Paledusk released its first full album today, so this is a perfect time to finally share the interview conducted a few weeks ago in a small dressing room, just a few hours before the final show of their joint tour with One OK Rock that took place in Budapest Arena. Besides the obligatory questions about their influences and plans, I also asked them about touring worldwide, Japan’s love for crazy, genre-bending music and their rather unique approach to songwriting. Read on, while you listen to their excellent new album (available on all the big streaming platforms).

Check the live reports and massive live gallery here.

You are known for the sudden changes between music styles and for including an extreme amount of different music genres in your songs. What are your main musical influences? And is your usual listening playlist as diverse as your own music?

Dai Dai: I listen to a lot of different kind of music, like jazz fusion, metal, some pop-punk and I was massively influenced by Japanese pop music. They have a lot of crazy chord progression, crazy sound direction and a lot of weird melodies. So, I want to fuse these ideas with my metal sound, that’s why I got a lot of stuff in one song.

Coud you mention some examples of pop music that influenced you?

Dai Dai: One was a band called Tokyo Jihen… oh, do you know them?

Oh yes! Shena Ringo’s band.

Dai Dai: Yes, yes, and Shena Ringo is from our hometown. She is our biggest role model from there, I listen to her stuff a lot and it has a lot of jazz and progressive elements mixed with pop, so I get a lot of ideas from that. As for playing guitars, Animals As Leaders for example gives so many ideas, but there are so many other great bands that influenced me. Also, anime intro songs gave me a lot of good vibe.

Your early EPs had a more typical, straightforward metalcore sound, then you started to go for this more chaotic sound around 2019 / 2020 (especially after the Happy Talk single). What was the reason for this very drastic change in your sound?

Dai Dai: At the time of the first EPs I was not a member, but after I joined I started to compose music for the band and did songs like Happy Talk. I wanted to make unique music, music nobody else makes. I am still trying to find my own sound, but I feel that I am getting closer to it.

Kaito: Before that EP, we were just put into the metal and hardcore category, playing only for a small scene. But after he joined Paledusk, we changed our style around Happy Talk.

Your song structures are very unusual with a lot of tempo and style changes. What is your songwriting process? Do you start with a more regular song in mind and add these random elements later on, or you go for the diverse sound from the start?

Dai Dai: When I starting to make a new song, I always pick up an acoustic guitar first. I make chord progression and melodies first, and then, after that, I make a song collection, like an album trailer, but it is all for just one song. Like a DJ mix. So, I always start to make a lot of different kind of songs at one time with acoustic guitar, and after I do something like.. five or six demos, I end up with one song. That’s my songwriting style.

What do you think, why there are so a many bands in Japan that like to experiment with unusual genre crossovers? Like yourselves or SiM, Hanabie., Maximum The Hormone, Babymetal and many more?

Dai Dai: Japan is a small country and in certain styles, there aren’t enough bands, so for example, if a metal band plays a show, they often pick bands from other styles, like a pop, jazz or hip-hop bands. It is kind of normal in Japan. I think in America or here in Europe, when a metal band plays a show or does a tour, they only play with other metal bands. But in Japan, due to this mixing of styles, bands get so many different influences from the other bands they play with and that’s why they make such unique music.

So, that’s why you have the so-called “loud rock scene”?

Dai Dai: Haha, yes, that’s what we call it. Also, I grew up listening to Babymetal and Maximum The Hormone, so, for me, metal mixed with something else is very normal. And I think it is the same for Japanese people in general.

Kaito: Agreed!

You recently signed to Avex Trax, one of Japan’s biggest major labels. Major labels sometimes try to change the style of their artists, trying to push them towards a more commercial and accessible sound. Was there any attempt like that from Avex or you are free to do whatever you want?

Dai Dai: Yes, that happens sometimes, but I had a plan. I knew that when we go major, I don’t wanna take any such orders from them. So, I worked as a producer with big artists first and signed major afterwards, so this way, i am in a position that they cannot tell me what to do. Because if they would try to tell me what to do, I can say that, hey, I already worked with huge artists, so you cannot tell me what to do.

Well, that’s a good strategy!

Kaito: But Avex is very nice, they trust us and they have a lot of respect for our music. So, we have a very nice relationship with them.

That was actually one of the things I wanted to ask you about Dai Dai, how did you start to work as a composer or producer with the likes of Bring Me the Horizon, One OK Rock and Babymetal?

Dai Dai: They reached out to me on Instagram. Yeah, surprising, isn’t it? I still cannot believe it either. Bring Me The Horizon and Babymetal… they just sent me a DM, “hey, let’s work together” and I ended up going to Sheffield and Tokyo. And One OK Rock as well.

As for One OK Rock, how is your joint tour going so far?

Kaito: Amazing!

Dai Dai: We, as many other Japanese musicians grew up listening to their music, so it means so much to us! I got so many love and influence from them during this tour, and we are also working on music.

Kaito: For me, when we were on stage, at any country in Europe, the fans of One OK Rock had so much energy and love and even though for almost everybody it was the first time seeing us, they gave us such a warm welcome. At each day, we had such a good time, so it is a nice tour, the best tour in my life actually.

When did you start to play outside Japan? Was it in 2022? And how did the first overseas tour happen?

Dai Dai: In Asia, we already played in other countries in… 2018? But outside Asia, it was 2022, after the pandemic. First, we signed to Greyscale Records, a label from Australia and our manager from Australia also became our worldwide manager and he organized very good tours for us.

While underground bands from Japan have been touring worldwide for decades, until recently it seemed that most major labels do not really care about going international. However it seems that this attitude changed in recent years and they seem to open up more and more. What do you think, what was the reason for this change?

Dai Dai: Yes, ten years ago, they did not care about going international, they only cared about the domestic market. But now, with the Internet and social media getting bigger and bigger, we feel like we do not have any borders anymore, so I think that is one of the reasons why labels started to think about going international. Also, many Japanese artists have a lot of reach coming from overseas on Instagram, Youtube and such and that’s why they are pushing international promotion,

Kaito, what themes do you usually deal with in your lyrics and where do you get the inspiration for them?

Kaito: My lyrics are like a diary, I usually get a lot of inspiration from normal life, but I also like to add some fantastic elements to them. But if it was only the fantastic part, it would be hard to understand for the audience, so that is why it is a mixture or real life and fantasy.

You will release your first full album this November, can you tel us a bit about what can we expect from that?

Dai Dai: This album is like… “This is Paledusk. If people don’t know about us, just listen to this album and will know what Paledusk is.

Will it include older songs or mostly new ones?

Dai Dai: It will feature only a few songs that were already released, like HUGs, our recent anime song, but the rest are all new ones.

Thanks a lot for the interview!