CRYSTAL LAKE

From the left, Shinya (G), Ryo (Vo), Yudai (G)
They now challenge indoor skydiving! These are three shots just before three people fly on a wind speed of up to 360 km/h.

Original Heavy Music that made a further leap forward with the New Album「HELIX」
 
PHOTO : Cherry Chill Will.
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Crystal Lake announces its new album「HELIX」, which is about two years after the previous album「TRUE NORTH」. They have been pursuing their own heavy music based on hardcore and metal, but they are surprised by the great evolution that can be said to be a leap in this work and its perfection. With the European Tours getting more and more exciting, an American tour is finally decided for next year. From now on, both releases and Tours have been developed with a global perspective. This time at FLJ Magazine, Ryo (Vo), Yudai (G) and Shinya (G) challenged indoor skydiving before challenging the world.

FLJ: With this album「HELIX」, the pursuit of your music is making a great leap forward. What is the part you aimed at this time?

Ryo: Regarding the world view, the previous album「TRUE NORTH」had the aim of appealing more widely as Japanese Music. From there, there is a place where it has become natural, without aiming, that it has come to be able to bring out the goodness of the original Crystal Lake that is hyper heavy. In terms of lyrics, when I talked about it before, I thought that music was rebellious, angry, or born from such feelings. I’m not going back to the starting point, but why am I screaming? I’m screaming to bring negative things in a positive direction. That’s why there are so many internal themes. I’m not saying so much political, but there are many things that link to my current social situation, my life, so it came out naturally.

FLJ: Previously, when you made an album, you talked about making it using ratios or metaphors, but what about that part this time?

Ryo: This title「HELIX」means spiral. Compared to DNA, I wanted to express that DNA is connected in a spiral and is building a human body. From there, each song on the album is a DNA that expresses itself, and it combines with it to form an album called「HELIX」and expresses Crystal Lake. Furthermore, in terms of lyrics, I replace them with time. I think that genes are the turning points of life or every single event. That’s why a lot of DNA and narratives have been linked to each other in the vast history since the earth was created. I wanted to express such a wide time.

Yudai:「TRUE NORTH」had the concept of telling the goodness of Japan, and the previous album「THE SIGN」represented the band as a myth, likened to God. This time, it would be nice to make the backside of the album with an interesting feeling, and there was a sense of play as usual. Because we love Science-Fiction, movies, anime, and books, for example, Science-Fiction like Interstellar, etc. After that, if such a rock band did such a relativity theory, it would be amazing! It’s not NHK, but… (Laughs). The Science-Fiction is a bit too complex these days, but in the end, it’s like a human drama and I really like it. Then, with lyrics and music, the speed of time and something changes along with it, for example, the theory of relativity changes the way of perceiving time with respect to speed. I wanted to try it. That is a song called「Agony」. Even if it’s the lyrics, something loops at the start and end, and it spirals in time and calls it 「HELIX」. This time, I’m doing something linked to the world view that Crystal Lake has done so far.

FLJ: Moreover, there is a feeling that each song is an independent video work, and it expresses a digital feeling with a sense of the near future in terms of sound effects. Even in「AEON Feat. AJ」, you can put in and pull out many times the stuffy sounds of the double bass drum «Durururu… » in the second part of the song, and use the Live band to create and bring out a visual digital feeling.

Yudai: I’m doing it digitally, but I’m playing a lot. I think cinematic, or something that we have been able to capture has come to be able to do this. When I saw a channel of an American rapper or R&B producer, I was doing a process like a self-mashup, where I put a song from another track into another song. I tried some of these things this time. I suddenly changed what was made with different songs and they suddenly changed. There are various representations of the music to express in such different ways.

FLJ: There are many songs that don’t end normally.

Yudai: It’s not the last « mosh part », but I did something like making another interesting utopia and attraction with that kind of development.

FLJ: Crystal Lake is extreme every time they release an album. I think you’re trying to reach the limits of music, but how far do you want to go?

Yudai: Until now, I was thinking «Let’s do this, let’s do this ». I have listened to this kind of music from my teens and tried many things, but in the end, I think that my favorite point is still there. So far, I’ve been exploring around and I’ve been attracted by people who are not close to me like « Oh, it sounds great!». So this time, I thought « What is heavy? What do we want to do with super heavy? When you are trying new ideas of the band, will it go well?», like this. I tried it purely. So I really thought that it was an album that naturally had a hardcore essence, a metal essence, and a movie essence. I was enthusiastic about this work. Rather than « What I want to do? », we searched for creating only something with pure and heavy feelings. The reason for this blurring is that we finished the European Tour twice, went to other countries, and while I was on Tour, I reconfirmed that it was the way I wanted to do things.

FLJ : Oh, that’s big.

Yudai: I’m Japanese, so there’s an English complex, a complex of skin color, etc. But I became able to persuade me that this is not an issue if I can make something heavy and enjoyable as a band. You can go the way you want with the essential qualities. Of course, this is not only this, we have different parts and we also like melodies, so it may be Japanese Enka soul, people around me who have grown up, seniors, juniors, live houses, clothes, magazines, movies, etc. I think that everything is influential, and that’s why it’s always accompanied by a melody, so it probably won’t leave. It’s hard to be free on a heavy basis.

FLJ : You felt absolutely refreshed.

Yudai: Yeah, It was a very good feeling. 

Ryo: And that’s what everyone feels as a band. The same goes for the lyrics. It’s important to keep it simple, and I thought a lot about the words that even the Japanese can understand. On the other hand, the words that naturally came out of my mind were more English-speaking that people from other countries can sing. That also influenced me for the lyrics.

FLJ: So you realize that it’s better to believe in what you think rather than aiming at this.

Yudai: I thought that was OK. When I will be 40 years old and 50 years old, worrying about the past, I wonder if I will say that it was better to tour the band and make music. I think that was the reason why I thought so, and I thought that it was linked to the album.

FLJ : The song「+81」definitely came out from Japan.

Ryo: I wanted to bring out Japan with a more convincing expression, different from「TRUE NORTH」. At first, it was the concept of an image like a samurai or a ninja, but it finally took a more serious direction and became something like an anti-party song. It’s like a party where bands are partying, and this is what Crystal Lake’s party looks like. On the surface, it may be something superficial, so I just tried to make fun of it.

FLJ: The song「Hail To The Fire」seems to be full of drive and determination in Live.

Ryo: We think about how to express the ’90s vibes like Soulfly or Sepultura into Crystal Lake’s style. I always wanted to do something that encourages shouts from the audience. I also use coined words like「Zomba Zomba」. Anyone can say that, and you want to say it naturally. I wanted to express that kind of primitive feeling. That’s why it’s often said that this song is amazing for Live performances.

Yudai: Because it’s the kind of words you say when you’re drinking (Laughs). Remembering the essence of rough metal from the ’80s and ’90s, I thought « Was it like this? », and then we expressed it in our own way.

FLJ: While the other songs on the album are cinematic, these two songs are amazingly straight.

Ryo: I personally like Sepultura’s Max Cavalera. He has been pursuing heavy and extreme music and hooking up underground bands around the world. I’m really longing for that stance. I feel like I can become such a person someday.

FLJ: Every song has various elements and emotions. Even an aggressive song is not just an attack, it always contains two or more different ones. That’s what you can now express with any element or emotion, right? How do you make it into a song in such a situation?

Yudai: For example, even if you think about big concepts such as relativity, dreams, and fairy tales this time, there is a more sensitive part to wrap around it. So, start with the feeling that you want to go with ultra-heavy or an emotional feeling that fits your feelings a little. Whether you’re drinking or eating with someone, you can talk and be naturally encouraged to create something. Even now, I think that all the songs we’re making have this same feeling. Even if you tell yourself to make something heavy, the world is packed with 20 years and 30 years of heavy history. I think it’s better to use the craziness of your head and the madness feeling that makes you free to do what you want to do.

FLJ: I want to reach the point of being crazy.

Yudai: Crazy people are more interesting (Laughs).

FLJ: For example, in the case of「Hail To The Fire」, did you get「Zomba Zomba」with a tribal feeling after the song’s made? Or did you create a song with the keyword tribal from the beginning?

Ryo: It was a keyword from the beginning.

Yudai: We’re talking about « Let’s go like this » or « That sounds good! » before making a demo. So, for example, if you go to a festival, and tens or thousands people who don’t listen to hardcore or metal usually say « Zomba Zomba, amazing! », I can feel positivity from both sides. « Hey guys, that’s really good, we want to hear more! », if you say that it’s good, there’s a feeling that there’s no more danger, and then it becomes an entrance that you’re going to love it more. It’s a mixture of a double feeling. Ryo also uses sarcastic words and loves underground heavy music in a metamorphic way, so I think that’s how he feels.

FLJ: I think that Ryo’s way of singing has become even richer in「HELIX」. It’s pretty impressive, like how to sing and feel out with psychotic thinking, or the feeling of going crazy with some rap tones on the loud drumming.

Ryo: That is something I want to express all the time. I want to express something like the ups and downs of extreme emotions. Lyrics are the same for verses 1 and 2, but with the concept of shaking the emotions and making hooks, we were able to create something interesting.

FLJ: The song「Outgrow」is also interesting because it expresses such magnificence at mid-tempo. It’s beautiful.

Yudai: It might be a beautiful and cruel image of the dream with lyrics that fit this inhumanity, but there is a gap there, that seems to be a voice that says « Don’t be silly ».

Ryo: I have a feeling that the moment when such emotions are shaken off is beautiful. If you listen to the song without looking at the lyrics at all, you’ll hear a beautiful song, but when you look at the lyrics, you say « Did you really say all of these things? ». I want everyone to enjoy sarcastic expressions by reading or not the lyrics. Well, there is also a game.

FLJ: What do you sing in the last song「Sanctuary」of the album?

Ryo:「Sanctuary」means a sacred precinct and expresses a belief that you don’t want to bend. As we said before, it was a feeling like « Let’s go this way ». No matter how the environment changes, we are not affected by it at all, and the core part was firmly expressed. It’s a more personal expression, but I’m trying to convey it.

FLJ : What are your plans for the future?

Yudai: I think 2019 will be an activity to convey the album throughout the year. The Tour will start in January and we will go to as many places as possible. Currently, Japan, United-States and Russia are also organized, but from there, we will return to Japan, go to Europe, go to Asia, go back to Europe and go to China. We plan to go around the world throughout the year. We’re thinking about making a「HELIX」Tour in 2020. The start is in Japan and we will return to Japan again in January 2020.

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

​Yudai: The reason why we live our lives on Tour is that we have always loved it. You can grow as the scope of your music expands. We’re trying to make sure that our music is transmitted to everyone and becomes a thing of their schedules. Listening to this, and thinking « Heavy stuff are really amazing! », then it becomes a base and something is born. We feel like we are aiming for it. After that, we would like to do our own event in the world.

Ryo: I want to be a Japanese slayer (Laughs). They are always active and always at the forefront. Have you been headlining for decades? It’s always changing, but we want to keep going and staying on the front line for a long time.

『HELIX』
(CUBE RECORDS)
Released on 2018, November 28th (Japan Only)

『HELIX』ONEMAN JAPAN TOUR 2019
1.13 (Sun) Tokyo Minavi BLITZ Akasaka
1.15 (Tue) Osaka BIG CAT
1.18 (Fri) Nagoya THE BOTTOM LINE

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

Interview by FLJ Magazine

English Translation by Gaëlle GEDDA

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