Purple Stone

[CloudyTree 158]

twitcasting.tv was so kind to upload full live-footage of Purple Stones Live on the 14th of july at americamura drop. The video quality is like shit, but the sound is quite ok. And they played パニックパニック , so it's our first chance to listen to the whole song and I'm really hyped now. It's quiet a beast live and they caught me completely off-guard with the rap part. Never imagined I would see all three of them singing on a song, haha. 

 

Setlist:

1.歌舞伎町バタフライ

2.アドレナリンBang

3.甘酸っぱいマンゴ

4.パニックパニック

 

http://twitcasting.tv/littlehearts_/movie/287919202

 

[hiroki 5521]

ohh this was from the little hearts sponsored live where there was a vote at the end i know there was a livestream but i was out so i didn't catch it.

 

thanks @CloudyTreefor letting us know that it was uploaded!!

 

i fucking love panic panic... can't wait for its release >_>

[CloudyTree 158]

Oh do you know how the vote ended?

[hiroki 5521]

9 minutes ago, CloudyTree said:

Oh do you know how the vote ended?

 

This was the lineup that night

 

 

 

I think most people had expected Purple Stone to come in 2nd behind SHIVA, but they placed 3rd in the votes and everyone was a little disappointed (well, actually i should say mainly the Purple Stone fans who were there and whom I talked to after the live).

 

And you would think a reasonably popular band like Azlina or Zigzag pipped them to a higher place right? But noooo... apparently first was Axkey LOL. I could hardly believe it when my friend told me. SHIVA was 2nd after Axkey.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by hiroki

[CloudyTree 158]

Respect. To win, although they were first in the running order. I should check them out  

Thanks for the info!

[hiroki 5521]

I found a copy of Cure V-Splash Vol.34 which has a frontpage feature of Purple Stone. When I have some free time next week I'll translate the interview

 

 

[Yukimoto 1237]

Ugh seeing them like this on the magazine makes me love that look that much more

[CloudyTree 158]

On 26.7.2016 at 5:06 AM, hiroki said:

I found a copy of Cure V-Splash Vol.34 which has a frontpage feature of Purple Stone. When I have some free time next week I'll translate the interview

Thanks for the effort @hiroki

[hiroki 5521]

Today Purple Stone performed at ViV's free one-man live

 

 

died laughing at hirohiro's 'kakkeiya' XDDD

[Yukimoto 1237]

LOL that was so cute and so are they

[CloudyTree 158]

I was there and they were really awesome live. Most of the audience were Purple Stone fans and quite an amount of people left after their part. And ViV were sadly a big disappointment.

 

I wonder how Panic Panic will sound in the studio version, because live it is a real killer song and live-songs are naturally hard to put on cd. Hopefully the production will live up to it.

[hiroki 5521]

22 minutes ago, CloudyTree said:

Most of the audience were Purple Stone fans and quite an amount of people left after their part. And ViV were sadly a big disappointment.

 

 

wow that made me happy and sad at the same time x.x purple stone performs a lot with viv and the guys are really good buddies so they were the natural choice to be the supporting act at viv's osaka one-man. maybe it's just me, but i wouldn't leave halfway even if i'm not a viv fan (which i am). i think that's kinda rude to the band that invited PS in the first place to a live that fans didn't even have to pay for. but that's just my opinion XD

 

i know this is a PS thread so i don't wanna digress too much, but just curious what made you say that viv was a big disappointment? was it because of technical problems or did you not like their music? i've seen viv a few times (the last time was at a taiban with PS) and always found them to be pretty good live - especially rayji, i think he's one of the best bassists in vk atm.

Edited August 4, 2016 by hiroki

[CloudyTree 158]

Same opinion here, that's why I stayed the whole time and ViV are really nice guys, their MCs were so funny! And I agree with you that rayji is without doubt one of the best bassists I've ever seen. Maybe I should have said they were disappointing after watching Purple Stone. In the direct comparison they appeared weak and not really confident. Especially hirohiros voice... He struggled hard to reach the high notes and the gap between him and keiya was quite obvious, especially as they sang a duet. 

 

Their music itself wasn't bad. Not my cup of tea, but nothing bad, although maybe a little bit shallow for my taste. But I had the feeling that they focused too much on the bass, leaving no space for vocals and guitar. Didn't have the feeling that their music was well-balanced. And they couldn't live up to the sheer energy of PS.

[hiroki 5521]

Scans from Cure V-splash Vol.34:

 

 

 

 



 



 


 

 

 

Translation of interview in the post below.

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by hiroki

[hiroki 5521]

Purple Stone—a band that harnesses today’s most innovative music and stops at nothing to further improve on it. In their hands, even melodies that are merely interesting become remarkably stylish. Even when keiya had been on hiatus for half a year due to his medical condition, GAK and Fuma refused to halt; if anything, it only strengthened the band’s resolve. What can we learn from the profound bond between these 3 individuals?

 

Q: Firstly please tell us more about your band name.

 

keiya: When “Purple Stone” is mentioned, “amethyst” will immediately come to mind. Amethyst is said to be a charm (against evil). It’s a gemstone that’s believed to have the power to transform something negative into something positive; and in a similar way, we wish our band’s presence is able to neutralize the painful and awful things in everyone’s life and make them more positive, to create music that can do precisely this and to continue having lives to achieve this—that’s the significance of “Purple Stone.”

 

Q: Do you have a band concept?

 

keiya: There’s the origin of our band name that I’ve mentioned. Even though we’re playing in the visual kei scene, we do our best to not be fettered by what people typically expect visual kei bands to do. We try to incorporate into our music elements that are popular as well as those that we personally think are cool, without being held back in any way.

 

Q: Purple Stone carries with it a variety of sound elements. What were your roots as far as music is concerned?

 

GAK: I admired T. M. Revolution and wanted to try creating that style of music by myself, which brought me on the path of becoming a musician. At first I only wrote music on the computer, but I realized later that it would be better to be able to play the guitar as well and so I picked it up. That’s how I’ve become a guitarist in this band.

 

Fuma: I was initially woken up by the music of B’z. After which there was a period of time when I couldn’t see eye to eye with people who listened to J-pop, so I ventured into punk, loud rock, hardcore, etc. When I got tired of that, I explored R&B and 80’s rock, before finally returning to J-pop once again. When I was listening to punk there were also some active visual kei bands in the scene. I enjoyed the darker side of visual kei like Kuroyume, L’arc~en~Ciel, and Laputa.

 

keiya: I love vocalists who sing well. Nakajima Takui is someone I’ve always liked—I used to get really inspired no matter how much I listen to him, and I want my songs to have the same kind of effect on others. As for the roots of my sound, I’d say SIAM SHADE, L’arc~en~Ciel, Kuroyume, etc. In my opinion, music without good melodies isn’t good music.

 

Q: Purple Stone’s songs also have really striking melodies, right?

 

keiya: Well all 3 of us agree that we won’t do music that doesn’t have good melodies. When we’re writing our songs, we will keep tweaking melodies that require work until we’re satisfied.

 

Q:  Your 5th single “panic panic” will be released on 17th August. What kind of music can we expect?

 

GAK: Before we can talk about the lyrics and the concept of the song in certain terms, we need to first think about what sound to go with. We wanted to let people wonder, if only slightly, “is this really Purple Stone’s new song?”—that’s why we fused EDM, which has become popular in contemporary music, with our heavy rock sound. I made the chorus section and showed it to another member and he liked it. Finally we wrote the lyrics and re-worked the melody until it’s done.

 

Q: Who wrote the lyrics [for “panic panic”]?

 

Keiya: Fuma wrote them this time.

 

Fuma: GAK put a lot of weird words into the demo song, but we preferred to think of them as interesting.

 

Q: What’s the theme for the lyrics?

 

Fuma: The theme for the song is “summer Halloween," but the song itself is totally a party song. If we’d written party lyrics for them, I think we might have become a party band. *laughs* I was first struck by the idea of zombies: from the perspective of the end of the world, can we think of everything that has occurred before as conscious self-development? That went through my mind when I was writing the lyrics.

 

keiya: Initially we wanted to include some horror element. Halloween is in October so it’s still too early for that, but we thought it would be interested to have our own Halloween in summer—that’s why we have those things in the artist photo and album that we usually think of as pumpkins (as in jack-o’-lanterns), but we made them into watermelons instead just for fun.

 

Q: It’s easy to get excited just by watching the PV and the dance looks really fun. Do your fans join in the dance?

 

keiya: At first we didn’t think that they would join in, but when we performed in song in lives everyone actually danced along! When we saw that, we thought, wow let this just be a song where we can all enjoy together. So the fans have contributed to what this song has become in important ways as well.

 

Q: For people who haven’t seen Purple Stone live, would this be an accessible song to the band?

 

keiya: I think so. And because of that, it would be amazing if it can motivate people who had no interest in visual kei before to become interested. It’s the same for us and it’s the same for fans—no one was a fan the moment they were born, they only became fans because they liked what they saw. Likewise there were bands that became the motivation for each one of us. These are bands we look up to and which we want to emulate. We’ll be glad if this song can go some way to help us achieve both of those.

 

Q: I see. The title this time is “panic panic”…is there anything you dislike so much that you will panic?

 

GAK: I hate the sound of Velcro.

 

keiya: Eh? I didn’t know that!

 

GAK: *pulls away part of the Velcro on his costumes* I hate this sound….

 

Fuma: Aren’t you doing that right now? *laughs*

 

GAK: Nah, I’m ok with this much. And I know I’m making the sound now so it’s fine. But if the Velcro of my shoes gets pulled away suddenly I’ll be like O.O; I’d even take the sound of blackboards any day.

 

Fuma: Really??

 

GAK: Yeah I get less annoyed by metallic sounds than the sound of Velcro. I just can’t stand it.

 

Fuma: When I was at my grandma’s house a long time ago, I saw a spider nearly as big as an alien’s palm with really long legs. My grandma started hitting it with a broom but it refused to die and scuttled out of the door even with some of its legs broken. Because of that I thought to myself when I was small that after spiders grow up they won’t die anymore. That was definitely traumatic.

 

keiya: For me, the sound of scratching against metallic surfaces or frosted glass. There’s this place we keep our equipment at the entrance of our office. Usually when we come back after a tour and return our equipment, we use the back entrance, which has a metallic door on top of a stone layer. To keep the door open, we wedge it with a stone of the right size. That makes a screeching noise that we always try to minimize, but sometimes we’re too exhausted to think and we just fling the door open with all our might with the stone there. The noise you get is insane and it kills me. I hate that.

 

GAK: I can never understand that. I like the sound of metal. Even the sound of the dentist’s drill—I love it.

 

Q: Can we take that to mean that you like the same kind of sound that you find in the metal genre?

 

GAK: Yes I do. I don't know how anyone doesn't like that.

 

keiya: Okay, for our new song’s introduction we’ll put in some Velcro sounds.

 

GAK: No no *laughs*

 

Q: On the release day of “panic panic” Purple Stone will be holding a one-man live at Shinsaibashi SUNHALL. All of you were born in Kansai, so is that why it’s in Osaka?

 

keiya: We haven’t held that many one-man lives as we’ve been concentrating on making more music, but it’s been a while so we think it’s about time for another one-man live. The first one was in Osaka, and the 2nd was in Tokyo in December last year. When we were making plans for the upcoming one-man we thought it might be good to do one each at both Osaka and Tokyo, but then it might be even better for us to reach a point where we can have a one-man tour throughout the country at various places. That’s why for now we’ve settled for Osaka for our 3rd one-man.

 

Q: Is there a concept for your 3rd one-man?

 

keiya: Since the theme is ‘summer Halloween,’ it will be awesome if fans who come to see us can dress up in some way. No one usually wears fancy stuff in summer so it would be fun to try doing it. There’s also an in-store event on that day and we got requests to cosplay, so we’re now thinking of what we’ll be doing.

 

GAK: “Panic panic” is full of things we haven’t done before, so the point is for the band to come together with the fans to perform the song together at the 8/17 one-man in a way that we can become one. That’s the aim we have as we gradually work our way towards that date, where I hope we can bring everyone the most perfect “panic panic.”

 

Fuma: Compared to our first one-man, the band has evolved not just in our looks but also in terms of what’s inside. We want to do a live that can excite the same group of people who came to see us then, and at the same time let newcomers feel that Purple Stone is capable of a variety of musical styles. Hopefully it will be a live where everyone present will feel differently. That’s why we decided to return to Osaka for our 3rd one-man.

 

Q: It has been around a year since your first one-man. I’m sure you’re yearning to demonstrate the band’s progress.

 

keiya: We’ve done a lot of lives in this time so certainly we’ve improved in that respect, and that’s one thing we’d like to show. But at every live we create the atmosphere together with the fans. So if our fans have become confident that they can play a part in creating that special atmosphere, I think this one-man will be a wonderful time where we’ll be able to appreciate each other’s growth, in a way.

 

Fuma: Even though it will be after the O-bon festival, it does feel like “panic panic” coincides with O-bon. Most festivities would have been over by the beginning of August and when things are just starting to get boring, “panic panic” will be here to make sure we can spend the rest of summer happily! That’s the plan anyway. We thought it would be great if people don’t feel that their summer holidays were a waste of time. Since no one will be doing their homework anyway, they should just come to Amemura!

 

keiya: What are you saying! They will, at least by the day before summer holidays end!

 

Fuma: If they listen to “panic panic” and come to our one-man, maybe they will be motivated enough to do their homework the next day!

 

keiya: Won’t they be too tired to? *laughs*

 

Fuma: Actually they will be in a panic and won’t be able to do anything *laughs* Well, jokes aside, please support “panic panic”!

 

Q: After releasing your 5th single I’m sure people will be expecting an album soon. Any plans for that?

 

keiya: We’ve talked about it, and we’re still thinking whether to release a single or album next. There are certain things in the pipeline, and we’re considering how to best bring it to the fans, whether they will enjoy it and be excited by it. We can’t disclose much at this point but we’ve often been discussing the various options.

 

Q: When it comes to devising interesting plans, do all 3 of you decide as a team?

 

keiya: Of course it’s important that what we intend to do will be interesting for all of us, but what’s even more important is that fans will be excited by it, and they will wonder “are they really doing this next” or “I haven’t seen this before” or “it’s great that I got to see Purple Stone today”—that’s the aim we have in mind when we discuss these things.

 

Q: What do you think are your individual weapons?

 

GAK: For me it would be song arrangement. Ultimately we decide on things collectively, but I’m mainly in charge of our arrangement. I’m always working hard on creating a distinctive sound that people can immediately associate with Purple Stone.

 

keiya: What’s amazing (about GAK) is that he listens to everything, even the really new stuff. We’re able to leave this to him because we have complete trust in him when it comes to this.

 

Fuma: I write a lot of our lyrics. I love keiya’s vocals and this band was started so that more people can hear him, so I’d say my weapon is the ability to write lyrics fitting for his style. There are people who sound weird when you make them sing unusual lyrics, but keiya is such a genuine vocalist that he makes even the weirdest lyrics work.

 

keiya: The one thing I can be proud of is that regardless of what lyrics Fuma gives me, or what song GAK makes, I do my best to make it sound as good as possible! Fuma always talks to me about politics and a lot of random things so he’s an interesting person who reflects on a lot of things. The lyrics he writes, like “panic panic tonight,” have a lot of curious words and phrases, and also parts that are difficult to sing in one breath. Sometimes that happens—the sound and the words don’t match well. But I prefer to approach it as “this is good music only because we have these words here with this sound.” I think that’s my weapon—I’m able to make the best of whatever lyrics coming my way.

 

Q: Finally, your message to our readers?

 

GAK: This is the first time we’ve been featured on Cure V-splash, thanks for reading! Purple Stone will continue to fire all cylinders, please support us!

 

Fuma: The lyrics I’ve written for “panic panic” means it isn’t just a party song; it has various hidden meanings written into it. I’m sure more than a few of you will across lines that make wonder “huh? does this over here refer to that?” So you can look forward to figuring things out. But as I’ve said this is also a song written from the perspective of the end of times. Today we have nuclear plants and all, and without knowing what will happen tomorrow there’s the question of how we should move on. On one level it does mean “yes, let’s live tomorrow happily!” So please listen to it and have a fruitful summer. People with homework please do your homework, and those who are working please work hard. But don’t forget to support “panic panic”!

 

keiya: For “panic panic” we challenged ourselves to do things we’ve never done before, from conceptualizing the choreography to practicing the dance itself—so it’s a song that tries to break out of the conventions of visual kei. We were anxious that people might not accept it, but we really wish to create a new path for ourselves. In effect, this song contains our hope for things we want to achieve as a band. While there are a lot of bangyas at our lives, there are also others who come to experience visual kei for the very first time. I think this is a great thing, so please spread the news and tell everyone around you about Purple Stone! Finally, don’t forget the one-man on 8/17 where we will dance to “panic panic” and a lot of other songs to look forward to.

 

---

 

Translated by me.

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by hiroki

[The Reverend 3566]

^Thanks for the translation of an interesting interview!

 

I'd be scared of giant, immortal spiders too.

[Yukimoto 1237]

On 8/5/2016 at 8:01 AM, hiroki said:

Q: After releasing your 5th single I’m sure people will be expecting an album soon. Any plans for that?

 

keiya: We’ve talked about it, and we’re still thinking whether to release a single or album next. There are certain things in the pipeline, and we’re considering how to best bring it to the fans, whether they will enjoy it and be excited by it. We can’t disclose much at this point but we’ve often been discussing the various options.

I read this for this..... lol please be an album next<3 pretty please

[hiroki 5521]

New T-shirt on sale from 8/17 (limited 50)

 

 

no prize for guessing who designed it lol

[Mihenno 4194]

3 hours ago, hiroki said:

New T-shirt on sale from 8/17 (limited 50)

 

 

no prize for guessing who designed it lol

 

Omg I want that (even thought the text on the shirt is ugly af)

[CloudyTree 158]

I love them, but... this is the worst band-shirt I'v ever seen xD (and I love them for it)

But, oh my god, I can't wait for their one-man tomorrow!

Edited August 16, 2016 by CloudyTree

[hiroki 5521]

^ I KNOW omg it looks so horrible XDDD

 

yess i'm excited too! hoping for some good news at their one man

[Mihenno 4194]

33 minutes ago, hiroki said:

hoping for some good news at their one man

 

First full album 

[CloudyTree 158]

Do you know what really grinds my gears? When bands only release the titletrack of their new single on itunes...

Now I have to wait til their one-man this evening to listen to their new stuff.... BUT I CAN'T WAIT!!!

[hiroki 5521]

[platy 3018]

ARGGHHH

I love this band so much. They're right, I wish more VK bands would come up with amazing choreography like that. 

I'd never heard of Purple Stone before I saw them in a live and although their visual didn't catch my eyes too much, when Panic Panic came up and Keiya was doing the dance as well as singing my mind was blown. They're so much fun live and the PV is just precious. Now I'm really curious about the lyrics of panic panic. If anyone has the translations,please share!

Here's to hoping they'll have a long, fruitful career in the scene.

I wish I could've gone to their one man ;_;

@hirokithank you for translating!