Dir en grey: The UV Vulgar Interviews

Part II: Kaoru

UV: When you first thought to make your new album, did you start with a theme that would get across what's implied by the title VULGAR?

Kaoru: No, when we first started making it we still hadn't figured out the theme. Even if we had few different vague images in mind, there was nothing that the five of us were solidly behind. The overall image of the album had still not grown around the time we began work on "Drain Away".

UV: That was last Autumn, yes? You began to focus on making the album after your show at Yokohama Arena this year, so was it then that you started to see what direction you wanted to go in?

Kaoru: I'd say so. Around that time I was merely thinking about showing the underside. Six ugly has sort of a cheerful image right? I think I wanted to get away from that and go a little darker. I mean I wasn't sure or anything, I just had a feeling that's where I wanted to go. The songs I made in that time were, "Audience Killer Loop", "Shokubeni", "Red em" oh and "Marmalade Chainsaw" I think. Or at least the ones that were chosen among potential album songs. And as you can hear, the ones made it, were quite different from six ugly, right? I had a feeling this would turn out to be a legitimate album. By legitimate I mean, I knew from when we were choosing the songs, that everybody was thinking about how to work in the riffs, that the focus would be on actual songs. All that was left was to consider which direction to go in. I wanted to go for a darker mood. But first I just wanted to make something everyone was OK with. Something Dir en grey was OK with. That's how it was then. Until we started calling it VULGAR, it was just this vague concept.

UV: Was that in the latter half of recording? That you started to really get a feel for what VULGAR was?

Kaoru: Right. It was when we'd chosen all the songs, and could see how the arrangement was going to be. But it was a stage a bit before that when I started to feel like it was going to be a dark album. For instance, when we were checking the package design for the Yokohama Arena DVD we were right in the middle of writing this album, and everybody in the band was talking about, these dark images. Something dark and heavy but when you saw it, it was powerful. What we were saying was still vague though. But at the root there was that feeling there.

UV: You mean, everyone was in agreement.

Kaoru: Right. And when we were talking about costumes, we started to realize what the album's overall atmosphere would be like. Also, are you familiar with that TV Special that aired late nite?

UV: You mean the special program broadcast in May on TV Asahi?

Kaoru: Yeah. It had scenes from our Yokohama Arena show, the album recording, also some interview pieces. When I saw that, I thought we looked lame. There were shots from a super Visual-kei festival, the zombie-like Capsizing the Islands Tour, and the more "we're just rock n' roll!" of the Yokohama Arena shows. (nervous laughter) We're all over the place. To a certain extent we've enjoyed that sort of anything goes style but I could tell the people watching were thinking, "What's with these guys? I don't get what they're trying to do" Even as I'm the one doing all this, I'm looking at the screen like, "What's with this program?" (laughs) I figured something had to be done about it. Perhaps I was too late in noticing but, I brought this topic to the band while we were in pre-production, that perhaps our prescence was too vague and non-descript. Although we have all this confidence in what we're doing, it's not coming across that way. We discussed bringing it all together.

When we were doing "Kasumi" perhaps we were wrong to want to end it a little on the rough side. So we discussed whether we truly wanted just to go the straight out "rock n roll" route or we wanted to go for something a little stranger, a little more unorthodox. What was decided on was that we would go more thoroughly towards hardcore. We talked about how from the beginning that's what we'd done. Our sound was leaning towards that direction anyway so, from that moment on we decided to focus on that, whether it be our sound, or our look, anything that effected the way we were perceived by others. We decided to be absolute about it.

UV: It really has been a while since your costumes were this uniform. I personally wrote them down as "dead soldier"-like but, what would you call it?

Kaoru: At a glance, it's sort of an army look. But it's not like we all got together and diecded on a military theme. We each seperately talked it over with the stylist, and when that was done I asked everybody what kind of look they were doing, and they were like "military and army like" and I was like "me too".

UV: In short you turned your will to fight into a costume.

Kaoru: Yeah. It wasn't about the military, it was about wanting to attack. I wonder if that will didn't just come out in the costumes we came up with. What we all were envisioning didn't just come out the same.

UV: Did you choose photos which used shadow, because you were trying to show the band as vulgar as well?

Kaoru: Right, anything that didn't represent who we were as artists was turned down. For instance if Kyo wears white contacts there are certain magazine that won't cover us. We decided to put a stop to that. It was stupid, to try and please these magazines to be in them. Until now we'd just gone along with what others told us, feeling like it was unavoidable promotional stuff, but in a way it was backdoor promotion. Now we're trying to make it so that all of these peieces are Dir en grey, so it's easy for people seeing us to understand.

UV: The reason you were so thorough this time, is because your feelings were that strong?

Kaoru: Yeah. Of course at the root of this we feel "as long as we can make music, and do our band", but you know we constantly want to make headlines. Like "Dir en grey is awesome". But when we don't reach people, it'll end up that we're just fooling around for our own amusement. I think songs are like this. Because songs are something we make for ourselves, when we hear them we judge the song based on that. But it's getting vital that others hear it, others see it, in our image, in the photos. then we're not just saying, it's enough that we're doing the band, we've got to appeal to them. Like the song we want them to hear, isn't getting through. Or like we want them to hear our image, all of it.

UV: The longer the band is together the more you'll throw away those things that tie you down. This time Dir en grey is so image concious but I think you're shedding something. Like, I felt you were showing your true colors.

Kaoru: Right. I totally get that image of shedding. I mean, this is basically who we've always been. We did this, tried a few other things, and there were times when we showed this much, but I also think maybe we've always been VULGAR. From long before there's been the feeling that we want to do what others don't, to show people what repulses them. It's best to work with what's always been there. Because there's an obvious will to everything we do. And when this happens, the feeling amongst the band will change to a positive one as well. because there's one thing that's apparent to all of us, we're thinking of everything from there, so everything's optimistic. Because what we talk about branches out from that one thing. For instance, this time we're making a limited home page. Only people who buy the regular edition will be get an ID and password. When you access it, depending on which words you choose, it'll tell you what type of person you are in context to the album. Most of the members were the "no good" type. (Laughs) Thinking about those types of things we get deeper and deeper into what VULGAR was all about.