ROCK AND READ BAND 002 — キズ(KIZU) interview (July 2018)
Interviewer: It’s been a year since Kizu started. People are saying that Kizu is one of the most exciting and fast-rising bands right now. How do you feel about that?
Lime: I’m honored. I also think Kizu is the coolest band in the world.
Interviewer: From the beginning, you set out to create a band that is unique, right? Were you and Reiki the core members?
Lime: It all started with Reiki. He told me he would go back to his hometown If he couldn’t be in a band with me.
Interviewer: He actually said that?
Lime: Yeah, but I just thought, Then go.
Kyonosuke: That’s cold! (laughs)
Interviewer: How did the two of you originally meet?
Lime: We were in the same agency, as senior and junior members. If you go even further back, the first time I saw Reiki was about six years ago. At the time, I thought, Wow, what an amazing guitarist. The second I saw his rehearsal performance, I knew—this guy’s crazy, he’s unhinged.
Interviewer: Was it his performance that made you think that?
Lime: Yeah. It was really cool. But at the time, we both had just started our bands, so there was a lot of tension. I was thinking, I’m going to completely crush this guy, so I definitely thought we’d never become friends.
Interviewer: So you didn’t intend to become friends at the start.
Reiki: Even when we shared the same dressing room, we only exchanged greetings. But then, one day, we randomly ran into each other at the nearest train station. That’s when we found out we lived in the same neighborhood. That's how we became friends. I asked Lime why he was in a band.
Interviewer: And what did Lime say in response?
Reiki: He kind of gave this lazy “ehhh” and said “Because I wanna be popular” (laughs).
Lime: I mean, everyone who’s in a band is like that, right? Most people say they started a band because they admired some rock star, but in reality, they just wanted to be famous, like that person. I started a band because I wanted to be like Hide and be popular. Well, that's how it was at the start (laughs).
Interviewer: Reiki, were you struggling with something when you asked Lime that question? What kind of answer were you hoping for?
Reiki: It’s not like I had a specific answer I was hoping to hear. When you talk to someone about your worries, it’s usually because you don’t know what to do—but at the same time, you kind of already have an idea in your mind of what you want to hear. But Lime always gives answers that are different from what I can imagine. What he said made me think, Wow, that’s cool. I started to wonder if maybe I was overthinking things.
Interviewer: Overthinking?
Reiki: Yeah. Back then, I had just moved to Tokyo, and I was constantly looking for the purpose of being in a band. I’d always looked up to the visual kei scene, but once I actually became part of it, it felt different from what I had imagined. After a while, I stopped thinking it was cool. It wasn’t like I was trying to pander to the audience, but I kept thinking about what was the right way to do it.
Lime: He was definitely struggling. So I tried to listen and give advice. But when Reiki said “I didn’t move to Tokyo just to sell chekis,” that really hit me hard.
Interviewer: Reiki, what exactly did you mean by that?
Reiki: I meant exactly what I said. Doing music as part of being in a band should be a given. We make CDs because we want people to hear our songs. But the excitement I felt when we finished a CD was kind of overshadowed by chekis. I’ve said this before, but visual kei bands nowadays are way too close to their fans. Back when I was just a fan, the idea of being able to “reach” the band I liked didn’t even exist. I loved Visual Kei because they felt like something far above me. But now, that distance is gone and there's less to look up to. When I realized this I started feeling like I wanted to quit my old band.
Lime: I’m not trying to criticize the cheki culture, but I felt the same way. So when Reiki said that, it really made me think. Honestly, that was one of the things that led me to leaving my old band too.
Interviewer: What do you mean by that?
Lime: I gave Reiki advice as a senior, but I realized I wasn’t living anything I was saying. And that kind of makes everything you say meaningless, right? The more I thought about it, the more I felt like, What’s the point of this a band if I can’t even express my thoughts? So, I ended up deciding to quit my previous band.
Interviewer: You weren't lying to yourself back then but you were maybe hiding your true feelings somewhere deep down?
Lime: I was speaking the truth. But it felt like my vocal abilities and my thoughts were being wasted. And that made me feel like this wasn’t where I'm supposed to be. It was a band I started because I wanted to, and I couldn’t understand why I was feeling that way, but it was painful. In the end, I couldn’t love myself or the band anymore. I could say I got bored of it, or that we had creative differences, but if you asked me whether I liked it or not… I just didn’t.
Interviewer: That’s pretty straightforward.
Lime: Well, making excuses doesn’t mean you’ll be forgiven. So, I decided to quit and live life the way I want. But it’s not like I thought I could change the visual kei scene all by myself. Just like I got so much from my seniors, I wanted to be able to pass something on to the next generation too. I figured if we keep that going, maybe the scene will start to change, even if just a little. That’s why I decided to start a self-indulgent band with Reiki.
Interviewer: I see. So, Reiki, why did you insist on having Lime as the vocalist?
Reiki: I’ve always liked bands where the vocalist is the coolest member. The vocalist is the face of the band so he needs to have charisma, presence, but also a sense of responsibility, persuasiveness and he has to have empathy. When I thought about what kind of vocalist embodied all that, the face of my closest senior—Lime, came to mind. So I asked him. Lime and I had always talked about wanting to change the visual kei scene, and he's pretty close to my image of the ideal vocalist.
Interviewer: Was there anything else?
Reiki: His vocal ability is exceptional, and he’s a little bit twisted, unlike other people, which makes him interesting. That’s why I really wanted him in the band. I’ve always gotten everything I wanted. So this time too, I had to have Lime.
Lime: I liked Reiki the most out of all my juniors, I thought he was cool, and I was certain he’d be successful. So when he asked me about forming a new band, I told him to first find a good vocalist. But then he said "I don’t want anyone else but you."
Interviewer: So you thought the band would be more interesting if Lime joins?
Reiki: I didn’t feel the responsibility to make it interesting, but I did have a clear vision of the kind of band I wanted. If I was going to do it, I wanted to create something that would last even after I die. And I also wanted to breathe new life into the visual kei scene. But even after I invited Lime, neither of us was very straightforward, so we never actually said “Let’s start a band together.” Before we knew it, we were already talking about What should we name the band? How should we present ourselves?
Interviewer: That’s a pretty fast development.
Lime: But I’d been giving Reiki advice for a long time, so I already understood what he wanted to do. We had good communication, so even starting a new band didn’t require us to sit down and formally decide anything. It was more like, Let’s just do exactly what we want, for our own satisfaction. These days, there’s this trend that says self-indulgence is bad, that we should be thinking more about others, but we just thought—if people see us having fun, they’ll enjoy it too.
Interviewer: That’s a great theme.
Lime: Even now, people often say our live shows are self-indulgent. But of course they are—because we wanted to create a self-indulgent band (laughs). We gathered the best members for that. Well, the timing worked out really well too.
Interviewer: How did the other two members end up joining?
Lime: Yue was someone Reiki found. He told me “There’s this tall and extremely handsome bassist who plays really well.” And I was like “There’s no way someone that perfect actually exists. And even if he does, there has to be something wrong with him on the inside!”
Yue: Has to be (laughs).
Lime: I was suspicious from the start. So, when we were supposed to go to the studio together, I didn’t go. I thought it was a waste of time (laughs).
Interviewer: Wow. Yue, were you in another band at the time?
Lime: At the time, Yue was just doing the occasional session gig. And that felt like a total waste of his talent.
Yue: For me, those session gigs were kind of a way to help people out. A band I knew said they wanted to do a live show in Tokyo but didn’t have a bassist, so they asked me to support them. I said “I’ll help you out.” But I didn’t have any particular feelings about it.
Interviewer: No particular feelings? About whether you wanted to do it or not?
Yue: That's right. It’s not that I didn’t want to do it, but I wasn’t excited about it either. It wasn’t fun. I was just there, playing bass.
Interviewer: Did you not try to find any value in your presence there?
Yue: Not at all. It was just a session band, so it wasn’t like we were going to continue doing anything long-term. It was more like I was just fulfilling my role for that one day, in that moment. Of course, I had ambitions as a bassist. I used to be in a visual kei band back in my hometown, Nagoya. I had always wanted to start a serious band, but I could never find the right members. So I ended up compromising and starting a bands under less-than-ideal conditions. Looking back, I realize I had really high standards even then.
Interviewer: I see. So, while carrying that feeling of frustration, you eventually met Reiki?
Reiki: Yeah, we were introduced through someone else. I first met Yue at a dinner.
Yue: Do you remember?
Reiki: Yeah, I remember. But it’s not like we talked about starting a band or anything. We were both being polite, so it was just a normal conversation, about music we liked and stuff.
Yue: And we didn’t even share the same musical roots. At that time the only thing we had in common was that we both loved music.
Reiki: Later on, we ended up in the studio together, and I told Yue that I wanted to make a simple band.
Interviewer: What do you mean by a "simple" band?
Reiki: A band that anyone can play, which has that human touch to it—something that’s cool. It’s something that can be played by others, but you can’t really replicate the sound unless you have those specific members. And once we actually started playing together, it was just so much fun. That’s when we really started to get along.
Interviewer: So you both shared a similar ambition?
Reiki: Not just the same ambition, but I felt like bass was everything to him. He just wanted to be in a band and play bass. That’s when I thought, I want to do a band with him.
Interviewer: I see. So how did you invite Kyonosuke?
Reiki: Kyonos was also introduced to me by someone. I was told “There’s this kid who wants to be in a band with you.” Naturally, I assumed it was someone I already knew. But when I got introduced, it turned out to be this drummer I had never seen or heard of before. I was like, Who the hell is this? (laughs)
Kyonosuke: At the time, I wasn’t in a proper band, so yeah, I was a completely unknown drummer. But from my perspective, I'd seen Reiki's live shows and knew of him.
Lime: Ew, that's creepy! (laughs)
Kyonosuke: Come on (laughs) After that, I sent him a message through his personal blog. I wrote: “Please come see my live show.”
Interviewer: And how did you respond to that, Reiki?
Reiki: Hm? I didn’t see it.
Kyonosuke: He didn’t see it! I sent it properly too…
Lime: Can’t be helped, Reiki hates the internet (laughs).
Interviewer: Sending a direct message like that is pretty bold.
Kyonosuke: Back then, I wasn’t signed to any agency, so that was the only way I could think of.
Reiki: I was still looking for members at the time. I didn’t know who he was, but I figured I couldn’t make any decisions until I actually saw him play. So after getting a proper introduction through someone, I went to see his live show. And when I watched him perform, I felt like he had a passion similar to mine. But his drumming was absolutely terrible (laughs).
Interviewer: Back then, did Kyonosuke have the same flashy appearance as he does now?
Reiki: Yep. He had those big colored contact lenses in. After I saw the live show and was about to leave, he came up to me and said “Thank you for coming today.” And for some reason, I said “You want to be in a band with me? How cocky of you.”
Kyonosuke: That was literally the first conversation we ever had.
Interviewer: Being called rude like that, I imagine it didn’t leave the best impression?
Kyonosuke: No, it was the worst. I thought, I can't be in a band with someone this scary.
Lime: He's a scary person (laughs).
Reiki: That’s so mean! (laughs)
Kyonosuke: Reiki was completely the opposite of the type of person I was used to being around. So at first, I was just... whoa.
Interviewer: How did you build your relationship from there?
Reiki: I said earlier his drumming was bad, but technical skill is something people can improve with effort, right? When I saw that first live, I felt like Kyonos had potential. So I decided to go see him play one more time. I asked everyone to please come and watch him at least once.
Kyonosuke: First, Reiki and Yue came to watch me. Then later, Reiki and Lime came together.
Reiki: That’s when I really felt the possibility. I thought, Yeah, this could work.
Lime: You can usually tell what kind of person someone is by the look in their eyes when they’re on stage.
Reiki: Yeah, I always look at the eyes. But you were completely against Kyonos until you saw him live.
Lime: No, no, you were the one who said, "There's this cocky guy," and then turned around and begged me “Please, just come watch him.” So which is it?! (laughs)
Interviewer: Good point (laughs).
Lime: But with Kyonos, I think it was that boldness that actually appealed to us in the end.
Reiki: Yeah. He didn’t have anything about him that was polished, but there was this fire in him, like, I’m gonna outshine everyone around me! His fighting spirit, I guess, was incredible.
Lime: In the end, it's not about technical skill—it's about whether or not we could play in a band together. I thought I could do it with Kyonos. Even though I didn’t know much about him at the time, I thought, Yeah, I can do this with him.
Reiki: So we decided to move forward and have a real meeting to officially bring him on as a member. And at the time, I also wanted one more guitarist.
Interviewer: Oh, so from the start you were planning to have two guitarists?
Reiki: Yeah, that was the original plan. I had some candidates in mind, but we could never make a final decision. And then Lime said something, right?
Lime: Yeah. I said to the guitarist we were considering "If you’re not willing to join us as the shimote guitarist, then we’re going to move forward as a four-member band. If you can’t do it, we won’t be looking for another guitarist."
Interviewer: So the fact that you're currently a four-member band means that person declined your offer?
Lime: Yeah, yeah (wry smile). He said he had other goals and couldn’t commit to being in a band. When I heard that, it honestly felt like I got dumped.
Reiki: I really tried to figure out a way to bring him in. He was a guitarist completely different from me in style, it would've been dangerously unstable. It felt like something not meant to be mixed.
Lime: I still wish he had joined. Four people are enough, but if he had joined, we could’ve done something even more amazing. So I’ve told him—if you ever feel like joining, just contact me. Please write this in big letters: I’m still waiting for you! (laughs)
Interviewer: That’s quite the story, Kizu officially launched as a four-member band in 2017. You caused quite a stir with your unprecedented debut—taking anonymous phone calls and listening to fans’ problems.
Lime: Yeah, we put out flyers with a statement. That brings back memories. The words on that flyer were written by me.
Interviewer: Phrase like “Please tell us about your wounds!” really grabbed attention. But why did you choose to start the band by inviting fans to share their worries and frustrations through phone calls?
Lime: It’s just like I wrote in that statement. These days, the distance between bands and fans is technically very close—but it’s all surface-level. For example, at in-store events, you might be able to interact directly with fans and exchange a few words, but you never get to understand their real struggles. When I thought about it, I realized that I didn’t really know anything about the fans. Sure, I can tell, This fan likes this member, or That girl always comes with a smile. But I had no idea what kind of anxieties they were carrying with them. And that made me wonder, what kind of people am I singing for? To find that out, I thought I needed to talk to them one-on-one.
Interviewer: So that’s what you were thinking.
Lime: But I knew that if I revealed my name, only my fans would call in. That would defeat the original purpose of hearing real worries and complaints. I wanted them to talk to me as a person, not as a "fan of me." So, I kept my identity hidden while I took those calls. But even now, people in the industry say things like “That phone call project was a great promotional strategy for a new band.” But I didn’t do it to attract attention or for business. So when I hear that kind of thing, I just think, You don’t understand visual kei at all.
Interviewer: How did it feel to actually take those calls?
Lime: We did it over three days. Just three hours a day, but the phone was ringing nonstop. Some callers opened with “I want to die.” People brought up things we could never print in a magazine. There were a lot of heavy stories.
Interviewer: And you didn’t set a time limit per caller, right?
Lime: If someone is seriously opening up to you, someone you can’t even see, are you going to hang up after five minutes? Of course not. At that time, I felt like a teen helpline worker or something. And I will never be able to do something like that again. Because if I tried, only my fans would call. So it was a truly valuable and meaningful experience. If we hadn’t done that project, the message of Kizu would be way less impactful.
Interviewer: And after that, Kizu officially announced their debut.
Lime: We used flyers to announce that our first song, Oshimai, was finished, and that we’d be doing a one-man show. Normally, when a band starts, they prepare a really hopeful song. But that’s not what I was looking for at all. That’s why I titled the song Oshimai (The End).
Interviewer: That seems to be influenced by the phone call experience. Did those conversations influence the band’s concept?
Lime: The concept itself didn’t change. Even now, a year after we launched, we still haven’t talked about our “theme” or “concept”. But the phone project helped to narrow down the theme.
Interviewer: Still, calling your beginning “The End” is quite a bold move.
Lime: Well, that’s because I felt like nothing had begun. People often say “plus minus zero,” but for us, each of us had already suffered so many wounds that we were starting from a negative. That’s why I titled our first song Oshimai. Once you label something as the end, it can’t get any more negative than that. So in a way, it was actually very optimistic, by starting at the lowest point, I knew that anything we released after that would be more hopeful.
Interviewer: I see. Then came your first one-man show, titled Shippai (Failure).
Lime: What’s annoying is that when you see articles online, they just say “Kizu’s first one-man live: Failure.” Which makes it sound like the show was a failure, and that sucks (laughs).
Interviewer: But in reality, it was a huge success (laughs).
Lime: There was a reason we named it Failure. Even if the live show was great, I wanted our future selves to grow so much that we could look back and say “Yeah, that day was a failure compared to what we are now.”
Interviewer: So that was the true meaning behind “Shippai.” From the start, Kizu also drew attention for your visual style, especially the fact that all the members appeared wearing shironuri. It couldn't go unnoticed.
Lime: We’re in our rebellious phase. That’s why we want to do things other people aren’t doing.
Reiki: Yeah, that’s true.
Lime: I think the kind of thing society wants right now is the complete opposite of rebellion. If you're the slightest bit edgy or rebellious, you'll get in trouble right away. They expect even rock bands now to be "well-behaved." So, we, with our cheeky personalities, want to destroy that kind of thing.
Interviewer: So, because you're not the “good people” society expects, is that why you don’t promote things on social media with messages like “Buy our CD” or “Come to our show”?
Lime: That's right. When we first started, I honestly thought we didn’t need anything beyond the band name Kizu. In fact, I even felt like we didn't need stage names.
Interviewer: A true rebellious phase. But from our side, you having stage names is definitely helpful.
Lime: It’d be tough to call us without names (laughs). But I think if we’d ended up calling ourselves things like 'Kizu No.1' 'Kizu No.2' we would’ve ended up becoming a strangely cohesive band. After all, right now, we're so disjointed that I feel like we're each performing a different show. So, calling us disjointed is the highest compliment you could give us. Fundamentally, I’m glad we each have our own names.
Interviewer: From there, Kizu’s activities have progressed incredibly smoothly, like increasing the capacity for your one-man shows.
Lime: We're not particularly concerned about the size of the venue. I’ve always said I would be fine with playing small live houses for the rest of my life, even if that meant not becoming successful.
Interviewer: What do you mean by that?
Lime: We’re not doing music as a business. Like I said before, we’re doing this band purely for our own satisfaction. So we can do whatever we want, and even now, I don’t think about becoming famous.
Interviewer: Your words carry resolve.
Lime: We are resolved. We were prepared to hear fans who knew us from the past to say “You were better before.” But no one ever said that. That’s probably why we’ve been able to keep moving forward so steadily. Looking back, I realize we were fighting against our past selves back then.
Reiki: Yeah, that’s true.
Lime: Back then, we wanted people to feel the connection to us through our music rather than through things like chekis. But thinking about it now, that just means we were the problem for not creating songs that could make people feel that way. If you're doing music properly, there's no need to pander. The audience shouldn't be blamed for our own faults. But with Kizu, when we started truly pouring our life into the music, we realized just how deeply it can resonate. That’s why Kizu is now seen as a band with real momentum.
Interviewer: Riding that momentum, all three of your recent singles have now been released digitally in 111 countries via the iTunes Store. And on September 24, you’re set to play your biggest solo show yet, at Zepp Tokyo.
Lime: We increased the capacity simply because we couldn't fit everyone in. Now, I know that sounds like we’re getting carried away, but since our first one-man show, our tickets have been selling out, and more and more fans were unable to see us live. It’s sad when people want to see us but can’t. And on top of that, seeing tickets being resold really pissed me off. We thought about what we could do to make sure the people who truly want to come can actually be there. The only answer was to raise the capacity. That’s why we chose Zepp Tokyo. But we can't be complacent about selling out tickets. What matters more than the number of people attending is whether we can fill the hearts of those who do come.
Interviewer: So then, what do you think is the reason behind your popularity?
Reiki: Honestly, I have no idea why people come to see Kizu. I really don't know. For me, it’s just… Why?
Lime: We're just doing whatever we want. But I think it’s really important to take care of ourselves while doing the band. I genuinely think I’m Kizu’s biggest fan. That’s why I can create something I’m satisfied with, and if other people end up liking it too, that makes me really happy. But if we forced ourselves to please other people, either we or the audience would just get tired.
Reiki: Trying to conform to others isn’t kindness, it’s just losing your direction. But yeah, I do think that the idea of being your own biggest fan is really true. Whenever I start doubting myself, wondering, Am I even doing the right thing? just thinking about it that way helps me feel confident again. It reminds me that people are watching and listening.
Interviewer: It sounds like you've each grown since your time in your previous bands.
Kyonosuke: My way of thinking has changed a lot. For a long time, I wanted to be in a band, but I couldn't find one that matched the kind of vision I had. And even though I didn’t want to compromise by just agreeing with anyone, that’s how things always seemed to start. But now, I’m in a band with members who go beyond what I imagined and that makes me really happy. I never wanted to be in a band that was just treated like some kind of fashion statement. That’s why when Lime and Reiki said “We don’t care about appearance or genre,” I wanted to follow them, because they wanted to make a band where Lime's message is conveyed and expressed. Like with our new song Steroid, we have a flashy look, but that visual style comes from trying to express what Lime is trying to say through the song, so I hope that comes across well.
Interviewer: Do you also feel happy to have joined Kizu, Yue?
Yue: This band started because I personally found it interesting, and honestly, I’m always glad we formed it. I’m a member, of course, but whenever Kizu does something, I get genuinely curious and invested in it. Like I mentioned earlier, I started playing in bands in my teens, but as I kept going, I began to feel like being a band member had an expiration date. That's why you shouldn't waste your precious youthful years. So when Lime said I was being wasted, it really resonated with me.
Interviewer: It would be a shame to waste that potential.
Yue: Until now, I had been making music that I wasn't satisfied with, and I was doing something completely different from the kind of band man I had always wanted to be. I would end up compromising, forming bands, then breaking them up, again and again. And in the end, there was barely anything meaningful left behind. It might sound harsh, but I didn’t want to be dragged down by people who just sort of ended up in the scene. So I made a decision: If I couldn’t be fully satisfied, I would never be in a band again. But, I still couldn’t find the kind of band I really wanted to be in. Meanwhile, my friends in other bands were becoming successful before me, and I kept wondering what I even came to Tokyo for. There were times I felt like my spirit was breaking, but I pushed through it thinking, Just you wait—I’ll show you. Still, I never wanted to start a band just for the sake of it, by picking random members—because I didn’t want to regret it. That’s why I’m really grateful that we've been able to gather members which I think are truly cool.
Interviewer: So you were saved by your bandmates.
Lime: No, actually, I'm the one who's been saved by them. These three always go along with me, even though I'm a bit moody. Because of that, I’m able to charge forward without worrying about what others think. Honestly, I feel incredibly lucky and blessed.
Interviewer: Lastly, could you please tell us what kind of future Kizu envisions?
Lime: I don’t really think about the future. Rather than setting a goal like playing at the Dome someday, I just want to feel whatever I'm feeling in that moment and create music that will leave a lasting impression. I also want to destroy the rotten parts of the scene we’re in and reset everything to zero. If we can do that, it might make things easier for the younger bands coming up after us. So yeah, our mission is to eradicate everything that’s rotten, so that the next generation can create better music.
◆ ◆ ◆
◆ ◆ ◆
