Hagakure in Europe

The Visual Kei indies band Hagakure visited Europe for a short tour this month, and after their concert in Germany, which was the last one of their tour, we had the chance to interview Kaya, the vocalist.

Interview

Can you tell us who the support members are exactly?
Kaya: On guitar it’s Jyunichi, on drums Gajiro and on bass Mako. The support members are always changing. Jyunichi is also playing in the band Plasmajet.

How did you meet each other?
Kaya: Gajiro was in my former band, Le’miu and Jyunichi is a friend of my best friend.

Hagakure started as a band, but now it’s your solo project with support members. Is it harder or easier this way?
Kaya: It’s very hard, but I’m very happy to be here, and to be able to do this even though it’s hard.

This was the last concert of your European tour. How do you feel now that it’s all over?
Kaya: I’m very happy to have played here. During the tour we made some mistakes but I’m very glad the people came to see us anyway and made the best of it.

How was your visit to Sweden? We heard you had some problems with the first concert.
Kaya: When we travelled to Europe, we had to change planes in Peking. However, we arrived there very late and missed our connecting flight. So, we were too late and missed performing a concert to about a thousand people in Sweden… I’m sorry!

Was it very different to play in front of a European audience instead of a Japanese audience and why?
Kaya: The Japanese fans are very silent, but the Europe fans are very active. I like it.

Was this your first visit to Europe? What did you like best about your visit?
Kaya: Yes, this was my first time in Europe. The sight-seeing was very good.

Why did you choose to come to Europe? Were you invited, or was it your own initiative?
Kaya: We were invited by the Swedish convention and then Astan contacted the organization as well, so we played here in Germany too.

Your songs generally sound happy. Are the lyrics happy too?
Kaya: Yes they are.

Do you write all the songs yourself? And how do you compose them?
Kaya: Yes I do. I compose them with my imagination.

Do you also play an instrument yourself?
Kaya: I play the piano a little.

The keyboard parts in your songs, did you play them yourself?
Kaya: No, in Japan we have a support member, but unfortunately he couldn’t come with us for this tour.

Is your music influenced by any particular artists?
Kaya: I like all artists, all kinds of music. There are no borders to what I listen to and it doesn’t matter what kind of music it is, as long as it’s good.

But do you have any favorites?
Kaya: I like metal and pop (laughs).

Do you listen to any bands or artists from Europe?
Kaya: I listen to Abba, from Sweden (laughs).

Why did you decide to start a music career?
Kaya: When I was very little I saw a live concert. It made me feel happy and then I knew I wanted to become a musician.

And why did you decide to become a vocalist?
Kaya: Because the vocalist is in the front and has the most contact with the audience. So, by being in the front I want to make as many people as possible happy.

Why did you decide to become a visual kei band? Why not a pop or metal band, for example?
Kaya: I like pop bands and I like metal bands, and in visual kei I can mix them.

Your songs don’t have much of a metal style now, but maybe you will mix some more metal into Hagakure later?
Kaya: Jyunichi is metal, I'm pop, and together with the audience we are Hagakure (laughs).

Visual kei is becoming more and more popular in Europe; more bands perform here and more often too. What do you think of this?
Kaya: It’s good, because now a lot of people know visual kei.

You recently released your first mini-album “Tenkahubu”. Was recording the songs a good experience for you? Are you satisfied with how it turned out?
Kaya: I’m not completely satisfied. We only had a short amount of time to record and release the mini-album. We started to talk with New Nippon just at the beginning of this year and we had some problems with the recording of the CD because it was delayed a lot. It was supposed to be released in early March, but it was delayed about half a month. Thanks to that, the mixing didn’t get as much time as was needed. But, I’m both satisfied and not satisfied. Considering the amount of time we had, it’s okay, but if we had more time it would have been better.

Do you have plans to record a full album?
Kaya: Yes, we are already planning to record a full album soon.

Do you already have a release date scheduled?
Kaya: I would like to release it three months from now, but if we look at it more realistically, it will probably take some more time. But I want to release it as soon as possible and make it as good as possible.

We heard you filmed a video in Europe, is this true?
Kaya: Yes, we shot a music video in Stockholm. It will be released through the internet and perhaps on a DVD later this year. It’s a professionally recorded video, it looks very good.

Thank you for the interview, do you have a message for your European fans?
Kaya: Come to our lives so you can be happy!


Live report

The concert in Schüttorf, Germany was Hagakure’s last concert of their European tour, but also their first and only one in Germany. Because the concert was set for Easter Sunday couple with the fact that the location had been changed several times, the audience was rather small.

However, it seemed that the people who would have attended the concert with the intention of ‘just to see what it’s like’ stayed home, but the people who were truly interested in Hagakure did come, which resulted in a very enthusiastic audience.

The concert started around 20:30, the support members appeared on the stage first, making the audience cheer. Kaya received the loudest screams as he entered the stage, dressed in hakama (traditional Japanese split skirted pants) and kimono jacket which he wore under a long outer robe.

Immediately the audience was introduced to the moves which are so characteristic for Hagakure’s lives. Kaya danced around with a happy smile on his face, and with his enthusiastic dances and irresistible charm, no one could stay silent for very long.

The band played all the songs off their new mini-album “Tenkahubu”, and a number of brand new songs. In between, Kaya had a small talk with the audience in which he tried to say a few sentences in German. Although it took the audience a little time to understand what he was saying, he did a pretty good job in the end!

The band was enthusiastic, Jyunichi made funny demonic faces as he played the guitar, Mako on bass mostly hid behind his hair whilst Gajiro played the drums energetically at the back of the stage area. Kaya succeeded in hugging almost everyone in the audience, which was very cute.

After they finished playing, the audience screamed ‘encore’, which soon led to the support members returning to the stage and playing while they made the audience cheer and yell for Kaya. Kaya then returned to the stage dressed in a lovely purple kimono. The band played another song, before they left the stage again while a meet and greet was conducted. The band then returned to the stage for one final song before the show was really over. The autograph session started soon afterwards.

In the end it was a great concert and everybody had a really good time. I would definitely recommend seeing Hagakure live whenever they come back to Europe, because like they say they really manage to make people happy!


Setlist

1. Spring
2. Psycho
3. Canzo
4. Sun & Moon
5. N
6. Toki
7. Fall breeze
8. Maihime

encore 1:
Spring
encore 2:
Mai Hime


A big ‘thank you’ goes to Hagakure, Michael of New Nippon and Steff of Astan magazin.