Interview translation - Kyo on Mortal Downer
I got these scans from the awesome @additionalsorrow's blog - credit and eternal thanks to them!
In Japanese, “Mortal Downer” would translate to something like “ultimate despondency”. Where did you get this phrase from?
Kyo: It’s about the heaviness of the album as a whole. That heaviness is at the centre of everything. Even during live shows, I feel that the essence of Dir en Grey is a kind of heavy, murky atmosphere. As we put the songs together, I felt as if the air in the room was becoming more and more oppressive. I believe this is when this phrase first came up. That being said, I’d like to leave it somewhat up for interpretation. Rather than it having a precise meaning, I’d prefer people to just take in the atmosphere these words give off and judge for themselves.
I see. This album has a more minimalist feel than your previous releases. And even with your vocals, Kyo, it feels like you’re not trying to pack in as many lines here and there as you used to.
Kyo: Yes, I’ve been cutting down on my own singing quite a bit. It’s okay if I write a lot, but lately I’ve been committed to reducing my actual vocal parts. But this is something that changes for me every other year. Right now singing less makes sense to me, but maybe in the future I’ll feel like packing in a lot of vocals again. The thing is, when you’re going for that heavy, murky vibe, it’s better not to overload the songs with vocals. If there’s too much singing, the groove ends up feeling a bit rushed, stretched thin. It’s not that I wanted to do only ballads, though. Even in the heavier tracks, I thought that we could make them even more minimalistic.
It’s an album with a balance that we hadn’t seen before. About the lyrics - you’ve said it many times, Kyo, that you don’t want them to have a set theme, and that you don’t want to be bound by one yourself.
Kyo: That’s right. But naturally, whatever version of myself exists at the time I’m writing the lyrics will come to the surface. So yes, there are certainly some common threads. What I was actually feeling when I was writing this album’s lyrics was “why did I have to be born in times like this?”
It’s a feeling that has always been somewhere inside of me. I think I would have felt the same no matter what era I was born into. So I don’t think it’s a reflection of my current state of mind. It’s more like something more structural, something that has been rooted in me, a part of my personality.
Dir en Grey has been active for roughly 30 years now. These days, there seems to be a particularly strong sense of instability in the world. Do you think this had any influence on this album’s lyrics?
Kyo: Yes, I think it has. When you watch the news, you’re exposed to all these things that you see and hear. Some of these things you’d think were just urban legends or conspiracy theories. And it turns out, some of them are surprisingly and uncomfortably real. And with the advent of AI on top of that, people have become even more easily deceived. It’s gotten harder to tell whether something is real or fake news. So, in the end you’d better think and make an opinion for yourself. This applies to any time in history, not just today. It’s just that today, I find that the sheer amount of information has increased so much that everything became so much more complicated. That’s why it’s so important that, at individual level, people decide what they think is right, and what opinions they stand up for. I think this is something that comes about in this album, to some degree.
Do you think music has the power to change that?
Kyo: No, I don't think so at all. Actually, I never thought about whether music has that power or not. But I don’t know how many people out there think the way I do. People that find life hard. People that are as sensitive as I am. If something in my music resonates with them, I’m happy. When you realise that you’re not the only one who feels this way, that can bring you some comfort. It can help you escape a sense of isolation, even if only a little bit. I’d be happy if my words did that sort of thing.
Since you mention that sense of isolation, I find that there’s something about the lyrics that contrasts the breadth and narrowness of freedom.
Kyo: I think the gist of it is; the world is broad, but the worlds we actually live in are narrow. We’re tied down by all sorts of things, we worry about all sorts of things. We live in a world that is free, yet we aren’t free. That’s not necessarily the theme of the lyrics, but I believe that feeling is pervasive throughout the album.
Dir en Grey will celebrate it’s 30th anniversary in 2027. With such a long history, do you ever wonder how many more albums you will make?
Kyo: I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time, actually. I’m someone who tends to think about life in reverse, I think things through backwards. Every time we make something, I think about what my physical condition will be like, what the different circumstances will be like, what the tour will roughly be like, how much recorded material we’ll have. I’m the type who’s always thinking about things that way.
Do you ever make a sort of bucket list in your head?
Kyo: No, I don’t do that. Because for the most part, I’ve already done pretty much everything I wanted to do. I’m in three bands, I make toys, I try to design clothes, I run a café… I do all sorts of things, and at this point there’s nothing left for me to try. Rather, what worries me is how long I can maintain all of this, how I can raise the quality of each of these things. And then I worry about how I present myself live, how I perform. Going forward, as my stamina starts to decline, I wonder if I’ll continue performing the way I do or if I’ll stop. How I think about that one point could change a lot of things.
It’s interesting that you’re in three bands, Kyo, but you’ve never tried your hand at a solo career. Is that an option you’d explore?
Kyo: [No,] because I can’t write songs. In a solo project, of course you can ask someone else to write songs for you, but that feels a little strange to me. What I love is the strain that’s created by doing things as a band. If I did it all myself, I’d quickly exceed the limits of my own imagination. Of course, with a band things don’t always go the way I want. Sometimes I think what we're doing is not quite it. But there’s also a lot that exceeds my imagination, and that’s what I find enjoyable. If a solo project just meant doing things by myself, there are plenty of things I could do on my own besides singing. So my reasoning is; if I’m going to do something solo, I’d rather go into other areas.
Understood. One last thing: if you have to give Mortal Downer a Japanese title, what words would you choose, Kyo?
Kyo: I suppose it would be “報復（悪意)” [Retaliation (Spite)]. I imagine interpretations will differ from person to person, and some people will simply take it as an ironic phrase. But I think both the title and the album itself, the themes behind it, are something people who have a similar mindset to the five of us will be happy with.
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