This August, U.K. rock band Bring Me The Horizon will headline Japan’s Summer Sonic Festival while Japanese duo YOASOBI will host their debut headline show in the U.S. in April. We held a conversation between these leading English and Japanese artists for "Rolling Stone Japan vol.25," released last December, and now we’re releasing the full, uncut version of the discussion online.【See more photos】YOASOBI and Bring Me The Horizon
This interview took place just before
NEX_FEST in November 2023. Editor/writer Toshiya Ohno, who has interviewed Bring Me The Horizon vocalist Oliver Sykes (aka Oli) multiple times, served as the host, facilitating the Japanese-British artist discussion between Oli and YOASOBI’s Ayase and ikura.
RSJ: I heard that Ayase and DAIDAI of Paledusk have been good friends for a long time.
Oli: Yeah. DAIDAI told me.
Ayase: Of all my musical relationships, he's one of my oldest friends. We've been friends since we were 16 years old.
Oli: You come from the same town?
Ayase: Neighboring prefectures. I am from Yamaguchi Prefecture and DAIDAI is from Fukuoka.
RSJ: When YOASOBI and Paledusk were confirmed to perform at the NEX_FEST festival, did you talk with DAIDAI about it?
Ayase: Of course. Both DAIDAI and I idolize Bring Me The Horizon. Even though we each took completely different paths, the feeling of coming together to fulfill our dreams in the same place is really exciting. We talked about that a lot.
RSJ: That is really exciting .Ayase: It really is . That's why this festival means a lot to us. I started music a little earlier than Paledusk formed , and DAIDAI joined them later. Paledusk and my band often appeared at the same events.
RSJ: How did you first become aware of Bring Me The Horizon?Ayase: I started my band in 2012. Shortly after that, the album Sempiternal was released. A guitarist I was working with at the time told me about a cool band, and then I listened to
“Shadow Moses” from the album. That was the beginning.
RSJ: What do you think made Bring Me The Horizon special among metalcore bands of the time?
Ayase: From there, I dug deeper and listened to their previous album,
Suicide Season, and I liked that too, but what drew me to the album
Sempiternal was this sacred, almost cinematic feeling that I couldn't find in other bands. After listening to the songs, it felt like finishing watching a movie, and there was this cool, almost religious atmosphere to it. That's why I became a fan.
RSJ: What do you think of Oli as a singer?
Ayase: He is super charismatic.
Oli: (embarrassed laughter)
RSJ: Do you usually listen to metal music, ikura?
ikura: I hadn't really come across it before, but since starting YOASOBI with Ayase-san, I've been hearing the name Bring Me The Horizon all the time.
Ayase: The first Bring Me The Horizon song I introduced her to was
“Parasite Eve”.
ikura: Since it wasn't part of my roots, it hit me hard. I've never really heard in detail about Ayase's history and how Bring Me The Horizon came into his musical roots. Reading about it in an interview recently, I got the chance to listen to their songs one by one. Knowing that Ayase respects them a lot and still continues to be influenced by their music, it made sense to me when I looked at YOASOBI's songs and the songs Ayase creates. I felt like maybe he was unconsciously digesting various pieces from Bring Me The Horizon and incorporating them into our own music in a new way. So, it's a great honor to be able to participate in this festival together, and it's also my first time performing at an artist-run festival, so I'm really putting in my all.
Ayase: I'm looking forward to it too.
Oli: I saw BABYMETAL yesterday, they’re really excited about it.
RSJ: Did you check out YOASOBI’s music by any chance? What do you think?Oli: Yes, yes it’s really cool. I was very surprised. I’d been told by DAIDAI that they’re a Japanese pop band. I think I was expecting something more similar to K-POP music. But then when I listened to it, I was like, “Is this pop music in Japan? Because this is crazy.”
Ayase: I am happy to hear that.
Oli: I think musically it’s a lot more challenging than a lot of rock music, in terms of structure and orchestration and the way it’s put together and how many different ideas are in one song. This is why we got DAIDAI to work with us, because I think he employs the same kind of ideas in his music. He’ll have so many ideas and so many different things but make the song feel cohesive. When I was listening to YOASOBI, it was really inspiring. I think with my band I want to do the same thing with rock music, to try and find new ways to feel fresh. A lot of the artists I’ve listened to in Japan like YOASOBI and Paledusk have a really good talent for making things feel so crazy and at the same time listenable and enjoyable and appealing to a huge audience in Japan. This would be very challenging music for people in England but at the same time, it’s really exciting and really inspiring.
RSJ: I think you guys have something in common. Bring Me The Horizon is based in rock but you don’t care about boundaries, you like to see how far you can go. YOASOBI are based in J-POP but they also don’t care about boundaries. They have a lot of different elements in their music and they try to go as far as they can. I think J-POP is like ultimate hyperpop.Oli: Yeah (laughs).
Ayase: (laughs)
RSJ: But the melody is always something very essential for J-POP music.
Oli: I think there’s probably more care and attention in these guys’ music than hyperpop but I think what’s cool about hyperpop is it feels very cerebral - it’s like the first thing you think of and you do it. Whereas you can tell there’s a lot of time and a lot of energy and craft put into each section and there’s more of a journey in one song, you know? You find yourself in a place you weren’t imagining finding yourself, which is really cool because it’s really hard to do. To find that new way to surprise listeners is very difficult in any kind of music. Experimentation is so important because that’s how we find the next big thing or the next style. If there’s no art to doing that, everything gets very boring.
Ayase: When it comes to genre, I don't really think about it that deeply. I often discuss this with DAIDAI too, I choose the direction or the sound that feels the best at the time, it's more about pulling from the roots that happen to be in that genre. Eventually, when it all comes together, I do think about it meticulously to find the balance, but when initially setting the framework, it's more about just selecting things I like saying, “I want this, I want that,” and putting them in a basket, like checking out at the register (laughs).
RSJ: I suppose that’s because you love new music and have a lot of compartments to pull from, right? Ayase: I love all music so that’s probably it.
Oli: Yes, I think so.
RSJ: Do you ever have moments when metalcore elements seem to seep in while you’re writing music?
Ayase: I’m quite particular about drums and the way the rhythm is played. Even in my pop music, I like to heavily incorporate breakdowns, but that’s because those are the sections I liked when I was playing in a metalcore band.
Ayase（Photo by Maciej Kucia） 
