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Sonisphere 2010 - Dir En Grey: ‘We Throw Our Music Towards The Crowd’

The J-Rock legends hit Knebworth this weekend for a typically head-spinning set, and they told Rock Sound how they overcome that pesky language barrier.

Dir En Grey are a completely baffling band: their music doesn't sound like anything else you hear on a day-to-day basis but yet they're utterly colossal.

With that in mind, guitarist Kaoru and bassist Toshiya were keen to bring their own unique touch to a very English tradition - getting bollocksed in a field and listening to metal.

“We try to choose something easy for our audience to understand, but we try to keep our own colour and flavour in the set so the crowd can feel it,” said Kaoru. “It is a big honour to play such a historic festival, so we do our best to be as perfect as we can.”

”Because we have a language barrier we try to use our music to connect to people. We throw our music towards them and see the response, and that’s how we connect with them” continued Toshiya. ”At the end of the day it’s people to people, so we can understand feelings.

”People in Europe see how Japanese fans react to our music, and they try to copy it. It’s very flattering, but we want to see how they react without thinking about it.”

Of tonight's headliners, Kaoru was keen to show his appreciation.

”They are such a special band with so much history. I was listening to their music so much when I was young, and I never thought we would have the chance to play at the same place so this is a dream.”