As others have already mentioned before me, I think the biggest reason is to keep the perfect image and to not have unflattering pictures of the band members online.
Every single VK gig overseas that I've attended has had this policy. And I think it's great, because it frees the audience to just enjoy the concert instead of trying to capture the perfect picture of your favorite member (which will just fail miserably anyways). I don't think they enforce the policy to sell their own photosets though, since those are usually the official photos and not photos taken during concerts.
I've been to Gazette's concert here in Brazil and it was fucking awesome, except for the "no pictures or videos" policy. The staff announced before their perfomance that they would take people caught in the act's phone and erase ALL DATA. I LOLed of course.
What do you think of this kind of policy? To me its utter bullshit. I understand that its something from japanese bands culture in general, but that does not apply to the rest of the freaking world. They are doing a concert here, and probably enforcing it by contract, and I can't fathom WHY any contractor would abide to such shitty rule. And that reasoning of bands controlling what media they want to publish is shit, because: No cellphone of any kind can take professional-grade photos or videos and I highly doubt they would try such rule on a huge Coachella-like festival.
In the end I took the pictures I wanted as memento (even tho staff tried to bully me once, which I couldn't care less for), Gazette didn't lose any money because of my silly instagram photos afaik and everyone happily went home after a nice concert.
It is annoying and nobody cares, why bands still make a fuss about it?
Purple Stone will release their new single “Kabukicho Butterfly” on 4/20. As hinted at in the title of what will be the band’s 4th single, the title track tells of a “butterfly of the night” fluttering in the interstices of soberness and madness.
A heavy sound that breeds a heightened sense of danger in thrill and excitement; but along with it, a sweet poppish melody that seduces with latent addictiveness. Dramatically coloring the track is the band’s unique arrangement which fuses darkness and flamboyance. While the title track has been informed by the band's commitment to “do straightforward rock,” Purple Stone’s extraordinary knack for bringing different elements together can be seen and heard in much of their music. At the same time, the B-sides speak to the members' desire of connecting their past with the present. We present you an interview that keenly explores these very sounds and lyrics.
***
Q: Your new single “Kabukicho Butterfly” will be released on 4/20. Were there any thematic considerations prior to composition?
Keiya: We began by agreeing to do some straightforward rock this time. We wanted to take our music seriously and not resort to any cheap gimmicks. With this in mind we eventually selected “Kabukicho Butterfly” out of the various songs we wrote.
Fuma: There were quite a few songs we wrote at first actually.
GAK: Yeah, especially songs in contention for the single’s title track.
Keiya: When we were discussing which song to select as the single’s title track, the B-side “RIVER” caught our attention initially. However we all felt that we could take it a little further. And so we collectively began to look at song after song. Sometime later we realized that we might be overdoing things, so we returned to what we started off with: let’s do an honest rock song with a strong chorus.
Q: And so you ended up with “Kabukicho Butterfly.”
Keiya: Yup. After spending a long time on my guitar, I eventually came up with a chord progression I really liked. And after humming some melody lines on top of that, we finally found what we were looking for! We then wrote the demo song for “Kabukicho Butterfly” and had GAK arrange it.
GAK: Keiya put a lot of effort into his demo track; the guitar riffs, etc., were all great. So the arrangement job I had was quite simple. We put in a lot of effort thinking about the chorus actually. The chorus we ended up with uses slash chords that give a deeper flavor to an otherwise straightforward sound, and so we wanted to make the best use of that. If it’s too simplistic the song won’t be memorable; so for the bridge we used a “four on the floor” rhythm to ground some of the heavier riffs.
Q: Seems like heavy and stylish sound elements leave a stronger impression. As for the song’s lyrics, they deal with one’s awakening of love towards the “butterfly of the night”?
Fuma: Yeah, we wrote these lyrics because we wanted to be asked about it. *laughs*
Keiya: *laughs* We thought the interviewer would surely ask, so I didn’t ask Fuma when we were recording the song *laughs*
Q: Thank you *laughs* Is that because you had a mental image of the “butterfly of the night” when you were listening to the song?
Fuma: Not really. The thing is, we often perform at Shinjuku Ruido K4 when we’re in Tokyo, and so we frequently visit Kabukicho. Each time, we always leave Osaka at night and reach Kabukicho in the morning, and after the live is over we leave Tokyo on the same night.
Q: In other words, you don’t get to see Kabukicho late at night and at dawn?
Fuma: That’s right. We always look at the streets before us and thought we might find something interesting there. I wrote these lyrics based largely on the impressions we got. And so you could say this set of lyrics is the product of our fantasy *laughs* Still, the feelings associated with our departure from Kabukicho are drawn from what we’ve really experienced.
Q: I can understand how Kabukicho is always a mysterious place in popular imagination, and it’s exciting for that reason.
Fuma: At first we thought Kabukicho would be a crazy place at night. But when we reached at 4am in the morning, we felt that everything was calm. Although that might also be because we were all exhausted from the travelling *laughs* We thought it was interesting how the streets of Kabukicho had a certain kind of doubleness. Likewise, while the melody of “Kabukicho Butterfly” is pretty, the riffs are relatively heavy. A song like this can’t possibly have lyrics like “Everyone, let’s live life to the fullest!” As I played in my mind with this notion of duality, I thought we could also harness the image of Kabukicho in a similar way.
Keiya: When I first saw the song title, I thought “what the hell is this?!” *laughs* However this is exactly what I had in mind actually, with the duality of the lyrics coinciding nicely with the “splendor and pain” of the composition. Without adding anything superfluous to the song, we decided to let the lyrics bring out the intended atmosphere. We think the song can express the doubleness we want.
Q: Especially in its chorus, the song resonates really deeply.
Keiya: The recording was challenging though. Usually I’m able to sing in the full-blooded rock style, but the chorus here is punctuated with a number of slash chords that softened the feel, and if I’d tried to be forceful in the vocals it became all too much. So I went along with the flow of the song. We did the recording for “RIVER” before this song, and at that time Fuma advised me to sing in a softer way. After recording “Kabukicho butterfly” with a slightly modified style of vocals, it struck me that I had never done a song on such a scale.
Q: So it’s not a song that you can do simply by putting all your emotions into it?
Keiya: That’s right. I had to look at the lyrics, and think carefully about where I can pause, breathe, enter with a lighter touch, enter more heavily; otherwise the song wouldn’t convey what we want. The idea that we can move our audience simply by deciding on a worldview, getting into the mood and start singing—that’s something I can’t agree with as a singer. There are details and nuances in this song that we can only do justice to after thinking through them.
[Page 2]
Q: How was the guitar recording for “Kabukicho Butterfly”?
GAK: I tried to incorporate some of my own take into the song while staying faithful to Keiya's original demo recording. Also, we changed the amp midway through production. We finally replaced our old one with Fractal Audio’s Axe-FX II, something we’ve wanted since around 3 years ago. Until then we've been using an amp simulator, but Axe-FX II had a different dimension. As the results were even better than we expected, we used it for the recording just 2 days after we purchased it. At that time we still weren’t very sure about some of its functions *laughs*
Q: By the way, what amp simulator were you using?
GAK: ENGL. Actually I had finished recording the guitar for this song using that model. But other than the B-melo [i.e. the 2nd verse of the song] I re-recorded everything again. For the B-melo I only wanted to change its feel a little, so I did some editing on the previous take.
Q: Even though you dropped the tuning quite a bit, we can still hear the guitar clearly.
GAK: Yes, I used Drop-B tuning but it’s still clear. I paid quite a lot of attention to that as well as the equalizer settings. I think I managed to do that pretty well.
Fuma: For the bass I just went all out as I wanted to give a strong drive to the song *laughs* Our song has a strong melody so I had to make sure it doesn’t distract from that. I also ensured this is a part I can play while being wild at the same time so I decided to make the bass simple while strong enough to carry the song.
Q: Let's talk about the B-side “RIVER” (from the A-type).
Fuma: Originally there was this demo GAK made around 3 years ago that we had put aside for a while. At that time we felt that we couldn’t really make use of it. But we do regularly take a look at what we can salvage from our old materials; when we revisited this demo we felt that this song’s really cool. After tweaking its melody and arrangement, we built it up to the song we have now. It has changed so much I think we could even say it’s now a different song?
GAK: When I first made that I didn’t think of it as a complete song but I recorded it anyway after it came to my mind. I wouldn’t have minded even if it had been rejected, but since Fuma gave it a great melody I wanted to try arranging it. While this was initially my song, because of the different melody I was able to look at it from an entirely different perspective, and “RIVER” became a song totally unlike the original. I also have more experience now than before, and I think I can now finally express in music what I had then wanted to do.
Fuma: When I heard this 3 years ago, I thought “the chord progression in the chorus has a rock feel, but it may also be suited to a more pop-oriented direction.” However at that time the melody was really heavy and it was difficult to get away from that dominant impression. When we revisited it again we were able to look at it again in a new light, and I thought it’s definitely possible to put a great melody to this. After some thought we came up with the chorus, and soon after, the other parts of the song. After that I wrote its lyrics.
Keiya: It’s hard to believe that the lyrics of “RIVER” were written by the same person who wrote the lyrics of “Kabukicho Butterfly” *laughs*
Fuma: *laughs* Since Purple Stone is a band that centers on Keiya’s vocals we have a lot of rock songs, but we also wanted to try something different. “RIVER” could become a really grand track if it had the right lyrics--and so conceptually I tried make it epic. As I was wondering about the theme of the lyrics, I thought of the rivers near the places I’d lived. I cast my mind back to the times when I was in high school and wrote the lyrics.
Q: So you’re depicting life by using rivers as a metaphor?
Fuma: Well, rivers continue flowing onward regardless of rocks and other obstacles they encounter. I liken that to how we should accept people into our lives. While these lyrics are based on what I felt in high school, I don’t think I would have been able to write such lyrics at that time. Because I disliked people back then. I hated noise so I always escaped to the river and did stuff like… playing the trumpet on the river bank *laughs*
Keiya: I see. You live in your own world huh? *laughs*
Fuma: Nah, it’s because at that time there was a ska punk band I knew. I thought it would be cool if I can play the trumpet *laughs*
Keiya: Oh? That’s really cool though.
Fuma: I know right? During the evening I would be playing the trumpet by the river and thinking to myself, “Wow, this is awesome. I’m really cool.” *laughs* But I gave up after learning how to play do-re-mi-so-fa-la-ti-do. *laughs*
GAK: Any videos of that?
Fuma: No! Even if there are I won’t show them to anyone *laughs*
Keiya: *laughs* When I heard the new demo for this song I said “let’s make this into a single.” It’s also because when I’m concentrating on writing one song, the 2 of them are usually on to some other work. So I felt that we should finish the lyrics for this song and have it prepared first. I also like the sound of water—when I was a kid I always sit by the riverbank; and when I was told this song is called “RIVER,” I thought it was written for me *laughs* I wanted to sing it the moment I heard it! The lyrics are positive and it became a song that was so close to me emotionally, there were even times I felt lonely after I was done recording it.
Q: That’s because many parts of the song personally relate with you?
Keiya: Just like in the lyrics, when I was young I’d go sit by the river whenever I’m unhappy. On my way home in the evening I’d catch the smell of dinner drifting from the houses nearby. This song is like a throwback to my past, and it’s nostalgic for me. When I was recording the vocals for “RIVER” it hit me emotionally. And I think it was the part that goes “no matter where to, let us go, river” in the last chorus where I felt like tearing up *laughs* That was how I gave life to this song. Like I mentioned when we were talking about “Kabukicho Butterfly” it’s important to give thought to the nuances of the lyrics, but I also want to deliver the vocals in a natural way.
GAK: For this song: other than the chorus, the guitar arrangement always centers on one main chord. It’s something quite atypical for Purple Stone, but I like a somewhat blunt approach like this. I admire nu metal bands like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, and I thought to incorporate some of that into our songs.
Fuma: As for the bass of “RIVER,” I stay away from anything that’s disruptive or superfluous. Basically that’s my style. My bass carries the song with simple phrases.
Q: I had the impression that the meandering bass lines of the song created a river-like feel for the song.
Fuma: I’m glad you could feel that way. Actually I hadn't even considered that *laughs* I’m always direct and honest with my bass-playing. I think a lot when I compose songs or write lyrics, but that’s not the case when I’m playing the bass.
Keiya: As long as it sounds good right?
Fuma: Yup. It’s good enough for me to know that I’ll get a good sound with a certain root and groove. I’m not that particular with the phrasing.
[Page 3]
Q: “PARADISE DANCE” (from B-type) is a heavy track with electronic elements.
GAK: I wanted something closer to EDM, which is different from our usual sound. This was also something I did around 3 years ago. I brushed up on the original melody and arrangement, and we distributed a demo version of the revised song at our label’s live. As it was a live-distributed CD there were people who wanted to listen but couldn’t get a copy, so we re-recorded it with a slightly different arrangement.
Keiya: We also changed the lyrics. I wrote the lyrics for the version on our live-distributed CD, but we wanted something different for the song this time, so I asked Fuma if he had any ideas. There were portions where we edited the lyrics, and other parts where entire sections have been re-written. In other words the final lyrics are co-written by Fuma and I. This is a nice song to dance to and ultimately we want everyone to get wild together, but I also didn’t want people to look at this and think, “oh it’s a party song! yay!” So, “What does it mean to be made to be manipulated?”—that’s also the theme of this song. [*Short note: Here, Keiya is playing on the two verbs “odoru” (“to dance”) and “odorasu” (“to manipulate”), which share the homophonic causative-passive verb “odorasareru” that means either “to be made to dance” or “to be manipulated”]
Q: That’s profound.
Keiya: With a lot of things that happen in the world, we don’t really know what’s the truth and what isn’t. Even when we feel that there’s something wrong, the moment an influential person says “this is correct” we’re compelled to think in a certain way. At the same time it doesn’t mean that we think it’s appropriate to rise against that in a violent manner. This is a dilemma inhabited by a lot of people, and it’s a paradox that we have to accept and live with. Are we being manipulated and played with?—that’s what's at stake in the lyrics.
GAK: I was particular when it came to the guitar. As a heavy song that makes use of down-tuning, I thought the sound of a humbucking pickup would be suitable. However because this song’s riffs require a coil tap, I played it with a single-coil. To make sure the bass is pronounced, I sought to cut off the unnecessary low frequencies. After some experimenting, the guitar lines became more distinct and no longer clashes with the synthesizer. I definitely learned something from this process. I can get a solid sound for the riffs by using a single-coil, while for the chorus I can create a heavier sound with the humbucking pickup.
Fuma: This song was written for lives in mind, so that’s the atmosphere we tried to gear it towards. Keiya has been quite philosophical about the lyrics, but actually when we play it lives we just all get high, so… *laughs* Although, since we already have the bass lines of the synthesizer and the guitar in the mix, if the bass is too strong it might oversaturate the low frequency range. So for this song I had to restrain myself with the bass *laughs*
Keiya: I also tried to create a party ambience when recording the vocals for this song. For this kind of songs the lyrics might be a little difficult to follow, and I had to switch around some of the word positions in the lyrics.
Q: I see.
Keiya: I recorded the vocals for this song at my place, and I did it at night. I had turned off all the lights to create a party mood with the spotlight shining on myself. When I listened to the recording the next morning, it was awful *laughs* That wouldn’t do. So I waited until an afternoon when the weather was nice, opened all the windows, and did a re-recording. I thought it would be nice to have a band mic, so I held a condenser microphone in my hands *laughs*
Q: Now that it's possible to do recordings at your own place, it seems things have become really different *laughs* Anyway, it has been only 4 months since your last release “Kaitenmokuba” but you’ve already come up with another single everyone can’t wait to listen to.
Fuma: We also thought hard about the artwork for this release. The cover art of the A-type was generated by mixing up all 3 of our faces. The CD image is another version of the “face” in the cover art. So there are actually 3 versions altogether: the cover art, A-type CD image, and B-type CD image. We did this because we wanted our fans who buy our CDs to enjoy not just our songs. The PV is also interesting, so I hope they can enjoy everything we’ve put out.
GAK: For me personally, this is a song that allowed me to take a good look at what my guitar can do. I was able to get good results from some of my experimentation, and that will be useful for the future. Even though we've just finished the current single, I can’t wait to start recording for our next release.
Keiya: All 3 songs in this single are tracks that we think exemplify us. While it’s usually the case that B-sides are thought of as inferior songs, this time we felt that this release is good enough to be thought of as a triple A-side. These are songs all 3 of us came up with collectively and this collaborative effort left a deep impression on us. If you listen carefully, you might even be able to tell that this melody is Fuma’s, the arrangement is GAK’s, this word here is Keiya’s, and so on. This is the product of the chemistry between the members of Purple Stone, and that’s really what we want our fans to savor. Please play all 3 songs on repeat till you drop! *laughs*
I'm not going to edit my last post for the third time, sorry
I don't know how to appropriately describe my feelings towards this song and PV because my thoughts are so... inappropriate. I've been listening to this non-stop for a few hours and I still get insane goosebumps. I've watched the part in 2:53 at least fifty times already. My pulse is constantly over 120.
Damn you guys, why you gotta sound and look so damn divine????
Also Keiya pls, couldn't you be a little less charismatic and good looking? I gotta write a 20+ page lab report and return it in four hours or I won't pass this course BUT I JUST CAN'T FUCKING FOCUS ON ANYTHING ELSE
SERIOUSLY GUYS
OK NOW I'M JUST RAMBLING BUT WHY IS THIS SONG SO PERFECT AND ALSO 2:53
YES, WE TOTALLY SHOULD TALK ABOUT HOW AWESOME THEY ARE.
Last year they released one of the best singles of the year, 甘酸っぱいマンゴー, and they only have three members!! How amazing is that? I also respect them a lot for GAK doing the "programming" himself. They are one of the most promising new bands though they have been around for over a year now.
But when are they going to release something new?? I need new Purple Stone songs ASAP.
perhaps biased, but it is one of my favorites so far as well,
and technically he was saying
"I love nipple"
he is a wtf kinda guy, but because of his lack of social media, its a side of him and the band that foreign fans have missed out on until now.
we hope to bring more in the future.
I'm not going to edit my last post for the third time, sorry
I don't know how to appropriately describe my feelings towards this song and PV because my thoughts are so... inappropriate. I've been listening to this non-stop for a few hours and I still get insane goosebumps. I've watched the part in 2:53 at least fifty times already. My pulse is constantly over 120.
Damn you guys, why you gotta sound and look so damn divine????
Also Keiya pls, couldn't you be a little less charismatic and good looking? I gotta write a 20+ page lab report and return it in four hours or I won't pass this course BUT I JUST CAN'T FUCKING FOCUS ON ANYTHING ELSE
SERIOUSLY GUYS
OK NOW I'M JUST RAMBLING BUT WHY IS THIS SONG SO PERFECT AND ALSO 2:53
The modern VK copy-pasta formula song writing. Heavy verse, melodic chorus, heavy verse, breakdown, bridge, rinse, repeat. I know 90 percent of these new shitty kei flavor-of-the-week bands are just learning how to write songs but for fuck's sake try something new.
When I have more free time, I do plan on creating a brand new Youtube channel that isn't connected to my main Google account in any way, and then I will upload there every single fucking Lycaon PV and comment track I can get my hands on. And if they take those down? I'm going to start a new channel and upload everything again. Just to fuck with Izumi and Shimizuya Records.
yoshiki chips
iiii-ligro anzi's debacle
kisaki's existence
kiwamu chair throwing
iconic QWEEN of despair hisui returning from alleged death to MYSTERIOUSLY deliver white orchids to the last lin live
gackt's vancouver love child
the pic of kyo holding hands with some girl in shinjuku got posted on tumblr (originally from tanu) and the japanese fans made a shitstorm about the blog
that dude from super boys' porn
maria cross' porn (well not really, we're not surprised by anything he does)
dada snapping at the 6 fans he had on facebook
from weird videos, to breakups, to scandals ,to weird crap on tv shows, to music change, or to replacing with odd man out (member who just doesn't seem to fit) Whats the biggest wtf moments you know of?
Mine:
~ San joining BFN. See also BFN getting a new guitarist instead of a drummer after Sala left.
~ Gackt going from sexy vampire to middle age homoeroctic stripper man
~ Lycaon breaking up (although I expected them to leave the label and/or manager I never thought they'd quit)
~ Death- Hide (X-Japan), Kami (Malice Mizer),Zill (moran), Kazuki (Raphael)
~ 2008, insert about 50 bands breaking up T_T
~ Cindykate forced to disband T_T
~ Dog in the PWO cos, I just dont understand them but love the music.
~ dude from D'espair ray in the same band as the guy from ACE.... I just dont :S
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