Die interview on Niconama (2026/04/24)
Die says this album feels a lot different from Phalaris because Phalaris was made during the Covid years, and the band didn't even know if they would ever be able to play it live while they were making it. So for that reason, Mortal Downer feels different.
He says the title Mortal Downer was flitting about even soon after the band started making the album, but Joe is confused about the Downer part. Surely, since the release of Phalaris Covid is over, so its a more positive world now? Die replies that the state of the world now is irrelevant to the band, they are just dark anyway. He had the word Downer in his awareness while writing, but it didn't really influence his songs.
Die says they ended up with over 30 candiate songs for the album, and he even thought making a three-disk-album would be easiler than trying to reduce the songs down to one disk. Deciding which songs to discard, and which to keep was difficult. He thinks all the 30+ songs were good songs.
He wasn't really conscious of anything different about his playing during the recording stage, but he was more focussed on how the overall sound of the songs was before mixing.
A comment is read out saying the album feels unlike any other Dir albums, but what does Die think? Die says it feels like an album they were able to make due to the fact they have continued for 29 years. If they had stopped or had paused throughout the years, he thinks they would not have been able to make this kind of album. When the band first formed, he would never have imagined they would be like this, he didnt even imagine they would still be together 29 years later.
A viewer asks what the most difficult song to make was, and Die says all of them were difficult.
Die says he hasn't actually sat down and listened to the album much since the release, but for now he just needs a breather, and after a while he intends to actually listen to it (when he is not playing it live, obv), and he thinks he might be able to view it differently, or discover more in it.
Another question asks if he avoided drinking alcohol while he was making the album. He answers, no he didn't avoid drinking alcohol, he drank as normal. On the contrary, he would suffer if he didn't. He doesn't drink much at home, but he does when he goes out.
Someone asked him his outfit theme, and he said everyone just wore black.
Does he like motsunabe? Yes he does.
Please take off your sunglasses! Only in my downtime. Etc etc.
As his final message, he says he hopes everyone will be listening to this album for a long time to come.
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