Psysalia Psysalis Psyche is an unique band, made up of four young men from Tokyo. Their members are
Shion on vocals,
Mitsumega Toru on guitar,
Kou on drums and
Nobu on bass. Their music is a mix of punk, rock and everything else that fits their personality. In the summer of 2006 they released their first self-titled mini-album; when we heard about their energetic concerts and fun personality we took the chance to ask them a few questions about their PV, their plans for the future and more!
Can you please introduce yourself, for our readers that don’t know you yet.
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: We are Evil Punk Kids!
Can you tell us a little about how you guys met and why you decided to start this band?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: First of all the leader
Toru contacted vocalist
Shion, then drummer
Kosuke saw us play and he said "Please put me in the band!". Our bassist,
Nobu, who went to the same art school as us joined the band later.
Where does the name Psysalia Psysalis Psyche come from and what does it mean to you?
Shion:I thought that maybe there could be something good out of the name "denki kurage" (jellyfish), so I searched and found that Fizario fizarizu was a name that had something to do with jellyfish. But when it got written in English,
Toru made a mistake reading it as 'saisaria saisaria'! (laughs) After that I understood why he made that mistake, but I thought that 'saisaria' sounded much cooler. Then I added the the remaining words and we turned into a toxic band.
When you started the band, did you all have prior experience as musicians?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: To tell you the truth, no one in the band did anything at that moment. We had all just finished with our previous bands.
You are a quite new band but you've already released one mini-album and a PV. Is your current style what you will settle on, or are you still developing your music style?
Toru: We are still developing as a band. It's important to set our own style, but we will keep our songs the same. If we did not face any challenges we would probably stop making music. Our music is still developing for the better, but I think thats good; I think artists should always be developing their music.
How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: Anarchy in Japan! We can't actually explain the genre or we just don't care about it. We will always have our punk attitude no matter what genre our music is.
In terms of the creative process, do you write lyrics first or the music? What do you find the easiest to create, the music or the lyrics?
Shion: It depends on who writes what; whether it is me writing or
Toru, but we don't care about such things. When someone asks me that question, I always think of it as a mystery because I don't know what to answer.
Does it bother you that non-Japanese fans don't really understand your lyrics? Do you feel like they are missing the message of some songs in this way?
Toru: We have our melody that we feel exceeds the message. Each one of us listens to a lot of foreign artists as well, even though we can't catch the content and understand it perfectly, but we know how to love the songs anyway. Even if we want to spread our message, it's impossible to do so 100% when it comes to English and other foreign languages. If we wrote lyrics in English, I'll bet even
Bob Dylan would be worried. To be honest, both me and
Shion can speak a little bit of English, but we stick to Japanese. The sound of Japanese language is so delicate; it is kind of nostalgic.
For those who don't speak Japanese, what are your lyrics usually about?
Shion: That is hard to say because it depends on the interpretation of the person who hears the lyrics. Sometimes it is about liberty and anger because I want people to doubt the world more and more.
Shion, you say that your idol is
Kiyoharu but also
Kurt Cobain and
hide. In what way and how much are you influenced by these musicians?
Shion: I like
Kurt,
hide and
Kiyoharu but the band members all have different roots and of course we have our own favorite artists. In that way we are showing our own background and working it into the band. It's important to have a great artist that you like, understanding what their work mean to you and talk about it. If not then the respect turns into an insult.
Your PV for "SUBWAY KILLER" is very stylish and unique. What kind of concept did you have in mind when you created it and did the PV turn out the way you wanted it to be?
Shion: I was honestly not satisfied, I actually wanted to become a big, animated butterfly. Like Japan's Godzilla.
Can you tell us what STYLE BAND TOKYO is exactly?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: Style band Tokyo is a cool event that introduces the newest bands and music at an international indie party to people who have their doubts about the scene or the music. Saisaria is a friend of this event and that's the best way to get either a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Saisaria is hopeless when it comes to that, though (laughs).
Lately you've been playing a lot of concerts in Shibuya; what can you tell us about your future plans? Can we expect a new release some time soon?
Toru: We'll be only playing gigs for now and later we will start recording a second mini-album. From next year we'll go out on a nationwide tour and then come back to Tokyo. I want to go to foreign countries but since I'm afraid of flying, I'll swim to those countries.
How do you see yourself in 10 years?
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: How to live I wonder? Well we don't want to become like the scattered band,
The Libertines.
There's not much information to find about each one of you, so can you please tell us something about each other?
Shion about
Mitsumega Toru:
Toru is the center of this band. With him the members of the band can excel at everything and everyone trusts him. There are people who have great talent or no talent, but his talent is splendid.
Mitsumega Toru about
Nobu:
Nobu is a true 24 hour party people man!
Nobu about
Kou:
Kousuke is the most popular guy amongst the girls and because of this I have planned to kill him some day.
Kou about
Shion: If there is one person who can make an evolution in Japan, its
Shion.
Thank you for the interview!
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche: Thank you!
For more information and music samples from
Psysalia Psysalis Psyche, check out their
official website and
MySpace.
