Moi dix Mois, Versailles, D, Matenrou Opera

The prominent members of Moi dix Mois, Versailles, D, Matenrou Opera have gathered; they are “Japanese Visual Metal” which started its activities in January of this year. While gathering the heated anticipation of many listeners, they released “Kyousoukyoku ~Tanbinaru Kettou~” on September 20 under the name “JVM Roses Blood Symphony” and subsequently performed their “Japanese Visual Metal Tour” from September 22 till October 2.

We’ve invited guitarist Mana, vocalist KAMIJO, vocalist ASAGI, and vocalist Sono, and present a round-table discussion with the members.

“Because for this ‘JVM Roses Blood Symphony’ arrangement, Mana is really taking the center stage, we were allowed to sing this cover with the utmost respect to him.” —ASAGI

Firstly, could you please share your thoughts and feelings as you approached the “Japanese Visual Metal Tour”?

KAMIJO: For Versailles, not only is this tour the final one with our current lineup, but it’s also a tour we’ve been eagerly anticipating.

My thoughts were about if we’d be able to create lasting memories with the current members of Versailles. Given [the band] D’s announcement of a hiatus, I wondered whether we could spend the time condensing as many unforgettable days as we could under “JVM Roses Blood Symphony”.

Essentially, the question was how many fond memories we could make, and if we can link them to our future. With this resolution and anticipation in my heart, I made a commitment to make all the fans smile happily with whatever I’ve got. That’s the mindset that fueled my anticipation for this tour.

Sono: It’s been a huge privilege to be able to do this together with the senior musicians I look up to, as well as my fellow band members with whom I’m always out drinking. I’ve been looking forward to it with anticipations such as how it will definitely be a great time and “we did it!”.

Even so, when you were talking during the concert MC, you seemed to have your inner child contained.

Sono: I suppose I did. But even if I laugh along, like “haha”, and approach the group, I can’t let myself get too excited [laughs].

Everyone: “Haha” [laughs].

Sono: I tried to act undaunted. I went around telling myself that “I’m a professional vocalist” [laughs].

ASAGI: I’ve also been really looking forward to the tour, and like KAMIJO mentioned earlier, [my band] D is going on hiatus next spring. While I was reflecting on it even more due to that, I really wanted this to be precious. From the moment the tour began, it has been fun at every turn. Since we’re going on hiatus, I’ve been thinking that this might be our last tour. Although, it’s ridiculously fun on the one hand, it felt lonely on the other. But, I think all the members of D, myself included, had fun, and I felt really happy seeing the smiling faces of all the fans that had gathered.

And because “Kyousoukyoku ~Tanbinaru Kettou~” is a very precious song, which we created as “JVM Roses Blood Symphony”, I performed it at every venue while reflecting on everything. Furthermore, I didn’t connect much with Mana at the beginning, I was incredibly anxious. However, after a while, he told me “we can chat more”, and I had to stop myself from bursting into laughter. We were able to connect while I told myself that “I’m a professional vocalist” [laughs]. I’m really glad about that.

I’m also glad about connecting with KAMIJO. At the show, we even made the same gesture together at the phrase “high in the sky”, just like it says in the lyrics. This wasn’t planned at all, but I felt like we were able to understand each other despite not exchanging any words. Everyone definitely felt like we were able to understand one another, and that makes me happy.

Mana: About a year ago, we progressed in talking about this project, and in around January, we announced the Zepp tour. When we made the announcement, I felt like it was still a long time until the tour, but before I could even blink, we had our first concert, faster than I thought [laughs]. I’d awoken to the fact that there were only four concerts, and the fans must have been really looking forward to it as well. As such, I tackled it with the conviction that I had to treasure every concert and perform without any regrets.

It seems that everyone has been looking forward to this tour with an incredible amount of enthusiasm. At this tour, everyone did a short concert of 30 minutes, how did you decide on the setlist?

KAMIJO: I personally wanted to create this with the atmosphere of it being a “JVM Roses Blood Symphony” one-man concert, as opposed to viewing it as just an event. So, including Versailles’ setlist, if we view it as a long musical suite titled “JVM Roses Blood Symphony”, what kind of movement is Versailles creating within that? And what kind of position would make sense? Those were my questions. The setlist was curated with that in mind.

Because of our role, there were songs that we just couldn’t let go of, and the setlists ended up being largely the same each time. As a result, we were able to quickly polish our act and give a “Versailles-style” performance. In the end, it felt exactly like a “JVM Roses Blood Symphony” one-man concert, I was very pleased.

Sono: We largely changed our setlist for every performance, only one song remained constant by the fourth concert. Surprisingly, the reason for this was exactly the same as KAMIJO’s reasoning. Because we were the closing act of the first day, our thought was that if we were to close one of the concerts, we would bring “Kassai to Gekijou no Gloria” as the finale. When we play this song, it really finishes the concert. When we’d be the opening act, we knew we had to prepare a setlist that launched with energy. That’s how we put our setlist together, I think we played our role well.

ASAGI: We had the same idea as everyone else. We absolutely valued D’s worldview, and we wanted the finale to top the other concerts more than anything else. When we considered that for our role, we wanted to heat up the venue in one breath, we thought “why don’t we do a MALICE MIZER cover”, and got permission to perform “Gekka no Yasoukyoku”. We really treasure “Gekka no Yasoukyoku” and I’m glad that the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Before getting to “Gekka no Yasoukyoku” the venue had roused to a good mood, but the moment that the song started, I definitely heard the girl in the seat next to me let out a gasp.

ASAGI: Did she now [laughs]? Yeah, there were a lot of cheers. Because for this “JVM Roses Blood Symphony” arrangement, Mana is really taking the center stage, we were allowed to sing this cover with the utmost respect to him.

Mana: Regarding the setlist, Moi dix Mois haven’t partaken in a lot of events before. Considering that there might be a lot of visitors who aren’t familiar with Moi dix Mois, we oriented our performance to emphasize our worldview. Instead of rousing the audience, we put a lot of the weight on Moi dix Mois’ dark horror to show our dark side.

Because I don’t talk during concerts, I [asked our vocalist] Seth to speak for me during the MCs, and I believe for this tour, we went to Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo, right? I told him to please not list all the names. The reason for that is because as Moi dix Mois, we wanted to convey our worldview, so we approached it with the restriction of using only words that align with the worldview. Through these constraints, I hope the darkness of Moi dix Mois came through.

You say you didn’t put emphasis on rousing the audience, but for Moi dix Mois’ performance, the venue was bewitched into a storm of headbanging, wasn’t it? Additionally, another distinctive feature of this tour was the varying performance order at each show.

KAMIJO: Mana filled in the closing performance of the last day, but considering every band has a solid history, the aim was for each band to headline at least once across all shows without any overlap in performance order. That’s something that we were able to realize thanks to Mana’s great talent. Because of this turnout, I believe that we were able to create this atmosphere in which all the fans who support these four artists, individually, were able to support them with all of their might.

Again, with the swift band set changes and the overall sense of equality between the bands, I got the impression that it was an event with a lot of thought put into it towards the spectators.

KAMIJO: Regarding the set changes, the solidarity between the staff members was amazing, they were all helping each other out during the switches. There was an awesome power in that.

Stay tuned for part two of the interview early next week, where the members reveal even more behind-the-scenes stories. From unexpected connections to memorable tour incidents, the members have a lot more to share!

Powered by: club Zy. and Vijuttoke.

Interviewer: Murakami Takayuki (club Zy.)

Original article: https://www.club-zy.com/contents/643995

Brought to you by the triple partnership between club Zy., JROCK NEWS, and Vijuttoke.