A while ago, VKH had the opportunity to send in some questions to a Finnish band called "Jenlayn".
Especially about this time, it was quite interesting to ask them some questions, as there have been several band updates in past few months, for example a new member joined, new pictures have been uploaded and new songs were published! Please check out their Youtube channel and Facebook to get an impression of their music. Moreover, this is the band's HP and Twitter.
Short Biography:
In spring of 2011, ex.members of band X Replica formed Jenlayn and played their 1st live on Sepetmber 3rd 2011 at Tracon, Tampere. Some months later, to be exact, on October 26th, the band released their 1st Demo entitled "Lonely Fall". 2012 didn't start well for Jenlayn, as their Guitarist Juha left them, however, he soon has been replaced by Jae, who used to be their Vocalist. With their new Singer Yura, who joined a while later, they released their 2nd demo entitled "Alice" on March 30th 2012.
So, let's move on to our interview now.
VKH would like to thank the whole band for taking their time to answer our questions!
Please enjoy reading everyone!
VKH: Please introduce yourselves to everyone.
Yura: Hello! Yura here, the singer of the band.
Jae: Hi! I'm Jae and I play the guitar.
Яed: My name is Яed and I play the lead guitar!
OBI: Hey! My name is OBI. I play the bass and kantele.
Jere: My name is Jere and I play the drums.
VKH: How did you get into Japanese music?
Jae: I heard some songs of Dir en grey in the middle of the last decade... the rest you can guess!
OBI:
Thanks to one of my friends from junior high school. He briefly
mentioned X JAPAN's Last Live in 2004. It took months for me to
eventually check it out. That was a life-changing experience.
Yura: About six years ago when I was browsing CDs around the library I
ran into Gackt, Moi Dix Mois and Dir en grey. After those I listened to
The GazettE and then really got into this whole J-rock thing.
Jere: I
got into Japanese music in junior high. I was interested in anime at
that time and one day I was listening to some anime music Internet radio
station and they played Silent Jealousy by X JAPAN. That was a big
turning point for me and it got me into Japanese rock
music and playing the drums also.
Яed: A long time ago, my brother
showed me some J-rock bands and I liked them but it really wasn't a big
deal for me at first. Then I ran into X JAPAN and well... The rest is
obvious.
VKH: Which Japanese bands especially inspire your music and songs?
OBI:
X JAPAN obviously. Some traces of Malice Mizer can also be heard from
my compositions as I have loved their "baroque-ish" sounds for quite a
long time. Yellow Magic Orchestra has also inspired me with their
progressive compositions.
Yura: Nowadays mostly Miyavi, The GazettE, Ayumi Hamasaki and MERRY.
Jere:
Many bands inspire my playing but my biggest sources of inspiration are
B'z, X JAPAN, Abingdon Boys School and ONE OK ROCK.
Яed: X JAPAN, Girugamesh, The GazettE, DELUHI, B'z, Siam Shade, Luna Sea and Sugizo.
Jae: For me the biggest influence has come from Gackt, The GazettE and Dir en grey.
VKH: You started as a cover band of X JAPAN. Do you still remember your
first live when you played their songs? What was the reaction of your
audience?
Яed: Of course, how could I forget! The reaction was awesome! People were doing X-jumps and stuff like that.
Jae:
I remember it like yesterday. The audience was great and we got a lot
of positive feedback! It really encouraged us to form a band of our own.
OBI: The live was really fun. The audience was "Xcited" and so were we.
Some things were slightly difficult since we had very little experience
of playing live at that time.
VKH: Are you still playing songs of X JAPAN live at your current shows?
Jere: We haven't played their songs live for a moment but maybe we'll play some of them again if the time is right.
VKH: As those two opinions, positive as well as negative, exist, we'd
like to hear how you experienced it already. What is the reaction of
people about you being a "visual" band?
Jae: It's surprising but so far 99% of the feedback has been
positive and we are really happy for it! Of course, we can't please
everyone and occasionally negative comments occur... but it's part of
the game!
Яed: Of course people are thinking "Oh, what is this?" but in a positive way mostly.
OBI:
People really seem to like our style and find it refreshing, some find
it funny. We really haven't had many negative comments yet.
VKH: Some people say that Visual Kei can only exist in Japan. What do you think about this statement?
Yura: I think we're more like Visual Rock instead of Visual Kei?
Jae:
In the 80's many Japanese bands found inspiration from the Western
bands playing Glam Rock etc. so why couldn't we do Visual Rock?
Jere: I think that's complete bullshit. Of course originally Visual Kei
is from Japan but music inspired by Visual Kei can be made anywhere and I
don't think it's any less true music than Japanese Visual Kei. We're a
Finnish Visual Rock band even though Visual Kei inspires us a lot.
VKH: According to your official Facebook page, you lost one of your
guitarists (we are sorry to hear this), but you already found a new
one! Can you tell us about him?
Jere: After Juha left
the band we thought about what should we do in that difficult situation
and in the end came up with an idea about Jae switching from vocals to
guitar. Then we started to search for a new vocalist and luckily found
Yura really quickly. His skills and influence has improved the band's
sound a lot.
VKH: What can we expect from your new songs?
Яed: Same as always. Good music.
Yura: New dimensions and depths, hopefully more soul.
Jere:
Our new songs will show some new sides of Jenlayn as we're currently
working on a ballad for example. We try to improve all the time and also
experiment some new things.
VKH: If you could choose a Japanese band to go on tour with, which one would it be?
OBI: Abingdon Boys School. They have amazing lives and members we could all learn from.
Яed: Maybe X JAPAN.
Yura:
A Tough one... It would be cool to go on tour with The GazettE but
they'd overshadow us in an instant so... Bah, I don't care; The GazettE
so I could go drinking with Uruha!
Jae: For me it would be X JAPAN because I respect the members so much.
Jere:
That's a difficult question to answer. If I don't have to keep any
realistic context in this question I'd say L'Arc~en~Ciel or B'z because
it would be cool to see them play live everyday.
VKH: If you had to recommend someone one song from Jenlayn, which one would it be and why?
Jere:
Alice, because it has pretty much everything Jenlayn represents. Rocking
attitude, fast guitar solos, classical music influence and catchy
tunes.
Yura: Either Alice or Chaos Theatre.
Яed: REVIVAL!
VKH: What are your future plans?
OBI:
We are going to write new songs, record them in the summer and autumn,
develop our looks and style and throw some gigs for the Finnish
audience. A promotional video is also a possibility.
Яed: To make good music and spread it with love and joy.
Yura: TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD or something like that!
VKH: A message to your fans:
Yura:
Thank you for all your support and please continue supporting us!
Hopefully our music can bring some good moments in your lives!
Jae: Be proud of what you are and rock hard!
OBI: Please continue supporting us. We have lots of cool stuff planned for this year.
By the way, by visiting Jenlayn's Facebook page, please leave a comment on their last post, as it was Guitarist Яed's birthday yesterday!
Source: Official Facebook
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