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A new band from Nagoya with a lot of potential! Check out what they have to say about their band and latest EP UNTOUCHED!
Thank you for having an interview with us. Since this is our first interview with you, could you please introduce yourselves to our readers?
JURI: Nice to meet you! I‘m JURI, the vocalist of Nellfin!
sin: Hi, I‘m sin. I‘m responsible for composing, mixing and producing music in Nellfin.
How did you come up with the band name Nellfin and what motivated you to start this band?
JURI: We created a name that would be easy to research, so if you search for it, our band would be the first to come up.
sin: There were many suggestions for band names among the band members, and we decided among them by a majority vote. In any case, I had some things in mind that I wanted to express when starting a band, and so I did this all by myself. But it felt like something was missing and I thought that I wanted to do this together with the other members.
What are some of your musical influences? Did any particular artist inspire you to become a musician?
JURI: For me it’s probably X JAPAN’s HIDE-san. I think I wouldn’t be doing Visual Kei if I hadn’t discovered HIDE-san.
sin: In a musical sense I was heavily influenced by foreign bands. I think I incorporated Emperor as well as Slipknot and the likes as the basis of the musical images inside of me.
You originally started out as a four-member band, but are active as a duo now. What kind of challenges did you face during your shift from a four member to a two member band? Are there certain things that you approach in a different way now?
sin: Before, there were two people, including myself, that could compose music but now there is only me and this burden … is not a burden at all but I do feel the responsibility behind it from time to time. Of course I don’t dislike it. Apart from this I think our output style hardly changed at all.
How does the song writing/creation process work for you now? What are each of you in charge of?
sin: Basically, I’m the one in charge of composing our music. After that I do the recording and the sound engineering as well. As for the lyrics, I seem to be doing it from time to time (laughs).
Your last single BLACK BONE BLAST seems to be a very lively song to have fun during concerts. Could you tell us a bit about what fans can expect from your concerts? What are the characteristics of your concerts?
JURI: We make sure to hold concerts that everyone can enjoy: the people who always come to our concerts just as much as the ones who come to see us for the first time.
sin: It’s only one side of the story if you, for example, follow our activities online or if you buy our music and listen to it. That’s mostly the form of ourselves that we want to show you, so to speak, an intentional thing. But at a concert there is no such thing and you can see the human sides of us that we don’t intentionally want to show. That‘s something I wouldn‘t (always) call charming, but I guess it‘s one of the amusing aspects of a live show.
Now, let’s talk about your latest release, your digital EP UNTOUCHED that has been released on October 7th, 2022. We were very impressed, as the EP shows a lot of variety music-wise, as well as lyric-wise. For example, the lyrics of VOICE appear to be telling a story of someone who desperately wishes their voice would reach a person dear to them, who is not with them anymore. In VIOLENT SIREN you write about a love-hate relationship and it appears that the protagonist is trying to kill their feelings for a certain person. On the other hand, REVE seems to convey your determination to sing and show people your dazzling performance on stage. Where do you get your inspiration from to write lyrics and how do you decide what kind of story you want to tell with a song?
JURI: Depending on the atmosphere (cheerful, dark, etc.) of the song, I often choose a theme that has matching images and then pick up the lyrics!
sin: In my case I find the things I should write about by reflecting on myself while listening to the song in question. It‘s like „an inspiration is in spirit“ (in English).
When you started the band, you were only writing Japanese lyrics, but from BLACK BONE BLAST onwards, you also started to write English lyrics. Your latest EP also includes a song with English lyrics about trauma, called RUINED THRONE. The song also stands out because of the passionate guitar playing and strong instrumentals. Was there a certain reason you decided to write the lyrics in English only for this song?
JURI: Because sin-kun wrote the lyrics as well as the music for this song, the answer should come from him.
sin: How should I say this… The song just demanded English lyrics. I had this feeling where I thought „So, should I do it like this?“ and just used these words to go along with what the song was asking for while writing the lyrics. I feel like songs that have western music as their musical roots require English words.
We were also impressed by JURI’s voice range. For example, in VOICE, you switch from death voice to rap and later on you also hit some high notes. How do you keep your voice and throat in shape to sing?
JURI: Since I don‘t want to oddly take care of my throat, and moreover don‘t want my throat to get used to this, I don‘t really undertake any particular care.
Finally, which song is your personal favorite from the EP and why?
JURI: I would recommend every song to you. But VOICE, REVE and NEWPHASE are songs that were already introduced at concerts and then put on the album. Therefore I would like you to especially listen to VIOLENT SIREN, RUINED THRONE and OBJECT KNIVES at this moment, because these are completely new songs which have never been introduced before!
sin: Personally I like RUINED THRONE the most. It‘s a composition where we abandoned all thoughts like „The vocals should be like ~, and during shows it will be like ~“. We threw our own world and philosophy in every regard at it quite narcissistically.
Next, we would like to ask you one question about yourselves to get to know you better. JURI, you state on your Twitter that you love gaming. What kind of games do you play and are there any games you got to enjoy recently? And sin, what do you like to do when you’re not busy song writing?
JURI: I play various stuff, although I especially like fighting games and action games. Recently I often play on my Switch. I frequently play Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon!
sin: When work calms down, I look for more work to do (laughs). If it’s not like that I somehow become like an empty shell (laughs). Also, in fact, I totally love games as well. Hence I abstained from games, but after finishing our recent work UNTOUCHED, I bought an Anime game for the first time in several years, it’s called “Made in abyss”, and I like it very much.
What’s next for Nellfin? Can fans look forward to more new music or shows? What else do you want to achieve with Nellfin in the future?
JURI: Of course we’re thinking about new songs, but we are also wondering about whether it wouldn’t be nice to produce a new MV. So please look forward to it!
sin: I thought that after releasing the EP we should probably do a MV next. In my case, I don’t have a specific goal or checkpoint for our band, as I’m still trying my best on a more microscopic point of view (laughs).
Last but not least, please leave a final message to your overseas fans.
JURI: Thank you for reading everything until the end! I hope you got a little interested in Nellfin! Please support us!
sin: I would like to make Nellfin an open-minded band that is not only addressing fans inside of Japan but also overseas. And I hope we will be able to get at least a little bit closer to you guys abroad. I want to make bold music that can be enjoyed by not only fans of Visual Kei but Metal fans as well. Please definitely continue to pay attention to us!
Interview: Tiffany
Translation: Katha
English Edit: Franzi
It would be great if you could support us with a small donation.
It might not be much for you, but it would help us providing more and better interviews in the future.
With a little bit of your support we might be able to realize even more!
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