Interview: coldrain

Na aan het begin van het jaar het voorprogramma van Bullet For My Valentine verzorgd te hebben, keerde de post-hardcore band coldrain vorige week terug naar Nederland. De band verkoopt in moederland Japan inmiddels zalen ter grootte van de Heineken Music Hall uit, maar is hier nog relatief onbekend. Wij spraken zanger Masato Hayakawa over coldrain’s plannen om ook de rest van de wereld te veroveren.

The tour just started, but how has everything been going so far?

We’re six days in now and it has been great. A bunch of shows are sold out and a lot of kids are coming out to the shows. It’s our second time here and we didn’t think we would be able to come back in the same year, but we did and it’s amazing.

What did you do today? Did you get to walk around a little?

We had to go to a music store to buy some drum stuff, because we broke some things again. That was about it, really. This tour has been packed, so we haven’t been able to see much of all of these beautiful countries, but we still get to meet all the awesome people that are coming to the shows. That’s still my favorite thing about being on the road.

How would you describe your band to people who have never heard from coldrain?

We’re heavy and we’re melodic, but then again we’re not just about head banging and moshing. There’s definitely a lot of singing too. We’re a bit of everything, I think.

So, what does a typical coldrain show look like, then?

Our live shows are very energetic. We like to give a hundred percent energy, because really all we want is to offer people a good time. You can expect a lot of screaming and sweating.

You guys are pretty big in Japan. How does it feel to play in smaller venues when you’re over here?

It’s actually really fresh to play in smaller venues. It feels like we’re young rookies again. We are back to step one here and we need to start all over again, but it feels good.

How are the crowds here different from in Japan?

I guess the crowds here are more natural. Even if the kids don’t know your band, they will start cheering if they like your music. Japanese crowds can be the craziest and the quietest at the same time. They are polite in weird ways. No one is talking in the middle of a song, for instance. Sometimes there’s dead silence after all of this stagediving. It can be kind of scary actually.

You guys have recently signed to Hopeless Records. How does it feel to be signed to the same label as bands like The Used, Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory?

We still haven’t got to go over to the US and meet all of the people, so it hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s so great. We’re fans of all of the bands that are signed to Hopeless, so we couldn’t be happier. It’s a dream come true.

This summer you re-released your album called The Revelation. What was the reason behind that?

We never had a record deal out of Japan. To be able to release it here, we had to take some tracks off, because it was going to be too long. It just made sense to re-release the album outside of Japan, instead of making a totally new one.

What’s the biggest difference between The Revelation and previous releases?

In the writing process it was more real that we were going to release the album worldwide. We weren’t just thinking about our Japanese fans anymore. We also worked with a producer for the first time on the whole record. We needed to find our final and actual sound, which we did eventually.

How has the responds been to the album so far?

Good! We have a lot of songs on there that a lot of people around the world like. It’s cool that the album is translating in Japanese and in English.

Where do you see your band in five years?

I hope we can do really kickass headlines over here and do shows where we can play longer sets. I don’t care if we’re going to sell out stadiums, because really, I don’t think we’re going to be that big. But I mean if we can do the same as we did in Japan in the whole world, it would be awesome.