junior high and at the time we started Crossfaith as well so when we started Crossfaith there was a few bands who mixed rock and electronic stuff . But yes we love their show , we love their music .
Hiro : For example NOFX are in punk scene they are kinda like pioneers as an independent band they have their own label , DIY stuff . In our genre Enter Shikari are definitely pioneer , more DIY style like While She Sleeps who they have their own house and did crowdfunding . We still sign with label and management , but how can I say … it ' s really respectful thing like when we toured with Enter Shikari , Architects in the States first time Tom ( Searle , Architects ) he was doing tour managing for the band too so I thought it was really cool . It ' s really cool how the band handle themselves .
Speaking of While She Sleeps I remember seeing you guys tour with them in 2012 , was that your first time over here ?
Ken : No first time was supporting Of Mice & Men .
Oh okay my mistake . I remember from your performance and not having seen you guys before being blown away by what I was seeing . So with that tour and obviously this tour how do you approach support slots ? Do you approach it differently to a headline show ?
Ken : It ’ s quite different . When we tour on the headliner we have more time , we can put more production but supporting is good as well . We are still not as big as Enter Shikari or some other bands so we still need to steal the audience from the main band , like Bury Tomorrow . They are really good friends very nice friends of us , but live it ' s fighting with each band .
You guys have a new EP out called ‘ New Age Warriors Remix ,' it ’ s 6 tracks but only 3 songs with 2 different remixes each by the likes of The Qemists and Shikari Sound System . What was the thinking behind the release ?
Ken : We had a plan to do the remix stuff since we started this band cause we have so many friends from the remix album ‘ Reanimation ’ from Linkin Park . So we had plans for long time but this time we finally made it . At the time we didn ’ t have any connections to the other bands , like we ’ ve done so many tours with Enter Shikari and The Qemists supported us for a headline tour and there is two Japanese DJ ’ s , one is a friend who ’ s kinda the same age and he used to be in a rock band . So now we have so many connections and when we released remix album it makes sense cause we mix rock music with electronic stuff and I wanna introduce ourselves to the people who doesn ’ t listen to rock music as well , thats why we released the remix album .
Hiro : Basically we wanted to reach a different crowd , we wanted to show different music to our fans .
What ’ s your favourite track off the EP and by which artist ?
Hiro : For me , RX Overdrive by Zardonic . He has harder style so his style is harder bass , I like it .
Ken : Yeah his style is super aggressive , no one really knows about Zardonic but our DJ , Teru , got a message from him on Twitter , he got direct message but we didn ’ t know him .
Hiro : It ’ s different music but still has metal vibe . Ken : Also he put guitars on it as well .
Finally last question , what is the biggest culture shock you ’ ve experienced all the times you ’ ve come over to the UK ? What do you find quite weird that we do ?
Hiro : I ’ ve been talking about this a lot but how people drink in the venue is totally different , in Japan no ones drunk and they don ’ t drink as much as you guys . I think it ' s really cool like over here you have more rock n roll vibe and I love it . Have some people chanting , throwing beer I love it .
Ken : Your country has four seasons in a day ( laughs ), rainy , sunny , it ' s confusing … and too much fish and chips ( laughs ).
Hiro : It ’ s not like culture shock but first time we came here when we listen to music from your country it made more sense to us , it fits the scenery and it ’ s a kind of culture shock to me . I used to listen to UK bands in Japan , listening here means totally different .
Ken : I couldn ’ t get it how different from the UK and the States but now I get it .
Interview by Joshua Clarke
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