Interview from Plakk Magazine(Estonian Black Metal Zine)
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1) There is not so much information available about YVONXHE, please reveal the story behind the band. Is it studio project or you are playing lives as well? Diezine; Thanks for your interest in our band. Yvonxhe is a japanese black metal project formed by Diezine(scream) and Shit-Cho(Guitars) in 2012. We have released 2 CDs,4songs DEMO EP(self released) and 1st full-length album from Zero Dimensional Records. 4 songs EP cassette tape version will be released by Hellhouse666 Productions(Thailand). This is the same as the CD ver. Shit-cho and I have been good friends for more than 10 years. Sometimes we covered 80's thrash metal songs together, but haven't created any original songs. One day, when Shit-Cho was playing his guitar riffs, I added my screaming voice to his riffs...That was the great chemistry! At that time, we had big frustrations for Japanese-music-scene and society, so we wanted to play and present our music to underground scene. Immediately we finished writing more than 10 songs, and recorded 4 songs chosen from those sessions, and finally we released the first EP. We don't have any plan to play shows, but not absolutely. Now we are not positive to play shows. 2) You have release very short EP album and I see that you have also scheduled full-length album (or maybe it's out already). What are the main differences between those releases? Diezine; Our first Demo songs are inspired by first intention, but we added some improvements to full length album. That's the difference between Demo and Album. Yvonxhe is D.I.Y band, we did recording, mixing and mastering by ourselves. But when we were making Demos ,we were not experienced very much, so we couldn't get good productions as we wanted. We intended that this album has harmonic feelings by adopting a unified sound making. We chose 13 songs with a great attention from demo sessions, and new 9 songs and 4 songs from re-recorded DEMO EP. Shit-Cho: There are no differences between Demo and Album. We will be glad if listener find our sound improved, but we don't need high quality of sound. I leave everything about sound to Diezine, because he listen to all kinds of music, and he has good sense of sound balance. 3) What are the lyrical themes of your band? Where you take inspiration for writing your music and lyrics? Shit-Cho; I write songs with hate, slight, and sorrow. Like "Why do people in the world trust what media shows as everything?" or "Why do they urge their view of life as lofty thought? " When I think of these kinds of things, I feel hate, then I despite them, and finally I feel sorrow. YVONXHE is the band that expresses these emotions with old-school black metal sound. Diezine; My theme is 'resistance'. We play black metal music, but we don't sing about fantasy or Satanism. Everything is inspired by our emotions. An idea of God is different between in Japan and other countries, there is not so much idea of Satanism in Japan I guess. 4) What are your future plans? Diezine; We released full album recently, so we have no concrete plan now. We are talking about a next action. We want to take more time to express our message and philosophy next time. We have many demos right now, but we probably discard almost all of them in order to go to next stage. I think next release will be also Demo EP. Shit-Cho: We have same attitudes but also have different ideas. That's normal because we are human. Diezine listens to many kinds of music, meanwhile I listen to a bit limitative genre of music. It can be said that Diezine is a reformist, and I'm a conservative. YVONXHE can be both. But we basically regard black metal as important so far. 5) And now to Japanese black metal scene... What are the most respected local bands, labels, magazines? Does the bands have some kind of "inner circle", do they cooperate with each other? Diezine; There is no specific band that I specially respect, but I think SIGH is a great band. I don't know any other band very much. I listen to more hardcore music like crust or D-BEAT than black metal. In term of rebel, I think Zero Dimensional, which supported our release, contributes to Japanese music scene. There are not so many rebels that support domestic band to release their music. There are no regular fanzines, but some listener's web blog have big influence. Inner circle…hum…this might be different, but there is something like illegal secret club where people who have abnormal interests get together. But that isn't related to black metal music directly. Listeners send their own information and they are being shared on internet these days. Connections between a person and a person are becoming insubstantial and fluid. But everyone wants new information and I feel each of them has strong spirit of inquiry. In spite of our demo EP released in distro in foreign countries at first and we've never advertised that, some Japanese bought it from that distro. Shit-Cho; Abigail is cool, they sound like a transitional period of thrash metal and black metal. Cataplexy is a high quality, pure black metal band, in terms of music and production. And there are many kinds of band from hard metal to melodious metal. About Labels, I'm impressed with support for us by Zero Dimensional. The more these communities become lively, the more Japanese music scene become better I guess. I heard there are some black metal zine and I'm interested in them, but I've never bought them. The main way to get information is using internet these days. There are no symbolic circles like inner circles as far as I know. Originally Japanese black metal scene is not so big, so it can be felt that that scene is like a circle. 6) What are conditions for rehearsing, recording and playing live for black metal bands? Diezine; The situation of studios is pretty good in Tokyo I think. On the other hand, it's quite difficult to find enough equipment in studio in countryside, but originally black metal doesn't need expensive equipment, so that's no problem. Shit-Cho; Many people use DTM to record songs. Only we need are PC and DTM and instruments to make songs. Because of development of technology, people who used to be unable to make music because of place they lived or style of life have more chances. I'm pleased with that. 7) What is reaction of society to extreme metal bands? How looks life of metalhead in your country? Diezine; Metal population is not so small, but in terms of underground metal, especially black metal, we can't say that's big scene. People who like black metal are very few, and black metal bands are not famous like Metallica or Iron maiden, so we will be regarded as eccentric people if people know we listens to black metal music. In fact, it's likely that many of them are eccentric…There are all sorts of metal kids, but the more they become underground, the more they become more extreme. Tattoos are considered as quite antisocial in Japan. People have tattoos can't be public worker, and some public places don't allow them to enter or use. Shit-Cho: Many of metal fans use internet fully I guess. In addition searching band's estimation, even buying CD is quite difficult without internet. More and more CD shops are being closed and they are switching to online shop that can be run cheaply. To put it the other way around, everywhere in Japan we can get underground music that used to be able to be got in only Tokyo or Osaka. But I don't know which situation is better. 8) Japan is know as land of ancient culture and also as land of modern techonology. How much of ancient culture is still present in your life and how important is this to ordinary people in these days? Diezine; Japan is one of the most economical developed counties in the world, but that prosperity is only from aspect of materials. There are some traditional customs that have been kept from old times in each region, and they slightly, but surely exist in our life still now. 'Shintoh', a Japanese way to believe god, is still alive in our life, and children take it for granted in their play and festivals. For example, 'Obon' is quite famous, and almost all Japanese people know it. It looks like just a festival because people do dancing called 'Bonodori', but it's believed that spirits of ancestors come back to this world in that season. So a lot of people go home and visit their family's tomb. On the other hand, because of material richness, Japanese people have become arrogant and have forgotten sense of awing. Japanese people used to awe god or demon, and know how they small, and maintain their discipline. But that kind of mind has been destroyed by Americanized capitalism. People require material endlessly but never been satisfied. Economical development healed shock of losing confident in losing in W.W.II, but that made Japanese mind loser. Japanese government that obeys what U.S says is the same. I feel anger and I'm eager to express that emotion with YVONXHE music. A hell painting, our CD's jacket, might be thought of Japanese appeal, but that's not my point. I express that painting as one of the thing that Japanese people used to awe. Shit-Cho; In Japan, people believe that gods possess a lot of things for a long time. This is sort of Animism and this resembles north mythology in some part. But that is more calm. There are no absolute god and no absolute daemon. Yoh-Kai, Japanese traditional daemons, are also god. It's not 'friends = god, foes = daemons', there are many kinds of gods, And some of them bother people. There are few people who think like that all the time, but probably everyone has that kind of thought. Parents tell their children " God of toilet will be angry if you get into toilet without clothes." or " God possesses rice, so you will get bad luck if you leave rice on the dish" still now. Such like, it being alive in our life that developed as modernization.There is no abusolute god(=evaluation standard), I think it is one of reason Japanese pattern of thinking deferrence from other countries.In thats point, old culture alive in japanese life I think. Thanks again for your interest in our band, our culture and our country. Sometime, I want to go to your county and meet you! bye. | ||||||
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(transrate support: TxDx from ghostlate, thanks)
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