When you hear the name Deviloof, words that follow often include brutal, violent and fastest. Theses ideas are expounded upon in their music, where the band puts on a full display of blistering fast riffs, heavy drum beats and death-growl vocals for the better part of their songs.
During their upstart year of 2015, they released their first single Ruin. From that, they quickly attracted attention in Japan, and got fans overseas enthusiastic to hear more of what they have to offer. The band is showing no signs of slowing down either, as they just released their first mini-album, PURGE, on August 31, and ahead lies their first one-man, The Farthest, on October 22 at Shinsaibashi CLUB DROP. But before they reach their next destination, we caught up with the band to learn a little more about them. In our first interview with Deviloof, we discover more about its members and how the band came to be.
Please introduce yourselves by naming your favorite hobby!
Keisuke: I’m Keisuke, who integrates into Mother Earth seeing aurora in the Arctic Ocean.
Ryuya: I’m Ryuya on guitar. I like to gaze at my collection of miniature cars. I like to see the sky and the scenery.
Seiya: I’m Seiya on guitar, and I’m the composer of Deviloof. My hobby is playing video games. I love first-person shooters (FPS).
Daiki: Heavy metal!
Hiroto: I’m glad to see you! I risk my life to collect dragon balls, which make my dreams come true.
Can you explain your name and why you chose it?
Keisuke: “Deviloof” is a word created by us, Deviloof means an omittance of devil’s proof.
We chose this as it leads to the thought of a phenomenon where there is no proof that Satan showed to Christ. It leads to a very mysterious feel, something beyond what is easy to understand.
Who gathered the members that came to form Deviloof? How did the band get started?
Keisuke: Daiki, Hiroto and I formed a different band. Then Ryuya and Seiya were recruited later.
What are your goals as a band? What do you hope to accomplish together?
Keisuke: We’d like to be a band that can tour all around the world.
What have you been working on lately? Can you tell us about it?
Keisuke: We have been working on our first mini-album, PURGE, which was released on August 31. We promise that this is gonna be a great album.
In your previous band, All Must Die, your visuals were tame compared to the way you look now. What influenced you to go from a non-visual band to a visual kei band?
Keisuke: All Must Die is not a former band of Deviloof. It’s completely different because half of the have members changed. We have lots of respected senior bands in the Japanese visual kei scene, for example, X Japan and DIR EN GREY. We are Japanese and we’d like to follow them.
At what point in life did you all decide that you wanted to be musicians?
Keisuke: We never decided when we would be musicians. We just want to play music.
Could you briefly describe the music-making process?
Keisuke: Basically Seiya makes demo tapes. Then I’ll make words and sing if we like the demo.
To the overseas fans who are interested in seeing you live in Japan, what can you tell them about your onstage performance?
Keisuke: Our onstage performance is the most violent, brutal and fastest that you will see.
What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Keisuke: The biggest challenge has been making our first mini-album and now ahead of us, the one-man live. We’d like to make this live really a special one.
What do you like to do outside of music that contributes to your musicality; in essence, is there a hobby you turn to in order to rejuvenate your creativity?
Keisuke: Rubbing myself down with a rough towel.
Ryuya: I’m a collector-holic. I’m satisfied with collecting and seeing. My collections give me the power to make music. Also nowadays I take pictures of landscapes I used to see only when I went somewhere, but now I want to keep my memories with embodied forms.
Seiya: Killing people in FPS game. It polishes up our brutal musicality.
Hiroto: Looking at my work, friends, and other people carefully. I enjoy this because it inspires new ideas.
A lot of our readers live overseas and can’t speak Japanese, nor do they understand it. Naturally this creates a type of barrier between the foreign fans and your scene. So, would you like to tell them something interesting about Japan’s visual kei scene?
Keisuke: Yeah I can understand, cause I can’t speak English either. However, I believe that music has a power to overcome language barriers. In recent years, we can easily listen to and find music of foreign artists far away via the internet and social networks. The time will come soon when translation ability improves. Let’s wait a while.
Ryuya: The number of bands which plays in foreign countries is increasing. I wish for us to play abroad, too.
Seiya: Some bands are playing and doing tours with the money girl fans give them. So it’s kinda a shame…
Daiki: Japanese culture is really original. Beautiful and fierce. I really wish you could see a live concert.
Hiroto: Lots of Japanese visual bands seem to have no interest to play overseas, but we really want to. We’d like to do tours with foreign bands.
How would you describe your music in one word?
Keisuke: The most violent, brutal and fastest!
Who or what are your musical influences?
Keisuke: Elvis Aron Presley.
Ryuya: One of my friends when I was a high school student. If he had not asked me to play in a band together, maybe I would not have become a musician. Every time I meet him, I think so strongly that I have to work hard to keep up with him.
Seiya: Guitar. [Flashes devilhorns]
Daiki: Gamma Ray, Megadeth, X Japan.
Hiroto: X Japan.
If you could choose one country to play a live at this very moment, which country would that be?
Keisuke: France.
Ryuya: It’s hard for me to choose one country. But I’d like to join Warped Tour.
Seiya: The county where you live. [Smiles]
Daiki: USA, Finland… I can’t pick one country!
Hiroto: Norway.
Lastly, how did you come to work with V STAR PROMOTION? What’s it like working with them?
Keisuke: There was a connection from the past, and we decided to work together to reach out to more people. We are really grateful to V STAR PROMOTION because we can hear you all over the world, not only in Japan through V STAR. We want to present ourselves and our music directly to foreign fans.
We hope you enjoyed our first talk with the band, and would like to check out their new release, PURGE! We’d like to thank Deviloof and V STAR PROMOTION for making this interview possible.
PURGE
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Regular edition 2000 yen – 2160 yen
CD
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More info:
Official Website
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitter (Ryuya (竜弥))
Twitter (Seiya (晟也))
Twitter (Daiki (太輝))
Twitter (Hiroto (ひろと))
Instagram (Ryuya (竜弥))