On August 26th, Asian pop unit SVGV will embark on the European leg of their FURTHER THAN EVER world tour. RIO or DJ TRIRION, the Japanese DJ of SVGV, speaks to JaME about the tour and more.
Hello, it's nice to see you return soon to Europe! You changed the way you write your band's name, isn't it? How can you explain that? RIO, you also changed your stage name lately, right?
RIO: Many people still might not know that we've changed the spelling of our group's name. The main reason was that there was an 80’s Canadian rock band named SAGA, and ever since we started our international activities the manager of the group or their organisers have been getting confused, and we were also facing a hard time letting people discover us online since there are so many SAGAs. I needed to make my name more identifiable as well, so I started using my DJ name as artist name as well.
You'll be back in Europe at the end of August for your FURTHER THAN EVER tour, starting in France, then moving on to play in Belgium, Germany and Poland. What do you like about playing here?
RIO: Our dear fans have waited so long for us, so that brought us here again. There's nothing more than meeting with them and spending exciting time together.
What's your opinion, generally speaking, about the Japanese-related and anime conventions and events where you perform sometimes? Is it a culture that you usually like?
RIO: I always appreciate people overseas loving the pop culture of my country. It’s always great to have shows at those events because the crowd is really passionate most of the time.
What can we expect in terms of music this time? Can we expect new works and new influences as you've relocated to Los Angeles recently?
RIO: We're now working on many exciting collaborations. We're very excited to share it with you guys very soon!
Can you talk about your journey across the world? You lived in Asia, toured several times in Europe and now you are in the US. What's the meaning behind it? What do you like about moving so often?
RIO: Travelling and moving across the countries is always a big challenge and also a very inspirational thing. Since we are self-managed, we always have to decide what to do next, what we can do, who will be there and how to reach our goals. It's very tough but we always believe god will guide us to the best path every time we make big decisions.
We know that you like and make dance music a lot, but also beautiful ballads and you sometimes cover famous tracks. Who are your favourite artists and who influenced you the most?
RIO: As composers and singers, we want to try any kind of music and it’s all for the listeners. We always think how the listener will feel or react when they listen to what we're making now. We imagine the listeners in several scenes, for example on their way to work, in school, alone in their room, partying with friends, and of course at our live show. Our music hasn’t reached many people yet. What we need to do is very simple: one, create better music which more people want to listen to; two, finding a better way to reach more listeners across the world.
JaME would like to thank SVGV for this interview opportunity.
