Interview with BLOOD

JaME recently had the opportunity to have a pre-tour interview with the band BLOOD. From August 24 to 27 they will be touring in Europe, performing in Austria, Sweden and Finland, so check them out if they play near you!

First of all, please introduce yourself to our readers who may not know you yet.
Fu-ki: My name is Fu-ki, vocalist of BLOOD.
Kiwamu: My name is Kiwamu, guitarist and leader of the band. This is the third line-up change.

Your next tour in Europe is coming soon; how do you feel about touring there again?
Fu-ki: I'm glad to return to Europe again. I'm happy to see many European fans.
Kiwamu: Yeah, the European tour is very good thing for us, but I am already very, very tired, even before we begin the tour. BLOOD doesn't have a record company so I have to do all the booking myself. When BLOOD goes to Europe, I need to talk with different organizers, but there are a lot of problems every time. Of course, Reyep of JaME helps me with these problems, but I always seem to end up talking with organizers who are slow with their responses. I always have to wait for their answers. For example, each organizer who made this current tour possible is a good one, but there were problems in another country.

Unfortunately your Russian gig for this tour was canceled, can you tell us more about it?
Kiwamu: Reyep suggested the idea of a Russian gig and introduced me to some Russian organizers, but there was some chaos in Russian scene. There were slow organizers, disagreements between the organizer's staff, slow responses, bad rumors, and so on. I wasted too much time trying to talk with them. So I decided we weren't going to go to Russia. Because of these problems, I am losing my passion to go to Europe. In fact, after this tour, I don't want to go to Europe for a while, maybe even for a long time. If we went to Russia with this organizer, we would probably have had the same problems which we had with the organisations NoSphere, Yumemi festival and Nekosoft. I am very sorry for any disappointed Russian fans, but if I had continued communication with these organizers, I would have had to cancel all the tour dates in Europe.

What are your plans for after this tour?
Kiwamu: After this tour, BLOOD will go to Mexico in November. After that, we will go to the USA in 2008. In fact, I want to work with the people I can trust. That's very important for me.

Is there any special reason you're inspired by Baudelaire's poems?
Fu-ki: In our last album, I wrote the lyrics into a story-like novel. I wanted to be inspired by poems this time, and Baudelaire's poems fit.

How was your song, D.T.M.H selected for the movie "BLOOD:Rise Hunter"?
Kiwamu: The movie company used our song for their ad, which was broadcast not only on TV, but also on the big screens in TV stations. It was the first time we had an opportunity like this, so I was very excited.

2007 was BLOOD's 5th anniversary. How do you feel after all that time, and what's next for the band?
Fu-ki: It has been over 3 years since I joined the band. I'm proud to have been a member for such a long time.
Kiwamu: I was surprised by this anniversary, it sort of snuck up. We've already been together for five and half years. We've had many problems, but we made it to our 5th anniversary. We owe it all to our fans and agents for their support!! Thank you very much.

Could you talk about your new concept "Symphony of chaos"?
Fu-ki: We're all surrounded by chaos and both people and chaos harmonize with each other. I want to express that as sound.
Kiwamu: We've been very bored when we listen to visual kei lately. So many bands seem to sound the same, and fit the visual kei stereotype instead of trying to be original. (laughs) So we started to make this new type of music with this new concept. We'll start to play our new style songs with this concept during this tour.

Recently you have collaborated with other bands, even foreign bands, so how did it feel working with these other musicians?
Fu-ki: It's very interesting, they make our songs different things.
Kiwamu: Recently I started a distribution company because of this business; I can gain many friendships. There are a few bands I've met that had interest in the Japanese scene. So I want to make good music via collaborations with other artists. I especially love the many remixs tracks from other artists.

You toured overseas many times, what's the best and the worst memory from that?
Fu-ki: My first tour was Paris, and I was very nervous then. That one time was the best and worst memory.
Kiwamu: With every tour, there are many good memories and bad memories. I hope that everything will go well on this European tour.

Please give a final message for your fans who are waiting for you in
Europe.
Fu-ki: I'm looking forward to seeing you. I'm waiting for you on the stage. Bye!
Kiwamu: If you love stereo typical visual kei, you don't need to come to our shows! (laughs)

JaME would like to thank BLOOD for taking time out of their busy schedule to talk with us.