Work on ARCHE began in summer last year after the release of SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH. Was the album’s image also formed at that time?

The whole image of the album hadn’t been formed. Despite the feel of SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH we didn’t want to be bound by it’s atmosphere or anything and we continued to create freely. While continuing to create, being easy to understand was one of our themes. Without using complicated arrangements or adding many hooks like we’ve been doing, just making songs that are more intuitive and you can feel with your skin. Songs that first quickly touch your skin and then spread to the rest of your body. I was aiming for that kind of thing.

Is the short length of the songs also related to that?

Yes. We hadn’t tried making songs only 2 or 3 minutes long for a while. Up until recently we’ve made a lot of long songs nearly 10 minutes in length. But since we’ve already done that a lot this time I wanted to freshen it up, with the heat that only a short song can pack in.

As a result ARCHE has 16 songs on it, giving it the largest number of songs out of your recent albums.

Well we had no intention of making 16 songs when we began (laughs) But since we were working on an album it was like let’s do as much as we can. As a result we pushed and pushed in recording (laughs)

This time the up tuning was easy to understand and in the medium tempo songs you could properly hear the song. I received the impression that the individual characteristics of each song were well defined.

Yes. Feeling wise there were parts like that. Mid tempo songs with a dark atmosphere are easy for us to make. I’d make one type of song, and then want to try a different approach for the next one.

There are also many simple song names. Is that connected to the simpleness of the songs themselves?

Kyo named all the songs and he went for simple titles but with words you wouldn’t often hear normally. While making the songs they had temporary names and so it would have the strong image of that title, but then when the proper name of the songs were decided the images of the songs would also change with it and they would feel really fresh.

The name ARCHE holds in it the meaning of “origin”. Was the album named after it was completed?

Yes, I think it was named in the last stages of production. Kyo also named the album but it matched with the image I held of the album. And I thought it could be interpreted like “something new should start from here”

I see, since the beginning Dir en grey has been expressing things like pain and the negative aspects of people through its music. Your new album holds the meaning of “origin” so has that stance stayed the same ever since the beginning 17 years ago?

I don’t think it’s changed. Because I think that’s what we should be doing. While recording I thought “Yep, this is Dir en grey!” this may be something only we can understand but I personally felt that no matter how far Dir en grey goes we are still Dir en grey.

So do you think that how you perform and express these ideas to the listeners has changed?

Hmmmm…. Personally I’ve began just facing towards performing naturally without thinking deeply about it. More than thinking deeply about what I create I want to place importance on what resounds inside of me.

Changing the subject, the music scene and the world in general have changed a lot since Dir en grey formed 17 years ago. How do you feel looking at the world now after 17 years of being in Dir en grey?

Everyone complains that there’s nothing good in the world. You don’t really hear about good things these days do you? There have been many unbelievable incidents in the news and the economy is in recession and we’re told that the music world is also in recession. In such an environment it’s been very tough to keep Dir en grey going so I strongly feel that precisely because we’ve continued for so long we need to go even further. I think that whatever anyone says we have no choice but to continue, and by continuing we’ll be able to see new things. We all want something we can believe in. I think we should aim for this exactly because it’s difficult and not simple.

In that meaning is it a very big thing to you personally that Dir en grey exists?

Yes. I’m always facing towards Dir en grey, and there’s no times that I’m not thinking about how I should be. While constantly wondering to myself about it…… I don’t find an answer straight away but it’s important to firstly confront it, where I stand.

What things in the future do you worry about? In five years’ time or ten years’ time for example.

Well, it’s not like there’s nothing I worry about but as far as Dir en grey is concerned, without changing our current stance if we just put our all into this new album, and then into the tours following its release then I think we’ll be able to see what to do next. That’s how it’s always been for the past 17 years so I don’t think that will change. So before I worry about what we will be like 5 years in the future I’m going to confront the things right in front of me. I don’t think that will ever change.

So the present Dir en grey exists because of you earnestly confronting the things right in front of you, one by one.

Yes I think so. Because I get the feeling that since the beginning I’ve never imagined how the future would be. Because I never thought we would last 10 years to begin with (laughs)

So you surely would never have been able to imagine releasing an album like ARCHE in 2014.

Yep (laughs) So I think we’ve done well with ARCHE. When I think about being able to release an album like ARCHE in the current world… It’s really great. There’s nothing much that really makes an impression on me in the music I hear in my daily life. Even looking overseas, each metal band only creates one kind of sound. I think that’s okay but personally I’d prefer bands to change more. I don’t think there’s any other bands in the world playing music like Dir en grey’s.

This album might breathe a breath of fresh air into the music industry.

I want it to, and I want our album to have mixed reviews. (laughs) I don’t think it’s an album which everyone can say “It’s a good album!” about. To us, having mixed reviews makes it a Dir en grey album (laughs)