I was always seeking fierce things, I came to like strong riffs such as Pantera and Ministry.
-What about the so-called European German metal?
K: Especially at that time, it wasn’t my cup of tea (laughs)
- Then, some of the foreign music you chose…. “Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs” (1992) by Ministry. This album was already mentioned in this magazine before as an important metal album for you.
K: At that time, there was a foreign-related CD shop called WAVE at Umeda Loft in Osaka. I think that I found it there and listened to it. I was like “what the hell?”, so I bought it right away. I listened to it at home again. That night I went to a acquaintance’s house and I said “Listen to this!”, and I forced him to listen (laughs).
-I can tell your excitement (laughs)
K: Then I listened to all the other albums. Above all, I like this one the most.
-And you also mentioned Nine Inch Nails.
K: The first thing I heard from them was a single or something. At that time, I thought, “Wow, that’s amazing,” but when I listened to the songs on that album, I felt like I was listening to something I had never heard before. It’s dark, but it sounds very aggressive. But it’s not like european music dark feeling.At that time, I wasn’t sure if they were a band or not (laughs).
-You wondered if it was a one-person band.
K: That’s right. I was like “Is the same person doing everything?”, “Is he playing drums too?”. Everything was a mystery. Information was not available as soon as it does now, so I was wondering “Who is this person?”. I also wondered if the cd jacket had something to grasp, like it was a cd jacket that I didn’t really understand. Like the logo. It was all mysterious and addictive. I myself am the type who wants to be influenced/affected by cd jackets and lyrics, so I look at every corner. Everything up to the back of the wrapping. Then, when I looked at the back, I thought, “Isn’t there anything attached?” (Laughs).
-(Laughs)There are many things that are totally attractive, including elaborate art books.
K: Yes. Especially for Nine Inch Nails, I went looking for some place that sell T-shirts of them.
"Sometimes I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere"
-Among these works, isn’t there any in particular that has an easy-to-understand influence on the songs that you make with DIR EN GREY?
K: Well, I don’t know that
.
- Some of the works you chose this time have a strong melody…. For example, on a 2017 tour focused in “MACABRE" (2000), you played “Taijou no ao” for the first time in a while. I mentioned in this magazine before that “If you change the arrangement of a song to your current style, you can still play it ”, but is there a desire to make a song with that kind of melody now?
K: I don’t have a particular desire to do it. I think that it feels like something from that time, it’s an image that doesn’t make me feel excited now.
K: I do, I do. Rather, I’ve been listening to pop music all the time lately. I am not listening noisy bands at all.
-Noisy ones (laughs).
K: Hahaha.
-However, it’s a little hard to think that you are going to make songs like that.
K: Yeah, it doesn’t happen very often sometimes, but there are times when I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere. So, when I tried to start to work on songs, one turns out like “this is what I have done”. But maybe then I think that it’s a little different from what I do with DIR EN GREY, so I have to mess with it, fix it or just store it.
- Eh! Do you make that kind of songs? I would like to hear a song like that from you now. That’s why the melody of “Taijou no Ao” that I mentioned as an example is not only pop but also suffocating. Faintly scented lyrics. I wonder if that it’s your true self.
K: That’s right.The first thing that influenced me was the New Wave*. Pet Shop Boys and so, I liked that kinds of thing. That’s why there is a bit of that “kind of atmosphere” sometimes. It’s not just pop.
*(New wave is a broad music genre that encompasses numerous pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s)
K: So, if I had to pick one, Europe is better in that than America. Well, when it comes to the songs I make, I’d like to make them more interesting, but I don’t feel like doing something that is off the point/wrong.
-I have to ask you about the melody part now.
K: If you have any concerns, I will answer them…
- What if there is something clear for you like, “this song has this kind of image”?
K: After that, Kyo has several ways to sing so I will combine them in my own way and propose new melodies. Like “I think in this way would be cool”.
-Oh, that’s how you do it. In any case, now I’m looking forward to the day when I can listen to a new song again. Will the album be completed in 2021?
K: That’s right.
-By the way, Kaoru-san’s hard disk has already material for the new album….
K: Well, there’s something for the album……there is, but it’s still not the whole thing at all (laughs).
Zdroj:https://thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness.tumblr.com/
Žádné komentáře:
Okomentovat