



Kaoru, lead-guitarist of, sat down with VKH just before the band's sold-out show at The Gramercy Theater in New York. With an extremely relaxed posterior in the lounge of the venue, he discusses what brought DIR EN GREY back to a more visually expressive style, what may be next for, and much more!Yes, since the beginning I’ve been using tape on my right hand while I play, and also using a sort of double-sided tape on my thumb to keep from dropping my pick.Our schedule and the timing of the tour didn’t quite sync very well, but we tried to do as many shows as we could in this short amount of time.There was really no difference (laughs)Tone down..?Wearing makeup, for example.Ah! So you’re saying we do it a bit more now than a few years ago… Well, there’s no real reason for it, [we] just wanted to start wearing it again (laughs)If someone were to approach me and offer to collaborate on something again, then I would love to. (laughs)For that tie-up, we had recorded the song already, and [Capcom, the game company] requested to use it.Everyone has a different idea of what the song conveys, but we don’t want to go too deep into it and let the listeners think what they want to think.Yes, well, we were able to print the translated lyrics in the European version as they released a physical cd, whereas here in the U.S. it was just a digital release. If we had the opportunity to release the cd here then we’d definitely include the translations.Do you have any plans for the next CD?Well, after this tour is over we’ll be starting work on new songs, so next year [we’ll release one.]Each member comes up with their own impression from the songs on the album, which colors to use and such, and we’ll meet with a designer and put it all together.Any member have particular hand in art directionWe all work on it together.We all write them together.Recent ones too?Recent, huh? (laughs) Well, "Revelation of mankind" was particularly difficult to write and took a long time, so that one still sticks with me.From the beginning I came up with a lot of guitar riffs -- really hard, violent ones. Each song always starts with the guitar. I thought it would end up being too long of a song so I stopped writing. (laughs) After we finished the previous album I went back and reworked it, making it a bit shorter and more clear.(laughs) …Whatthe meaning behind that? I’m sure there was a reason for it, but I’ve forgotten. (laughs)Who usually comes up with the ideas for the promotional videos?The director (laughs).We thought it would be interesting to do that for the old PVs… There's no real hidden meaning for it. Well, other than they’re pretty old. (laughs)How do you view your older style from when you first began?Hmm, well, back then we were trying to visually express ourselves…we’ve changed a lot over the years (in regards to how we do that)Maybe not(laughs), well we usually stick to a certain routine, producing an album and then touring. I’d like to do something spontaneous, something fun. [For example] we’ve never played an outdoor venue here in new York, so that would be interesting.Well, every two years or so we’re able to come out here, and we want everyone to enjoy themselves at the show since it’ll be awhile before we come back.After our show at Budokan in February we’ll go back into the studio to record, and by next year we’ll have a new album, and hopefully we can come back [to the States] in 2017.