#panic panic!

Original Japanese Source: Cure v-splash Vol. 34 Published: July 2016 Part: 2 of 2 Translation: VerwelktesGedicht Note: Not more or less than I said in part 1 xD

- You will have a one man live at Shinsaibashi SUNHALL the day of the release of “Panic Panic!”. You’re from the Kansai-region, so that’s why you’ll hold it in Osaka? Keiya: We’re not giving many onemans, so we’re putting all our power into creating songs but finally we’ve come to the point where we can give onemans. The first time we had one in Osaka and the 2nd time was last December [2015] in Tokyo. We were thinking about where we should do it this time. It would’ve been great to have one in Tokyo AND Osaka but after arguing with ourselves, we thought it would be better to go on an actual one man tour and visit many places. [Before doing that] we decided to hold one in Osaka once again.

- It will be already your 3rd one, so can you already imagine how it will be? Keiya: The topic will be Summer Halloween. It’s fine if everyone who comes doesn’t like it hot, so you can decide to wear costumes. Wearing costumes in summer is quite rare, isn’t it? So we thought it would be interesting to wear costumes while saying “it’s so hot!”. [note: I think he’s just talking about the fact that he thinks of it as unusual hearing people in costumes saying “it’s so hot!” because there’s no real opportunity to wear costumes in summer.] The same day we’ll also have an instore, so I want everyone to show us their costumes! We’re also thinking about what to wear. GAK: This oneman will follow our release “Panic Panic!”. I haven’t really done furi [dance moves] until now but we put lots of them into this song during our live. At our live on August 17th we want to make this song grow together with our fans. Aiming at that we’re giving our current lives, wanting to make that day perfect. Fuma: Comparing it to our first live, we’ve not only changed looks but also what’s inside and the lives themselves. I want to get the people really excited at the live who already came last time and I want to give a live that makes the people who come for the first time feel and think: “People Stone is making so many different kinds of music!?” I also want to hold a live that gives every single person different feelings. The feeling of being back in Osaka for this live is strong.

- You gave your first oneman live around one year ago. People will be able to see how much you’ve grown since then. Keiya: We gave many lives since then and it’s just normal that we’ve grown. I want everyone to feel that way. We want to create a place together with the fans. I think it would be great if also our fans can think of this growing like: “We took part in creating this place as well.” We want to make the live a time when they feel this. Fuma: It’s shortly after the “Obon”-festival in August. I think it would be nice to celebrate Obon and “Panic Panic!” together a bit. When the festival in the beginning is over, it’s already mid-August but that time as well we want our fans to be excited once again and make it a happy summer. Please, don’t do your homework but come to Amemura [where the live takes place] instead! Keiya: What are you saying there! Do it – at the last day of your summer vacation! Fuma: So, listen to “Panic Panic!”, feel the urge to come to our one man live and do your homework the next day, maybe? Keiya: That sounds exhausting! (laughs) Fuma: Maybe you can’t do it when you’re in panic? (laughs) Anyway, please listen to “Panic panic!”

- After the release of this 5th single, fans will hope for an album. Do you have any plans to release one soon? Keiya: We talked about this. We had many conversations if we shall release a single or an album. But there are special things we want to do and we talked about how we can convey these things the best way and how people can enjoy it the best way and how we can get them excited the most. We can’t tell you yet how the next CD will be but we came up with funny things!

 - Do all three of you decide together what’s fun? Keiya: It’s most important that all of us enjoy it. But more than anything else we talk a lot about how to make our fans getting excited and think things like: “That’s what they’re doing next?”, “I’ve never seen something like this before!” or “Today as well I’m so happy I could go to see Purple Stone live.”

- What is your strong point/part [as member of this band]? GAK: It’s sound arrangement. Usually all three of us are doing it but in the end they’re letting me doing it most of the time. Every day we’re focused on one thing: „Speaking of Purple Stone, the sound is not like this.“ Keiya: It’s amazing, because GAK is listening to various types of music, also to popular and super new music. I have trust in him, so that’s why I leave it up to him. Fuma: The others let me write lyrics. I like Keiya’s voice and want him to spread those words out into the world. That’s why we came together. This might be my part – to write the lyrics that can fulfill our goal. Sometimes I let him sing strange lyrics and there are people that seem to become strange by singing it. But when it’s a vocal with character it doesn’t sound weird. That’s important. Keiya: When it comes to being proud of their own skills, I think that Fuma-kun can be proud of the lyrics he writes and GAK-kun of the songs he composes. It’s so cool! When Fuma-kun talks about things that haven’t to do with politics I think that he’s such an interesting person. Sometimes he comes up with extraordinary lyrics like in „Panic Panic tonight“. When I sing lyrics just like that there are also times when they don’t sound cool. When you sing them to a cool sound it gives you a feeling of strangeness. I think about how to make them sound cool with a special kind of music. I often think: “Whatever lyrics they write, it would be great to make them sound cool.” I think that’s my part.

Original Japanese Source: Cure v-splash Vol. 34 Published: July 2016 Part: 1 of 2 Translation: VerwelktesGedicht Note: Magazine interviews are always exhausting but I tried my best! Have fun reading it!

- First of all, please tell us where your band name comes from! Keiya: It comes from a purple stone called amethyst. It’s said that it’s a stone that protects you, a talisman. People believe that this stone has the power to turn bad into good. So this band name means that we want to create songs and give lives and take all the bad things and all the pain in everyone’s daily life and turn it into something good.

- Do you have a band concept? Keiya: The origin of our band name is our main concept. We’re active in this Visual Kei scene but we don’t want to act like this or that because “This is how Visual Kei is supposed to be”. We want to be able to think about us and the things we create: “This is so cool!”, so we’re producing our sounds without any limits.

- Purple Stone includes various sounds. Don’t you want to tell us something about your roots when it comes to music? GAK: I was influenced by T.M.Revolution, so I wanted to compose music like this on my own. That’s how I found my way to music. In the beginning I created songs on my computer. But later I thought it would be better to play the guitar and so I started to learn playing the guitar. Now I’m in this band, playing the guitar. Fuma: Music got my attention thanks to B’z. Back then there were times when I thought that it’s not cool to like Jpop, so I went over to punk, loud rock and hard core music and then to R&B, then to the hard rock of the 80ies and then back to Jpop. Among the punk music I listened to were also Visual Kei bands. I liked darker bands and Kuroyume-san, L’ Arc~en~Ciel and Laputa. Keiya: I like vocals who sing in a cool way. I always liked Takajima Takui-san. His songs gave me strength again and again. It made me think that I also want to sing songs that give other people strength. Speaking of my roots, I think it was Siam Shade-san, L’ Arc~en~Ciel-san and Kuroyume-san. It’s said that if the melody isn’t good, the music itself isn’t good.

- Purple Stone’s music and melody is quite special as well, isn’t it? Keiya: That’s because we three decided all together: “If the melody isn’t good, we won’t do it.” We’re composing every day, thinking about how we can make the melody better if it isn’t good.

- Your on August 17th, 2016 released single “Panic Panic!”… What kind of songs are featured on it? GAK: We started thinking about it without speaking about what kind of sound we want – until we were talking about the lyrics and point of view. We wanted to make people think something like: “Is this really Purple Stone’s new song??” So we composed a song that combines the recently popular EDM dance music and our own Visual Kei rock sound. I composed almost the complete first chorus, gave it to the members and they agreed to it. So we started writing the lyrics, fixed the melody and released it.

- Who wrote the lyrics? Keiya: This time it was Fuma-kun. Fuma: GAK-kun used quite strange words in his demo. I thought it’s interesting, so used some of it.

 - What is the topic of this song? Fuma: The topic is “Summer Halloween” but the song itself is quite party-like, so I thought if the lyrics will be super party-like as well then we’ve just created a party-song (laughs). I like Zombies a lot, and they are set to be self-developed human beings coming from the end of the world, so I thought I want to write about something like that and did it. Keiya: We started from the point where we wanted to include some Horror. Halloween is in October but somehow we ended up a bit early and thought: Wouldn’t it be funny to celebrate Halloween in summer? Speaking of our artist shoot, the CD cover and the usual jack o’latern, it was a usual pumpkin but then we thought we’ll play around and made it a watermelon [on the CD-cover].

- Watching the MV, there’s a lot of Furi and Dance moves and it seems to be fun. Are you doing them together with the fans? Keiya: I didn’t especially think about dancing together with the fans but when we tried doing it live everyone wanted to dance as well. Seeing that it made me think: “Well then, let’s dance together and have fun together!” With this song I got the impression that our fans are teaching us a lot and things are changing.

- And for fans that haven’t been to your lives yet, this is a song that easily function as entrance to your music, don’t you think so? Keiya: I do! I think it would be nice if this song makes people that aren’t listening to Visual Kei music being interested in Visual Kei. For us this is the reason to compose music. In the end even the Bangya who are Bangya today weren’t born as Bangya. They became it because they watched various bands and thought they are good. I think for all of you there are bands that made you think that way. It would be nice if we can become a band like that. I’d be happy if this song became a step for it.

- I see! Going with this title “panic panic!!”, nobody likes to panic. What are the things you are bad at (= that make you panic)? GAK: I hate the sound of Velcro fastener. It makes such a ripping sound. Keiya: Wha~~t! I didn’t know that! GAK: (He uses the Velcro fastener on his own outfit) That sound… I can’t stand it. Fuma: You just did it yourself! (laughs) GAK: Well, only like this is okay. But if you do it on your shoes, I really just go: “uuuh……”. If you compare it, the sound some people make on a blackboard is more bearable for me. Fuma: Eeh~!? What about [working for] a Velcro fastener company? GAK: A metallic sound is fine but when it comes to Velcro fastener, I don’t like it. I really can’t stand it when people do it near to my ear. Fuma: Long ago I went to my grandma’s house and there was a spider that had feet as long as alien hands. My grandma went to get a broom and hit it but somehow it didn’t die. With broken legs it left through the entrance. I was so scared back then. That’s why in my childhood I thought that when spiders become big they can’t die. That was a trauma for me. Keiya: I hate the sound of scratching over metal or frosted glass. At our office at the entrance there is a place where you can bring in your equipment but when we come back from our tour and want to bring back the equipment there is this backdoor made of metal and the ground is stone pavement. When you open it it makes a horrible “Giiiiii!!“-sound. Everyone already knows that, so we try to open it soooooftly but sometimes, when we’re very drunk and exhausted, we open the door and it makes this “Giiiiii!!”-sound and everyone goes “Aaaaa~~~~!!!” and it feels like you lose a part of your life force. I hate that. GAK: I can’t understand that at all. I like the sound of metal. I also like the sound of a drill when you go to the dentist.

 - What do you think about including that sound in music? GAK: I can’t understand at all how you can like that in music… Keiya: So next time, let’s include the sound of Velcro in the intro of our new song! GAK: That would be so hard (laughs)

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it made me chose between key & taemin. But I love them both. Equally. >.<

And how dare this game make me choose between jonghun & minhwan? waeee~

lastly, between soohyun & dongho. :|