A Chat with DYGL (11.10.21)
Drawing together the sounds of Radiohead and Oasis, DYGL is a popular indie-rock group from Japan. Known for their hard-hitting and profound melodies, the fivesome have worked with some top artists in the industry such as producers Gus Oberg and Albert Hammond Jr. We speak with frontman Nobuki Akiyama about their album A Daze In A Haze, advice for new bands and future plans.
OSR: Why did you decide to enter the music industry?
Akiyama: We didn’t really take it serious at first, we just had been doing music for fun. I personally thought if I need to compromise my music style to get into the music industry, I’d rather stay as indie doing some daily jobs to keep doing what I really like. Luckily, we got much support from our fans and people we work with just as who we are. So we could keep doing what I like as who we are. Not sure how we’re gonna develop our music style from here but at least we don’t want to compromise on what we make.
OSR: Use one sentence to describe your music?
Akiyama: I think we’re making pop music.
OSR: What can you tell us about your album A Daze In A Haze?
Akiyama: It’s a fun album. It’s a sad album. I hope people would feel peace from listening to this album.
OSR: Did you face any challenges when recording the album?
Akiyama: Compared to the second album, the process of the recordings this time wasn’t too tough. When we did the session for Songs of Innocence & Experience we weren’t that sure where we really wanted to go as a band so every process took time. Thanks to those experiences we’ve learnt how to deal with it little by little to make music together so that we could try the new things with good motivation. Musically, this album is going in a different direction compared to the last two albums. We needed to update how to put each of the new ideas together with a new musical mind. It took some effort but it was a really fun challenge as well.
OSR: You also made an official video for the track ‘Half of Me’. What can you tell us about the music video?
Akiyama: We made all the visuals related to this album with the artist Masako Hirano. We met her through a mutual friend. When I first looked at some of her work I though the colours and the images of her work is really cool. These edgy, beautiful colours would fit what we think our album is for the visual images. I like the graphics of the video. We shot it from the night to the next morning. The daylight we saw by the Sumida river after the video shootings is really beautiful when we come up from the studio in the basement.
OSR: What is the most exciting thing about being a musician?
Ayikama: There’s so many fun things that we could experience as a musician, but for today I feel going on tour is something special. Seeing new cities and towns, meeting new people, eating lots of delicious foods and local beers. Sometimes we’re going through rough times but still I think the tour is one of the most exciting things being a musician.
OSR: Do you have advice for new bands?
Akiyama: We’ve learnt many things from new bands as well! I feel humbled to give someone advice, but if there is one thing I think being open-minded for new things is the key. Always get interested in the culture outside of your world. Love what you love but sometimes it is cool to check things that you don’t often get really interested in. Hints are everywhere, the difference is sometimes it can be really annoying but it could be gold mine.
VIEW AT OWN DISCRETION
OSR: If you could perform with any artist, who would it be and why?
Akiyama: James Ivy, Harry Teardrop, Beabadoobee; they,ve got some great pop songs. I simply want to see their shows somewhere sometime soon. Can’t wait for when the Covid situation is over and the bands could play all around the world. It’d be lovely if we could play with The Districts and Manic Sheep again too!
OSR: Do you have any future plans as DYGL?
Akiyama: Not really yet. At the very moment we’re on the album tour in Japan (in the tour van driving up north from Kumamoto to Fukuoka) and it goes until early November. I guess we’re gonna have a short break after that but I’d love to write new songs to do recordings as soon as possible.
Thanks to Nobuki Akiyama for speaking with us. For more from DYGL check out their official website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
