The coexistence of his personal style and the band’s sound.

The change in Kyo’s vocals brought about by the change in the playing of the other members was also quiet a natural flow.

In the new release, his own personal aims and the bands groove combine to express an overwhelming amount of heat.

At the end of this special interview collection, we ask Kyo about the change he felt in the band in SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH and about his personal approach.



“Hoping to compose through more inner things is my theme.”



When you started on the new song how did you think you wanted to make the new sound and direction?



Kyo: Personally I didn’t have any definite visions about the music. I think that when I added my vocals to the music the other four brought to me like usual it naturally became the current Dir en grey.



You’ve just been remaking old songs for THE UNRAVELING haven’t you. Did any change in your mental state occur from re-recording old songs?



Kyo: I didn’t really think about the songs themselves or how is the current Dir en grey as a whole. Just that my personal style of singing is to sing so you can feel the passion and I wanted to add some more raw expression to my singing as a plus a to my current style. That’s about all that I thought about.



When you first heard the original form of SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH what impression did it leave?



Kyo: ah it’s this kind of song. Even at first if I think various things the arrangement changes. Even just by changing the bass phrase a little or entering clean guitar the impression a song leaves completely changes so I don’t really probe deeply into it. I just concentrated on the melody and lyrics that were inspired by listening to the song.



As the arrangement changes does your melody change as well?



Kyo: This time my melody didn’t really change. In relation to the backing If any parts jut out from the allowed perimeter of my melody then I’ll change it, but this time nothing stuck out. The melody and backing mixed together well so I didn’t change it. My vocals were already finalized when the backing pre-production was finished. This time at the end everyone played and fiddled around together in the studio but at that time my vocals had already finished being recorded. (laughs) So I wondered what I’d do if they talked about changing the tempo.



You secretly wished they wouldn’t change the tempo? (Laughs)



Kyo: I’m begging you, just don’t change the tempo! (Laughs) When pre producing the vocals I sang by myself and tried various things and confirmed the vocals myself before the session.



Finishing recording the vocals before the backing pre producing means that you finished the melody and lyrics at a fairly early stage. Did your inspiration gush forth? Or has is steadily become faster?



Kyo: No, it was just like normal. (laughs) While adding the melody I continued with the lyrics at the same time.



The lyrics have the flow of a story that could also be made into a video and you can picture repulsive yet beautiful scenes. How did that arise?



Kyo: My inspiration from hearing the song. But I don’t have a consistent way of writing lyrics, and the lyrics also aren’t a story. It’s the technique of having a scene come to mind after having finished reading all of the lyrics. Because I just write receiving inspiration from the image of the song there’s no blur. I’m also able to proceed with the melody and lyrics at the same time.



When I first listened to it thought it also contained English. But when I listened closely the lyrics were all Japanese.



Kyo: From before DUM SPIRO SPERO I’ve been wanting to try my hardest to write in Japanese. I think that a song’s flow and sound* is easy to do in English. I think it’s more difficult to do it in Japanese. But I am enjoying writing in Japanese.



The reason why it felt like English was because you’ve packed in many ways of singing.



Kyo: But it’s decreased a lot. The song has become close to the groove and through the condition of how a song is compressed, and if simpleness is added or subtracted, the impression of a song changes and only the song floats etc. I’ve been recording my vocals while thinking about that perfect balance. This is the best for the feeling of my voice. But when I thought about including more ways of singing I added them like mad, then I had a extreme amount of options. During DUM SPIRO SPERO I was making songs while trying to cram them in as well as possible and so that the balance didn’t collapse. So I wondered this time how I could make a balance that has as few things as possible but yet still mysterious in my own way. The type of voice, and orientation of the song is different for each scene but there aren’t that many scenes in this song.



Was the song being simple a hurdle in regards to the songs melody and lyrics?



Kyo: For songs which have a lot of progression and scenes, you get invited into that point and melodies and types of voice erupt and if you get entrapped into that then it’s easy. For songs which don’t have a lot of progression and focus on the groove when you honestly add the vocals it becomes quite boring for me. Like, it’s too simple. I can’t decrease things too much or increase things. I wanted to make it into a song that you could listen to many times without getting bored of.



The way you make the words resound in the A melody is unique, and you have a way of distorting your voice that makes you want to search for the nuances inside the sound.



Kyo: I’m always thinking that I want to go to deep places. But recently the proportions of my vocals are changing again. I want to reduce the amount of shouting I do as much as I can. No, not that, it’s that hoping to compose through more inner things is my theme. So I’m not including shouting so much. Yet I don’t think it sounds gentle. And also, anyone can express energy and ferociousness through shouting but I want to use shouting, and make the flow of the song in a way that only I can. It’s been so natural to me recently that I haven’t consciously thought about it but I have those thoughts.



Through intentionally reducing your options for ways of singing, have you been able to put in the way of singing and voice that you really want to do?



Kyo: Yes. As they steadily decrease it seemed like I would become a boring person, and speaking generally it would become mellow. I didn’t want that, so I tried to add singing that expresses more emotion. I think I decreased that quiet a bit in DUM SPIRO SPERO and sang songs that were inhuman, or configured like a picture. This time, because I included a raw, living feeling to it, more passion, not mellowness was added and I think a sharpness that’s a little different came out. I think I was able to go to a new place.



Had you finished recording your vocals before the concert at shinkiba studio coast on May the 16th?



Kyo: Hmm when did I finish it… well I finished it early anyway. At the same time we’d been making four other songs, and I’d finished the vocals for around three of them, and the lyrics. I also finished ruten no tou (acoustic version) pretty early too. (laughs)



Having given form to the new single do you feel that yourselves that you can see here have entered a new stage?



Kyo: I think everyone feels that way. I also feel that way to some extent. After completing this song, we’re moving on to making other songs, and I’m really looking forward to when we release them. I think that when we released SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH we probably couldn’t really see the future, and we made it while feeling around. But next time, it will be a release after having completed this song, and you will understand from the song what kind of vision I saw. So I have great expectations for it.



Are you thinking of making a whole song yourself?



Kyo: No, I can’t play any musical instruments. I’ve made sounds by mouth guitar but this time I’m leaving it to the others and waiting patiently. (laughs)



A little while ago, you were vocal about what kind of sound you liked weren’t you? That you’d be happy if there was a heavy sound, or low tuning would be better etc. Do you still have those kind of thoughts now?



Kyo: People who think like that have increased and I think it’s boring. Only doing that is not like me. All of us get tired of things easily. We’re a gathering of people who like to steadily do new things, so I think it’s okay if we head in a different direction. I’ve always wanted to make things that are like ourselves in an area no one else is working.



Because ruten no tou (acoustic version) in a game with heaviness is wonderful right?



Kyo: Well you can say that but I like it more than the original. It matches up with my current self in mood. I always wanted to do this kind of thing. I thought it would be really interesting to do an acoustic version like that, and I’ve been saying for ages “let’s do it let’s do it!” (laughs) The phrases of the acoustic version are almost identical to the original right? Because the extent of the abnormality of the composition came out more in an acoustic version I think it’s really really good. I think this version is more abnormal than the original. Nothings been decided yet but I want to sing it live.



*The word he is uses is 響き that means (1) echo; reverberation; (2) sound (esp. the distinctive sound of an object or activity, e.g. rain, gun, gallop, drum); noise; (3) quality of a sound (e.g. a fine phrase, clear voice, resonant bell); feeling of a sound; emotion or feeling inspired by something heard or read;



(Sorry it’s taken me a while to post this, I was sick and my mum’s visiting me now so I won’t be able to post any more translations for a while. I also rushed to finish this more than normal so some parts may still be worded strangely >>)