Having just completed their CD "Nakigara o", we caught up with Kuroyume to get their latest thoughts. --First, would you please introduce yourselves? Kiyoharu: Kiyoharu on vocals. Shin: Shin on guitars. Hitoki: Hitoki on bass. --I heard you decided on a drummer, is it true? Kiyoharu: Yeah, Hiro is his name. We didn't publish it much, but he's the drummer of the band "Star Club". His looks are completely different from ours. He looks like a Mohican, in an all-back or something.. but he's great at drums. --Did you play this type of music from the beginning? Kiyoharu: Ah.. in the beginning it was a little different. More aggressive. --Which came first, the band name Kuroyume or the song "Kuroyume"? Kiyoharu: The song. --And then it became the band's name? Kiyoharu: Yeah, I liked the content of the lyrics. "Dreams don't come true".. that feeling.. but look at us now, eh! You know, people expect this kind of band to wear make-up and stuff, and for the audience to also... but I don't want it to be like that, I want to make this a reality. --How do you write the lyrics? Do you get a burst of inspiration in the middle of your everyday life? Kiyoharu: No, I have to think about them. I get inspiration when I am actually writing. The lyrics don't come first when writing a song.. after the instrumentation is completed I first create a vocal melody, after which I add the lyrics. Therefore, even if I have good lyrics but the melody doesn't fit, I can't use them. Likewise, if the lyrics are good but there's too much "u" [[of japanese a i u e o vowels]] and it doesn't resound, that won't work either. The themes are more consistent. Though I use difficult words, it's not so much "separation", but more like "i loved you before/long ago"... there's a lot of lyrics with that subject matter. That becomes the main idea, and then it just expands from there. I don't want to be an abstract writer, but I do want to create a different atmosphere of the self for the listener, that if 10 people hear the music, 9 would understand the meaning but 1 person would not... that is the kind of feeling I'm aiming for. Shin: Compared with the instrumentation, it takes much longer for the lyrics. --What song took the most time to complete? Hitoki: Sanbika, the first song we composed, took the most time. Our recent songs have been put together much faster, cause we got inspiration and stuff. If we have a song where we can't get any inspiration, we have to abandon it. (laughs) Kiyoharu: Songs that take a long time to complete we have to abandon. --The CD came out yesterday, but is there anything you wanted to emphasize in this one more than last time? Shin: Yeah, the tone color.. what to say.. we wanted to put a lot of different sounds in and such, we put emphasis on that. --Were there any songs that didn't come out well? Kiyoharu: All of them.. but especially Under. --Well, shall we get your comments on each song? From "Under" Kiyoharu: Hmm.. the songs don't really have any meaning one by one, but.. The guitar sound is a little piercing here.. and so I still have some complaints with it.. but we've kept our opinions on it hidden since the recording. Hitoki: As for the bass.. on Under there's not much of it, but it was a pain the whole way through. But, the person with the most problems would be Shin? Shin: Yeah, since we started the recording, and in the end.. argh.. until the very last day it troubled me. --Are there still things you want to fix, or re-record? Shin: If I could... I'd try it once more from the beginning! (laughs) --Well, next is "Shuumaku no Toki" Kiyoharu: A tango melody.. in the song, my own singing quirks are cut down a bit, I actually sing on key. The theme of the lyrics is "giving up", of a person who has given up from the beginning. But, it's not whether that person is wrong.. or right in doing so, but rather that they have been forced to live a life of hopelessness since the beginning. Hitoki: There's a melody. During the recording, it was the first thing I finished, so.. what to say.. its not very good, something like that. (laughs) Shin: This is the song with the least richness of tone and depth, so it's the closest in feeling to our shows. Hitoki: There's a tamborine in there. Shin: Aa.. really? --Who played that? Shin: Yeah, who did the tamborine? Hitoki: The operator [[recording engineer]]. ...at first I did it, but my rhythm is bad so.. (laughs) --"Dance to Garnet" Kiyoharu: "Garnet" was the name of my former band. On the B melody, I was really pleased with how the instruments relate to the voice. We can reproduce this song pretty closely at a show. The meaning of the lyrics may be difficult to understand, but theyre about adultery/illicitness, or so it's called. Hitoki: This song is on an 8-bar timing. I did my best to make the bass catchy. Shin: Its not a quiet song, but to have clean guitar as the focal point throughout.. that was a first for me, and I had a lot of problems with it. --"Sanbika" Kiyoharu: This is the oldest song we have on the album. "Deathmask" is a remake, but besides that its the oldest. Its somewhat.. gentle, tender. Being the oldest song, the lyrics are also young.. but I didn't bother changing them. If you look at my earlier lyrics, I sang with more rhythm, whereas now I just sing crazily. "Sanbika" [[hymn]] is usually something you sing beautifully and with joy, but the content of the lyrics is a bit different here... the person you love, besides just you, has many other lovers as well.. and among them you are but one. Hitoki: I want to re-record this once more.. (laughs). It may just be because its an old song, but.. I have a lot of feeling for this song. I mean, I do for all of them, but I particularly like this song. Shin: The clean guitars overlap and pile up on each other, so I want people to listen to it with headphones. Kiyoharu: If it had been done now, I could make it more... if I could re-record this again, I could sing it twice as well I think. ---"Juujika" Kiyoharu: The rhythm isn't fast, but its aggressive. The lyrics say "kizu wa juujika" [[the cross is my wound]], but its not the cross one wears around the neck, but rather the wound of the cross on one's back. Its the wound of he who died long ago [[probably jesus]], and as long as he doesn't return the wound will not vanish, but perhaps that is a good thing..., is the feeling of the lyrics. --An image of the bearing of the cross? Kiyoharu: More like bearing the burden of him.. Hitoki: This is the shortest track. So, we didn't record it live but it has an incredibly close feeling to that. Kiyoharu: It's Kuroyume's rock n roll song.. (laughs). The rock n roll rhythm, that would be the guitar. Shin: Well, yeah its the most like that.. --"Misery" Kiyoharu: I want to re-record this one. The lyrics seem sad, but actually they are positive. The meaning is... its not that if there was a single encounter there would surely be a farewell, but that for some people there is only a single encounter and never a farewell, and it's not strange. But thats not the meaning of the noun "misery". I could have named the song something different. Hitoki: This is the one that troubled me the most, I wonder? It was so much trouble, but I really love it. So much that I want to sing it at karaoke. (laughs) Shin: Concerning the treatment of the distorted and clean guitars, I don't feel like they were arranged very well. Kiyoharu: The chorus was done well, for my part. I was able to sing well. Not to make excuses, but when we went to record this we had hardly any time, equipment, and not much technique. Especially time and equipment. We recorded this earlier, for a "Shock Image" omnibus. We were able get a good sound in such a short time, partly because of the studio gear. Hitoki: You could say its because of that gear that we were able to make the song.. really. Kiyoharu: We now use all 24-tracks [[tracks on a mixing board]], though I dont think people who hear this song will understand that. Hitoki: I don't know how the listeners will take it in. Kiyoharu: To those who aren't satisfied with this, our next stuff will be good. --"If" Kiyoharu: I really like the chorus, though I'm a little off-key. These are positive lyrics too. This used to be quite a famous song at our shows, it may still be famous even now. I think its evolved a lot, and to make an old song new is a great thing. Hitoki: I feel a normal person wouldn't be able to sing it. Kiyoharu: It is difficult, the chorus. Hitoki: When I say a normal person couldnt sing it, what I mean is its because the melody line is very subtle. Kiyoharu: The backing voice is just slightly detuned, so yeah. Shin: This was the first thing I finished recording, and among the tone and sound of all the songs, I like this best. --"Jesus" Kiyoharu: This was the most difficult to sing. The lyrics are the rejection of God, the rejection of the Bible. I haven't read the bible, but its not that I don't want to read it. I have no feelings of wanting to deny those religions, and when someone offers me a Bible on the street its not that I don't want it. Instead, even though we pray to God, life is decided by fate.. that is the feeling. It seems that God decides the fate of things, but that may not be--that is the content of the lyrics. The chorus is pretty poppy. Hitoki: Personally, I think its really fun playing this song live. It's odd that I say "fun", but its a really good feeling on stage. It has changed the most from when we recorded it on the cd, the breadth of the song has expanded. Shin: I tried out too many different guitar things on this, and its become a pain in the ass to perform (laughs). --"Deathmask" Kiyoharu: This is also on "ikiteita chuuzetsuji", but this time we wanted to make the sound, performance, and speed more aggressive. I wanted to make the singing more aggressive too. I say "kill" in the lyrics, and in the previous version it was killing your partner, but in this version it has an image of the moment you kill that person you yourself also die. At the end of the song I say a bunch of forbidden words, but I didn't use them to be silly or superficial, and I don't know if I want to get into trouble... but I wanted to sing as if the scene were a reality. Hitoki: This is great. If you look, there's no other bands in visual kei doing this type of song. The instrumentation is normal, but the level of expression is great I think. Saying that may be strange of me too, but I feel that its great. On the cd the song is fast, but live its even faster! (laughs) Shin: An aggressive, frightening feeling. At the violent parts, when the guitar is violent and when it descends from the high notes, it doesnt sound like a guitar. --"Nakigara o" Kiyoharu: This is a good song. The lyrics are have a japanese feel, and I am very pleased with them too. Erm, what should I say.....my grandmother died, and its very sad when I sing it now. I really like the B melody, and at the end when I sing "sadamerareta hairetsu ni".. there's actually the lower main line *and* a voice singing an octave higher, and I love the harmony. Its like the Barons of Ashura. [[ashuraa no danshaku]] --The Baron of Ashura? Kiyoharu: Yeah, wasnt it in a manga? A guy who can sing with the voice of a woman and a man at the same time. Shin: Majinga Z. [[name of the manga]] Hitoki: Aa, aa, yeah. Kiyoharu: It was my own voice, but I thought the vocals there were that good. Its my own voice, put together. That's the best stuff. --Its too bad you can't do that live. Kiyoharu: Yeah, it is. Hitoki: The song is low-key, but there's singing throughout it. It feels like a back-up band or something. But performing this song is really great, I really love it. Shin: Its the most recent song we've written, so I like it the best. Kiyoharu: Its got a very climactic feeling. --What about the lyrics to this song? Kiyoharu: They came to me quickly. When i wrote the lyrics, I didn't have a problem with lots of things I couldnt express. --Is there anything you want to put out after this? Kiyoharu: I wanted to put out a video, but lately I don't want to. We already announced we would, so we'll probably release one anyways. When I say I don't want to, its because I'm afraid the product won't been made according to how we want it to be. Comparitively, when we release cds and such, while there may still be dissatisfaction in the final product, its still done at a level of our own responsibility. Videos and such require the help of many other people besides ourselves, and we don't have the time, and so it sucks to leave it up to others to do the editing, and then instead of a good production you get something uncertain made, and when we do have the time to make a really good video it sucks when we have no ideas. I'm thinking of suspending the video sales (laughs). --What's the state of your fans in different places? Kiyoharu: They are really into it in Hokkaido. In Niigata and Nagayo theres a lot of male fans. Hitoki: Niigata was great. Kiyoharu: Yeah, people really got into it. It looked like there were people swimming on the tops of other people. A very punk-ish scene. Nagoya, Niigata, Hokkaido I really like. I like the northern areas a lot. --What have you gotten a lot of as presents? Kiyoharu: We've gotten quite a lot of candy. Hitoki: Aa, yes, I have something I want to say here. None of us eat it, candy that is. We don't eat it so there's always candy lying around. Shin: Candy, little tiny clothes, UFO catchers are the kind of things we get. I don't really know what we're supposed to do with them.. we can't throw them away.. Hitoki: There was a rumour that I loved Pocky, and since then it's all I've received. Kiyoharu: I have cavities, so its a problem when people send stuff like candy. Shin: My parents love sweets so I give it all to them. Kiyoharu: Fans who give candy and the like dont make much of an impression on me. But if they give this kind of stuff (motions to accessories/jewelery he's wearing) they make a wonderful impression...! Hitoki: That didn't come out very well.. (laughs) Kiyoharu: So if you give me something to wear, I can wear it for magazines and in photos, but I can't really have candy in photos can I. Also, there's fans who come wearing extravagant clothes, and when they approach me I get my hopes up thinking "oh, it must be clothes" that theyre going to give me, but it ends up being a box of assorted candy or something. Give me clothes, everyone! Hitoki: (laughs) Kiyoharu: Clothes, accessories, earrings, rings. Watches are a problem, even though I've received so many. But however many clothes I have it will never be a problem. Hitoki: "what watch shall I wear today.." (laughs) --Have there been any curious or interesting things happening with the band lately? Hitoki: Making the support drummer laugh. Kiyoharu: During a live show I was singing to the crowd with a very serious expression on my face, and when I turned around to the band the 3 of them were laughing and smiling! In general everything about this band is curious, it seems amazing that we've come this far. There's been hardships too, but I'm enjoying this. Shin: I try to show an interest in everything, but things that have attracted me lately... not so much an interest in the band, but rather I've had a steady interest in new musical things. But I'm really wrapped up in the band, so... Kiyoharu: I want clothes. Write this down so people can see it.. "I want clothes". (laughs). I have an interest in clothes. (laughs) --Is there anything you want to say to your fans? Kiyoharu: The fan club only show earlier was really fun. Usually we dont have an MC, but this time we talked with him a lot. At those times, we really want to chat, but the things we say get taken in a weird way and rumours get started. Take this advice.. besides our own words and interviews, those who propagate the information from outside people, and fans of other bands are a big annoyance to us, even when our fans do it. Hitoki: To all our fans who give off bad impressions, please change! Fans who are always asking us to sign something, that kind of fan is annoying. Please be decent. Shin: Don't spread weird rumours. Kiyoharu: Yeah, that is taboo for Kuroyume fans. Those who know rumours tend to become the heart of the problem among the fans... maybe they want to be the center of attention, but it torments us, and we may have to stop the band.. so I'll leave it at that. --Please tell your hopes for the future. Shin: To myself and the band even bigger. Hitoki: I want to let more and more people hear us. Kiyoharu: I want to have a type of show where even if someone who doesn't know us sees it, they are moved by it. Also, I want to be a band that is uncomparable to any other. --What other bands do you respect? Kiyoharu: L'arc-en-ciel. In music L'arc, and with shows Gargoyle. When those types of bands come up on the news, you see how intricate their shows are, their stage performance and music are able to expand.. in a different sense, people who understand that can also understand the art of it, I think. --Do you want to make Kuroyume's stage presence like that also? Kiyoharu: Yeah, it may be just because I'm the vocalist, but... I want it to take on that feeling.