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About The Band

"Formed in 1997, with the sole purpose to spread the feeling of hurt and sorrow caused by weakness, shallowness and egoism of humanity. Since then, their grotesque ways, their warped affection, and their crazy live shows took the independent record scene by a storm, putting them on the very top.
In 1999, their fame caught the attention of then CEO of East West Japan. Thus signing them to a major record label. They debuted releasing 3 singles at once, very rare for a newcomer. Of course, all 3 songs hit the top 10 on the charts. After that, all their releases would hit the top 10 on the charts proving that more and more people were sympathizing with their lyrics.
In 2002, their fame hit all of Asia. During their Asia Tour they traveled to Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai. And in Shanghai, public safety officers had to be called in to calm the excited fans.
When they first formed, their expressions of pain came from struggling and writhe, hiding inside the feelings of hurt and suffering. But as time passed, their pain became a cry also a message.
Now, Dir en grey has changed its target from Japan to the World. From their unstable beginning, the band itself has gone through many changes and revolutions. It is clear that their music is their tool to send out a message, and they have only just begun. "
(Taken from the official site)

The Japanese band Dir en grey was formed on Feb.02.1997. in Osaka. Formerly Kyo (singer), Kaoru, Die (guitars) and Shinya (drums) was in the indies band La:Sadie's, with Kisaki on the bass. When La:Sadie's was on a tour in Nagano, they met Toshiya, and became close friends. Later, when Kyo, Kaoru, Die and Shinya had a clash with Kisaki, and La:Sadie's broke up (Jan.05.1997.); they decided to play together again, but they were without a bassist. Then they remembered that they have a good friend and bassist in Nagano, so they went to kidnap him - as Toshiya likes to say - from his former band, D+L. Thus, Dir en grey formed.

Yoshiki (X Japan - drummer) produced lots of their songs - for example, Cage and Yokan. But from the Macabre era, the songs were produced by Dir en grey. As Kaoru said "I don't want this to sound bad but looking at what the producers did, we felt we could manage ourselves. We kept changing producers so the producer didn't know what we wanted, so it would take a quite a lot of time. By doing it ourselves it was quicker."

There are a few explanations concerning the meaning of "Dir en grey". Most likely, the name originated from the german world "dir" (you, yours), the french "en", and the english "grey"; meaning "grey coin" [Source: Kaoru & Shinya interview in Newgrave magazine Issue #3] . Their newsletter is called 灰色の銀貨 "Haiiro no Ginka", which basically means "grey coin" in Japanese.
But Kaoru also stated in Steven's Untitled Rock Show (Fuse TV), the name was chosen because 'it sounded right', and includes words from several languages, so no specific meaning would be attached to it other than the band's name itself.
As aarontheartiste pointed out, the Japanese pronounciation of Dir en grey (ディルアングレイ [diruangurii]) resembles of ドリアングレイ [doriangurii], Dorian Gray, which came from the book 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. This book is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction with a strong Faustian theme.

When they began to make their music, they were strongly influenced by Visual Kei, Due to unmistakable American and European influences, J-Rock fell into step with artists like David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, and Rammstein. Bands like Malice Mazer, Pierrot, and Dir en grey are known for their stage shows which are inspired by David Bowie's style, with gender-bending costumes and theatrical stage-shows. Another strong influence on Visual Kei is the older forms of entertainment in Japan. The traditional Bunraku, Noh and Kabuki have their place in this music style as well.
Visual Kei is a term usually related to Japanese rock music, referring to bands whose primary point of interest for their fans is their costume and appearance. Inside Japan, their fans are almost exclusively teenage girls and as such they could be considered a uniquely Japanese version of a boy band. A notable difference between Visual Kei and boy bands is that boy bands are usually prefabricated by an external music producer and start with a strong marketing campaign, while there are a lot of indie, Visual Kei bands that won't get promoted unless they first gain popularity and sign with a major label (except for Lucifer). Another notable difference is that most boy bands do not compose their own songs, while Visual Kei bands usually do.
Members of Visual Kei bands often wear striking makeup (on photoshoots), style their hair in dramatic shapes with meticulously done colour dyes, and wear elaborate costumes. Although the costumes can sometimes appear feminine, the great majority of bands have an entirely male lineup.
Western observers sometimes confuse Visual Kei bands with Goth bands because of the occasionally similar makeup and clothing, but most Japanese goths do not consider Visual Kei to be gothic, and there is very little cultural crossover between Japanese Visual Kei fans and Japanese goths. their clothes and make-up were feminine. But as their music and style developed, this effect wore on.

When they started, they designed the clothes for themselves, did their own hair and make-up.

Since they formed, they released 5 full albums, lots of singles, and an indies mini-album, Missa. Since the album Vulgar, the band begun to gradually severe the ties with the Visual Kei style, and their sound became harder and heavier as the time progressed. Their music and style evolved continously, resulting their albums differ to each other like they were not made by the same band. But all of them wear the strong and definite style of Dir en grey.

The most interesting matter in them is their multiple talents: every member of the band helps making their music, this can be the cause of the difference in their songs.
Kyo writes their complex, dark, explicit and diverse lyrics not many dare to follow suit. He writes words not only in Japanese, but in other languages too, mainly in English. He states these words are based on the rhytm or the melody of the song; also sometimes it's easier to relay connotations or ideas in English. Most Dir en grey songs tell a story; but they don't think it's a problem foreign listeners rarely understand their lyrics. Though all the songs have different messages, but they are equals in one content: the pain and the suffering.
Altough Dir en grey's lyrics convey despair and sorrow, they don't make music about a certain form of pain: they are not direct, because even though everyone suffers somehow, everyone's pain is different. They want their fans to feel something while listening to their music. This feeling remained more or less the same since the band formed; but as the time progressed, their reason and method to show it had changed.

Their music is dark, they often convey abuse, death and the lament of lost love in their lyrics. In fact, there are no Dir en grey song that describe any form of happiness, but... there are many happy music in the world aren't there? Kyo's lyrics are always dark, they never have a happy ending.

They make their music only for themselves, not for the industry, not even for the fans. They can't live up to everyone's expectations, and even if they'd try it, that'd lead only to indeciveness: they'd have to consider so many options, and thus, their music would lose it's initial purpose. They don't want to make music only to reach success, they want it to somehow reflect them. Altough they strive for progress, and their music is indeed changing constantly, to them, changing or progress is not a destionation - it's merely a result. They believe it's important not to neglect their origins; but since they've experienced so many amazing challanges and new impressions, it was only natural to see their music evolve.

Dir en grey always changes: the album Macabre is not like Missa, and Kisou is far off from Six Ugly. The best thing about them is their works are always unique, they never repeat anything (not like other - not necessarily Japanese - bands).

Most fans (fangirls ^_^) realize the effect of the disbanded X Japan on the members of Dir en grey. For example, Kaoru greatly adores Hide (Hideto Matsumoto), the guitarist, and Shinya is great fan of Yoshiki (Yoshiki Hayashi), the drummer.


Grappler Baki anime: Dir en grey performed an opening theme (Child Prey) for グラップラー刃牙 (Grappler Baki) [Sept.2005].
"Fans can thank FUNimation for their chance to see Dir en grey live - the company has been working to sponsor such a tour since the band's song "Child Prey" was used as the opening theme for FUNimation's Baki the Grappler anime. Baki animation will also be featured during the concert dates. (...) With the first dates of the band's first American tour, Dir en grey and FUNimation are making sure that fans all over America will have a chance to see them play. (...)" [Original source got deleted] .

Why does Dir en grey do the opening song for the series?
Freewill, Dir en grey's music label, produces Baki the Grappler. A lot of labels utilize anime to promote their bands. Since Freewill produced Baki, Dir en grey was the natural choice. And the Song ROCKS! More Grappler Baki info here

Their song, The Final is on the Taste Of Chaos compilation album, which features 40 tracks on 2 discs. The promotion tour is called Taste Of Chaos Tour Japan 2005, started from November.

In March 2005 they've finally released their long-awaited album, Withering to Death, which caused a wide variety of reactions from their fans old and new alike. The album later became known as the band's first album to be officially released in both Europe and North America. These 2 albums were modified versions, made especially for release outside of Japan: containing translations in French, German and English, and a DVD bonus PV (depending on country release - either "The Final", "Saku" or "Kudou").

In May 2005, they performed in Europe for the first time. As a part of their "It Withers and Withers" tour, their lives in Berlin and Paris sold out without any promotion (it was mentioned only in a few newsletters by import record stores and the rumours spread fast through the internet). They've performed at Germany's most famous rock festivals, Rock im Park and Rock am Ring; and also successfully sold out 3.500 tickets to Columbiahalle in May.

In March 2006 Dir en grey moved to tour in the United States. First they've performed in REDRUM ANNEX (Austin, Texas). They continued a few days later in New York City and Los Angeles. All these shows sold out within days. (A year after their first appearence in Germany, they've come back to play in Columbiahalle again.)

Altough Kyo's throat weren't in a good state when they came back, and they had to delay the recording the vocal parts of the songs, the band found new motivation during the tour, and it showed in the album too. They even had a few songs written on the tour bus!
Even though they had a few difficulties in the beginning, they got a great response from the fans and ejoyed the lives throughly. They were shocked to see so many people who wanted to see them. Kaoru says they were informed from different companies, but never expected something big like that.
As Kaoru said, American people were very friendly towards them, and even though he could only speak Japanese, people still kept trying to talk to him, try to communicate and try to find a language both speakers can understand. His least favourite thing about America was the food ^_^. They've already toured in Europe, the US and - of course - their home country, Japan; they have yet to go in Australia, which Kaoru thinks would be a 'great place to go in the future'.

Sadly, because of Kyo's laryngitis he was again hospitalized again in July, and the band had to postpone a concerts in Japan. He sent a cellphone message to his fans when he was in the hospital: 'You were worried about me, right? I'm almost healed. Thank you.' Fortunately he got better and a few weeks later in early August the band were able to join Korn, Deftones and other bands during the Family Values Tour 2006 across the US.
Not long before that, they've released the 凌辱の雨 (Ryoujoku no Ame) single (their first release in over 9 months).

Before the release of the single Agitated Screams of Maggots, the band performed at Loudpark Festival (Saitama Super Arena, Japan) in October, along with Slayer, Megadeth, Napalm Death, Backyard Babies and Within Temptation. The PV for their song "Saku" was named the number 1 video of 2006 by MTV2's Headbanger's Ball.

The cover art and the animated video for Agitated Screams of Maggots was done by director Keita Kurosaka [Fuyu no Hi, Winter Days]. In Japan, it was rejected, and didn't appear on TV. Despite that, it was among the entries of the 2007 International Film Festival in Rotterdam.

They made their much-anticipated return to America as part of their 07-INWARD SCREAM tour. The 17 shows took place over the course of February. Their shows introduced two new bands, Bleed the Dream and Fair to Midland. After Dir en grey's sixth album The Marrow of a Bone was released in February 7, they went touring in Japan in March and April; to the US with Deftones in June and early July; and to Europe in August including Wacken Open Air- (Germany), Ankkarock- (Finland), M'era Luna- (Germany) and Metal Hammer (Poland) festivals.

The group began another tour, named after their newest single, Dozing Green. Started in September from Japan, and continuing in Europe: UK, Finland, France, along with their first performance in the Netherlands and Switzerland. At the end of November, they performed two shows with Linking Park in the Saitama Super Arena; in December, they began their TOUR07 THE MARROW OF A BONE with "10 Years" as a support act. On December 19th, two compilation albums, Decade 1998-2002 and Decade 2003-2007 were released to commemorate Dir en grey's tenth anniversary as a band.

In the first half of 2008, the band worked on their new album, and continued on DEATH OVER BLINDNESS tour in May. They performed on the Hide Memorial Summit on May 4, along with other long-known Japanese bands like X-Japan, Luna Sea, MUCC, D'espairsRay and many others.

Credits to
]http://tsukiyo.hu/index_en.php?page=en/band/band

Doomo Arigato Gozaimasu Dir en grey!!!!! heart

All i can say is that, i can't wait to see them. i've been waiting far too long to see them, but never do when they come to the states! i shall see them eventually! Mark my words! lol im such a dork i know, lol.

Full name: 京 (Kyo) 　西村享 (Nishimura Tooru)
Nicknames: Kyo, Waru, Warumono
In the band, he is a vocalist

Date of birth: 02.16,1976. (Kyoto)
Astrological sign: Aquarius
Zodiac sign: Dragon
Blood type: B
Height: 160cm
Weight: 43 kg
Clothes' size: S/M
Shoe size: 38 (5)
Favourite sport: terrorising the others!
Favourite music: X-Japan, Shiina Ringo, Buck-Tick
His former bands: 月蝕 (Gesshoku) → Visun 殆磨 → Masquerade → 廃人黒薔薇族 (Haijin Kurobarazoku) → La:Sadie's

Personality: hot-tempered, moody, funny
He sees himself as a warumono
Likes: videogames, sleeping, anime
Dislikes: people
According to him, the most important thing is fans
Favourite food: scorpion, sausage, muffin, pens <(^×^)>
Food he detests: liver, carrots
He likes to get: games (LDSoft, GameSoft), old, traditional clothes
He likes not to get: candy
He colletcts: Doraemon, Warumono figurines

Musical Carrier
Kyo began his music career as a roadie for Kuroyume and Albatross (he was a great fan of Kiyoharu from Kuroyume). At the age of 17, Kyo joined his first band, Gesshoku. In this band he went by the nickname Yoma - this band was together in Kyoto for only half a year. He went by the nickname Hotoma when he joined his next band, Visun. Then he joined Masquerade. It was when he joined Haijin Kurobara Zoku that he met up with drummer, Shinya, and bassist, Kisaki. By this time, Kyo had changed to his current name. After that, La:Sadies was formed where Kyo, Shinya and Kisaki were joined by Die and Kaoru (guitars) later.

About Kyo
He lived in Kyoto until he was around 19. He liked the place because of it's atmosphere of quietness and the temples there. His family ran a bread shop, so he eventualy grew to hate the scent of bread :<

As a child, he liked to hop on his bike, and go search for new places to play, like parks and such. He played a lot with his friend, whose family had a lumberyard. They made a jungle gym from the logs, even built a fort at the top. They liked to climb around on the logs. Kyo once fell from this edifice, but luckily, he didn't hurt himself.
At this time, most of his friends were girls.

He used to go at his grandpa's house in Ishiyama to stay over. There were rice paddies there, and he would go play around there. They would go to the river and catch fish with a net, and eat them later. Kyo really liked eating these fishes.

He liked to play video games a lot. He got his first Famicom console when he was around 7 years old. He was also a big fan of action and sci-fi themed movies; movies like Superman. He watched shows like Goranger and Kikaider.

In Japan, new school students are persuaded to join a club. Kyo was in Shogi (Japanese chess) when he was in primary school; but he never went to the club events or meetings, so he could go home earlier.

He hated all his classes at school, he thought they are completely useless and playing outside for a kid is much more important. When he realized all his friends started studying, and he felt a bit left behind; so the first time in his life he felt the urge to study, and sat by his desk for 2 hours; but his dad told him it's still not enough, his motivation disappeared and he stopped studying alltogether. He studied some Japanese and matemathics though, because he considered math basics and kanji writing useful.

Even at a young age he had a very strong will. He would not do what he doesn't want to do; but if there was something he wanted to do, he would do that whatever it took! He felt he's different from other people, and didn't wanted to be as other people either. He didn't study, because he felt it was unnecessary. He thought, if some years later, he's living under a bridge, that would be the result of his own actions. His sense of dissimilarity was very strong. And even though he get along with everyone well, he didn't had close friends. He couldn't make really close friendship with the though guys, because he hated violence, neither with the serious guys, because he hated studying. But he had a lot of girl friends to have fun with. No hentai stuff though, he just liked playing with girls >_<

His classmate had a Buck-Tick poster on her desk. When he first saw that poster, he thought, Atsushi Sakurai looked like an anime character. From that time on, he started listening to rock music. When he discovered X, he decided to be a musician, and gradually began to delve deeper into indies music. He listened every kind of music. He even dyed his hair to pink, and after that, he tried other colors too!

His parents always told him it's important to have dreams. And he only wanted to be in a band. He liked to listen to X because he liked their fast songs. He appreciated Hide playing the guitar, so first he put his poster in his room and bought a guitar. But soon he realized he couldn't suddenly be able to play X songs on it, so he gave up on that. He tried many different instruments too: like flute in elementary school, guitar and bass later, even the piano. When he decided to be in a band, he told his parents he won't go to high school which made his parents very angry. He dedicated his life to his vocalist career, so he can show his parents he can be somebody, not a useless person as his parents told him.

When he finished school, he began to work in different places. He would do the packaging and shipping of different kinds of freezed and refrigerated goods. He also made packaged lunches in a factory. He rarely worked more than a month though. He didn't even went back to get his payment!

Then he worked as a roadie for nearly 2 years. During this time, he learned what the world of J-Rock bands are, got to know a lot of people. He helped the band and learned hairstyling (how to make their hair stand upward), fixing and setting up different kinds of instruments. After the lives, he was made to drink with the staff, although he didn't like alcohol at all.

During his time as a roadie, he realized he wanted to be in a band, so he started to gather members. His first band consisted of a guitarist, a drummer and a bassist. He tried out himself as a vocalist for the first time. It didn't go very well at first, but he tried to do his best nevertheless.

He stated he writes the lyrics all for his sake. You can't always write about happiness and he doesn't have any interest in doing so. He thinks his lyrics can be the base everyone compares their bad experiences. So they can think to themselves 'I thought I'm in a bad period of my life, but it could be worse'. He thinks that's how his lyrics should be used.

In 2000, the tympanum in his ear got ruptured when Dir en grey played the intro of Rasetsu Koku. Because of this sudden illness, soon he had to go to heal in the hospital. Many lives on their ...DEEP (-), DEEP (-), DEEP (er) tour were postponed until next year. Kyo was very surprised when he saw the huge pile of fan letters wishing him to get better. When he left the hospital with his ear cured, he still had to take medicines regularly, which had various side effects like having more appetite thus getting fatter, also getting pimples on his face. But he got encouragement from his band mates and fans who folded thousands of paper cranes for him - other Japanese bands asked about his condition too, worried about his state. Kaoru even went to his house and they watched a video tape Kaoru bought with him (Kaoru said, he would be embarassed if he came over to Kyo's house without anything ^_^). Kyo got over the illness a few weeks after, and from what he said, it made him more stronger and more self confident too. Sadly, this condition has a chance to happen again, so the band's still worried.

He knows how to fall asleep absolutely anywhere: he was even sleeping in a middle of an interview! He's speciality is to sleep in cars: he'd fall asleep when the car's engines start; and immidiately wake up when they reach their destination (he's not in the driver's seat of course ^_^ wink He is also known to enjoy lying during interviews, meaning one can never be sure that what he said has even a little verity in it.

He has 2 pets, Puchi and Buchi, the kangaroo rats.

He has many piercings and tatoos


Kyo's piercings & tatoos


At first, Kyo didn't have many tattoos, but as time passed, more and more images appeared on his body. When Kyo started with Dir en grey, he only had a butterfly on his right shoulder, then a dragon appeared on his left arm, later he decided to have a non-figurative background to the butterfly, along with a Russian word родиться (to be born) below it - altough now it can't be seen, since he has a thick non-figurative wires tattooed around the butterfly, which overlaps the writings.
His obsession with the Russian culture didn't expire there, he has a crown (that resembles the Crown of the Russian Empire), on his lower arm, with a five-pointed star and the Russian words in order are: вечный (Eternal), сон ум (dream mind), счастье (Happiness), свобода (Freedom) - these are still visible. He also has Russian words on his fingers: боль (Pain), and бог (God), he got them in late 2001.
In late 2005, he got a cross on his finger (like Kaoru). In late 2006 - during the Family Values Tour -, he got "Damned" tattooed on the left side of his neck.
He has "The Emperor Is Dead" on his right hand, a crowned skull below his right ear, also a skull on his right shoulder (which he got recently). He also has a man's face above the russian crown.
His newest tattoo is a black tiger in red flames on his left hip.





Altough he doesn't wear them anymore, here are a few pictures of his piercings:

that adore his body.

He has such an eccentric and powerful voice that he can do amazing number of things with: singing, screaming, choking, laughing; he really knows how to sound like he's vomiting or like he's having an orgasm in almost the same breath. It's almost as if he's doing some sound effects to his songs. For example, if you listen to Taiyou no Ao and then Zan, you think two completely different things about him. Also he has a maniac giggle - that can be found in some of his songs -, that you can't help but smile at... yeah, too cute!

He's not only amazing as a vocalist, but as a songwriter as well. He wants to describe pain, so his lyrics never have a happy ending; all his songs are either really twisted or mournful and sad.

During lives, Kyo takes the advantages of being the vocalist to its fullest: he practically throws himself around the stage, he is not only a singer, but a performer. He may be small, but he is a twisted bundle of energy. He is incredible to watch, for you can almost feel the pain in his vocals by just looking at him.

***

Fun facts: Kyo can play guitar and bass to some extent. He tried many different instruments before he decided he would be a singer instead.
Kyo hasn't got much luck with his eyebrow piercings. When he first had one, it got infected and was very tender, so he decided to leave it alone and have another piercing on the other side, but the same thing happened to that one too! He has a younger sister. Kyo doesn't like winter, because he can't go out anywhere. He only loves warm weather.
When he was a little kid, he decided he will not learn kanji, so in lieu of his original name he chose to use the "Kyo" kanji from his birthplace's name, Kyoto, which he speaks of quite fondly. Another explanation to his name is that he hated his original name and simply chose to use Kyo instead; the fact that he never used it - not even in his former bands - seems to comfirm this version.
The director of Battle Royale offered the role of Yoshitoki Kuninobu to him, but Kyo's management forbade him to take it. :<

***

Kyo wrote the music for:

* 「S」
* The Domestic ******** Family
* Hades

Full name: 安滕 大助 (Andou/Kondo Daisuke)
Nicknames: Die, Dai, Dai-suki
In the band, he is a guitarist

Date of birth: 12.20,1974. (Mie)
Astrological sign: Sagittarius
Zodiac sign: Tiger
Blood type: B
Height: 178cm / 5'10"
Weight: 61 kg
Clothes' size: L
Shoe size: 41 ( cool
Favourite cigarette brand: Salm Light
Favourite sport: soccer, baseball
Favourite music: Sakai Noriko, Hide
His former bands: ka･za･ri → La:Sadie's

Personality: sincere and honest ... and impudent, because he likes to tease people
He sees himself as a hard-working, sincere, honest person
Likes: cheese, sake, tease Shinya
Dislikes: raw things, rain
According to him, the most important thing is life
Favourite food: tofu, potatoes, bacon, cheese omlett, milk, cheese, spaghetti, roasted meat, okonomiyaki, curry, pizza, hamburger, ramen, pastries etc...
Food that he detests: seafood, thorny animals, raw foods
He likes to get: cigarettes
He likes not to get: raw things, candy

Fun facts: His breast is especially ticklish. He is near-sighted, he wears contactlenses. He is the most serene and easy-going member.
Die was disgusted of some Chinese food served on their tour once, he was not impressed with the chicken-head soup. He was not able to look at it! Kyo and Toshiya on the other hand, thought it cool and Toshiya was playing with a head!
There was a fire in Die's apartment once. He tried to smother it with a fire extinguisher, but he just succeeded spraying the foam all around his feet and then he ran outside. He said: "That was so uncool!".

***

Although Die is the second guitarist in the group, he is no less talented than our leader-sama, Kaoru. By the way, he is pretty amazing guitarist, the way he and Kaoru play together makes really gorgeous music. For some of their songs - especially in older ones like "Ash" and "Zan" - Die even sings backup vocals; he has a lovely, definite but soft voice. During concerts, Die is just like any other guitarist: he struts across the stage to pump the crowd up, or just stands beside Kyo while he is singing. His idol is Takigawa Ichiro, the guitarist of Craze.

He is the most talkative member of the band, also extremely playful, and quite a joker, too: he likes to tease the others especially Shinya, together with Kaoru. On the video taken in Osaka-Jou Hall, Toshiya pushed Shinya to the ground, and pounced on top of him, while Die covered them with feathers. So, he can make the others laugh almost any time.

Die's real name is Daisuke, and the nickname for it is Dai. Some say that he changed the spelling of it to that of the English word "die", aiming to a more serious aspect. So Die is to be pronounced as "dai", not "di-eh".

He is very proud of his mane which he had grown since high-school. It is almost dyed in red, often use to defy the laws of gravity - sticking upwards in all directions - making for a punkish hairstyle. But nowadays he wears his hair short and dark chestnut-coloured, also he uses less hair-styler. Die confesses: if someone state that he looks awful, he takes it as a compliment ^_^.

After some of his fans complained that he was too fat - Die supposedly had eating and weight problems, because he took their ramblings to his heart, and became heavily underweighted.

When Dir en grey was still dressing up in Visual Kei style, Die was quite extreme when it came to his looks and fashion; though his makeup was not always as daub-like as Kyo's. He was almost always leather-clad with lots of silver accessories - he always looked like a tough J-Rocker.

Even though his music and scary outfits give off a hardcore attitude, Die is an extremely sweet and caring person. He has a kid hidden in himself, the way he seems to always be up to something.

***

Die wrote the music for:

* Schwein no isu
* 304 Goushitsu, Hakushi no Sakura
* Yokan
* Ryuu
* Audrey
* 24ko Cylinders
* Undecided
* Mr.Newsman
* Children
* Ash (with Kaoru)

Full name: 寺地 心夜 (Terachi Shinya)
Nicknames: Shinya, Shin-chan
In the band, he is a drummer

Date of birth: 02.24,1978. (Osaka)
Astrological sign: Pisces
Zodiac sign: Horse
Blood type: B
Height: 170cm
Weight: 42 kg
Clothes' size: M
Shoe size: 38
Favourite cigarette brand: he doesn't smoke!
Favourite sport: he hates sports
Favourite music:Ayumi Hamasaki, Morning Musume, the music of Yoshiki
His former bands: 人工天使 (Jinkou Tenshi) → Siva → Ruby → 廃人黒薔薇族 (Haijin Kurobara Zoku) → La:Sadie's

Personality: He claims himelf "cool", then kami no ke o sawaru (he touches his hair)
He sees himself as a girl
Likes: music
Dislikes: stinky cigarettes
According to him, the most important thing the fans everywhere
Favourite food: jelly, raw salad and cabbage, beef, spaghetti
Food that he detests: arisugiru (perishables), almost all foods
He likes to get: clothes, CDs
He likes not to get: plush toys

Musical Carrier
In the 7th grade, Shinya and his friend from elementary school decided to start a band. His friend told him to play drums (even though he only played trumpets before in the school's instrument club) so Shinya took all his New Year's money and bought a new drum set. He knew how to play on the drums right away! After that, Shinya went to a new school, so this band disbanded, but when he came back, and as a drummer, he was sought by many bands. His first live show was in the community hall they've borrowed. He played on the drums for five bands, about 100 people came to watch their shows.

His first "real" band was called Jinkou Tenshi, the band members were Shinya's friends from high school. A year after, he was in Siva, a new band. They played in livehouses at night, so Shinya had a hard time keep up with school. He also had a part-time job, but the money he earned still wasn't enough. So he stopped buying food, and saving up his lunch money his parents gave him. He stayed 6 months with Siva, but he really had a tough time there.

Then Shinya was invited by Kisaki to join a new band (Ruby), so he decided to move to Tokyo along with the old band members of Siva (except the bassist). Eventually, both Kisaki - and later - Shinya left Ruby. Shinya joined Kisaki's band 廃人黒薔薇族 (Haijin Kurobara Zoku), Kyo was already in the band as a vocalist. Kyo had made a deep impression on Shinya with his singing style! In 1995, Kisaki, Kyo and Shinya left Haijin Kurobara Zoku to form La:Sadie's. The rest is history >_<

About Shinya
Shinya's parents were relatively rich by Japanese standards. When Shinya was 14, he had a room of 20 tatami mat's size (~30 square meters, ~323 square feet). When Hikaru Genji was a popular band, Shinya loved them so much he even went out to buy rollerskates for himself from his New Year's money; he had the intention to sign up as a Johnny Junior when he went to high school. At the time, he felt the best kind of image for a boy is to be a "pretty boy" >_<

When he was younger, he was quite a talker - not like nowadays, he barely says anything in interviews - he even run for student president, and elections to be in the student comittee, because he wanted to be popular!

Shinya's first part-time job was to stick posters of an English school in shops and such. But after a month he realized he wasn't earning much as he thought he would be, and stopped working there.

His mother taught him how to put up make up before Dir en grey's live show. He always wanted to dye his hair brown, but his school's rules were strict, so he couldn't dye it until he finished school. After the graduation ceremony, he went to Kyo's house and he dyed his hair brown. It didn't really turn out well, so he went to a hair dresser and got his hair dyed properly.

When he was in high school, there were no people with earrings, but he felt that earrings add a "ROCK" feel to a person. The rockers around him were smokers, but he didn't smoke, so he decided to represent it through ear piercing. In his hometown, there wasn�t anywhere where he could go to pierce his ears; hence he had to use safety needles for that. He succeeded after 5 tries, it was extremely painful and he bled a lot. The hole in his ear stayed for 3 years, but after a while he got bored of wearing accessories, he ignored it and the hole closed up.

The first and the last time he actually smoked was when he and his friends blew the smoke into bubbles. He thought it looked cool and he wanted to try.

When their 2000 tour ended, Shinya decided to work out to strenghten his muscles. He started training 6 times a week, but if he didn't have enough time, he'd go only 1 day a week, before he went to work. He also started a healthy diet, eating more meat and protein, also as much vegetables as possible. His body's fat content was only 6%! [2000 data].

Shinya is very fond of dogs, he said he lived with small dogs since his childhood. He had a a papillon named Puppy which lived with his parents, but it died in 2002. Dir en grey was touring at that time, and Shinya became depressed, but he felt Puppy would be angry in heaven if he was too depressed to preform on the lives well, so he kept on performing. He wanted to have another dog, but at that time, his apartment was too small. In February 2000 he moved to a new house in Tokyo, and he got his little Chihuahua. He named it Miyu. Miyu is very spoilt: she even slept with Shinya in his bed, and he took her with himself to photoshoots too! Miyu only eats Caesar dog food ^^. Now Shinya lives with Miyu and Miyu's puppy, Yuyu.

He likes to read mystery novels. He's especially fond of the novels written by Orihara Ichi.

When the band went to their Europe tour, Shinya's tooth began to ache terribly when their plane took off. His pain tortured him during the whole tour, even though he took medicine. In the Columbiahalle live, Shinya almost fainted because it was too hot on the stage. The next days they went sightseeing in Berlin; he found the architecture wonderful.

When he was in school, he didn't like to study English. Later though, he decided to learn it when he came accross Doraemon written in English. He found out it was a bad idea to learn the language from the comic book because he couldn't understand it. So he bought a textbook for English learners, and was able to learn a few easy sentences from that; however, he tends to forget them easily! He tried to use his English when the band was in Europe, turned out he couldn't understand what others said if they didn't speak slowly; and others couldn't understand him at all because of his pronunciation!

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Shinya is the "baby" of Dir en grey, him being the youngest and most serious member. Allegedly he is the most stubborn in the band, so the others allow him to do almost everything he wants. I find it amazing to hear him playing on the drums, such a powerful sound coming from a seemingly small person. He is the only one in the band who doesn't smoke, and likes to keep a healthy diet; he also likes to solve riddles.

It is quite hard to get to know anything about him, as he doesn't give straight answers in interviews. Because of his quiet nature, he never volunteers any information about himself. In fact, it was 6 months before the others found out what his phone number was! Also it is a rare occasion to see him flashing his pretty smile.

His ideal is Yoshiki, the drummer of X Japan, who became the manager of Dir en grey. He also rarely speaks about his childhood nor love-life: his every answer was "normal is good" to interview questions in the latter topic.

He loves his fans, on lives he often throws his drumsticks or waterbottles into the crowd. Shinya loves pop-music, especially girl pop. This is rather ironic, since he is in a J-Rock group ^_^.

He is definitely the most feminine in the band - altough Toshiya is almost as female-looking as him sometimes. Allegedly, Die had a crush on him because he actually thought Shinya was a girl O_O. Poor Die. He gets picked on the most, probably because he is the youngest.

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Fun facts: His whole body is ticklish. He is near sighted, he wears contactlenses. He likes to drink all kinds of alcohol. When he travels, he carries with himself the "Shinya sama travelling set". He admires Yoshiki. He learns Kung-fu since 2nd grade. In his school he liked the music class, and hated English. He likes spring and autumn, because neither are hot nor cold.
Even though Shinya not really talks about his love life, he said once that he wouldn't consider himself to be truly "grown up" until he will be a dad.
The first and the last time he actually smoked was when he and his friends blew the smoke into bubbles. He thought it looked cool and he wanted to try.
When Shinya started to perform on lives, he had no idea how to do the stage make up, so his mother helped him with that!
Black is his most favorite color. He used to prefer burgundy to black, but now his all time favourite is black. All his furniture is black; all hispersonal belongings are black, even his cash-card (except for the drum sticks. They are white lest they should coalesce in the darkness.)

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Shinya wrote the music for:

* Yurameki
* Raison D'Etre (with Toshiya)
* Hotarubi
* Ugly
* Umbrella
* Toriko
* Fukai