Blood
Stain Child
If you hate the stagnant
waters of contemporary modern melodic death metal sound of Europe and the
US, where most bands sound almost identical, then I think you should take
a look at the far east and in Japan most particularly where we find Blood
Stain Child one of the best band's I've ever listened to. They have recently
unleashed into Europe a masterpiece titled "Idolator" and here we have
the band's guitarist Ryu offering us some insight!
1.CONGRATULATIONS ON “IDOLATOR”! HOW DO YOU
FEEL ABOUT IT? ARE YOU CONTENT WITH THE FINAL RESULT OR IS THERE ANYTHING
YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
Thank you very much! I’m very glad to release
the debut album in Europe. We’ve been hoping to see our CD being released
in Europe for a long time now. We have got many good reactions especially
from outside Japan.
Our sound direction has been more established
because of “Idolator”. We are satisfied very much with it.
2. GIVE US IN BRIEF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF THE BAND AND PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE UP.
I can’t say for sure, but it’s the moment
that listeners met our music first.
Line up is… Bass and Vocals: Ryo, Guitar:
Shiromasa, Drums: Violator, Synthesizer: Aki, and Guitar: Ryu, it’s me.
3. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU WERE ASKED BY YOUR
LABEL TO PRESENT YOUR ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS, AS OBJECTIVELY AS POSSIBLE?
The futuristic fusions are there on this album,
like Metal and trance, European and oriental.
4. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF
YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU?
The best part is fusing digital parts of synthesizers
and analogue parts of drums, guitars, bass, and vocals together in a good
way.
The worst part? I can’t find anything about
the sound. If you insist, it’s our playing skills!?
5. WHY DO YOU THINK THE METAL HEADS SHOULD CHECK
YOU OUT? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE SCENE? IS THERE SOMETHING YOU
FEEL THAT SETS YOU APART?
We are influenced by various kinds of music.
Our music isn’t simply metal. We would like to create a new music genre.
Listen to the album carefully, you’ll find it contains various elements
such as trance, healing and more. I would be glad that you might feel its
freshness.
6. WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
AMONG “IDOLATOR” AND YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS “MYSTIC YOUR HEART” AND “SILENCE
OF NORTHERN HELL”?
Though we already had started to use a digital
sound and taste of trance and tried some experimental things on Silence
and Mystic, those album don’t have any originality or how we really wanted
to sound. Our sound has been established because of “Idolator”. This is
what we want to do.
7. ARE YOU CONSIDERING TO RE-RELEASE THOSE PREVIOUS
ALBUMS AS WELL LIKE YOU DID WITH “IDOLATOR”? WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND THE
RE-RELEASE OF THE ALBUM JUST A YEAR AFTER ITS OFFICIAL DEBUT?
I would be glad if those albums would be released
in Europe. But first, we hope “Idolator” spreads around the world.
A writer of a famous magazine of Germany had
interviewed us twice. He happened to find our CD and came to like our music
very much. And he recommended us to Dockyard1 label. This is the story
we got the deal for the European release.
8. WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES AND WHO ARE
THOSE MUSICIANS THAT MADE YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE KIND OF MUSIC YOU LOVE
AND WANT TO FOLLOW?
We have been influenced from many kinds of
music. Of course the kernel of our sound is metal, it is an important factor
in order to express the aggression and our mind.
In the field of metal, we have been influenced
from IN FLAMES, Children Of Bodom and so on. And I like Funeral For A Friend,
Bullet For My Valentine…
9. WHICH ARE THE TOPICS YOUR LYRICS DEAL WITH?
WHICH ARE YOUR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION?
Almost all of our stories are created by myself.
The others are based on social problems or true experiences and conditions
of my mind. And I love Animation, so-called ANIME, so some stories are
influenced by them. Above all, GUNDAM is very important to me! (Do you
know GUNDAM?)
10. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO HAVE SUCH A PLAIN AND
SIMPLE ARTWORK? WHAT DO YOU AIM WITH THIS?
Considering the previous two albums having
fanciful artwork, this time we wanted it to be simple, easy to remember
and noticeable. Sometimes a colorful cover might be buried in the hundreds
of CD. Plus, I wanted to use the new logo of BSC mainly.
11. ALL THE BAND MEMBERS HAVE A WEIRD AND CYBER-LOOK
THAT IT’S DIFFERENT FROM ONE ANOTHER. WHY? IS THERE SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR
YOU WANT TO EXPRESS THROUGH THIS SPECIFIC IMAGE?
Though the most important thing for us is
the sound, we think the looks are important too, because we like to create
the art on various sides of us. Actually we have cyber-look as the base
of our appearance, but there isn’t a particular reason for that.
12. I’M CURIOUS TO FIND OUT WHY YOU’VE DECIDED
TO COOPERATE WITH TUE MADSEN AND NOT WITH SOMEONE FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRY.
WITH WHAT CRITERIA DID YOU SELECT HIM?
Our music contains many digital sounds, you
know. It requires the skill to mix such digital sounds and analogue band
sound together well. I don’t know such an engineer in Japan unfortunately.
So we had been searching for such a good engineer for us in Europe from
the beginning. One day I discovered Tue’s sound. He also did programming
on the album of MNEMIC. I was sure that he is the one! His sound matches
perfectly to our music and he understands the sound that we want. Plus
he is very kind.
13. I KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A VIDEO FOR “TRUTH” AS
A BONUS ON THE CD. SO FIRST OF ALL DESCRIBE IT TO OUR READERS AND THEN
I’D LIKE YOU TO TELL ME IF YOU HAD A BIG BUDGET TO SHOOT A VIDEO CLIP,
WHICH SONG OF YOURS YOU’D CHOOSE AND HOW YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE.
The shooting was very hard physically. We
played TRUTH over and over again in front of 4 cameras in a small space.
In the story, the hero is wondering who he is and asks himself in a mirror
which one is true. We wanted to express what a suffering man like him feels
with playing face to face to one another and with such faint situation
of mind. We also used warp effect images on the computer process.
And then a big budget shooting… It’s difficult
for me to select one song. We would decide it depending on fans’ vote!
Anyway, it might be a fast song. I would like to try a shooting from the
air or using computer graphics like MATRIX.
14. HOW DO YOU PLAN TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? HAVE
YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS OR FOR A TOUR PERHAPS? ANY THOUGHTS ON
VISITING EUROPE AND GREECE IN PARTICULAR?
We have no plan for that at this moment. We
have been hoping to tour over Europe, of course Greece too. I have been
to Finland in the past but it was just sightseeing visit. If the live tour
comes true, it would be great. But first, I want more people to listen
to “Idolator”. And I am truly glad that our music has spread out to more
people in more countries.
15. THE FEEDBACK YOU RECEIVED FROM WHAT I KNOW
HAS BEEN OVERWHELMING AND YOU DESERVE IT UNDOUBTEDLY! HOWEVER WHAT WAS
THE MOST FLATTERING AND WHAT THE WORST COMMENT YOU’VE RECEIVED?
Most of the comments have been good and positive.
On our Myspace, we received many boosting messages from all over the world.
These encourage us and we are very happy about it.
Some reviews for “Idolator” say that we are
just the echo of the European giants. I think they don’t listen to the
music carefully. We don’t mind for such opinions. We play our own music
and that’s it.
16. IS THERE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO BE ASKED
AND NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU SO FAR?
I am often taken for a girl. I don’t want
it! I am a male!
17. WHAT’S THE STRANGEST OR FUNNIEST INCIDENT
THAT HAS OCCURRED TO THE BAND?
Several months ago my car was damaged at a
parking lot by someone mad, and my guitar which I put in the car was stolen.
That was the worst nightmare of my life. It was a very good and beautiful
guitar. I feel sad. It's really terrible.
I have heard that Alexi of Children Of Bodom had
the same episode. I know how he’s feeling…
18. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE EMOTIONS, WHAT WOULD
THEY BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
It would be like a sharpened state of mind
or I could imagine that it’s like the feeling one has when concentrates
and closes his eyes and attacks the enemy. If it were a painting, it would
be silent outer space.
19. BY THE WAY HOW DID YOU SELECT YOUR MONIKER?
Simply we use them instead of our real names
because it’s easier to call us this way. Only Violator’s name comes from
his drumming style!!
20. HOW’S THE SCENE IN JAPAN? ARE THERE ANY BANDS
YOU THINK DESERVE OUR ATTENTION?
The metal music scene here is rather small
than Europe’s. Very limited bands make debuts. There is a splendid underground
scene, but most of their sound productions are not good. I hope that our
European debut will trigger and activate the scene.
21. THANK YOU! I WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK! IS
THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION? LEAVE A MESSAGE TO OUR READERS…
Thank you for reading. We will absolutely
make Europe tour happen and will show you great performance. So, please
support us! See you by all means in the future!!
Christine Parastatidou
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