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argumentl · 2 years

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The Freedom of Expression, Niconama Vol:8. Guest: Die

Part 2 (To part 1)

T: Oh, I see! Ok, shall we listen to a song? The first song! Kaoru, please introduce it for us.

K: Ok, the first song is 'Schadenfreude'.

*the wrong song plays*

K: This is the wrong song.

D: Is this a new song? Haha

T: Very sorry about that!

K: Hahaha.

D: It sounded like a remix.

*Schadenfreude plays*

D: People are wondering what that song was, haha.

T: Everyone will be like, 'Huh? Is it similar?'

*they listen for a few seconds*

K: Long intros are quite a hinderence in the age of music streaming, aren't they? Its quite difficult to play them on shows like this.

*They continue listening, and make a few comments that are hard to make out over the music*

T: Is the song gonna keep playing? Are we ok? Ok, Die, can you tell us about this song.

D: Well, it starts with the acoustic guitar, its a fade in effect, right? So, with the fade in, my tech guy raises the volume gradually. So im actually starting while there is still no sound. We've had a few lives already before the album release, so for the fans who were watching that, they were saying the sound wasn't working at the start.

K, T: Hahaha.

D: Like, cause I was playing, but nothing was coming out. Well, they were right though. But now the album is out, there will be no mistake from now on.

T: Well, as for 'Schadenfreude', the title and the lyrics are quite heavy, I thought.

K: Are you asking us about that? Haha

T: Well, I know, haha, but for the viewers, tell us what you can. Any tough parts, or interesting parts to pay attention to?

K: Hmm, well the mix was done overseas, with us communicating online. But because the song is long, its easy to get confused about the parts, so at the start it just had rough verses. And then towards the end the lyrics were tightened up. It was quite difficult.

T: Die, any thoughts?

D: About the album?

T: About 'Schadenfreude'.

D: Ah, 'Schadenfreude'? Well, it takes 10mins to listen to the song, right? So when checking it, I wasn't listeing to the whole song each time, like, it would take 60mins to listen to it 6 times, thats the first point. But when I had to listen to it in full, I had to start with a neutral stance. When we were recording it, there are a lot of lyrics, so even with take after take, it just seemed like it would never end. I would say to the engineer, 'Are we just about finished?', and he would be like, 'Nope, there's still more'..

T: haha

D: So I would be like, 'Ok, on we go then..' That was during my last recording session. It was pretty tough. It was never-ending.

T: I see, what a struggle! Ok, Kaoru, can you introduce the second song for us to listen to?

K: Hm? Isn't it Die's turn?

T: Oh, sorry, Die.

D: It's track 3, 'The Perfume of Sins'.

*They listen for a min*

D: The arrangement for this was decided the day before the drums were recorded, so it was pretty tough for Shinya.

K: Yeah, Shinya works pretty hard on this song too.

T: Yeah, "death by drums"..somone wrote that, haha.

K: Yeah, it looks hard for him. Thats all I can say, haha.

T: Who's song is this, again? Haha.

K: Well, yeah, when we made it, I wondered if it would be ok, but Shinya didn't say anything, so I thought it should be fine. But it did look pretty tough.

T: Ah, did it?

K: Yeah, cause if he loses track, the song is over.

T: Ohh, yeah. There are a few people asking who wrote this song? Are you able to say?

K: Yeah, I think its ok here.

T: Well, who's was it?

K: It was me who came up with it.

T: Ah, so you first had the idea for it?

K: Well, we all brought some song ideas to like a preliminary meeting, and we listened to all of them and collectively chose the ones we wanted to try.

T: Right, ok, the third song..The third song is...?

K: Ah, yes, Hibiki.

*Hibiki plays, Kaoru comments on the song order while the music is playing.*

T: Ok, that was 'Hibiki'. First I'll ask who's song this was originally?

D: That was me.

T: What kind of ideas did you have to begin with, Die?

D: Well, it was a bit more straightforward to start with. So I thought I could change it to have a bit more character. The melody of the singing was already decided, so I left that as it was, and changed the backing melody a bit, made it a bit darker. But the arrangement for this song was quite difficult.

T: Oh, was it?

D: Yeah. And as for the guitar, there are some phrases which I played with a 6 string guitar. I use a 7 string when I play it live though, and there are some parts that the 7 string doesn't handle well. I have to change my position otherwise I can't play them, so that made it a bit harder.

T: Ahh, but there are lots of comments saying its a great song. How do you feel when you see messages like this, Die?

D: I'm grateful for that.

T: Ok, well today we are also gonna show the music video. Kaoru, could you introduce it for us?

K: Yeh... I just say the name? 'The Perfume of Sins'.

*mv plays*

T: So, that was the music video. I'd like to ask about the filming, any interesting episodes relating to it, but firstly, where did the idea for this come from, how did it come about? Kaoru?

K: Well, Kyo had an idea. Rather than the song, he had a vision he wanted to film. This song seemed like it would work, so thats why we chose it.

T: Ah, so this song matched Kyo's vision?

K: Yeah, but at that time, there were still a few unfinished songs, so it was also a case of choosing from the songs that we had actually finished. If we had made the MV after completing all the songs first, it might have ended up as a different song.

T: I see. Die, do you have any memories about the MV to tell us?

D: Well, Kyo had quite a clear image in his mind, so we had the only man for the job do it for us, our MV director Kondo, who we usually work with. This time, our filming time lenth on location was set in advance, so we were able to get home in good time.

T: Really? Haha.

D: What usually happens is we have to do so many takes! And most of it isn't even used! I always think one take would be enough though. But this time, our time was set, and it was quite compact. It was just right, I thought.

K: I think its better to film in that kind of place, where the time lengh is set.

D: Yeh, in recent shoots we have been working till morning.

T: Ehh, thats tough!

K: Just watching this video though, I still get the feeling a lot of footage wasn't used, haha.

T: Oh, how unsatisfying, haha. Ok, Die, could you please read us some of the messages that have been sent in for you.

D: Yes, this is from 'Taka', "The last line of the last album was, 'sakebi ikiro, watashi ha ikiteru', and the last line of this album is, 'ato nan nen desuka, mada ikerun desuka'. In this sense of uncertainty, I feel a lot of humanity, and I start to want to listen to Schadenfreude, and the whole album again. My question is, did you struggle to decide the song order of the album, or was there any discussion about it between the members?". Oh, that line, 'sakebi ikiro, watashi ha ikiteru', its the last line on the last album, The Insulated World, I only just realized that.

T: Really?!

D: Ah, yes, so it is.

T: Do you think that was intentional or by chance?

K: Well, probably intentional.

D: Thats amazing.

T: What about the song order?

K: Well, I first came up with this order, and it was immediately decided. Haha.

D: Kaoru came and said, 'Well, I've got this temporary song order for now', and as I looked at it, I couldn't see anything to fix. After one look, it was the only possiblity.

T: I thought it was perfect when I listened to it.

K: Well, yeh. We were't quite sure about which song to end with for a while though.

T: Ok, next message please, Die.

D: Yep, this is from 'Tomo', "Good evening, and congratulations on the album release. I havn't listened to disc 2 yet, but the lyrics are so provocative, it makes my skin tingle. And the music, im not an expert, so its difficult to describe, but its like nothing I've ever heard before. Kaoru san, are there any 'Kaoru-like' focus points that you've tried to do differently this time?"

K: It feels wierd being asked this by Die. haha.

D: In the question it says "Kaoru-san" first, and then just, "Kaoru-like", so I don't know, haha.

K: Well hm, this time, I didn't want it to sound too smashed up, I wanted it to sound quite pretty, well, not pretty in the wider sense, but pretty for us. And also the positions of the bass and drums are a little different this time, so this time it feels quite fresh.

T: Ahh, thats the opinion of the pro for you. Well, how was it? Ohh, something appeared.

*a cue card accidentally comes in front of the camera.*

T:More comments are coming, keep sending them. Ah, "priceless guitar team", they are priceless, right?

K: hehe.

T: "Kaoru, are your eyes ok?"

K: Whats wrong with my eyes?

T: I don't know, did something happen to them?... "Priceless", "Die is beautiful"...

D: Can I read out one more question?

T: Go ahead.

D: This is from Tambanyan? "What is that 'fa fa fa fa' sound in Kamuy? Is it a violin? Its so impressive, I love it".

K: Fa fa fa? Kamuy?

D: haha, yeh. "What is that 'fa fa fa fa fa' in Kamuy?" I don't know what this is. I don't know what 'fa' is.

K: Ahh, do they mean that sound at the start?

T: Everyone's saying 'fa' in the comments.

K: Yeah, if they mean that sound the start, its a げんもの (*no idea what this means*)

D: Yeah, but even so, we tried to make it sound a little different from usual, to give it a different kind of resonance.

T: Ah, the first part of the show is finished? Please keep on with the comments, people!

K: Haha, that was quick.

T: Its been 30 mins already! Yes, so please keep sending comments, we will use them

K: Haha.

T: Ok, thank you everyone. We've come to the end of the first half, unfortunately. We'll dig deeper into Phalaris in the second half. We'll hear stories from the recoding sessions from Kaoru and Die, and talk abour the tour, and the anniversary events, so everyone please look forward to all that. Also, in our last members only video, there were a lot of questions that Kaoru couldn't answer then, so we can talk about those today too. Now, I just have some information for the viewers. The second part of this show is for members only, so you have to become a member if you want to watch to the end. If you join, you can watch this broadcast in the archives for 1 year. We also have a lot of members only videos, so please register, everyone. As for how to join, you will be able to see a blue link at the top of the screen, is it there? At the top. Please use this to join. If you click the link, a payment option screen will appear. There it is. Choose your preferred method, credit card, PayPal etc, proceed to the next stage by pressing the button, and enter your payment details. If you havn't already, please join, to enjoy the rest of the show. Thats it!

K: Thank you! Haha. Ok, we'll take a short pause here, but will be back soon with the members only corner. Hang tight!

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #translation #die #niconama

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