News : Interview with Blood 13/5/2008

I recently had the pleasure to speak with Blood members Fu-ki and Kiwamu about their first upcoming tour of Australia and their new release “The Reaper Behind Me“.

Please excuse their broken English.

Anwar – Thanks for taking the time to speak with us at Metal Obsession.
Fu-ki: No problem. Nice to meet you.

Anwar – This will be Blood’s first tour to Australia, what can the Australian audience’s expect from these upcoming shows?
Fu-ki: They will just have a great time with us!
Kiwamu: We changed our music style to Dance music. So everyone can dance with our music. Of course, our music is not pop style. Hard industrial dance music. I hope metal fans like that too.

Anwar – This visit to Australia will mark the first ever tour of any J-Rock band to Australia, how does it feel to be apart of such a landmark event, and what are your expectations of Australia?
Fu-ki: We had good times with audience in many countries. So I’m sure they will give a big power to me on the stage.
Kiwamu: BLOOD visited 12countries for the live show. BLOOD always became first visual kei bands in all countries. I like “first” very much. If another visual kei bands visited Australia, I didn’t book that lol And GPKISM is my label artist. Vocalist GPK booked this tour. And he introduced me about Bloodpuppies Entertainment Sheena. She has worked for BLOOD very much. Owing to them, the tour will be very good.

Anwar – Is there any cultural barrier in your music that will be hard for the Australian audiences to understand your lyrical concepts, will the music have the same impact on Australian audiences as it would with Japanese fans?

Fu-ki: They can read english lyrics in our booklet. And they can feel from our sound. I think it’s not hard.
Kiwamu: Recently many foreign countries love J-Rock very much. I think almost people couldn’t understand Japanese lyrics. But they can enjoy our visual and sound too. So there is no problem. In fact, Japanese people couldn’t understand English lyrics from foreign bands, but they like that. That kind situation is there all over the world.

Anwar – Could you please explain to the readers the background of the bands stage attire and how the bands love of such goth fashion first started?
Fu-ki: Our music wants them.
Kiwamu: When I made the sound, I always have the vision of songs. So we wear that costume to express the world of songs. So we are not fashion goth persons.

Anwar – Blood will be releasing their new album entitled, “The Reaper Behind Me” soon in Australia. What can fans expect from this new release, and what was the main influence/writing process behind the new album?
Fu-ki: In our new concept,”SYMPHONY OF CHAOS”,I want to express the situation, In the darkness you can see nothing, only can hear the sound of chaos, and they are becoming harmonized… I wrote lyrics with it.
Kiwamu: I always write vocal melody when I write songs. In my brain, there are many images of dark visions. So I expressed them as the songs. Recently I got much influence from Gothic and industrial music. BLOOD style is the harmony of Japanese melody and European gothic music.

Anwar – The new album also features a guest vocal appearance by Aural Vampire singer, Exo-Chinka. How was it working with her, and did she collaborate much in the writing process?
Kiwamu: This song is very old song. I wrote this 7years ago before I formed BLOOD. So she is not working for the writing process. First period BLOOD recorded this song at 2002. Recently I had the idea to re-record this song by 3rd period vocalist Fu-ki. When I thought about the female part, I thought Exo-chika was cool. I didn’t know them directly, but I offered. They accepted the guest vocal. Owing to her, the song became very good.

Anwar – As mentioned before this will be Blood’s first tour to Australia. Do you follow the Australian music scene, and do you have any favorite Australian bands?
Fu-ki: Of course I love AC/DC!! And I like BERZERKER.Very good band.
Kiwamu: I used to listen to INXS when I was child. And I like Dead Can Dance. They are very good unit. I have all albums.

Anwar – Finally, do you have any last words/messages for the Australian fans
before heading to Australia?
Fu-ki: I’m looking forward to seeing you!! Thank you.
Kiwamu: If you don’t come to our tour, you will die.

BLOOD tour with GPKISM
[Darkest Labyrinth vol.8] in Australia
June 6 Ace Comics-MEET AND GREETS(Brisbane / QLD)
June 7 GLOBE THEATRE (Brisbane / QLD)
June 8 Kinokuniya-MEET AND GREETS(Sydney / NSW)
June 8 FACTORY THEATRE (Sydney / NSW)
June 9 Kanga Kanga-MEET AND GREETS(Melbourne / VIC)
June 9 Hifi bar (Melbourne / VIC)

Blood Myspace

Blood Official Website (English version)

I’d also like to acknowledge my good friend Cinzia Mecchi for helping me with this interview. 🙂