[INTERVIEW] CRYSTAL LAKE ~INTERVIEW~ by「FLJ MAGAZINE」ISSUE #63 JANUARY 2019

CRYSTAL LAKE

From left, Shinya (G), Ryo (Vo), Yudai (G)

Challenge indoor skydiving from now!

3 shots just before flying with the wind at maximum speed of 360 km

Original Heavy Music which made further leap in the New Album「HELIX」

PHOTO : cherry chill will.

SPECIAL THANKS : FlyStation Japan

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TEL : 048-940-5010

https://flystation.jp048-940-5010

It will be about 2 years from the previous album「TRUE NORTH」, Crystal Lake announced the New Album「HELIX」. Although they have pursued heavy music unique in their own way, based on hardcore and metal, we are amazed at the great evolution that can be said to be a leap in this work and its perfection degree. Europe Tours getting better and more exciting, American Tour have been decided for next year. From now on, Releases and Tours have been developed taking into consideration the world wide. This time, FLJ challenged 3 people, Ryo (Vo), Yudai (G) and Shinya (G), challenging indoor skydiving before challenging the world.

FLJ : Talking about「HELIX」, this album is the pursuit of your own music, but we can see a further breakthrough also. This time, what's the part you aimed for ?

Ryo : About the world view, in the previous album「TRUE NORTH」, there was a purpose to appeal as wider Japanese Music. From there, it seems that the goodness of hyper heavy from the original Crystal Lake has come out naturally, or there is such a place that it was natural without aiming. In the lyrics, when I talked about before, I think that music was said to be born with such feelings being rebellious, anger, or such emotions. I'm not going back to the starting point, but something like why are you screaming ? When I think about it, I'm screaming to bring negative things in a positive direction. So, there were a lot of internal themes. I am not talking about political things, but as there were many things linking to my social situation, my life and my way of living, so it came out naturally.

FLJ : Previously, when making an album, you were talking about using metaphors and similes to talk about it, so how was it this time ?

Ryo : This time, the title HELIX means spiral. I compared it with DNA, I wanted to express that DNA spirally continued, building a human body. From there, every single piece of the album is a DNA that expresses ourselves, it has become an album called「HELIX」, and expresses Crystal Lake, I put into it that kind of meaning. Furthermore, replace it by time as lyrics. I thought that a turning point of life, or an event, is a gene. Since the Earth's made, in such a huge history, various DNA and stories are linked, and it continues for even now.

Yudai : At the time of「TRUE NORTH」, there was a concept to tell the merits of Japan. Before that album「THE SIGN」 compared our representation to God and made it like a myth. This time again, I feel like playing as usual, making the album with an interesting feeling. Because we like science fiction, movies, animation and books, looking like "Interstellar" and others like relativity theory after that such rock bands did it then. It is not NHK, but (laugh). Like SF, many things became too complicated recently, but ultimately there are also things like human drama, and I like it quite well. If so, once with lyrics and music, something has changed according to the speed of time and that, for example, if it is the theory of relativity, it seems that the way of capturing time changes depending to speed, I thought about trying it to catch it with sound. Talking about it, this is a song called「Agony」. Even if it's the lyrics, something loops at the start and end, it turns into a spiral and calls it HELIX. I'm doing something that Crystal Lake has linked to the view of the world that I have come up, this time again doing it in any other way.

FLJ : In addition, there is a feeling that every single song is an independent video work, and expresses a sense of digital that has a sense of near future in the same way as sound effects. Even with「Aeon feat.AJ」, I thought that it seems like the bundance of surging waves of two baths in the latter half, cut it out repeatedly many times, and use the raw band to make a visual sense of digital feeling.

Yudai : Well, we’re doing it digitally, but we’re playing quite a lot with. I think that it came to be able to do this as a result of having cinematic or the feeling of being captured all the time. There was a time when I saw an American rapper or a channel of a producer of R&B, and I was doing something like a self-mashup of a method to hit another track with a song made on another track. I tried doing something like this this time. Did you notice that making different songs, some things like sound effects change suddenly. I tried expressing it in various musical ways.

FLJ : There are many songs that doesn't end normally, isn't it.

Yudai : It's not the last mosh part. I did something like making another interesting utopia and attraction of that kind of development.

FLJ : I think that Crystal Lake is challenging the limits of their own extreme music every time they release an album, but where are you heading for now?

Yudai : Until now, I thought "Let's do this kind of thing, let's do something like this". I've been listening to such music from my teens and I tried many things a lot, but in the end I think that something like my favorite point is still to go. I tried groping for something every time until now, and together with the feeling to charm people who aren't near to me, "that's good" came out a lot. So, this time I thought "What's heavy ?". What we want to do with super heavy. Then, what happens if you express interesting ideas in the band? I mean that kind of feelings. I tried it purely. So, I really thought that it was an album naturally settled in hardcore essence, metal essence and movie essence. To be enthusiastic about an enthusiastic work by doing it with enthusiasm. Rather than saying "I want to do something", I kept looking for create only the feeling of the pure heavy which lives deep inside us. The reason why the blurring has disappeared is that after finishing the Tour in Europe twice and planned to go to other countries, I intently felt something like the reaffirmation about being heavy while doing Tour.

FLJ : Oh, that’s big.

Yudai : Because I'm Japanese, I have to do this, because there is a complex of English, there is a complex of skin color, it becomes possible to convince myself that it is not related if it's super heavy as a band. I got such various ideas, so I couldn’t say "heavy, great ». Of course there are parts that are not only that, and if you like melodies, it may be a Japanese Enka spirit, and those around me who gathered, Senpai, juniors, live houses, clothes, magazines, movies are all something that influences me, that's why I follow a melody, and guess that it’s probably not so far. It was hard to became firm with freedom on a heavy basis.

FLJ : That was like a refreshed feeling.

Yudai : Yeah, that was a very very good feeling.

Ryo : And that's what everyone felt as a band. It's also like lyrics. It's important to keep it simple, I thought quite a few words that Japanese could understand. But the words that came out naturally from me were surprisingly from the English-speaking world over there, sang by the audience in Europe. That influenced me as well.

FLJ : I realized that it would be better to believe what I thought was the best, even if I wanted to try this way, isn’t it ?

Yudai : I thought that everything was OK. When I will be 40 or 50 years old, if I had to tell you about the past, I thought that it would be better to Tour with the band, and to make music. I thought that was the biggest opportunity, and that was linked to the album also.

FLJ : I brought Japan vigorously at the song「+81」.

Ryo : Unlike「TRUE NORTH」, I wanted to put Japan in a more persuasive expression. At first it was a concept like an image like a samurai or a ninja, but it turned out to be a more serious song heading to a more serious direction. It became like an anti-party tune. It looks like party tune and it's anti. Of course some bands are doing parties like these, but I wanted to show it like graduated from that, making it like an adult party representing Crystal Lake style. Only in those party bands, it is actually no inside content, it's something superficially, so I feel like I've cheated that kind of stuffs.

FLJ : It seems to be exciting Live with a song like「Hail To The Fire」full of drive feeling.

Ryo : It looks like Soulfly, Sepultura thinking how to express the 90 's vives in the Crystal Lake style. I just wanted to do it for a while like that. I don't mean words like that, it comes from inside pretty well. I also use pretty much coined words. Like「Zomba Zomba」. Everyone can say that kind of things, and get it out of mouth naturally. I wanted to express such a primitive feeling. So it’s often said that this song is "too dangerous".

Yudai : Cause it's gonna make you mad if you're drinking (laugh). I roughly put the essence of the metal of the 80s' and 90s, remembering "Was it something like this?", and then I did it in expressions of my own flow.

FLJ : Other songs from the album are cinematic, these two songs are really straight, isn't it ?

Ryo : On my own, I really like Max Cavalera from Sepultura. He has always been pursuing extreme music with heavy, and also hooks up underground bands all over the world. I longed for that stance. I think that I can become such someday.

FLJ : In every song, various elements and feelings are put in it. Even the attack, and not only the attack itself, there are always two or more different things included. Now that can express any element and emotion, right ? How do you put it in when you make songs in that kind of situation?

Yudai : For example, even though we thought about the concept of relativity, dreams, fairy tales, etc. this time, there is a more sensuous part of the song. So start with a feeling to go to Ultra Heavy that fits with an emotional feeling. Even when you are drinking with people, when you are eating, talking, something borns from that. I think that it's the same feeling when I'm making songs now. Even if you tell yourself that you're making Heavy things, the world is packed with 20 years, 30 years of history of Heavy. It's good to put all these things into here, with the feeling that you're freed with such a feeling that you aren't crazy.

FLJ : I really want to put out the point that I'm not crazy.

Yudai : But crazy people are fascinating (laugh)

FLJ : For example, in the case of「Hail To The Fire」, after the song's made, "Zomba Zomba" came out from it, do you feel a sense of tribulation? Or did you want to make songs with a tribulation keyer from the beginning ?

Ryo : From the beginning as a keyword.

Yudai : Before making a demo, I'm saying things like "let's go with this kind of feeling" or "Sounds good". So, for example, if you go to festivals, there are tens of thousands of people there, people who don't normally listen to hardcore or metal usually, they’re gonna say something like "Zomba Zomba, amazing", so I can feel both cynical and positive feeling from both sides. There is a mix of double feelings like "If you say that's good, so let's go crazier!", and then "If you came into it, so you're gonna like it stronger". That's why Ryo also uses sarcastic words, and because I love the metamorphosis of underground heavy music, it makes me feel that way.

FLJ : In「HELIX」, Ryo has even more rich expressions of singing. Madness with a psycho way of singing and the feeling that it seems steady from wrap tone. It's quite amazing.

Ryo : That's why I wanted to express it all the time. I want to express things like an undulating of extreme and abnormal emotions. Lyrics are same for the Verse 1 and Verse 2, but I made it with the concept of making a huge change in the manner of shaking emotions, by making hooks and interesting things.

FLJ : It’s interesting that the song「Outgrow」expresses the magnificence by a mid tempo.

Yudai : It might be a beautiful translucent image, like lyrics that will fit the transience, but with the gap, there is a play like a vocal riding like a bunch of beats.

Ryo : There is a thought that it's not beautiful that such a feeling is overwhelmed. I think that if you listen to without looking at the lyrics, you can hear it as a magnificent song, but when you look at the lyrics, you're gonna say "This is what you are saying ?". I want everybody to read the lyrics and to enjoy sarcastic expressions. Well, there is a game too.

FLJ : What kind of things are you singing in the last song of the album「Sanctuary」 ?

Ryo : Sanctuary means a sacred precinct. I express the belief that I don't want to bend among them. That is a feeling like "let's do this this way" as I mentioned earlier, and even if the environment changes, we aren't affected at all, and I will definitely express the core part firmly from now on, although it's more personal expressions, that's what I'm trying to tell.

FLJ : What are your plans for the future?

Yudai : I think that it will be an activity to promote the album throughout the year 2019. The tour starts from January and I think that I will go to places where I can go as much as possible. Now, we planned Japan, America and Russia, then we will come back to Japan from there, go to Europe, go to Asia, go to Europe again and go to China. I'm making a plan that allow us to Tour around the world throughout the year. I'm thinking of making a「HELIX」Tour. I think that the start will come back to Japan in January 2020.

FLJ : I think that Crystal Lake has entered a new chapter since Ryo joined, music is getting more and more sharpened, and the scale of activities is getting bigger and bigger. How far do you want to go through?

Yudai : To go on Tour is our favorite thing, it has never changed from the past. As the scope gets bigger, the extent of the scope will also expand. I'm aware that the music I like is transmitted to everyone, and that will become one of their schedules. Listening to it, thinking "Heavy is super great", it becomes a base, and something borns. I feel like I aim for it. In addition, I would like to do our own events in the world.

Ryo : I want to be a Japanese slayer (laugh). We are always active, we are always at the front line, no matter how young we look, even if we haven't always been headliners for decade. We're constantly updating ourselves and trying to become sharped. We kept doing it for a long time, and I want to continue doing it in the front line with heavy.