(Note: I haven’t really gone through and edited this, so it is in no way perfect and there might be a lot of grammar or spelling errors, but I hope it conveys the meaning of this interview <3)
Original Interview: http://www.visunavi.com/news/296111/
Kra Interview No.2
Keiyuu, Taizo, Yuhra and Yasuno, their current feelings and talk about the upcoming tour
--Taizo and Yasuno, their feelings towards their departure
It has already been announced but, Taizo and Yasuno, could you please tell us the reason you have decided to depart from Kra?
Taizo: I said this in my comment also, but I felt like maybe the values each of us place on the band Kra were starting to wear away little by little. However I don’t think much can be done about that. I guess, apart from me, if you have been doing something for 17 years, even within that, individually, circumstances and ways of thinking change. It’s not possible for everyone to keep going with the same feelings as when they started the band. I made the decision since, having been active as Kra for a long time, part of it became painful for me, and I felt it would be difficult to go on together like this.
It felt as though, in the same way you have brought many different sounds through the album “Bremer”, your framework of expression has exceeded the vessel of a single band.
Taizo: As much as Yuhra depicts the classic face of Kra, it’s true that there are parts where I have been able to freely express myself in Kra. It’s like, when you make an album you needlessly think about the fact that balance is important in a band, after all. There are parts which can’t be completed just in your own colour, and that is why there was part of me that also wanted to continue. Well, it is a bitter decision I guess…
Yasuno has been with Kra for 17 years. So the announcement was quite a shock.
Yasuno: I am an original member, so. I never thought that I would make the decision to quit, but, the decision this time was made by myself. At every opportunity the members would discuss “How are we going to depict the next development?”. And maybe because we have been active for so long, even during live MCs we would talk about things such as the “20th anniversary” and “even after that”, and every time we would all talk together about how to make those words a reality, when I described my own planning for 5 or 10 years in the future, I had the feeling that my priorities were different to the others’. Although in my case, as I quite like to get my own way, when I suggested things like “Why don’t we do it this way?”, I did have many experiences of my idea being implemented day-to-day. Then recently I began to think more that “Perhaps my way of doing things doesn’t fit into the current Kra”, and that became the feeling that “Maybe that is actually getting in the way of Kra progressing easily.” If so, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be better for each other if we headed towards our own ideal?” which was the thought why I made this decision.
Everyone was surprised by the announcement.
Yasuno: 10 days after making the announcement, we had our 17th anniversary live at Tsutaya O-East. That’s true for both when the announcement was made and the time of the live. Everyone together sent me words, messages, and letters that “we never thought Yasuno would quit, so we had let our guard down”. It’s strange to say this myself, but I still think of Kra as one part of my identity, so even now there are times I feel like, “If I’m not there it’s going to be pretty quiet, is that okay?”
--The will and consciousness of Keiyuu and Yuhra, who are going to continue Kra
The two of you have the will to continue Kra forever from here on.
Keiyuu: That’s right. We will continue performing as long as we can. The truth is, when this discussion came about, I also one time talked about quitting. But, rather than quitting without giving it my all, I thought if we don’t try we’ll never know, and I swallowed my words (about quitting). If I quit Kra now, there’s nothing else I can do. Even if I returned home I don’t think I would find a place to work. If that is the case, I want to fulfill my purpose as Kra until my voice runs out. Even though I love all the songs that we’ve made as Kra, wouldn’t it be the worst if I wasn’t able to sing them anymore. Since we’re not breaking up because of an argument or anything, while we continue to be active as Kra, maybe we will be able to be involved with the two quitting members somewhere. While holding on to that hope, I want to continue as Kra from now on, too.
Yuhra, please tell us your feelings.
Yuhra: I don’t have such a special feeling, but it just feels like for myself we are approaching the final day of the 4 members just in the same manner as always. Even after the show on January 25th at Akasaka finishes, just like Kra will continue activities as usual, I feel like, let’s do it all as always. As long as there are people who are supporting Kra, I also want to keep on meeting those expectations. As Keiyuu just said, asking what I can do if I were to quit, if it’s not like I can write many songs, when I think maybe just do support activities, I also feel that it would be tough. Also, in my case, I’m playing in Kra because we have continued for 17 years, and I will continue to do so from now on too. If I had quit at 3-4 years, I have the personality that would repeat that over and over. If I quit Kra now, that would happen from the next time. I am afraid of that happening, also. So, I think it is best balance to do support activities sometimes, while valuing the current environment.
--Why “QUARTETTO”?
The tour “Kra LIVE TOUR 2018 [QUARTETTO]” will start in November. As the last tour for Taizo and Yasuno, we imagine that it will become a tour which contains various many kinds of emotions.
Yasuno: For the tour title, we named it “QUARTETTO”, which directly translated means quartet. Us quitting, through repeated negotiations, really took a lot of time to decide. From the time the decision was made, I had the intention in myself that I wanted to use the word “QUARTETTO” for something. So, we have used that for the tour title this time. My personal feelings are really summarized in this one word. For the national tour this time too, because live shows have a life of their own, and are a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and they pass in an instant, I hope together with everyone to be able to treasure that feeling.
--Will the tour “QUARTETTO” center around the album “Bremer”?
Keiyuu: If we don’t do it with the focus on “Bremer”, we will lose the chance to perform it as the current 4, so the tour will have the album as its subject. So, I hope that everyone listens to it sufficiently and comes to the shows. -- -- “Kra LIVE 2019 [tsukurishimono / FOUR CHILDREN” will be the last live for the current four members.
Will it take a shape which summarizes the journey of the current four?
Ya: I don’t really know. Reflecting on Kra’s history up to this point, we were a very contrary band, saying like “We’ll do this and do that”, but not doing it, and when we would release a single, we often wouldn’t play the lead song from the single very much during tours. We are a band that, if we felt that the audience’s response to the coupling song was better, we would focus on that instead. So, in relation to the live on January 25, I think nothing will change about it being a live which reflects the judgement all four of us have made at that point about the kind of stage we wanted to create.
--Then, facing the performance of January 25 at Mynavi BLITZ Akasaka…
January 25 will become the final stage of Kra in its current formation of 4, but rather than awareness of that, it will most likely take a form which draws upon the day-to-day steps of Kra and pushes through until the end.
Yasuno: Yes. Kra is a band which has never stopped moving even once. It’s always in the present progressive form. Thinking about the fact that it will continue as a band into the future, rather than immersing ourselves nostalgically, or folding in hit songs in the live, I feel that concentrating on what we can show as a band at that time, just like we have done so far, is the most Kra-like thing to do.
Taizo: For Yasuno and myself, this tour is the last chance for us perform the new songs, so I hope to grow the new songs while advancing on the tour. As for my feelings towards the lives, in a good way, it’s the same as usual, during lives there is an adrenaline rush, so I hope to just enjoy myself in the moment as usual. Currently, since I don’t know what lies ahead in my future, maybe I will be in a band or not, personally I think I’ll feel graduating as like when you go to a parking area on the highway and such, it’s like “I wonder if I’ll ever come to this parking area again”.
As for Mynavi Blitz Akasaka, it was the place where we held our first tour final since I joined Kra, so the fact that I’m able to stand up there again, and, it’s the day my history with Kra will end makes me feel like I need to draw the line clearly there. I don’t know what will happen for myself in the future, but the one thing I don’t want to leave is any regret, so if I can think “There’s nothing left for me to do in Kra” when I leave the stage, I am happy with that.
Yuhra: After recording an album I always think that memorizing the album tracks is quite hard when it comes time to start preparing for the tour. In the same way as the band becomes familiar with the songs through the tour, inevitably even the same song grows in a way that makes it like a different song between the first day of the tour and the tour final. That is why I always want to become familiar with each song quickly, and I think the same thing will happen with this tour.
As for January 25, it’s our first time in a while to be at Mynavi BLITZ Akasaka, so I want to enjoy that feeling, and I think we can’t tell what songs we will select yet.
It feels as though there aren’t any particularly sentimental feelings.
Yuhra: If it becomes too sentimental, it’s the same way for the two remaining members, and the two who are leaving. Like it won’t lead to the next step for us. If they were completely quitting music, or retiring, it might be different, but they both are not. So, I want it to be like “It was a great live” so that it can lead each of us to our next step.
Keiyuu: For the audience, this tour is the last chance for them to enjoy the live of the four of us. I am also looking forward to see how our songs grow through the tour, and as Taizo said about it feeling like regional parking areas, if I was like “That’s right, we won’t come here as this four anymore”, I might become sentimental every time we’d go to a parking area and our travel time would become longer. But I also think I want to enjoy that kind of thing on the tour.
The show on January 25, whether we cry or laugh, will really be the last for the four of us, and I’m sure it will be a very important live for our audience, too, so in bringing that out sincerely, and also saying like “We won’t let you go like that”, I hope it will be a live where they can feel plenty of Kra-likeness in that. Well, I’m sure it’ll be something like “Since it’s these four people, it will come this way”.
Kra itself will not stop and will continue afterwards. So, it might indicate what kind of developments are waiting in the future as well.
Kei: That’s right. It’s something we have to think about, so while considering that separately, because our show on January 25 is a big milestone for Kra, towards that I would like to go around solidly on our tour this year.
Kumoricon is proud to present, for their first US appearance, Kra, as a Kumoricon 2017 guest of honor!
Kra is a Japanese visual kei band with a mix of pop, rock, and jazz sounds. Debuting in 2001, Kra soon signed on with the popular label PS Company. Kra made their major artist debut with their third single "Heart Balance" on September 21, 2006. They are credited with the first opening theme song for Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, "BONDS -kizuna-".
The band members are: Keiyuu on vocals, piano, and guitar, Taizo on guitar, Yuhra on bass, and Yasuno on drums. Kra's newest EPs, Uchuu Traveller CORE and Uchuu Traveller CELL were released in September of 2016. 2016 also marked Kra's 15th anniversary. They released a new album in January 2017, Kra no Susume, featuring new recordings of some of their classic songs.
With numerous Japanese tours and appearances under their belt, Kumoricon 2017 will be Kra's first appearance in the US!
You can follow the members on Twitter, and find out more information on their website.
Keiyu @kra_keiyu | Taizo @kra_taizo | Yuhra @yuhra_grooving | Yasuno @kra_yasuno
Official homepage: http://www.pscompany.co.jp/kra/
