Mayhem Music Magazine sits down with Japanese rockers VAMPS to discuss playing in America as part of Sixx AM’s Modern Vintage Tour

Mayhem Music Magazine: This is not the first time VAMPS has played in San Francisco. How does it feel to be back here & to be touring the US coast to coast this time?

Hyde: We’ve never done a tour in the States this big so I can’t even imagine how it’s going to be.

Mayhem Music Magazine: Vamps have been very successful overseas, how important is it to conquer the US market?

Hyde: The music that I listened to growing up was from America so it’s important for me to be successful in this market.

Mayhem Music Magazine: With both of you having other bands (L’Arc-En-Ciel & Oblivion Dust), when making music, how does your song writing process change for VAMPS?

Hyde: L’Arc-En-Ciel plays all kinds of music but VAMPS is for rock music specifically so that’s the biggest difference between the two bands. When we create music we first think whether the songs will fit in VAMPS. Once it gets done, sometimes we do think maybe this should be saved for L’Arc-En-Ciel instead. It happens.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What bands influenced (both of) you & who inspires you musically now?

Hyde: Motley Crue and Ratt. You know…LA metal.

Kaz: Killing Joke and W.A.S.P.

Mayhem Music Magazine: How did this tour with Sixx:AM come about?

Hyde: I am a big fan of Motley Crue so last February we invited Sixx:AM to Japan to do our show called Vampark Festival. That was the beginning of the whole thing. So Vamps helped Sixx:AM promote in the Japanese market and Sixx:AM is helping promote VAMPS in the US market.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What can we expect from Vamps live show tonight?

Hyde: We feel very confident about our live performances but the reaction the US audience is going to give we are not sure since this is a different market. The crowd are Sixx:AM fans and we are not sure how they will respond to VAMPS.

Mayhem Music Magazine: You’ve released both ‘Sex,Blood,Rock n Roll’ & ‘Bloodsuckers’ with english vocals. Has this effected your Japanese fan base & is this the direction of all your albums in the future?

Hyde: When the ‘Bloodsuckers’ album was released in Japan there were Japanese songs on it. English lyrics are on the international edition. Japanese fans expect the band to be singing in Japanese and they like it because they can understand the lyrics better.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What do you want America to know about VAMPS?

Hyde: We are influenced by American music but we offer something different. We are not like your regular American rock band so we’re hoping the American audience will accept something new.

We hope you enjoyed this interview with VAMPS. Be sure to check back for more music interviews.

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