“I decided to be a musician in 2004 and the reason is, I went to Summer Sonic Festival [a two-day festival held consecutively in Osaka and Chiba, with the lineups alternating between the two venues], you know, which is the biggest music festival in Japan. I watched Green Day and it really changed my life, and then I decided to start it then.”
An unusual influence for a metalcore star, one would suggest, but Koie is adamant.
“I listened to hardcore, like Slipknot and Underoath and many bands, but usually Green Day!”
Crossfaith have taken the metalcore genre and expanded it in progressive directions over the course of two albums and two EPs, including the use of electronics and strings.
“We don’t want to be the same as others, so, yeah. Evolving… we started Crossfaith in 2006 and at first we cover Killswitch Engage and Slipknot. The other band members really love psychedelic trance and dubstep, drum and bass, break beats. I mean, this music scene makes many similar bands, you know what I mean? We just don’t want to be the same as everyone else.”
Calling from a friend’s house in Tokyo, Koie insists that Crossfaith’s decision to sing in English rather than Japanese was a conscious decision, and they have been embraced by the fervent Japanese rock and metal scene.
“Many teenager are fans of metalcore in Japan,” he says. “I have listened to overseas music and I don’t listen to Japanese music as well. I need to improve my English more better because we want to sing all over the world. Our first overseas tour was last year and so when we can speak English, we can speak English not well. Right now it’s a little bit better, but we need to improve our English skill.”
Professing that the band are, “so stoked, really excited to play at Soundwave,” Koie suggests that the band will probably be playing most of their latest EP, Zion, and “also we’re going to play all the old stuff,” on their first tour Down Under, despite being relatively unknown in this country.
“Maybe we’re first band [to play on the day] for Soundwave and yeah, many Japanese bands want to tour in Australia and my dream will come true.”
First though, there are several months of touring booked through Europe, where they have received a “nice reaction from many overseas people. So many Japanese bands want to go touring overseas but we’re the first band to tour in long, long time in overseas tours. Maybe since [’80s metal band] Loudness.”
With a closing question as to the meaning of life for him, Koie doesn’t hesitate. “Rock music is a… I can’t explain with words. My pleasure, no – rock music is my life. Yes, that’s it. “
BY SHANE PINNEGAR
