History

Dir En Grey exist without any line-up changes since 1997. That is very impressive for a band, which started in the visual kei scene. A lot of new bands appear, change members and disband in a short amount of time. Some VK musicians seem to have an endless list of bands, which they were part of. Dir En Grey seem to be different. Of course the members have their own musical background, but since they found together, it seems like nothing can seperate them. Their style, music, attitude and fanbase changed a lot over the years, but every step in a new direction is done by the agreement of every member.

How did these five friends find together? Let´s begin the story with a young Japanese called Tooru Nishimura. When he went to high school, he suddenly discovered his interest into rock music. Bands like Kuroyume, X Japan or Buck-Tick had an fascinating aura for him. It didnt take long until he made his first experiences with real rock musicians. At the age of 15 he worked for his favorite band Kuroyume as a roadie. Later he did the same for another band called Albatross. Just doing work for them wasnt enough. Tooru wanted to create his own band. After trying to learn guitar and bass, he realized that he cant play well enough on instruments. So he thought about other possibilities and finally started to sing. As soon as he found his destiny, he searched for other people to found an own band.

His first real band became Gesshoku. In 1993 he joined the band with the age of 17 years. Gesshoku was formed by Tooru, Laylla (Guitar), Tokuko (Bass) and an unknown drummer. They did know each other from high school. Tooru chose his first stage name Yoma to fit the VK image. In a short period of time they released several demo tapes and one VHS. These recordings were far from being professional, but they had a lot of potential. They even got the chance to contribute in a various artist compilation called "Rock Heaven - Jack in the Music Box". However the band existed only for half a year.

Tooru moved on and changed his stage name from Yoma to Hotoma. He soon formed a new band called Visnu. Informations about this band are rare, there seem to be no recordings. Visnu didnt exist for long time, it must been around late 1993 or early 1994, when they disbanded.

It is still a long way until Tooru finds a band that is active for more than a few months. In the meantime he moved to Osaka and joined Masquerade in april 1994. Around this time he decided for his final stage name: Kyo. Together with Seine (Guitar), eye (Bass) and Masa (Drums) he recorded three demo tapes. Only two songs ("Genkakuno no hana" and "Air") were officially released. They had a few other songs, which are known by rare live bootlegs. We cant say if titles like "ICE" or "Masquerade" are the correct ones. Maybe we will never know. Masquerade disbanded in september 1995.

At least Kyo didnt have to begin from zero again: Guitarist Seine was still by his side, when he formed his next band Haijin Kurobara Zoku. This band doesnt seem important on the first sight. It was a simple cover band, which played only 4 live shows and never recorded any own songs. However it was the first time that Kyo was in a band together with the well-known bassist Kisaki and the young drummer Shinya Terashi. You can say that Haijin Kurobara Zoku became the prototype of La:Sadie´s.

Shinya went through different bands before. He never thought about being a musicican, until one of his friends from elementary school told him to learn an instrument and form a band with him. He was in the 7th grade, when he bought his first drum set. However this band never came into existence, because Shinya had to move to a different school in the 8th grade. He started to play for few live shows with different cover bands, but it took some time until Jinkou Tenshi became his first serious band around 1993. He started the band together with students from his high school. They never recoded anything, but they played at least one live show at Maiman Brow Town.

The band didnt exist for long time, so he went on to form a new band called SIVA. Once again there are no reliable informations about this band. They existed for 6 months around 1994 or 1995. However in 1995 Shinya was invited by Kisaki to form a band called RUBY. At that time he was 17 years old. He told his band about this. The singer and guitarist decided to move with him to Tokyo and joined RUBY too. Kisaki changed his mind soon and left the band after their show at Kanazawa VAN VAN V4 on 10th of May 1995. He was replaced by the old bassist of SIVA. Somehow the other members werent pleased with Shinyas performance and decided to kick him from the line-up. A very bad decicion, as they asked him soon to rejoin the band. Shinya alrady lost his interest and asked Kisaki to join his new formed band Haijin Kurobara Zoku instead.

Haijin Kurobara Zoku played a few live shows, after they were formed in september 1995. They covered different songs by bands like Kuroyume, Luna Sea and D'ERLANGER. One of these songs was "Shinainaru DEATHMASK" by Kuroyume, which will appear later in the history of Dir En Grey again. In december 1995 the guitarists #4 and Seine decided to depart from the band. Once again Kyo and Shinya were left with nothing.

Kisaki didnt want to give up and decided for a restart. The three remaining members invited two new guitarists within the same month. This was the birth of La:Sadie's. One of the new guitarists was Shio, who played with Kisaki in SHEY#DE before. The second guy had the name Daisuke Andou, but people know him by his nickname Die. Kisaki, Kyo and Shinya remembered Die from a live show in late 1995, where Haijin Kurobara Zoku shared the stage with his old band Ka･za･ri. The other members of this four man band remain unknown, we only know that they recorded the demo tape "Close my...".

Soon it came to another line-up change. After three live shows Shio decided to leave the La:Sadie's in february 1996. The first demo tape "Kakuu to genjitsu..." was the only recording with him. To fill his spot, they invited Kaoru Niikura as a new guitarist. There aren´t much informations about his past bands Die:Steria and CHARM.

A lot of live shows were played with the new line-up. Beside this they recorded a bunch of demos and single CDs. Everything seems perfect, but there were problems under the surface. Kiskai didnt want to continue and left the band after their live show at Osaka amHALL on 15th january 1997. The reasons are discussed by fans until today, however they were never confirmed in interviews and remain as rumours. Kaoru, the oldest and most experienced member, took over the band as the new leader and decided for another restart. They remembered a concert in Nagano from 22th August 1996, where La:Sadie's shared the stage with a band called GOSICK. There they met a talented bassist called Toshimasa Hara.

Toshiya had experience with different bands. After leaving his first band MONALIZA he formed GOSICK together with Junya (vocals), Munya (guitar) and Iyazi (drums, name maybe incomplete). As far as we know, they never recorded anything. But they played a few live shows. The band disbanded around late 1996 or early 1997. Toshiya went on and played as the guitarist for D†L, which were formed by him, Shuji (vocals), Takeshi (guitar), Kohtarou (bass) and Hiroshi (drums) in early 1997.

D†L already recorded a demo tape, when Toshiya was asked by the ex-La:Sadie's members to help them out for a live show on 24th of January 1997. They played this show with the name DEATHMASK. We still remember that title from Haijin Kurobara Zoku´s cover songs. Later Toshiya will refer to this show as "kidnapping", because it wouldnt be the last show with him. They played a few more dates and finally Toshiya left his band and joined DEATHMASK full time. With the new complete line-up they officially started their activities as Dir En Grey on 2nd of February 1997.