INTERVIEW ~ Suicide Ali: November 7, 2009
Neko-con 2009
Suicide Ali made their second appearance in the USA a year after their debut here. This time they appeared on the east coast, at Neko-con in Virginia. We got a chance to catch up with them to discuss their new member and latest album.
Could you please introduce yourselves and your part in the band?
Goshi: Goshi, "Bit el bedi," vocals and guitar.
Hisashi: Hisashi, "HIY," on drums.
Hiroshi: Hiroshi, "Ooe Shundei," guitar.
kozi: Kozi, "Ravishan," bass.
This is not your first time in America. What can we expect from you this time?
Goshi: We have a new member since last time, so that will present a new sound and a new feel to our music. We hope that everyone will look forward to that and enjoy it.
It has been a year since we last spoke with you. Can you tell us what you have been working on since then?
Hiroshi: We released a full album since last year. Also, after we return to Japan, we will be releasing a new DVD with a PV.
2009 is almost over. What else can we expect from you in 2010?
Hiroshi: First we will be releasing a maxi-single next year. We're working on the songs right now, so we hope everyone will look forward to that.
You have gone through a few member changes in the past. What kind of adjustments have you had to make as a band?
Goshi: We're always looking to perform the best music we can, and put together the best releases we can make. We've had the fortune of meeting only good people and working with only good members. So we hope that that good feeling will continue for the future.
Hiroshi, you have had to make the switch from guitar to bass and back to guitar now. Does this cause for difficulty in composition or live performances?
Hiroshi: The two instruments look similar, but they are pretty different, so it took a little bit of time getting used to going from one to the other. Especially going from bass to guitar. Then we started with recording, and it took a little time to get used to it again.
kozi, how are you adjusting to the band, since you joined last spring?
kozi: I always liked Suicide Ali's music from the beginning. I'm allowed to be free with the bass in the song composition, and how I play it, so I enjoy that.
What opportunities has working with Kiwamu's label Darkest Labyrinth brought for you as a band?
Hiroshi: Kiwamu has given us the opportunity to distribute throughout Japan, which has been a dream of ours from the beginning. So we're very grateful to him. It's also thanks to him that we've had the opportunity to perform in America, so we really appreciate all that he's done for us.
You new album Dai yon no waltz was released at the beginning of September. Can you please tell us about it?
Goshi: We hope that people will listen to the music and feel within their own imaginations and experience the music that way.
Could you tell us something interesting the fans don't know about the recording of the album?
Goshi: The guitar recording felt like a battle for me. It was pretty much the same for everyone. It felt like it would go on forever! I wasn't sure when it was going to end! (laughter) But I just kept adding bit by bit and it eventually worked out.
Do you work with the guitar sounds first, or the vocals first?
Suicide Ali: We start with the drums.
Hiroshi: Drum, guitar, bass, vocals.
Is there anything else you wish you would have added to the final product?
Goshi: Considering we had the member change, and there was a lot of new things to get used to with that, we packed in pretty much everything that we possibly could with this album, and there's nothing we really left out.
So what can we expect with your next single, since this album is complete?
Goshi: We've always been satisfied with the releases so far, but we hope in the future to have more time to record. Normally we can only record a lot in a short amount of time, so we're hoping to have more freedom and a longer time period to work in to record future releases.
You each have character names aside from your regular names. What is the meaning behind these names?
Goshi: "Bit el bedi" is the character who writes the novel of Suicide Ali. So the name of "bit" and "bit el bedi" comes from bit of the zero one. In the sense that he creates the novel as a ghost.
Hisashi: HIY doesn't have a particular meaning. I was told when I joined the band that I needed a character name, and had to start thinking about that. So I was like "Ok I'll go with HIY" but there's really no meaning behind that.
Hiroshi: The novel of Suicide Ali has people of all different races, so Ooe Shundei is a name I chose because it has a Japanese feel to it. And Goshi suggested there was a novel with the name Shundei, and we thought it was a cool name.
kozi: Suicide Ali is about a journey, about people taking a journey, so the name Ravishan came out because it had a good ring to it of people traveling.
So these characters part of a story that is being told, can you tell about that story?
Hiroshi: The story of Suicide Ali is about going on a journey. It starts with the character Bit, who was supposed to be born as a child of a god, but was thrown down from heaven into a fantasy world. That world is the world of Suicide Ali. He spins the story travelling throughout that world, and that's where he meets the other three members. It's about their travels, and the music we write expresses their experiences and the people they meet and things they see in that world. Also, Bit's goal throughout the story is to get back into heaven. But he's not strong enough to do that at the moment. By writing the novel of Suicide Ali, he gains the strength and ability to go back to heaven someday.
Your band name means "perfect suicide." What are your feelings on those types of thoughts and emotions?
Hiroshi: I was talking with Goshi about the band name, and we were talking about how life is like a journey. As you go through life, you can choose how you want to live, and in that sense, you also choose the way you die. We thought that is like choosing your ideal, or perfect suicide. That's where the name came from, but we also like the sound of the word "suicide" itself.
What would you say is the perfect suicide?
Hiroshi: To me, I think the perfect suicide would be, if I had lived a life I was satisfied with and had no regrets.
You reach out to your overseas fans through many different websites. How did that begin and what are your thoughts on the growing popularity of Japanese music outside of Japan?
Hiroshi: We wanted people all around the world to hear our music and our message. But considering the language barrier, it's difficult for fans to understand our songs only, so we created websites in different languages so more people could understand.
Could you please give a final message for our readers?
Goshi: We will continue to make music and to work on our story. We hope and intend to go to several countries around the world from now on, so we hope everyone will look forward to that.
Hisashi: Right now we are only mainly active in Japan, but we hope that someday we will be able to travel to several countries around the world and perform in different places
Hiroshi: I'm sure that there are a lot of fans that don't understand all of our songs, and have trouble coming to see our lives, but we hope that as many people as possible will enjoy our music. And we hope that you'll do your best to translate the lyrics so you can understand our story, and we'll continue to work our hardest from now on. Please look forward to our future music.
kozi: We've mainly performed in Japan up until now, but coming to America and performing here, we've seen all the differences in the audience's reception, and we like to use that as sustanance to go on and improve as a band when we go back to Japan. So next time we come to America, we hope to come back with something even better.
interview by Matt; transcribed by Melony; photos by Jerusha
thank you to Suicide Ali for taking the time to answer our questions
thank you to Tainted Reality and Neko-con for making this possible
Suicide Ali CDs and merchandise is available here
links
Suicide Ali Official MySpace
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