Dir En Grey

		Dir en grey by Stella Kim
		LINKS: direngrey.co.jp click here for dir en grey photo gallery
I vaguely remember hearing the name Dir en grey many years ago when I dabbled in Japanese rock as a teenager. I don’t remember much, to be honest. Most likely they were one of many up-and-coming visual kei bands of the era, featured in back pages of Shoxx along with twenty or other similar bands comprised of boys in heavy makeup and outrageous costumes. It was almost a decade until I heard their name again, and this time they were not only one of the biggest rock bands in Japan, but they were about to invade the United States with their brand of rock, a feat that hasn’t been achieved by too many Japanese bands, Loudness and a few other brave ones aside. Dir en grey had scheduled two shows recently in New York and Los Angeles, both of which sold out in a matter of hours. In fact, the demand for their Los Angeles show tickets was so high that the band was forced to change venues to accommodate a bigger audience. The New York show was held at Avalon, where the line to get in formed hours before the show. They were in high demand indeed. The venue personnel had to spend a good twenty minutes trying to calm the audience down before the band went on. No matter, it was again a wild and screaming frenzy once the band was on stage, the audience pushing and clamoring to get closer to the Japanese rock gods of the day. I have to admit I was baffled and shocked at once. After all, this is a band that hasn’t toured once or released anything in the States, yet they were already selling out shows and bona fide rock stars, at least to this audience, mostly comprised of the young and the hip. Rock stars they were, or they played a damn good one, perhaps the best one I’ve seen in a long while, in an era when they hardly exist. Kyo, despite his short stature, dominated the stage with charisma and rock’n’roll prowess, certainly a frontman worthy of such an enthusiastic audience. Other members were equally solid in their musicianship, if not rock stardom. They played two packed hours, their set list ranging from the old hits to a new unidentified song that drove the audience even wilder. The members had refused to categorize their music into any genre at the interview done the day before the show, and I then could finally understand why because I, too, found it impossible to call them anything but an awesome rock band. It’s still a question mark if they will, as they surely have in their homeland, be able to make a dent in the rock scene here. But this we know for sure, that there are many people, fans and industry folks alike, who’ll be keeping an eye on this new, exciting import. Members: Kyo (Vocal) Kaoru (Lead guitar) Die (Rhythm guitar) Toshiya (Bass guitar) Shinya (Drums)
STELLA KIM: Let’s begin. As far as I know, Dir en grey started out as a visual Kei band, and that’s how the band is still categorized even to this day. How do you feel about that? KAORU: Honestly, I don’t care about what people call our music. But I’m sure at this point, we’re different from a typical visual kei band. Maybe at the starting point we were more like a visual kei band, but not so much anymore. SK: So you kind of grew out of it. KAORU: Yes. SK: Obviously being a “visual kei band” is not so much about your music than it is about your looks. How would you categorize your music? Or do you protest any kind of categorization altogether? TOSHIYA: It might be okay to call it simply “rock.”
DIE: We don’t care what other people call our music. You can decide for yourself what you call it. SK: Your official website says that Dir en grey started with “the sole purpose to spread the feeling of hurt and sorrow caused by weakness, shallowness, and egoism by humanity.” Is this a correct representation of the philosophy behind the music and visual? Has this changed since the beginning? KYO: Yes, I would say it’s still correct. Even though a long time has passed, we still feel and remember hurtful and sorrowful feelings. SK: So do you feel that feelings such as anger or sadness are better for musical expression than happiness? KYO: I find singing about happiness to be kind of meaningless. I prefer to sing about pain or anger because it makes things... (stopping to look for words) different, I guess. SK: How about as a songwriter? Is anger, sadness, or pain more inspirational? KAORU: Sometimes, I’m inspired by happiness or some great music besides us. Really, anything can be inspiring. But when you’re trying to create music in our style, feelings like sadness, anger, frustration can be more inspirational. SK: You are already quite popular in other Asian countries and have played in Europe. Do you feel the difference between you and other Western rock bands? Do you feel that there is inherent “Asianness” or “Japanese-ness” in your music? DIE: There are many differences. Like the way that we create music is different from most Western bands, I think. We Japanese have this concept of “craftsmanship,” like we think about details and structure while those people seem to work more with initial feeling. They’re more spontaneous.
	KAORU: I don’t think of our band as a “Japanese band” or anything though--just a rock band. I’m proud to be Japanese, but our music doesn’t have to be “Japanese” because we’re Japanese. SK: There have been relatively few Asian or Japanese rock bands to make a serious dent in the United States. What is it about Dir en grey that makes this bet “worth it”? Why are you special? TOSHIYA: Well, maybe those Asian bands haven’t tried something new, something that’s not here. We want to do something nobody’s done before. SK: What are your expectations about the U.S market? KAORU: We’re here without any expectations. We’re here because people here expect and want us to be here. But at this moment, we’re not thinking about achieving anything, like a getting platinum album and such. We simply want to deliver some message with our music.
SK: You played South by Southwest last week. How did you feel about it? DIE: It was our very first show this year because we finished the last tour last November in Japan. So we were a little nervous since we hadn’t been on stage for a while. But there was a real rush once we started playing, and the crowd was very real, very enthusiastic. SK: What are some of your influences--as a band and as a person? KYO: I like lots of different types of music, but I was mainly influenced by Japanese rock bands. DIE: I don’t want to name names, but I was also influenced by Japanese rock bands of 80s and 90s. SHINYA: Different Japanese bands... TOSHIYA: Same here... well, I could say Guns’N’Roses was also a big influence because they were very popular in Japan when I was in middle school. KAORU: Japanese rock bands from 80s and 90s. SK: Is there a show that was so great or so bad that it sticks out in your memory? I’m talking about the kind of show that you talk about when you get drunk with your bandmates. KAORU: Ah, we have so many different memories... and a lot of them have to be kept secret between us. Well, about three years ago when we were playing at a small club, some fan pushed me into the crowd and my chin hit another fan. I was knocked unconscious and was hurt pretty bad. Playing Rock am Ring was also memorable because it was our first time playing out of Japan.
SK: Did you feel any difference from playing to a Japanese audience? TOSHIYA: Basically there’s no difference, but some fans in Europe were very enthusiastic because they waited for us for so long. There were even fans who flew to Europe to see us. So that was very intense. SK: Is there something you haven’t done musically that you want to do? TOSHIYA: To be like Backstreet Boys? SK: Okay...? (baffled) (What happened was the interpreter had translated my question to “what don’t you want to do musically?” It took a while for us to straighten it out, and we had a great laugh when we finally did.) SHINYA: Oh, what we want to do. Well, we want to create upgraded, cool music all the time. We don’t want to be stuck in any era or genre.
SK: Future plans? KAORU: We don’t really have concrete plan for us in the U.S. because we don’t know how this tour will be received. Also, our album will be released here in May, so we’ll see how that works out too. Outside of the U.S, we’re working on new material when we go back to Japan, then we’re going to Europe again in May and June to do some festivals. The new album might be out in Japan sometime this year. SK: Final words? KYO: I’ll be happy if you can feel something from our music. DIE: Nice to meet you all! (in English) SHINYA: The album will be out in May. Be ready for it! TOSHIYA: Listen to our music first. KAORU: I wish to come again. Dir en grey’s first release in the United States, Withering to Death, is slated to release on May 16th through Warcon Records. Thanks to Bridget Moyer at Chipster PR for arranging this interview and Nora Shazlin at J-House Rock Entertainment for all her help.