JaME caught up with girugamesh during the last leg of their United States tour to talk about their music and the visual kei scene today.
girugamesh's first tour in the United States was an eventful one. Coupled with the American rock band Acey Slade and the Dark Party, they visited four states and an anime convention in just two weeks. Now in Virginia, girugamesh sat down with JaME to talk about their music and the visual kei scene, just hours before their final show.
Hello, and thank you for the opportunity for this interview. Can you please introduce yourself going from left to right?
Яyo: I’m the drummer, Яyo. It’s nice to meet you.
Nii: I’m the guitarist, Nii.
ShuU: I’m the bassist, ShuU.
Satoshi: I’m the vocalist, Satoshi.
Aside from fans and performing, was there anything you were particularly looking forward to in the United States?
ShuU: I would like to eat steak breakfast, lunch and dinner, all day long.
Nii: I would like to tour with the bands of American friends.
Яyo: There aren’t too many high quality roller coasters in Japan so I would like ride one.
Satoshi: I would like to scream from the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
What is the weirdest thing that has happened to you on this tour?
Яyo: Today is the weirdest. (everyone laughs)
Why is today weirdest?
ShuU: There is no dressing room for the band. (everyone laughs)
Satoshi: This is our first time experiencing this.
Яyo: We cannot do our make-up, it’s embarrassing. (laughs)
We're now at the final show of the United States tour. As your first tour here, what are your impressions?
Яyo: I was able to feel that the fans were waiting for us for a long time so I am very happy coming to the United States.
Nii: I wasn’t really sure what would happen until we began touring, but after we played, I felt the audience and I were both having a great time.
ShuU: I am very happy to come here on tour instead of just a single stop tour, like the past two times we've been here.
Satoshi: Although this was our first tour, at each stop, the audience knew our songs and were all singing together. That was huge.
Can you please share with us the make and model of your instruments?
Яyo: All of them? (laughs) There's a lot.
How about the main ones then?
Яyo: Pearl drums.
Nii: Mesa Boogie guitar with triple rectifier.
ShuU: Ampeg cabinet and Marshall head, also a Sugi bass.
Over time, girugamesh's visual look has gradually faded. What message do you have for fans hoping girugamesh returns to that look?
ShuU: Our visual look will depend on our music and lyrics. If we write music that has a specific message regarding dissatisfaction towards society, we may have stronger make-up like before.
Since the release of your self-titled album, girugamesh has had more English in their music. Is there a particular reason for this?
ShuU: One reason is with our recent song PRAY, because we wanted to pray for Japan. Since we are doing a world tour, we want to provide the message and the meaning of the songs to the world. We also felt the message within Satoshi's lyrics would be understood better by everyone if it was in English.
Looking back on the song stupid, many fans just want to know: What do the lyrics really say?
(everyone laughs)
Satoshi: They have no meaning. (everyone laughs again)
ShuU: This is difficult..
Satoshi: How can I explain this, it’s kind of like… an impulsive song. “Crash”! Whatever crashes into me. So it could be anything!
So they change every time you sing them?
Satoshi: No it doesn’t change every time, but when I first heard the song, I just wrote my impression on the metal aspect of that song and that’s how the lyrics turned out to be.
ShuU: Good question! It’s the first time we were asked this.
Who was the silhouette figure for the cover art of ALIVE?
Satoshi: The cover shows the evolution theory, progression from the monkey to human. The last one is my silhouette.
Ah, Satoshi! I thought it was ShuU.
ShuU: You thought it was me?
(everyone laughs)
ShuU: (in English) I am monkey! I was monkey. (laughs)
Where did the photo shoot for BORDER take place?
Яyo: Yokohama...
ShuU: (interrupts) ... An American kind of styled...
Яyo: It is a bar in Yokohama City, it is a bar that is styled with American miscellaneous goods.
By the way, is Яyo’s English improving?
Яyo: (laughs) Just a little. (motions with hand)
Lets talk about visual kei for a moment. Many fans seem to be divided on whether visual kei is primarily an underground music scene or something mainstream. As a visual kei artist, what is your opinion on this?
ShuU: The indies and major movement has happened in Japan too. As we grew as musicians, our main goal in music was to become famous. When we were younger, our dream was to come out in front of audiences on TV, and stuff like that. I don’t know how some people will take this but we hope someday we will become more mainstream. However, right now visual kei is still mostly underground.
Some fans have recently said they feel artists like Lady Gaga and Tokio Hotel are just some among many emulating visual kei style. What do you think about this?
ShuU: Lady Gaga is very popular in Japan, she has hit the charts in Japan, but I heard from German visual kei fans that they are questioning Tokio Hotel’s visuals. The good thing is that they are giving visual influence to other countries.
Do you consider those artists to be visual kei?
ShuU: Lady Gaga... is different, huh.
Satoshi: Yeah, it’s different...
ShuU: She is not visual kei. As for Tokio Hotel, I heard they have visual kei influences but, they’re not really popular in Japan yet, so it’s hard to tell.
Do you think visual kei is a distinct Japanese style?
(band discusses among themselves)
ShuU: Visual kei started from bands such as KISS and Marilyn Manson’s glam rock make-up influence. When people start calling bands in other countries visual kei, it becomes very difficult to distinguish.
In the same visual kei vein, there's been debates recently whether visual kei is a music scene within itself, or a fashion style of J-rock. What do you think?
ShuU: Fashion, maybe. (Nii nods) The music itself sometimes is in different categories, such as J-rock and J-pop, so I think it is fashion.
Finally, please give a message to our readers.
Яyo: We will keep playing good music and have good concerts so everyone please keep on supporting us!
Nii: That’s the same thing I was going to say! We will continue to make music the four of us agree upon and playing fun lives for everyone to enjoy, so please keep on support us.
ShuU: JaME no oneesan*, has asked us really good questions, thank you very much. It was really interesting. So please keep on supporting JaME and Girugamesh.
Satoshi: I would like to continue musical activities to be people’s hope and support so everyone please keep on supporting us.
*oneesan translates to “big sister.” This was in reference to the interviewer.
JaME would like to thank JhouseRock for making this interview possible. The photo featured was taken in Moscow, Russia during girugamesh's European leg of their world tour.
