EXCLUSIVE: DIR EN GREY – The ABORT Interview
November 10th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin
Dir en Grey are nothing less than a Japanese marvel, who have been revolutionizing the perception of “J-Rock” in their homeland and beyond, for more than a decade. Speaking of genre, they are the most difficult band to define and while they are ready to embark on a new North American tour, guitarist Kaoru ( 薫 ) was kind enough to chat with ABORT’s Arceon, to discuss the band’s style, past, present and future endeavours and of course, their brand new DVD “Average Blasphemy”.
Arceon: It’s widely known that as a band Dir en Grey exploded in virtually no time and over the course of years changed the style a number of times, retaining the fan base. How do you manage to do that? How do you pick the direction?
Kaoru: I think it’s just all by playing a lot of concerts, you know, touring a lot. We take in everything that we feel from the atmosphere of the shows, the response we get, digesting everything that gets thrown our way. We have never deliberately tried to change our style. For example when we make albums, we never have a predetermined style in mind. We choose to go with the flow and see what comes out of the process. It is usually when we are in the middle of doing something that we realize what we want to do.
ABORT: You have conquered North America before without singing in English at all, why make English versions of “Glass Skin” and “Dozing Green” on Uroboros? Or have they been originally written in English?
Kaoru: Both songs were originally written in Japanese, and we simply thought it might be interesting if we try a new take with English lyrics.
ABORT: Speaking of “Glass Skin”, your attire, behavior and music videos in general had a totally different face 5 years ago. What happened? Has the perception of you in Japan changed?
Kaoru: There will always be people who prefer the “us” from before and those who like us as we are now. I think that will not change. With “Glass Skin” we implemented a lot of our older styles so many people would relate to it as they did with our older songs. But I think that if people try to really listen to it, they will realize that not much has changed about us.
ABORT: Will you ever return to visual kei?
Kaoru: No, but to tell you the truth we have never thought that we were a visual-kei band. I mean, back then you wouldn’t say “Yes, let’s start a visual-kei” band. There was no such branding. But at the same time, we never know what we might want to embark upon in the future, so who knows.
ABORT: How did you get an idea of making a DVD and why at this particular time? What will we see on Average Blasphemy?
Kaoru: There are a selection of music videos from songs that were in “Marrow Of A Bone” and “Uroboros.” We also have a new full length version of “VINUSHKA,” a new take of “RED SOIL.” We also included a digest of some live clips that were originally only available in Japan for our Fanclub members.
READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – Dec. ’09
By Arceon
WANT MORE EXCLUSIVES? CLICK HERE
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