Purple SKY is a publication, the same as NYT or Village Voice or Prefix. Our contributors work in various creative industries and the media.

While our contributors all enjoy aspects of Japanese music and report on it, they are not here to “make the fandom better.” They are here to write about Japanese music, to deliver original content and explore their creative boundaries.

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To answer KB’s question is simple. It’s strictly a business decision. It is not up to the band when it comes to licensing older albums in the USA. A contract must be made between the original label that first published the album and the US label wishing to license and distribute it. Usually there are fees involved.

JapanFiles is a prime example. You will see some newer albums in their catalog for a specific band, but you might not see the older albums(or vice versa). It’s because albums were recorded on a different label and that label has not agreed to license them in the USA or for digital release.

Dir en grey was asked whether they wanted to release old music and they were also asked why they don’t play as much of the old stuff. They’ve been asked this several times in Japanese publications. Their consistent answer was that they wanted to focus on new music and continue exploring their concepts on humanity.

Please don’t thank me or write a reply.

Also, who influenced them to play “Akuro no Oka”? What they played in New York were their Japanese setlists that they had played on the Japanese leg of this tour earlier in the year. They weren’t arbitrary, and many of us knew before the concerts exactly what songs were going to be played, on which days, and where in the set.

I have looked and have still found no interviews where they have been asked about it, leading me to believe that no one has asked yet (and if no one has asked yet, how is it a recycled question?). And I’m sorry if I take a “nothing can hurt and anything has the potential to do some good” approach to fandom.

If someone can influence them to play Akura no Oka, a song I wouldn’t have imagined them playing ever again especially not in America, due to its association with their VK past that they seemed so bent on putting behind them, just by asking about it at a public interview, then that gives me pretty high hopes that if someone were to bring up U.S. re-prints of a few of their pre-WtD albums through The End Records, that they might listen to that as well.

And even if they don’t and they just shrug it off or say “we can’t/won’t do that,” well atleast it got asked (and if it -has- been asked before and answered elsewhere, why not just provide me with a link so I’ll stfu about it?)

I loved PurpleSky as a magazine when it was still around, and I had always thought you folks were all about helping make information more available to fans and helping to make the fandom better for all. I’m sorry if the things I desire would do too much damage to the already perfect hierarchy set in place and ”cheapen the whole jrock experience to the point it isn’t cool anymore.”

They spoke about their plans for 2010 at the Kinokuniya event. Kaoru said that they will concentrate on writing and recording new songs to hopefully release a new album in 2011. They don’t have any tours planned yet except the January Budokan dates in Japan.

I have a question, and I hope you can answer it. Are they focusing on creating more songs in 2010?

Purple SKY is not your personal messenger to the band, and neither is any other magazine, blog, news outlet, radio show, etc. Journalists and interviewers do not exist for the purpose of conveying fans’ messages or promoting their campaigns. We’re not advocates and we’re not here to help you with your causes and agendas. Again, many interviewers seem content to do all of this — but we’re not.

This is the second time you’ve posted here asking us to ask this question. You’re of course free to post as long as you don’t spam, but I’m afraid your efforts are wasted on us.

My specific question was whether the band had an interest in recording in the US, and his answer simply was that they did have an interest in it. He didn’t elaborate any further. Unless he was hiding something from me, it seemed more like something that they had thought about but had no concrete plans to do — especially considering he couldn’t name any specific people/producers they’d like to work with.