Japanese Rock Phenoms HYDE and K.A.Z
Not many Japanese bands tour internationally a year after their founding, let alone perform on the battleship USS Missouri, but VAMPS did just that. Formed in 2008 by L’Arc~en~Ciel vocalist HYDE and Oblivion Dust guitarist K.A.Z, each of the four records released by VAMPS between 2009 and 2014 has reached the top ten on Japan’s Oricon music chart. A stadium headliner in Japan, VAMPS supported Finnish metal band Apocalyptica and the L.A. hard-rock band Sixx:A.M. (featuring Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe fame) for 12 stops on their 2015 North American tour. Tokyo Journal’s Executive Editor Anthony Al-Jamie spoke with HYDE and K.A.Z in Los Angeles.
TJ: How did the tour with Sixx:A.M. and Apocalyptica come about?
HYDE: Sixx:A.M. and Apocalyptica had decided to tour together and they were looking for a unique and interesting band to team up with.
TJ: How was the experience of touring with them?
K.A.Z: Because we are still new to the international scene, we face some limitations with equipment and the performance time available. But the most important thing to me is to give the audience a true VAMPS experience.
HYDE: We are already popular in Japan and our audience knows us. So we are always trying to show them what’s new. But in other countries people are still getting to know VAMPS, so we just keep trying to give them the VAMPS experience. In Japan, I can’t go out anywhere by myself, and when we perform the fans are always screaming. However, when we came to the U.S., we had to perform as the opening act. I had never had an experience like this before. As the first opening act, there is nobody before you and the pressure is on. But I thought to myself, “This is what’s in front of me. How can I take care of it?” It was a growing experience. Sometimes after putting it all out there, there was no response from the audience. I didn’t know what to do about it and it broke my heart. But I just kept telling myself, “I believe in my music. I can break through,” and I just kept moving forward.
TJ: Can you tell us about the biggest performance of this tour?
HYDE: At the beginning of this tour, we did a couple of festivals. They said, “You’re not going to use ear monitors. There’s no sound check. Just go on stage and play!” That was like, wow, real culture shock. The band right before us had the fans really screaming. Then we went out and there were only 10 VAMPS fans in front of us and we thought, “What are we going to do?” That was really hard, but by facing reality and the real world, it made us stronger. The last stop on the tour was Rock on the Range. There was a mosh pit between the audience and us. So that was, wow! Insane. I remember thinking, “If we keep doing this and believe in our music– yes it’s working! We can do this.” That was the most memorable moment on the tour and it reminded us that we should believe in ourselves.
The complete article is available in Issue #277. Click here to order from Amazon.
