Welcome to Gaia! ::

GAH!

*strains eyes*

I cannot read eet! eek

*puts on huge glasses*

TIS NO USE! crying

Ahaha in the first one Kaoru looks like he's trying to get seen in the picture! ... And in the second Kyo's heads too big razz

I can't feel my cornias, but I managed to read and type out the majority of the interview... Now if you'll excuse me, I need an icepack for my eyes... *wonders off half blind* gonk
enjoy...


First Page
Las Vegas is the weirdest city in America. Being in the middle of the desert where humans were never supposed to live, a fake Empire State Building stands next to a half-size Eiffel Tower, over-looking a pretend Egyptian Pyramid. Inside these fake plastic landmarks are flashing, ringing casinos full of tourists desperately trying to win their money back. It’s loud, vulgar and proudly trashy.
But inside The Pearl Concert Theater, housed in Playboy’s hotel The Palma, sit five men who represent the exact opposite of this adult playground. Dir en grey-frontman Kyo, guitarists Kaoru and Die, bassist Toshiya and drummer Shinya-are one of Japan’s biggest bands, regularly taking their claustrophobically intense rock to venues bigger than London’s Wembly(?) Arena.
And somehow, with no radio play, media interest or real profile, they’ve already become an underground phenomenon in Europe, too(?). In August they’ll play two headline shows in London’s Islington Academy, their first ever show in the UK. And with no publicity whatsoever, the first gig sold out in minutes.
“We were all very shocked by the fact that it sold out, because we’ve never been there and we had no idea that there were fans there,” says Kaoru, through an interpreter. “So it was almost unbelievable news for us, but we were very happy that it happened and there were people there who want to listen to the music.”
It’s a typically modest response from a band who, onstage, turn into beasts. Later on tonight when they’re supporting Deftones at The Pearl, Kyo will howl, claw, and at one point rip bloody chunks out of his own face. Offstage, though, he’s shy to the point of almost total silence. Dig a little deeper, though, and their startling success starts to make sense.
(Parts are missing from the last column on the first page, so I won’t write it, for it would make little sense to me)
Second Page
He may leave the talking to the guitarist-the talkative Pete (Last Name I can’t read) to his reserved Patrick Stump(?)- but it’s the enigmatic Kyo who leads the band into he uncomfortable shadows the lurk in. You don’t have to speak Japanese to understand the anguish he’s singing about-it’s all there, plain to hear in each mournful lament and every blood curdling scream.
“All the anger comes from my everyday life,” he whispers. “It’s not about what every word means, and it doesn’t matter what the whole song is about. I just write about whatever’s on my mind, but I don’t have a particular message that I want to convey. The person who is watching the concert or listening to the music will have to interpret what everything-the words, music and performance combined- what it symbolizes.
“Even Japanese fans might not understand what I write,” he adds. “I want everyone in the whole world to feel the music on the same level, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand Japanese. It’s just being able to understand the music as a whole.”
Clearly, he’s a man with his fair share of demons, and they come flooding out onstage, where he sometimes claws at his chest until it’s dripping with blood.
“Sometimes that happens, but it’s not something that is too big of a deal,” shrugs Kaoru of his bandmate’s antics. “But there was one time when the blood would not stop!”
Despite the fact that they can quite easily sell out the world famous Budokun arena (?) in Tokyo (which holds over 14,000 people) or the Yokohama arena [17,000], they say they’re “not liked” by many people in they’re native country. But don’t be mistaken, they’re “not liked” in the same way that MCR and Marilyn Manson are not liked by the vast majority of America; they’re massive partly because of that willful outsider status.
“In Japan, it’s not that we’re not known, but not many actually like us,” insists Kaoru. “Our fans consist of mainly hardcore fans. The Japanese mainstream music scene consists mainly of pop artists. So it’s very difficult for Dir en grey to actually go out in the mainstream in Japan. Of course we want as many people as possible to listen to the music, but we’re not going to go out of our way just to be accepted by the mass public.”
On tour with the Deftones, Dir en grey have carved out a loyal American following. In Japan, they’re rock royalty. And now they’re heading our way to take London by storm with their two sold out shows. They may not be going out of their way to fit in and be accepted by the (something I can’t read) at large, but the ride this band are on seems to be out of control, hurtling towards international success at a dizzying speed. Get ready.
Black Box
Crazy Fans:
You know you’ve made it when you’ve got a certain number of mentalists following your band…
“Sometimes we get sent raw meat,” Kaoru reveals. “It’s pretty scary so we don’t eat it.”
Bad Publicity:
This lot are always hitting the headlines in their native country…
“Anything that we put out, all we get is criticism!” say’s Kaoru. “Every time we send it out to the censorship board, it always comes back saying “No, we can’t release this”.”
The Language Barrier:
They may not understand the words to Dir en grey’s songs, but American fans sing along just as passionately as they do to English speaking bands. Expect the same response in London…
“It’s amazing that American fans are singing along in a foreign language,” smiles Kaoru. “They’re memorizing they’re favorite phrases and singing along. It’s probably natural for fans to do that, but for people who don’t speak Japanese to sing along in Japanese is something we’re very happy about.”

go for it xd

yay but keep going. i had to type a whole book for a friend before so she could read it. it took a week to type the whole thing

GO GO GO GO

thank u

i read some of it then my eyes started to hirt so i decided i would wait for someone to post it