Interview with Kirye

ー First of all how are you all doing? Are you still feeling alive in this pandemic time? 

(Davis)　Everyone’s pretty much doing alright in spite of Covid-19. I think most people are kind of lonely because there aren’t very many opportunities to see friends, so when we do get the opportunity we just try to enjoy it. 
(vmgf) 　As far as band stuff goes, we’ve always been pretty focused on making stuff as opposed to playing a lot of live shows, so we might be a bit less affected by Covid-19 than some other bands

ー What’s so appealing to “Progressive, melodic post-rock” music, that you decided to create music for this genre?

(vmgf)　For a pretty long time we weren’t really sure how to categorize our music. We were at a Chinese restaurant when OINU and I got into a pretty heated argument about what genre tag we should use. He thought about it for a minute and suggested a new category, “progressive, melodic post-rock”, which basically settled it. 

ー You told me that you are currently working on a brand new mini album.

・How many songs are you aiming for?
(Davis)　We think six songs or so.

・What inspired you for creating this mini-album?
(vmgf)　It was more continuing where we left off with our first EP, Netami, than any sort of special thing.

・How do you select the songs which you want to put on the mini album?
(vmgf)　We wanted the songs to be interesting and impressive, but we were also looking for material that a lot of different people would enjoy listening to.

・What was the biggest challenge of creating this mini album?
(vmgf)　We’re only about halfway done right now, but our songs keep getting harder, so getting them up to a good level has ended up taking a lot of time.

・Have you decided the name of the mimi album?
(vmgf)　We’re still talking about it! If you have any good suggestions, let me know.

ー What’s the process of writing new lyrics?

・How do you get your inspiration?
(Davis)　For me, lyrics are definitely the hardest part because it feels like it’s so easy to write stuff that kind of sucks. In other words, it starts with inspiration, but after that there’s a lot of polishing. Basically, I don’t know.
(vmgf)　When I’m writing a song, I think about the different qualities of the song and what kind of scenes and worlds that inspires. From that point, I just have to distill all of down that into words, so it doesn’t really take that long.

・ What process of writing the final lyrics. Do you ask the opinions of other people?
(Davis)　We do, but at the end of the day it’s the writer’s decision.
(vmgf)　For me, not really. I’m already changing my lyrics so much anyway.

ー What’s the process of composing new songs?

・Please tell us the full process of writing a song, from the beginning until the end.
(Davis)　Every song is different, but in general I’d say that I start with the music. I’ll find a riff or some chords and then gradually continue from there. If I hear a melody I’ll write that, if some lyrics pop into my head I’ll write lyrics, if I want to move on to a new section I’ll do that. Overall, it just depends on the song.

・ Who composed most of the songs?
(Davis)　Vmgf wrote more of the songs, but Norishio also wrote a number of them.

・Which part is written first?  guitar, bass or drumline?
(Davis)　I’d say it’s guitar for me.
(vmgf)　It’s guitar for me too.

・While composing a song what’s the most important point to give attention to?
(Davis)　“Just write the song.” If I start editing before I’m done writing I’ll never finish.
(vmgf)　When there’s too much going on in a song it gets to be overwhelming, so I’ve been trying to be more aware of taking stuff out.

・What was difficult about composing the songs for the mini-album?
(Davis)　You might not be able to really call it composition, but managing time in the studio is really difficult. You tell yourself that you can record a ton of stuff in eight hours in the studio, but the songs are all really hard so you only end up with one. You have to think about how long it’ll take to get that perfect take.

・Do you use any special tools while recording?
(Davis)　I don’t know if you’d call it a special tool, but headphones that we’re used to. When we were recording Netami, we used the studio headphones, but we’d go home and the impression of the song would be completely different on our own headphones.
(vmgf)　I leave a fair amount of stuff up to our engineer, so I don’t really have a good grasp on what plug-ins he uses on our stuff. I just tell him the sound I want, and even when I’m being really abstract he comes through for me.  

ー What’s the process of recording and mixing?

・In which order do you record your music?
(Davis)　We record drums and bass together to start everything off. That’s really where the groove and impact of the song come from. We record guitar, vocals, synths, and stuff after that, but there’s no particular order. 

・ Why did you decide on a certain mixing?
(Davis)　I wouldn’t say we had any rules per se, but two things we did come back to a lot were making sure the impact of the song was strong, and making sure that everything was balanced even though there was so much going on.

・ How do you decide the final “volume levels”?
(vmgf)　I wasn’t really aware of it!

・ Were there any parts which were hard to record?
(vmgf)　Basically, the songs are hard to play. Even in 4/4 the rhythms can be hard to internalize, and everyone is doing something different, so making it feel like everyone is playing as a group was pretty challenging.

ー What’s the process of recording a music video?

・ Do you all think together about the main idea for a new video?
(vmgf)　A lot of the time one person comes up with the idea on their own. Right now we’re working with someone outside the band though.

・ How do you decide the idea for a video?
(Davis)　It sounds way too much like a business, but we pull up a spreadsheet with columns for the idea, pluses, and minuses, then we just talk about it.
(vmgf)　I write little short stories, although they’re nowhere near the quality that you’d want for something you release to the public. 

・ Do you draw any storyboard?
(Davis)　Up until now we haven’t used storyboards much, but I think we’re going to start doing that more. (Davis)

・Why do you decide to work with the director you’ve chosen?
(Davis)　Except for one music video, which we did with the help of my high school senpai, we’ve self-directed. 

ー Why should someone listen to your music?

(vmgf)　We really want to make a big impact on the music world! So watch how we evolve.

ー How do you see your future?

(Davis)　For now, we want to focus on our next EP. After that, we’ve got our sights set on a solo live show! (Davis)

ー Please give a message to your fans and readers.

(vmgf)　I seriously think that we have a song for everyone out there. We’re going to continue to grow through different phases and our musicianship will continue to evolve, so come enjoy the ride with us!