Interview with Euthanasie in Russia

Euthanasie have been playing together for several years, but this was their first time to tour outside of Japan. They started with two concerts in Saint Petersburg, Russia. We had an opportunity to speak with the musicians after the very first performance of the tour.

How did you meet each other?
Euthanasie: You know, all of us are interested in the same European artists, like Garbage and Rammstein; we met each other on the internet, where we were discussing them. It must have been destiny! (laughs)

Were you participating in any other projects before you've started Euthanasie?
#449: I've had a visual, metal band. It doesn't exist anymore.
Andro: This is my first band.
N@o: I've played (counts on his fingers) in several groups before.

What was the conception behind the name of the band?
Euthanasie: It is the title of the novel by Ota Mori. We really like this book.

Many fans are interested to know, why #449 has a pseudonym?
#449: It's kind of a play on words. If you use numbers instead of syllables, my real name, Yoshiki will make 449. That's all.

Not much Russian fans know Japanese, what are your songs about?
Euthanasie: Every song has its own story of course. For example, on our first album there's a song, called Empire, it's about war in Iraq. It was written three years ago at the time when the war started. One of the songs on our last album is a requiem for our friend, who died in February this year.
Andro: In general our songs are about pain, sorrow and other negative things people don't like to talk about.

What are the sources of your inspiration, next to music?
Andro: Movies and music. I grew up with movies. My favorites are Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Exorcist and many, many others. Also fights are inspiring for me.
#449: Nao is also a cinema-boy. As for me, that would be cinema, books, beautiful sights and people with strong emotions like happiness or sorrow.

Seeing as you all like cinema, would you like to make music for a film some time? If yes, what kind of film could it be?
Euthanasie: Yes, it could be interesting to make a sound track for suspense movie or an art movie.

Which experience do you think has influenced you the most as artists?
#449: Meeting people has influenced me the most.
Andro: I take energy from social problems and negative things that surround us.
#449: And it's completely negative energy (laughs)
N@o: I take energy from the dark side of Tokyo life: crimes, violence and so forth.

We know you've played with Speed-ID, BAAL and Aural Vampire. Are you close with them or with any other bands?
Euthasie: As for Speed-Id and BAAL we all were performing on Tokyo Dark Castle,which is the main event of Japanese gothic music. So we met each other there, and could get along really well.
Andro: A friend of mine is playing with Aural Vampire, we see each other sometimes.

Is there a possibility of collaboration between you and these bands?
Euthanasie: It's possible, but we don't have any particular plans.
#449: I would like to make something with European musicians, especially with F. Bogart. He's so elegant and really fantastic.

Are there any Japanese artists you have influenced your music who you have admiration for?
Euthanasie: In fact not, our music was influenced by European music as you could see from our preferences. So we're unable to recall any Japanese groups we admire.

Do you consider your music to be somehow close to Visual kei?
Andro: Definitely not. In Japan gothic music and Visual kei are standing aside. It's different music for different audiences. In fact, gothic groups are somehow oriented on European patterns, so we don't have anything to do with Visual kei.

As far as we know, this is your first tour outside Japan. What are your impressions thus far?
Euthanasie: It's exciting. As for this first concert of the tour, the audience was more responsive and active than we thought. We were surprised to see there some gothic loli cosplay. So many styles were mixed in one place. It's completely different from our usual public.

What are your plans after this tour? We've heard about Andro's project AndroLady, will you be busy with it?
Andro: This project has started already, I will be playing in two groups at the same time, but Euthanasie is still the most important project for me.
#449: I'll be busy with our computers and next, maybe there would be some plans, but we'll be able to tell until later.
N@o: I'll think about it after the tour.

You have a MySpace (an online social networking website), will there be any comments about tour posted there after the tour is completed?
#449: I've already begun to write down some impressions on my personal blog.
Andro: In fact our band's account is temporally unavailable for posting because our account was hacked and someone sent a lot of spam from it. So the administrators of MySpace closed it. It's really disappointing, because we can't answer our fans and we can't promote our tour. After we are back to Japan we'll try to contact the administration once again or will have to make a new account. But you can keep contact through #449's MySpace.


We thank the band for the great show and the interview, and wish them a successful tour.


Big thanks to Ulsa and Leonid Novikov, the organizer of the gothic festival "Radio Inferno" on which Euthanasie performed.