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SoundWitch: As we change so does our perception of the world

It’s cold and wet outside, but Twin from SoundWitch (Japan) has agreed to give an interview about their new album ROMANESQUE. Twin, despite her heavily visual stage-image joins me dressed in casual clothes, but she still has that larger-than-life presence that she carries on stage as she drinks her hot chocolate.

Thank you for coming out in this rainy weather to speak with us. Would you please introduce yourself and SoundWitch.

Readers of Stalker, hello! I am Twin, vocalist of SoundWitch.

We are a rock band active in Japan. You could say our sound is industrial, gothic and electro, however we also have a hard rock and ambient element. We sample from many various genres including things like reggae to create the world of SoundWitch both musically and for our live performances. Members are, myself Twin(Vo.), Dragon (Gt.) Matsubai (Ba.) Maiden (Machine), Sack (Dr.), and Shark (Dr.).

On 3/19/2014 we just released our 3rd album ROMANESQUE. It really turned out into be a great album. Please check it out.

Congratulations on the release. SoundWitch describes ROMANESQUE as “industrial, gothic, human, and grotesque.” That is an interesting. Would you tell us more about this?

Humans by nature are very contrary things. Inside the heart our balance of emotions, and the ideas of ‘myself’ are constantly changing. There are faces and sides of us that are constantly conflicting with each other. As we change so does our perception of the world. I think this is very romantic.

Our goal and challenge is in creating music that has that same sense of contrast but balance, and that conflicting oppositeness. So even the same listener listening to the same song might have a different reaction or a different feeling depending on their situation.

Industrial, gothic, electro, humanistic, grotesque- It’s something to stimulate the mind, or send the body trembling. It’s something realistic, but fantastic. Something grotesque, but romantic. Again, different combinations of sounds will affect listeners differently. The listener should enjoy each sound as you would enjoy a sweet smelling perfume and how it smells differently on different people.

What can we expect in this album? How is it different to your previous releases WICCAHOLIC and GROTESCA?

Musically and emotionally speaking ROMANESQUE has a wider range of depth and feel. It is something that is going to cut deep inside of you. After our previous releases, we had a member change and had a long tour were we gained a lot of experience. You can hear this in the new album I think. Really, you got to check it out.

Speaking of member changes, it seems that you now have two drummers, and you used to have two guitarists.

That’s right. Sack is SoundWitch’s original drummer, but early last year circumstances forced him to take an indefinite break. In the meantime Shark has actively been SoundWitch’s drummer.
In 2012, Maiden replaced our previous guitarist who withdrew from the band. Maiden really brought a big change into the band both live and in the studio.

By the way, you are a Japanese band but all of your songs are in English. What is the motivation behind this?

There are three reasons for this.

Firstly, English fits better rhythmically and melodically than Japanese for the type of music we want to create. Second and thirdly, internationally there are an overwhelming number of people who understand English compared to Japanese, and although I love my mother tongue, in the bigger picture Japanese is really only spoken by a handful of people outside of Japan.

Although singing in Japanese can be interesting, it means you are only communicating with a specific nationality or group of people. This limitation affects the image of the music, and it also limits the impressions available to a large number of listeners.

We feel music itself is a free thing and is supposed to transcend borders, distance, and time.
With the feeling that we didn’t want to lock up and restrict our music to a small box we decided to have our songs in English.

Do you have any plans for touring outside of Japan?

We do want to tour in different countries, but we don’t have any plans at the moment. However it is something we are discussing, and we do accept offers. So please look forward to the day when we can come to your country.

Do you have anything you would like to share with Stalker readers?

Thank you for reading our interview. Won’t you please listen to Romanesque? And then listen to it again OK? I think this Romanesque will take you to a new world.
Someday we want to do an international tour, including your country, so we appreciate your support!

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

No, thank you very much.

Interview was taken and translated by: Seri Nieves / Unicorn Promotions
The CD is available through: CDJapan.com, Amazon.co.jp, HMV.co.jp and will be out on iTunes on 4/9/2014.
Official Site: www.soundwitch.jp
Author: Seri Nieves transl.german Sandy Mahrer photos: SoundWitch

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Sandy Mahrer

Fresh Act editor, reports, reviews, photos - - - Favorite genres? - Hard Rock, Heavy Metal and Pop-Rock etc. Less Death, Black, Grind Core