In your documentary DVD TOUR 12-13 IN SITU-TABULA RASA, there’s a scene where you are being interviewed by a German journalist. I think the kind of questions she asked you like “What do you think your weak point is?” and “What is the source of your negativity?” are often asked by journalists overseas. Are interviews always like that overseas?



They often are. They’ll normally ask you things like “Why are you like that on stage even though normally you’re quiet?” “What is the source of your power?” But it’s just like um I’ve always been like this so I have no idea. (Laughs)

Dir en grey’s music is very mysterious. So they’re wondering who these people from Asia are.

Overseas, if a musician is energetic on stage, then they’re likely to act in the exact same way backstage. (Laughs) They’re as wild as they want to be backstage. We’re completely different from that so I guess they think we’re strange. It’s always very quiet in our dressing room, unless there’s music playing. (Laughs) Members of the other bands burst into our dressing room saying “What are you guys doing!?! Let’s party!!” (Laughs) However, we’re just like “uh, that’s okay.” So our energy level is completely different from the other bands.

Ah yes, in the scenes on the DVD of you guys moving around you’re always quiet. It doesn’t feel like you guys don’t get along or that there’s a tense atmosphere or anything; it just gave a strong impression that you guys are quiet.



Well, sometimes the atmosphere was bad. (Laughs) When we go overseas we are constantly living together, and if one person gets in a bad mood it can affect everyone. So the atmosphere gets… Yeah. Playing concerts days in a row is tough physically and also tough mentally, so it’s truly difficult and makes some of us just want to go home already… But when we play overseas for a long time we start not caring about that. It’s still physically and mentally tough, but we accept it as something to be expected. In the past some of us would be like “I wanna go home! I’ve had enough!” But now when someone says, “This is too tough” we’ll reply in good humor like, “Well what should we do?” “Shall we play only relaxing songs?”

In the DVD there are around 800-1,000 foreign fans gathered in each concert hall to watch you, and they all sing along to your songs in Japanese. You can also see that the fans aren’t only female, and that you’ve been fully accepted by listeners who look like they enjoy metal and gothic music. You could say that is the result of you having played overseas around every two years since 2005.



Yes. What I’ve felt playing concerts overseas is not what we can do, but, that doing what you are able to do to the very maximum is the best way to be original; it’s your power. However, I think that our good start overseas was in a large part thanks to the popularity wave of Japanese culture, which included visual kei. Compared with that time, the number of staff accompanying us on our overseas tours recently has shrunk, and we’re now in an age in which people don’t spend money on music. So there are some tough areas. But there are still many people overseas waiting for us to play in their countries so I don’t want to destroy that. At any rate, if we ever get in the red then we’ll reconsider overseas tours, but it’s not that bad at the moment.

So you’ll keep an eye on the situation.

Yeah. There are pragmatic problems: we’ve had to reduce the amount of equipment we take overseas. But we have a dream, right. We’re not a band who originally thought about going overseas when we formed, and we weren’t releasing CDs overseas. But unbeknown to us, our music was being listened to online all around the world, and our foreign fans were growing in number. At the time we started playing overseas, our thinking had become a bit negative, but we received power from seeing all the fans who had been waiting for us overseas, and from then the band’s gears began moving again. Because of that I want to treasure our overseas concerts; I want to continue playing overseas for as long as possible.

In 2013 you didn’t only go to Germany, but, for the first time in a while, you also toured North America, right?

We did a solo tour in North America and also had the chance to briefly meet fans at meet and greets. We asked the fans there if they owned our CDs, but only around half of them said yes. Then when we asked how they listened to us if they didn’t own our CDs, most answered that they listened to us on YouTube. So they seem to know the singles and songs with music videos we’ve uploaded to YouTube but not other songs from albums. If you’re doing an album tour then you’re going to play all the songs off the album, right? But overseas if we play them all the audience doesn’t get into it at all. (Laughs) So to a certain extent when we play overseas we increase the number of popular songs we play and reduce the number of album songs. There’s the impression that foreign bands always play the same set list when they tour, right? It’s like an understanding, like they know that if they play songs the audience doesn’t know or album songs then the audience won’t get into it. I think it’s because there isn’t the culture overseas of buying CDs like in Japan; there also aren’t very many CD stores there.

I see, so there are things you’re able to notice because you’ve travelled outside of Japan. Seeing these things with your own eyes, and hearing about them, is it completely separate from your music activity? Or, is it more like you’re learning about such realities in preparation -as the person who runs the band?

Ideally, I’d like to make music without hearing about such stuff but there are some things I just can’t ignore. It’s easy to deny, or just resign yourself to things; but in order to make sure everything goes even a bit more smoothly, I always think of good plans at such times. That may be a luxurious worry, but overseas, there are problems like new songs getting leaked early; if something like that happened to us, it would cause us great damage. Many of the staff overseas just say things like, “That’s just reality. There’s nothing we can do.” Or, “I’m sorry there’s nothing we can do.“ But only looking at the bad stuff doesn’t accomplish anything, so I also think about how to develop the good things.

On the DVD you talked about the band’s song writing, and I quote, "The basis of songs comes from phrases I make while messing around on my guitar by myself. Then everyone else brings their ideas to it.” Are you always playing around on your guitar even during tours or other such busy times?

No. In my case I can’t create anything unless I’m in the frame of mind that I’m going to make a song. Ideas don’t normally come to me just in normal everyday life. Well, sometimes they do just come to me, but all I’ll do is hope that the idea stays with me till the time I’m making the song. Normally I don’t remember them. (Laughs) So I need to be mentally focused on song creation when I’m writing songs.

So you vary your pace?

If I didn’t refresh, and go one step at a time, then it would be tough constantly working. I also divide my daily life into small sections. Otherwise, it wouldn’t go well. If we only played in Japan, then we’d have more time, but since we also play overseas, the time we have for song writing shrinks. I need to concentrate on song writing when it’s time for it, so if I don’t adopt the position of writing songs when it’s the time to, and not writing songs when it’s not, song writing would just drag on.

Leaving aside whether or not you’re directly engaged in song writing, what is something that gives you a lot of inspiration for your music?

Personally, I’m easily influenced by many things. Not just from listening to music; also from going to the movies, or reading a book as well. Even just while going about my daily life; for example, those blinds over there. (Points to blinds) Looking at them I think, “The way they don’t overlap is kinda interesting. How would it turn out if I expressed that in sound?” In that way I’m easily influenced by many things. So when I’m writing a song I’ll happen to look upon something, and it will give me an idea. Most of the ideas aren’t cool, but once in a while I’ll think of something good, then steadily expand it.

Did you like art when you were a kid?

I liked drawing pictures, and making things; as well as assembling plastic models.

So it’s natural that you’d express things in this way through your guitar.

But song production itself is very gloomy work because you’re continuously working in silence. But I think I probably like that kind of thing. I love recording as well; I get so impatient to see the songs gradually reach completion.

You get impatient. (Laughs)

The songs get cooler every day. (Laughs)

I see. In your new single SUSTAIN THE UNTRUTH as well, I felt Dir en grey’s construction aesthetic. I felt overwhelmed, like when you view some amazing architecture. I thought that it was something different from just rushing with a concert feeling. You also created this song little by little right?

Yes, yes. I like that kind of thing.

Furthermore, everyone’s opinions went in to it.



I can’t make the final design by myself; everyone brings their own ideas to it, and I always look forward to seeing how it will turn out. But of course at first I’m very uneasy. I wonder how the song will turn out and whether it will be good or not. But I think that depends on us. Everyone joins in and gradually the force of the song increases. But the opposite also happens, where everyone enters into it but it doesn’t go together well, or doesn’t become cool. Anyway, when it all goes well it’s just the best. On such days when I return home I’ll keep listening to the song while thinking about how cool it is. (Laughs)

(Laughs) I think that kind of thing is important.

Because the five of us has been doing Dir en grey for so long and have gone big, we can’t compare it to anything else. This is all we have. So it’s like how hard can we work? Recently I’ve been talking with the other members about it occasionally. Because we’ve been together for so long, we feel like there’s limits to how much we can do in the future, and our relationships with each other become strained. Many things have happened in these past 15-16 years, but when I imagine Dir en grey no longer existing I realize there’d be nothing left for us. We’re not going into defensive mode and just doing anything to keep the band going; we’re just doing our best in the band and trying to keep it going. There’s bound to be a persuasiveness and power in the band continuing. There have been lots of bands getting back together recently, haven’t there? Bands that were active in the past but took a ten year break, and are just now getting back together. When it’s been such a long time since a band has been together, and they haven’t done anything in that time, then when they get back together their music sounds a bit different from before, right? So I want to keep going for as long as possible. I think it would be nice to have some breaks, but I want us to do as much as we can while we’re still able to continue increasing our persuasive power.

The five of you have continuously been working together; it’s like you all share a common destiny, right? How do you personally perceive Dir en grey?

Hmmm, it’s a strange feeling. We’re not family, or friends, but we’re also not work colleagues. But they’re definitely important to me. In that sense, we’re sharing our lives, so maybe it feels like we share a common destiny. Like, we’re under the sense that if someone passed away, or messed up, then it’s the end for all of us. We protect the group, but at the same time while being considerate of each other we see each other as rivals. So we’re able to say what we think because we’re not super close to each other. It’s a weird way of putting it, but to a certain extent we’ve been maintaining a distance from each other. I wonder if that is, reversely, a good thing.

So you don’t go out drinking together?

We don’t. We might go out drinking after a concert, but we never go out drinking together in our spare time. And eating together… well, when we’re overseas, we often eat together, but we haven’t eaten together in Japan in years. I think the last time was when our office was in Roppanji; we ate ramen together at tenkaippin. (Laughs) I think that was around four or five years ago.

Um, this is a silly question, but I’ve always wanted to ask you about it. Your blood type is A, right? Whereas the other members are all B?

Yes. (Laughs)

My blood type is also A, so I think you being surround by B types is amazing. Are you ever conscious of that?

I’m told that by people around me but I’m not really… No, of course everyone really goes at their own pace, and sometimes I see aspects of them that make me believe that they think only of themselves; but I also have parts like that, so it doesn’t really bother me. Plus the other members are also considerate of me. But it’s impulsive. Like while going about my daily life there’s times I’m like “Agh I can’t forgive that kind of thing.” (Laughs)

I see. Because people with B type blood do what they want.

Certainly they are people you can’t organize. I’ll see them talking heaps, and then when they’re finished I’ll just say one thing. (Laughs)

