Juicemusic 01.11.2008 Dir en Grey
„Uroboros“ The strangest album of the strongest band Dir en Grey now, here….
The beauty in the wild…, the softness of power… .To know them and to be able to meet them, who would have known that these would heal to such an extent? All these years I misunderstood Dir en Grey. It’s just the image of an extreme band with a loud and heavy sound that let me pronounce an arbitrary jugdement. Until that particular day… It was the first concert I saw of them. Those five who surprisingly express not that wildness but an “art”-like world through the “spirit” called sound. Seeing this “world” the trembling wouldn’t stop and somehow I was moved. Now I want to tell all those who don’t know the real Dir en Grey and I want them to listen and feel. To get to know the real people…
The release of the new album Uroboros is now roughly 2 years after the album The Marrow Of A Bone. So are the experiences of that 2 years part of that album? Also, what is the concept of it?
Die: We did lives all these 2 years so the “colours” and the feelings of the recent concerts are in there.
Kyo: Pain, the usual, the things that everyone wants to hide, things that you can’t touch, those things that refer to the bands concept and that we are trying to express in music, lyrics and concerts. We had the feeling that we wanted to express all that in an even deeper way on the album.
Die: It’s totally that way.
The first thing that came to my mind while listening to Uroboros (*1) was, that Kyo-kuns voice has become even more wide-ranging and even more capable of variations. Is it possible to say that the new album concentrates on that aspect more than the others?
Kyo: Until now I thought of our songs as a whole. If possible they should hit you like one single punch. But this time we did it with the thought that we should do everything possible. So the melody was made all at once and so did I with the lyrics. [Maybe it’s like not too much thoughts and no restrictions? ..I didn’t really get what he tries to say ^-^;] Compared to everything before, the atmosphere and the feeling of the songs may be completely different.
The part of the vocalist is natural, but even the presence of each of the other members was surprisingly strong. So isn’t the fact that each member is present in the music that what appears in it? Just like a reaction in the music?
Die: You mean the feelings of each of us are present right? How much we concentrated on that? If we went too far in that direction, it could destroy everything, like “That’s not right, there’s something strange”. But because everyone of us simply wants to make good music we think about those things a lot.
Now to your songs. Dir en Grey has a very particular style in the titles of album and songs. They are not only English and not only Japanese but they have a strange, occult-like feeling. I wonder where this comes from. For example, the word “Sa Bir”. What language does it come from and what is the meaning behind it? I’m really curious about that.
Kyo: It is no strange obsession of mine. But aren’t the titles all usually in Japanese or English? For the song and the feeling of it every language is ok. So I choose the titles based on the feeling of the songs and if the words fit then it is all right. It may be the sound of the word or its meaning.
Because if it’s Dir en Grey sometimes the message can reach you even without words, right? For example in “Sa Bir” just like the meaning which is about the movement of the earth, the sound crawls through the body like it comes from under the earth [something like from the earth’s core or so..]. Then it goes over to “Vinushka” (meaning “sin”) and gives me the creeps. How do you get your ideas for the melodies?
Kyo: Well, I start with a rough idea of the melody and then slowly I fill that “vision” I had first.
Is there a message in your lyrics, you are trying to get across?
Kyo: For example in “Glass Skin” the lyrics can be understood as a love song, but that’s not it. I tried to express the transience through a landslide, meaning the ecological problem in a way that’s not like preaching. Somehow I detest that stupid preaching and I don’t want to sing anything like that positive forward-looking things either. It’s not like that in reality. That is the basis of my thoughts. The thoughts that come from that “no problem” attitude and those from inside the destruction have a totally different feeling to them.
I see. The positive in the negative… . Listening to what you say makes me see those things more clearly.
Kyo: The last album “The Marrow Of A Bone” also may have the expression of despair, pain and destruction to it, but that’s not all. But that “woah” feeling that stays after you finish listening to it…that’s it.
On the album “Dozing Green” and “Glass Skin” are in the English version right?
Kyo: From the beginning I was often asked by labels from outside if I wanted to write songs in English, but it has nothing to do with that. “Dozing Green” and “Glass Skin” simply have a new feeling to them if I sing them in English. Also the way to look at things changes, so for me that is very interesting. With that I think it is okay to do so.
That’s true. With English lyrics the way to express things and the atmosphere is very different to the songs with Japanese lyrics.
Kyo: The main statement of the song may be the same, but the perspective is totally different and the English is way easier to understand, isn’t it? Also because with the text of “Dozing Green” completely in English, there isn’t the ambiguity like in the Japanese text and so the statement is pretty clear. So you can enjoy the song twice, with changed atmosphere. I thought that would be interesting.
In all the songs on the album there’s a kind of hovering [sorry. I got no good word for it -_-] atmosphere. Like if you suddenly see light in the darkness. When I first went to a Dir en Grey concert I felt a shock, an impetus not possible to say in words. I thought “ That’s real art”. I also felt that, when I heard the album. Like in the concert, or even more so. Kyo-kun, on the album and in concerts you fully express the songs (with body and soul) through your voice and your performance. That’s really great! (laughs) It may sound strange, but it feels like I’ve been healed inside… Huh? I am weird!!(laughs)
Die: You really got into it right? (laughs)
Kyo: There are people who say that the fact that our fans shout and sing with us at concerts is great too. Because the message I sing appeals to the fans, that I sing it as a kind of deputy or so. I think that’s the meaning of it. There are many heavy bands that go screaming all the time. I am definitely not interested in that. It doesn’t touch my heart.
People that misunderstood you the way I described earlier are many, I think. But you do little against it, like explaining yourselves.
Kyo: Well, somehow even explaining that… . It would be best if they could feel it for themselves, but it’s not right to say, that we wouldn’t do anything like explaining ourselves, either. It’s difficult.
Now that “Uroboros” is finished, what do you think about Dir en Grey’s past, present and future?
Kyo: Every time we release an album I think of it as a new start. With “Uroboros” now we left many things behind and I am totally satisfied. Because we did something that brings out everything that is Dir en Grey more than anything we did before. As if we went a level higher.
It seems like Dir en Grey is not so fixed on the past.
Kyo: Seems so. Although it is not like we think of the past as something negative, and we have good memories of course. But we can’t express our thoughts perfectly and there is so many we didn’t try yet. And now after we finished the recording for “Uroboros” I have so many ideas for the next releases in my head.
But now after you finished the album with all the difficulties there are, isn’t there any free time?
Kyo: Of course there is, but I have all these vague ideas like how we could do the next things and how I would like to do them and so on. Now I want to perform “Uroboros” live and give it more than 100%, 150%, up to 200%. Then I have new emotions and things I want to tell everyone.
Well, the future of Dir en Grey is unknown.
Kyo: Right.
It’s like you will always proceed and get better right? You won’t stay at one place forever. You want to find out what the next one, say the next level is going to be. It may be that you push your luck with the fans.
Kyo: We’re a band that undergoes especially great changes. Although there are bands like that in Japan and Overseas, you may hear their special sound on every album, but with our music it sounds different from album to album.
Die: For every member it is like we want to do things more extensively to some point that there is only us in the music. Things that only we can do. Even though we might not speak it out loud, I think that feeling is getting stronger in each of us.
Kyo: The things we want to express are not blurred and the balance is different from normal bands.
By the way, what are the musical roots for you two and what was a big influence?
Die: Well, the reasons for me to make music were Japanese bands. I didn’t listen to any bands from overseas.
Kyo: I listen to many different bands, but there are no special bands that have influence on the music of Dir en Grey. The feelings you have in live…it could be pain, or something I heard on the news, things that you experience naturally in normal every-day live. I think these are the things that have influence on the music and the lyrics….ah, but I totally love hardcore, which may have influence on it, too. Like the attitude.
In 2006 you played as guest with Korn on the “The Family Values” Tour, together with bands like the Deftones and Stone Sour and in 2007 you took part at the huge german festival “Wacken Open Air” with Nine Inch Nails, Tool and so on. Don’t you think that these experiences could have any influence on your music?
Die: No, I don’t know anything that could’ve had influence.
For example anything that was easier or more difficult?
Kyo: It doesn’t matter if it’s Japan or Overseas, there is no difference.
Beginning the 5th of November you will do a special tour through all of America, visiting 22 cities, for at least a month. Give it your Best!
Kyo: Right. I’ll give it 100%. And the live doesn’t really differ. It’s the same set list we have in Japan.
After you come back you will do a concert the 29th of December (Monday) in Osakajou-hall with the title “UROBOROS-breathing-“. But there are two concerts in Osakajou-hall right?
Die: Since 9 years now.
Kyo: There are not so many people who do lives at Osakajou-hall nowadays. [Sorry don’t understand the next sentence. Something like he individually didn’t like one concert he did there or so and it’s some kind of revenge. Need help there T-T]
Also the title has a deep meaning. It seems to be a special Live.
Die: There we will present the new album the first time, so there will be things that we can only feel at that concert. The feeling to play the new songs for the first time. That’s something we can only have that special day at Osakajou-hall.
*1: (Uroboros) An ancient symbol. Two snakes that bite into each others tail. Or otherwise stylized as dragons. The model of the symbol for eternity ∞ .
Interview & Text: LIMO HATANO, Translation: Colour-ize_NoX
The beauty in the wild…, the softness of power… .To know them and to be able to meet them, who would have known that these would heal to such an extent? All these years I misunderstood Dir en Grey. It’s just the image of an extreme band with a loud and heavy sound that let me pronounce an arbitrary jugdement. Until that particular day… It was the first concert I saw of them. Those five who surprisingly express not that wildness but an “art”-like world through the “spirit” called sound. Seeing this “world” the trembling wouldn’t stop and somehow I was moved. Now I want to tell all those who don’t know the real Dir en Grey and I want them to listen and feel. To get to know the real people…
The release of the new album Uroboros is now roughly 2 years after the album The Marrow Of A Bone. So are the experiences of that 2 years part of that album? Also, what is the concept of it?
Die: We did lives all these 2 years so the “colours” and the feelings of the recent concerts are in there.
Kyo: Pain, the usual, the things that everyone wants to hide, things that you can’t touch, those things that refer to the bands concept and that we are trying to express in music, lyrics and concerts. We had the feeling that we wanted to express all that in an even deeper way on the album.
Die: It’s totally that way.
The first thing that came to my mind while listening to Uroboros (*1) was, that Kyo-kuns voice has become even more wide-ranging and even more capable of variations. Is it possible to say that the new album concentrates on that aspect more than the others?
Kyo: Until now I thought of our songs as a whole. If possible they should hit you like one single punch. But this time we did it with the thought that we should do everything possible. So the melody was made all at once and so did I with the lyrics. [Maybe it’s like not too much thoughts and no restrictions? ..I didn’t really get what he tries to say ^-^;] Compared to everything before, the atmosphere and the feeling of the songs may be completely different.
The part of the vocalist is natural, but even the presence of each of the other members was surprisingly strong. So isn’t the fact that each member is present in the music that what appears in it? Just like a reaction in the music?
Die: You mean the feelings of each of us are present right? How much we concentrated on that? If we went too far in that direction, it could destroy everything, like “That’s not right, there’s something strange”. But because everyone of us simply wants to make good music we think about those things a lot.
Now to your songs. Dir en Grey has a very particular style in the titles of album and songs. They are not only English and not only Japanese but they have a strange, occult-like feeling. I wonder where this comes from. For example, the word “Sa Bir”. What language does it come from and what is the meaning behind it? I’m really curious about that.
Kyo: It is no strange obsession of mine. But aren’t the titles all usually in Japanese or English? For the song and the feeling of it every language is ok. So I choose the titles based on the feeling of the songs and if the words fit then it is all right. It may be the sound of the word or its meaning.
Because if it’s Dir en Grey sometimes the message can reach you even without words, right? For example in “Sa Bir” just like the meaning which is about the movement of the earth, the sound crawls through the body like it comes from under the earth [something like from the earth’s core or so..]. Then it goes over to “Vinushka” (meaning “sin”) and gives me the creeps. How do you get your ideas for the melodies?
Kyo: Well, I start with a rough idea of the melody and then slowly I fill that “vision” I had first.
Is there a message in your lyrics, you are trying to get across?
Kyo: For example in “Glass Skin” the lyrics can be understood as a love song, but that’s not it. I tried to express the transience through a landslide, meaning the ecological problem in a way that’s not like preaching. Somehow I detest that stupid preaching and I don’t want to sing anything like that positive forward-looking things either. It’s not like that in reality. That is the basis of my thoughts. The thoughts that come from that “no problem” attitude and those from inside the destruction have a totally different feeling to them.
I see. The positive in the negative… . Listening to what you say makes me see those things more clearly.
Kyo: The last album “The Marrow Of A Bone” also may have the expression of despair, pain and destruction to it, but that’s not all. But that “woah” feeling that stays after you finish listening to it…that’s it.
On the album “Dozing Green” and “Glass Skin” are in the English version right?
Kyo: From the beginning I was often asked by labels from outside if I wanted to write songs in English, but it has nothing to do with that. “Dozing Green” and “Glass Skin” simply have a new feeling to them if I sing them in English. Also the way to look at things changes, so for me that is very interesting. With that I think it is okay to do so.
That’s true. With English lyrics the way to express things and the atmosphere is very different to the songs with Japanese lyrics.
Kyo: The main statement of the song may be the same, but the perspective is totally different and the English is way easier to understand, isn’t it? Also because with the text of “Dozing Green” completely in English, there isn’t the ambiguity like in the Japanese text and so the statement is pretty clear. So you can enjoy the song twice, with changed atmosphere. I thought that would be interesting.
In all the songs on the album there’s a kind of hovering [sorry. I got no good word for it -_-] atmosphere. Like if you suddenly see light in the darkness. When I first went to a Dir en Grey concert I felt a shock, an impetus not possible to say in words. I thought “ That’s real art”. I also felt that, when I heard the album. Like in the concert, or even more so. Kyo-kun, on the album and in concerts you fully express the songs (with body and soul) through your voice and your performance. That’s really great! (laughs) It may sound strange, but it feels like I’ve been healed inside… Huh? I am weird!!(laughs)
Die: You really got into it right? (laughs)
Kyo: There are people who say that the fact that our fans shout and sing with us at concerts is great too. Because the message I sing appeals to the fans, that I sing it as a kind of deputy or so. I think that’s the meaning of it. There are many heavy bands that go screaming all the time. I am definitely not interested in that. It doesn’t touch my heart.
People that misunderstood you the way I described earlier are many, I think. But you do little against it, like explaining yourselves.
Kyo: Well, somehow even explaining that… . It would be best if they could feel it for themselves, but it’s not right to say, that we wouldn’t do anything like explaining ourselves, either. It’s difficult.
Now that “Uroboros” is finished, what do you think about Dir en Grey’s past, present and future?
Kyo: Every time we release an album I think of it as a new start. With “Uroboros” now we left many things behind and I am totally satisfied. Because we did something that brings out everything that is Dir en Grey more than anything we did before. As if we went a level higher.
It seems like Dir en Grey is not so fixed on the past.
Kyo: Seems so. Although it is not like we think of the past as something negative, and we have good memories of course. But we can’t express our thoughts perfectly and there is so many we didn’t try yet. And now after we finished the recording for “Uroboros” I have so many ideas for the next releases in my head.
But now after you finished the album with all the difficulties there are, isn’t there any free time?
Kyo: Of course there is, but I have all these vague ideas like how we could do the next things and how I would like to do them and so on. Now I want to perform “Uroboros” live and give it more than 100%, 150%, up to 200%. Then I have new emotions and things I want to tell everyone.
Well, the future of Dir en Grey is unknown.
Kyo: Right.
It’s like you will always proceed and get better right? You won’t stay at one place forever. You want to find out what the next one, say the next level is going to be. It may be that you push your luck with the fans.
Kyo: We’re a band that undergoes especially great changes. Although there are bands like that in Japan and Overseas, you may hear their special sound on every album, but with our music it sounds different from album to album.
Die: For every member it is like we want to do things more extensively to some point that there is only us in the music. Things that only we can do. Even though we might not speak it out loud, I think that feeling is getting stronger in each of us.
Kyo: The things we want to express are not blurred and the balance is different from normal bands.
By the way, what are the musical roots for you two and what was a big influence?
Die: Well, the reasons for me to make music were Japanese bands. I didn’t listen to any bands from overseas.
Kyo: I listen to many different bands, but there are no special bands that have influence on the music of Dir en Grey. The feelings you have in live…it could be pain, or something I heard on the news, things that you experience naturally in normal every-day live. I think these are the things that have influence on the music and the lyrics….ah, but I totally love hardcore, which may have influence on it, too. Like the attitude.
In 2006 you played as guest with Korn on the “The Family Values” Tour, together with bands like the Deftones and Stone Sour and in 2007 you took part at the huge german festival “Wacken Open Air” with Nine Inch Nails, Tool and so on. Don’t you think that these experiences could have any influence on your music?
Die: No, I don’t know anything that could’ve had influence.
For example anything that was easier or more difficult?
Kyo: It doesn’t matter if it’s Japan or Overseas, there is no difference.
Beginning the 5th of November you will do a special tour through all of America, visiting 22 cities, for at least a month. Give it your Best!
Kyo: Right. I’ll give it 100%. And the live doesn’t really differ. It’s the same set list we have in Japan.
After you come back you will do a concert the 29th of December (Monday) in Osakajou-hall with the title “UROBOROS-breathing-“. But there are two concerts in Osakajou-hall right?
Die: Since 9 years now.
Kyo: There are not so many people who do lives at Osakajou-hall nowadays. [Sorry don’t understand the next sentence. Something like he individually didn’t like one concert he did there or so and it’s some kind of revenge. Need help there T-T]
Also the title has a deep meaning. It seems to be a special Live.
Die: There we will present the new album the first time, so there will be things that we can only feel at that concert. The feeling to play the new songs for the first time. That’s something we can only have that special day at Osakajou-hall.
*1: (Uroboros) An ancient symbol. Two snakes that bite into each others tail. Or otherwise stylized as dragons. The model of the symbol for eternity ∞ .
Interview & Text: LIMO HATANO, Translation: Colour-ize_NoX