キズ

[libertine 125]

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Edited December 12, 2019 by libertine

[sleepy coffee 1476]

i love vk labels

[saiko 429]

13 hours ago, libertine said:

I've only ever heard of Damage in the context of Kizu and there isn't a separate website for them. So likely it's just the company for managing Kizu business. No idea who founded the company.

The FWD website suggests some affiliation, but honestly I don't know if there's any way of knowing for sure how exactly they're affiliated. I've tried researching the whole Free-Will sitation in the past and the more I look into it the more confusing it becomes. What even is "Free-Will" these days? People talk about Free-Will, but were even are they? The company named Free-Will might not even exist, as there isn't an official Free-Will website anymore. Instead, most of the things you'd associate with them you actually find from FWD Inc.'s and sun-krad Co., Ltd's websites. Sun-krad, for example, is in my mind the Dir en Grey company. It was started by Tommy in 1998 and seems to manage most of the Dir En Grey, Dir En Grey side-project, Merry and Baroque related activities. They also list Kannivalism, all the Resistar and Riostar bands and Gulu Gulu. FWD Inc. is a company founded in 2007 (a few months before the whole fraud scandal?) and that website also mentions all the sun-krad bands. This time, however, they include Kizu and don't say a word about Gulu Gulu. There are also some straight-up discrepancies like the sun-krad website claiming Baroque is a sun-krad band, while the FWD website and band's own website say FWD. Who knows when the sites have been checked for old information.

 

Anyway, some things seem pretty clear. Most older bands (and Gulu Gulu) are managed more or less by sun-krad. The bigger band's releases are distributed under the FWD managed label Firewall Div which has a distribution deal with Sony. FWD seems to have inherited many of the Free-Will responsibilities like Firewall Div and the animation production side (Baki The Grappler). I think it's basically Firewall Division, but expanded to also directly manage indie bands through the Resistar and Riostar labels. FWD and sun-krad operate from same offices. It seems like both of these companies form what most people would think of as "Free-Will". They're connected, but have their own responsibilities. 

 

What does that mean for Kizu? I guess maybe the fact that they're only on the FWD website and also have their own label means that they're "Free-Will", but not quite in the same way as the other bands. They're not on sun-krad's site, so they might not be as closely involved with Tommy. They're also not FWD/Damage like Resistar and Riostar. That almost seems like they're more independent than other FWD and sun-krad bands, but how likely is that when they clearly started out with a lot of money for video production and promotions?

 

So long story short. Damage is prooobably a sub-label, but maybe not of "Free-Will", but of the nearest modern equivalent FWD Inc. Also maybe not.

Thank you so much!

 

My question over Kizu's resources origins has to do also with members past activities. None of them have a past of involvement in, at least, 'famous' projects. For example, Versailles, like Kizu, started out with what one can consider great amount of resources, and one can easily reconduct that fact to Kamijo being the ex-vocalist and overall composer and producer of an act that played a key part in the late 90s scene (I'm talking about Lareine). But that's not the case of Kizu; sure Lime was part of many bands like Lezard (was that the name?), but I think we can all agree that none of these bands was as successful or relevant as Kizu got since their first single. Maybe they actually have worked in projects that hadn't this need of high media exposure but nonetheless made a name and/or great sums of money (maybe like being sessionists, and/or producers, and/oror composers, etc.)?

[libertine 125]

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Edited December 12, 2019 by libertine

[Kabukichoatmidnight 269]

On 10/28/2019 at 8:53 PM, libertine said:

You don't have to be successful to get opportunities. It helps, but the main thing is the connections and being someone people trust and can work with. Lezard is a FWD/Riostar Records band, so could be that Lime spent a few months working on a unique concept and some demos, and then called up the company to pitch a new band idea.

Yep, essentially, you just have to be someone (doing something) that these companies think they can make money from.

[sleepy coffee 1476]

just caught this while watching some kizu on youtube, im not really sure how youtube licensing works but this seems a bit confusing lol

[gret 90]

So lime sang in English(I think?) and no one told me:

 

[Kirito 69]

it's horrible x) i hope someone will stop him to do that again .  :(

[sleepy coffee 1476]

I respect the effort but idk what's worse between hearing him sing in English or the fact that it took up 2 songs with what I consider one of their more boring individual songs. 

[Kabukichoatmidnight 269]

On 12/6/2019 at 3:05 PM, sleepy coffee said:

I respect the effort but idk what's worse between hearing him sing in English or the fact that it took up 2 songs with what I consider one of their more boring individual songs. 

This and the ridiculous price tag is why I skipped this release. haha.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

On 12/6/2019 at 1:08 PM, gret said:

So lime sang in English(I think?) and no one told me:

 

Everyone was trying to forget about it

[Komorebi 2193]

On 10/28/2019 at 5:53 PM, libertine said:

You don't have to be successful to get opportunities. It helps, but the main thing is the connections and being someone people trust and can work with. Lezard is a FWD/Riostar Records band, so could be that Lime spent a few months working on a unique concept and some demos, and then called up the company to pitch a new band idea.

Or the company made some concepts and headhunted Lime and the others.
I read a while ago that when bands come out of nowhere and get so big so fast it's because the producers (and maybe one of the bandmembers who also acts as producer) came up with a killer concept and got the approval and funds to launch it big, that bands like that are meant to be big from the very beginning, while others aren't, which is why other bands in labels with a big act never really take off, because they aren't meant to and thus underfunded. Kizu was clearly produced from day 1 to be the next big thing.

[nekkichi 6043]

On 10/28/2019 at 6:24 AM, libertine said:

What even is "Free-Will" these days?

they're a legal owner/parent company of anything affiliated with FWD/sunkrad, this was explained on here in the past...

 

 

[Saishu 1589]

6 hours ago, Disposable said:

Everyone was trying to forget about it

Holy shit this song sucks

[libertine 125]

.

 

Edited December 12, 2019 by libertine

[Komorebi 2193]

1 hour ago, libertine said:

I know that's what everyone says, but do we really know? Are there actual official sources that state that to be true? Because I feel like everytime this is discussed, people just reference hearsay and that one sketchy interview of an unnamed industry insider. None of which are reliable and certainly not up to date sources. The Japanese registry of companies would likely have the necessary information, but from what I can tell it's a paid service.

I guess the most accurate way of knowing is checking the printed names of producers on CDs and look for correlations while hoping they are truthful.

[nekkichi 6043]

6 hours ago, libertine said:

I know that's what everyone says, but do we really know? Are there actual official sources that state that to be true? Because I feel like everytime this is discussed, people just reference hearsay and that one sketchy interview of an unnamed industry insider. None of which are reliable and certainly not up to date sources. The Japanese registry of companies would likely have the necessary information, but from what I can tell it's a paid service.

but do we really care tbh

 

judging by free-will intentionally staying quiet (I think last time they were mentioned specifically was when they established a european branch p much exclusively to shill Deg, BIS (RIP) and kagerou, and that 『clowns against commercialiZm』NY gig that never happened), they're most probably exclusively handling shit with local companies in person and don't need any web presence/have no interest for us net stans.

there's nothing of fanbase interest they produce themselves (that's handled by firewall div., resistar, etc)  and they probably just manage their bands relations with distributors i.e. extort overdue baroque or kamijo royalties from warner or whatever.

Edited December 10, 2019 by nekkichi

[saiko 429]

On 12/9/2019 at 11:56 AM, Komorebi said:

Or the company made some concepts and headhunted Lime and the others.
I read a while ago that when bands come out of nowhere and get so big so fast it's because the producers (and maybe one of the bandmembers who also acts as producer) came up with a killer concept and got the approval and funds to launch it big, that bands like that are meant to be big from the very beginning, while others aren't, which is why other bands in labels with a big act never really take off, because they aren't meant to and thus underfunded. Kizu was clearly produced from day 1 to be the next big thing.

This is a question that goes trough my head when I think in bands like Dir, who had their first Budokan gig a year and a half after being born, having in their backs only two singles and an EP at the time. Maybe all that drama about La:Sadie's disbanding at their peak in the indie's scene and then Toshiya saving their previous group-affair from ending up into nothing isn't the complete truth behind their beginning as a promissory project. 

Edited December 10, 2019 by saiko

[Romlaw 82]

On 12/6/2019 at 7:08 AM, gret said:

So lime sang in English(I think?) and no one told me:

 

THANK GOD he sang it in english I, in my eternal retardation, would never be able to understand it otherwise.

 

JK we all know its for the japanese public because jap youth think english is cool

[libertine 125]

.

Edited December 12, 2019 by libertine

[nekkichi 6043]

1 hour ago, libertine said:

I just hate that even the basic information about how the scene is run is so unreliable and often out of date. So much of it is based on gossip and shady interviews that most people haven't bothered verifying. I know what you'll probably think. It's because they don't want us to know. It's in their interest to keep things hush-hush, so that fans remain oblivious of who really runs the show, or whatever. But I think it's also the fans themselves that like it vague and shady. That means people get to imagine all the shenaningans that are probably going on behind the scenes. It's entertaining. And likely way inaccurate, because the only time people tend to pull the breaks on their imagination is when they become disinterested and move on. There's a lot of fantasy going on especially when it comes to the whole who owns what situation. Right now I'm in a place where I don't really believe half of what is said about Free-Will, FWD, Sun-Krad and so on. Not unless it's clear as day.

(should we move this to random thoughts?)

 

I obviously won't be fighting to get you to believe the gossip, but if drug/scam arrests themselves, and disproportionally high amount of sex/host club workers in the scene (both gya and bandmen) don't speak of the obvious yakuza affiliation (which goes outside of VK too, it's a Japanese popular entertainment trait, and it penetrates other Japanese businesses as well i.e. some Japanese banks were started with the intention to launder money for gang crime), we won't be getting any other tea.

 

I don't even consider those ties as something inherently bad because there're people who legitimately belong to this scene because of their love of the music and theatrics and visuals, but there's no entirely "clean" way to enter the very strictly regulated mold of it - and in any case, Japanese music scene is not any different from global one in that aspect. Katy Perrys producer started out selling coke on SNL, certain bands p much use touring as a front to smuggle substances, everyone there is drugged out of their mind at some point or other (I was looking up SOAD tea and apparently they claimed they all were high out of their mind while recording their first albums in court.)

 

I'm over both perceiving the bandmen is kawaii innocent angels and implying there's anything scandalous with the way the scene is funded/structured because I frankly don't care, I only care about music and aesthetics of a certain number of acts.

 

I mean going back to the first line:

1 hour ago, libertine said:

I just hate that even the basic information about how the scene is run is so unreliable and often out of date.

this applies to the music scene globally, and I'm p sure it's fucked up on more levels than the entire VK scene with whatever fanclub gangbangs they used to throw around etc etc etc.

Edited December 11, 2019 by nekkichi

[YuyoDrift 1540]

A little late to this (I'm busy, sue me) but Kizu fucking surprised me with this one.

 

 

Is the singing style that mimicks Daisuke (Kagerou) w/ a splash of Hizumi (D'espairsRay) intentional or am I missing something here?

Shit was cool, not to mention the odd lyrics haha.

[BrenGun 2261]

On 12/9/2019 at 3:56 PM, Komorebi said:

Kizu was clearly produced from day 1 to be the next big thing.

If you look up to the past of the other members you also notice that guitarist and bass were not in any band for some years, still in those time they could have gotten more and more connections to even come back with a killer band which could hit no.1 straight away.

Also what I think they "used" the fame of "AvelCain" to get KIZU promoted. Everyone thought "oh, it gotta be something to do with a new project of AvelCain" but nope..  it seemed to be a kinda "new" band.  still with known musicians but nothing what people excepted. Still they got all attention from the visual kei world. Everyone was talking about it.  Or was LIME really that loved? would people really loved him in a new band if it wasn't promoted this way?

Everybody talked about we want KARMA back.... of course that doesn't goes unnoticed. 
And Kizu went pretty much promoted in an Avelchain style, flyers etc....

 

 

LIME left LEZARD at 2016-06-19 (one month before avelcain break up)

AvelCain broke up 2016-07-27 They announced their disbandment on 2016/03/12

Kizu was announced 2017-02-20

Somehow stinky 😛 

 

 

 

If Avelchain didn't broke up, maybe Kizu would never gotten this attention at all.  

[Saga 116]

I like them a lot, but this market strategy idea of stretching the hype releasing a single with a high quality pv every four months is really gay.

 

It's like an AAA DLC-based band.

[sleepy coffee 1476]

13 minutes ago, Saga said:

I like them a lot, but this market strategy idea of stretching the hype releasing a single with a high quality pv every four months is really gay.

 

It's like an AAA DLC-based band.

i mean it still amounts to 10-12 songs a year so i think its fine, but i do think the gap between the last single and whatever comes next will be the longest so maybe whatever is next will be a mini of full length album