jkleinDuring Sakura Con 2010, JrockRevolution.com had the opportunity to get to know Dazzle Vision a little better.
First of all, please introduce yourselves to the readers at JrockRevolution.com.
Maiko: Maiko, vocals.
Haru: Haru, drums.
Takuro: Takuro, bass guitar.
What made you decide on the kind of music you make? Did you have influence from other bands you listen to?
Maiko: The concept for our music is [that] children create the world and the music is pure and emotional. And the closet genre that works with that is scream-pop. My influence was Disney and Ghibli.
Haru: A variety of punk bands.
Anyone specific?
Haru: I don’t remember anymore. I can remember Green Day. [laughs]
Takuro: LUNA SEA and game music.
How did you decide on the name Dazzle Vision? Were there any other names that you were considering?
Maiko: One of our senpai gave us the name.
Do you know how he came up with it?
Maiko: No idea.
For your [latest album], what was the message you wanted to get across to your listeners?
Maiko: This is a little bit long.
[Laughter]
Maiko: With our first album, we just released what we wanted. It was all just whatever we wanted to do and we released it right away. We just went with the flow on that album. With our second album, it was just one color: red. If you look at the cover, you know that. As a band, we had finally got ourselves together. And that was sort of the message there, just that one color. The third album, it’s a rainbow. So that single color has expanded into a rainbow. We titled our new album to the next because we knew we were releasing it for the first time in America—so having “new world” as part of the theme, we decided to name it to the next. The jacket for that album, we decided on a Japanese theme. So we have a Japanese design also on the album art.
From any of your releases, what is your favorite song to perform live and why?
Haru: It’s different for everyone.
Takuro: “Metsu.” Because I get to dive in that song.
[Laughter]
Haru: “Child be found of…” I’m not sure why. That’s almost always our first song in a concert.
Maiko: We almost always start with that song.
Haru: It feels good to be able to shout something.
Maiko: For me it’s the song “Here” because in the song, I put up my fist and I get to see how wild everyone is, how crazy they are, how many people are putting up their fists. So I get to see the reaction.
Do you guys like to interact with the fans a lot during lives?
Maiko: Yeah, if they do it, it’s great. Everyone’s doing it, we love it.
What song or album would you recommend to new listeners of Dazzle Vision?
Maiko: Our latest album, to the next.
Any one song off of that album?
Haru: Just one song? The track called “to the next”, and “Vision”. “Boku ga Boku de Aru tame ni”.
Maiko: It depends.
“to the next” for pop, “Vision”, for hardcore.
Do you like adding a lot of diversity as far as pop and hardcore?
Maiko: Yeah, we like to mix the genres up.
Do you have any funny or odd incidents that you can share from previous tours?
Haru: Takuro almost didn’t make it into America for this tour.
[Laughter]
What happened?
Haru: They asked him, “why are you here?” He said, “I’m here to play guitar!” Then they caught him and they sent him to another room and he got interviewed. It took about an hour.
Maiko: He didn’t come at all! We were just waiting for him, we didn’t know what happened.
Takuro: It was dangerous. [laughter]
What did they ask you?
Maiko: He doesn’t understand English, so he only looked more and more suspicious because he didn’t understand what they were saying.
[laughter]
Haru: He said, “bring all the members over.” Then Ken, our engineer, came over and he speaks some English.
[laughter]
Takuro: He saved us.
Well, that’s good! We’re glad you got here.
Haru: It was dangerous. [laughs]
What are your interests right now, outside of music?
Maiko: I love anime. One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Crayon Shin-chan, Meitantei Conan, Sazae-san, Hunter x Hunter…
Haru: She added Conan to the list. It wasn’t there earlier.
Maiko: I watch anime almost every day.
Haru: I love anime, manga, games, baseball.
Takuro: Soccer… maybe watching DVDs.
Did you play sports in school?
Takuro: Yeah, I played soccer.
What is the mood like when you are recording an album? Do you tend to be very serious or is there some amount of humor involved?
Haru: I’m not usually super serious until I’m recording the drums, I get very serious about what I’m doing and I’m really into my own little world.
Takuro: I’m really enjoying it. It’s not a lot of pressure for me at all.
Maiko: Rather than sing a melody, I sing with feeling. So I’m not really trying to sing good, what I’m trying to do is relay my pure emotion in the song.
What has been the hardest part of your career since you began?
Maiko: It’s been really tough for us. We started with dual guitars, and one of them quit. And then another quit, and we brought in Yu. It’s just tough when members leave.
Does it get easier to create new songs as you go, as you progress through the years?
Haru: Because we can use computers now, it’s a lot easier.
Takuro: It doesn’t change for me, it’s the same.
What did you always dream of being when you were a child?
Maiko: A singer.
Haru: A professional baseball player.
What made you change your mind?
Haru: I wanted to be a baseball player but I ended up liking drums more.
Takuro: I started a band, that made it hard for me to do soccer.
How did you guys get into music? What made you like singing, what made you pick the drums and the guitar?
Haru: When I was fourteen, me and my friends were all starting a band and naturally I went to the drums. It was random. I can’t remember why I chose it.
Takuro: For me, my dad was in a band and he played guitar. And when we decided to do the band, we needed a bass player and I was the only one that had a bass guitar. That sort of made the decision easy for me.
Maiko: Singing feels so good. That’s why I chose it.
What are some influences that help shape your music that might surprise your fans?
Maiko: For me, it’s anime. Anime has really affected my music. I’m really influenced by that. I’ll read manga and I’ll look at anime and I write notes about the words that really move me in the anime. Then I change it to what I feel and make the lyrics.
That’s really interesting.
Haru: When I’m playing pachinko, there’s always music in the entire facility and I hear songs that I’ve never heard before and that influences me. Also, when someone wins big, the actual music that comes from the machine gets my attention.
Takuro: For me, it’s game music but it’s really not something that’s surprising to anyone.
[laughter]
Takuro: That’s just normal for me.
What are your plans for the rest of the year? What can your fans look forward to?
Maiko: We have a PV coming out soon For us it was a really hard PV to make, though, because originally it was supposed to be all CG and we didn’t like how it turned out. So we’re re-doing it. Right now on YouTube, we have a teaser version where we removed all of the CG, so it’s just a small, mini commercial, but that’s something the fans can definitely look forward to.
Interview by: Kia
Edited by: Ali W.
Special Thanks to Dazzle Vision and JapanFiles.com for the opportunity!
Photo Credit: David Cirone / JapanFiles.com