If you're listening to Grieva's songs, you'll be tickled by nostalgia. So it's not surprising that their band concept says "we're the successors of the good old times" and that they have the aura of a kotekote* Visual kei band, such as the ones that formed the second half of the 90ies.
[...]
Restoring the good old times of the Visual scene
-- Because this is our first interview with you, please tell us about how you guys got together as a band
Kyoki: Grieva's start was when me and Roku said we wanted to start a band. At first we thought about what concept we want and suddenly we thought of "reviving the good old days". It's something that doesn't exist right now and so we came to start a kotekote Visual kei band. We started looking for members who also sympathized with this concept and, moreover, who want to aim high together with us, because that's what we thought would be nice. That's how we five gathered. We wanted to become a band that leaves a shocking impression on the (current) Visual scene. We went to various live houses and went by word of mouth in order to gather everyone.
-- Speaking of "restoring the good old times", by "good old times" you certainly thought of the Visual kei of the second half of the 90ies at once, right?
Kyoki: Yes, that's right. We wanted to revive the impressions that we've received of that era.
Haru: I also love the Visual kei of that time and I also listened to it. Therefore, when I was invited to do this band together, I simply thought "this is going to be fun".
Rui: Grieva appears to be kotekote and to be a band with lots of violent songs, but because I've never been in a band like this before until now, I immediately thought of DIR EN GREY, a band that I loved listening to when I was a student, when I've heard of the plans to form such a band. I thought "wouldn't it be fun to try doing the same violent 90ies Visual kei again now".
-- Among your generation, DIR EN GREY was certainly the center of everything, right?
Kyouki: That's right. But as for the music, can't you hear that it's going against the current? Even if it wasn't real time, I was also listening to bands like X JAPAN or LUNA SEA, because you can also listen to them afterwards. Nevertheless, without restricting ourselves to DIR EN GREY, we wanted to revive the music and the style of that awesome era.
-- The longing to be kote-kei must therefore be really strong?
Kyouki: Nowadays, there are almost no kotekote Visual kei bands around, right? Of course it has also become less popular.
-- Nowadays, there are many colorful and sparkling bands out there, right.
Kyouki: But for us, Visual kei is that kind of style. "THIS is Visual kei!", this is our ideal. I have a feeling that having such a style now is going to be really interesting. The way it is now, Visual kei will die out someday. That's why we wanted to create a band that everyone, no matter who, will recognize this kotekote band as Visual kei.
-- Right now, how are the reactions of your fans?
Kyouki: People who've been listening to the 90ies Visual kei are like "this brings back so many memories". On the other hand, fans from the younger generations say "I haven't heard something like this before".
-- There's a wide variety of fans, it seems.
Kyouki: There are people of various ages, yes.
-- I see. The conversation is going well, but now, tell us about why you have started with making music. What has been your motivation?
Kyouki: When I started listening to DIR EN GREY, my attitude towards music changed. It's like I woke up. I thought that I also wanted to be in such a cool band and I also wanted to express myself by music as awesome as that.
-- Have been a vocal from the beginning, Kyouki?
Kyouki: Yes. I also have musical instruments and can play the basics, but I'm definitely a vocal.
--
* kotekote kei = couldn't describe it any better, so here's a link
Translated by me, please don't take without permission （・ω・)
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