D’ESPAIRSRAY IS ON HIATUS DUE TO HIZUMI’S THROAT PROBLEMS. SACRED DEER OF NARA PARK, JAPAN BUDDHIST TEMPLE GROUNDS TAME DEER.
Brace yourself… another Visual Band is temporarily leaving the stage. D’espairsRay has announced they will be on hiatus after their current overseas tour.
Like Jui from Vidoll, vocalist Hizumi is suffering from throat problems caused from a past illness. The Jrock group plans to give their all for the remaining “Human-clad Monsters” tour stops, and hopes none will be cancelled. Afterwards, however, all four members will be taking a break from performing and recording until Hizumi recovers.
I’m so glad I was able to see D’espairsRay play in Seattle, before their hiatus. Let’s wish them well — you can leave them a comment of support. Coming right up: exclusive photos and a review of their show.
Now for something happier… remember when Yukiro and I took a trip to Nara, the ancient Japanese capital in Kansai? Nara is famous for its sacred, tame deer that roam through the park and Buddhist temple grounds. So we had the genius idea of incorporating them into a fashion-forward photoshoot.
The deer are all over Nara. They’re the embodiments of Zen calm. Visitors can hand-feed the deer, pet them, hug them…
However, the deer have probably never seen cyber-furry fashion before!
Top: h.NAOTO Blood (I wore it in our Abandoned Curse B-movie)
Skirt: Algonquins
Purple lace tights: Very old…
Have you ever visited Nara? You must make the day-trip if you’re in Osaka; it’s about an hour away by subway. You can see the rest of our Nara photos in this post.
Got thoughts and well-wishes for D’espairsRay? Let’s be their Little Monsters and show our support!
Japanese Word of the Day: Setsunai = Melancholy, bittersweet, sad, sentimental
Song of the Day: D’espairsRay – Monsters
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LA CARMINA
33 Comments
Damn ruki now hizumi i hope het gets well really.
At least Ruki is better now
GET WELL SOON HIZUMI! <3
Take care of yourself and be strong!
. . .I still can’t get this out of my head. And I’m being serious when I ask this – but honestly…is the world coming to an end? And even if that’s a dead no…I can ask if the world of JRock is coming to an end and that answer would be like a “maybe” and if the world of JRock ends then the WORLD DOES END.
Sorry for being so down…but honestly…there’s just way too many things happening at once. (sigh!).
BUT WOW those deer! (trying to be optimistic) They don’t mind at all when they see people do they? That’s incredible. At the place I live there are deer that occasionally come by here and there to feed on the grass. I live in a kind of open area so… – but even when they see a human, THEY STOP all activity, have an epic staring competition – if you move first, they’ll move 10000 yards away.
Those deer are certainly sacred alright!
You gotta love the “kick” and “butt” warning signs which incorporate the girl dressed in a somewhat gothic lolita fashion! . . .ok you can’t tell, but still it doesn’t hurt to imagine…though I am tempted to just cut those little pigtails off of her.
Later!
I know… I feel the same, it’s like there is so much good and bad at the same time for Jrock bands touring outside Japan. It’s a struggle for sure… I had some conversations with record label people, and we’re all having various stresses over it >__<
Yeah, the deer are pretty amazing. I'm glad Yukiro brought moist towelettes though!
HIZUMI’S THROAT!! OMG its like eevry asian leeder sinegr atm is getting neck trama D : soon we’ll be musciless >;A;w< oh that looks like so much fun La chan~
Sigh… yeah, I wonder what’s up with that!
:) Glad you like the photos. That was one of our favorite excursions to date.
I love Nara! Watch out they can get nippy! hehe :3
The Hotness! Nice fire and water (ok purple rain) color scheme going.
the deer’s horns looks photoshoped lol
The deer are sacred – hence the magical horns? hehe! Or antlers?
sounds like you had awesome fun. Love.
hahaha you guys are funny
awww!
:o oh no. Poor Hizumi. TwT Ruki-san from gazette lost his voice a while back and then something happened to Isshi from Kagrra. :( Why is this happening to all of my favorite singers T.T
Ahh Hizumi! I hate hiatuses.
I know, I know.. The Despa news made me sad. =(
Why do you think #VisualKei #Jrock singers keep losing their voices? The growling? Poor technique? Decadent lifestyle? Or a cover-up excuse?
It’s long been a whispered secret that growling and screeching stresses the throat and vocal chords of singers. I’m surprised more of them aren’t falling to the affliction!
I have no idea but there good until that happens.
Hum… Well, for following Jui’s blog, I can tell that it is not a cover up excuse… He’s getting quite anxious over this and that’s quite understandable… But I can’t say anything on D’espairasRay or Kagrra,… Isshi isn’t growling so it’s not that… Maybe bad technique, but still, way more would be afflicted with it, if it really was this… The same goes for growling… Kyo from Dir en grey would be dead by now if growling caused voice loss… BUT. Japanese tend to have a reaaaaaaally bad growling technique which Kyo doesn’t have anymore since he kinda learned from american bands *caugh*korn*caugh* so that’s maybe the right answer to the question for Hizumi’s case, at least…
my biology teacher told me that asians are more likely to develope throat cancer becaus eof something in their diet. =O
every time a person clears their throat, it damages the vocal chords. it literally slams them together. (thats why everyone should just cough if something is in their throat.) so imagine all the growling, then singing, then growling again. just look at kyo, you can hospitalize yourself. a lot of times, overexurcion (sp?) of the voice can develop cists on the vocal chords. (i’m a vocalist myself, i have to know these things. :P)
Smoking/smoke exposure does a lot of damage… and you see tons of artists from Japan with cigarettes in photos and videos… and sheer overwork are likely the major contributors to the problem…
Some male vocalists smoke (foolishly) to deliberately roughen their voices too… I can’t imagine what Hyde would sound like pre-smoke damage…
That’s an interesting question..i think they’re too careless with their voice, smoking, growling without knowing the proper way to’ do it and stressing their vocal chords brings soon to’ a limit…and then ricovering takes much time ;_;
They sure smoke alot!
This is yet another singer who has throat problems! D:
Wish them well, I loved ther album! I gave it a 8 out of 10!
Get well soon!
Ahh and so the question is asked. Well…I think a lot of it has to do with everything mentioned so far. Smoking has an effect, trying to growl and trying out a different technique has an effect.
But one of the major things that isn’t good for your throat – is SINGING through it. You don’t want to sing through your throat, you want to sing through your diaphragm. Inhale & exhale. Breathe in and breathe out. That’s the way of a singer. It should come from the stomach not the throat – unless you’re trying to do a really unique style of singing.
Now growling is a common technique and trying to scream out the vocals is a common technique you see when you see the singer nearly out of breath. I unfortunately haven’t been to a single JRock concert in my life…BUT I have every single concert video/tour finale of the GazettE.
Let me tell you – after the song Leech I occasionally saw Ruki sama doing a thing which I’ve seen regular amateur Western/Australian things do…it’s to yell out vocals which aren’t meant to be yelled.
Now of course let’s be honest – us as an audience enjoys it a lot, for it gives a punch of enthusiasm in a concert/live. It really does…but it hurts the vocalist by doing so – going from the clean vocal generated by the diaphragm and then later on automatically switching gears to a throat-generated vocal which really does damage to it – DESPITE how little it may be. If you keep on practicing that sort of thing, the damage will build on itself.
Now to be honest – this is a very very basic hypothesis I have. VERY BASIC. It could be something much much more complex. Ask Basil, I’m sure he would have a very good idea.
The vocalist doesn’t want the lyrics of his/her own song to die now would they? They don’t want to take a break from the lyrics and leave it unfinished. Which is why back-up singers are good to have. Let the drummer come in, the bassist, both guitarists. Hell ask the audience to sing and chant back the words! Everyone loves that…and if you have Tokyo Dome or Budoukan filled with 42,000 or 14,200 ROARING FANS – it’ll send shivers down everyone’s spine.
The other thing: smoking. QUIT IT. I’m sorry as cool as it may sometimes look (especially at a certain angle, and hell my avatar is smoking on my MySpace and facebook – Déjà D’être) in reality it does a lot of damage. Once again like screaming because of loss of breath…the damage will build on itself.
Also here’s another thing: I said when singers have a shortness of breath they tend to scream. Well if the singer has been smoking for a while, where do you think the shortness of breath came from? That’s right – the cigarette itself. Now here’s a thing that will help – get an electronic cigarette. SERIOUSLY. It’s much better, it doesn’t contain tobacco, or anything like that, it’s just water vapor with a scent too! So it’s so much better.
BUT!!! It’s STILL VERY VERY BAD! Electronic cigarettes seem to have an image of: “Oh anyone can smoke now” – NO, DON’T, or please DON’T >_<
Electronic cigarettes still have nicotine in them, you inhale it, it goes it your bloodstream, and the damage builds on itself! Oh what damage you may ask? Nicotine…is a killer, a big killer…a silent killer – it shortens the diameter of your blood vessels increasing your chances for a clog in the artery, stroke, etc – HEART ATTACK. So don't do smoking at all! But once again, for smokers…this is a good option, a much better one – but I hope smokers quit soon…just for the best of them. No one wants to see a friend…slowly decay.
SO BEFORE YOU DECAY Ruki sama, and all the rest – INCLUDES YOU HYDE…yes you – though you're slowing down on it =), please understand your fans are worried about you.
So that's all I've got to say.
Oh and P.S. – electronic cigarettes are even a bigger risk to asians then they are to westerners. Because…in general – the genetic trend of Asians is that they have smaller blood vessels (in diameter) – so they won't be able to withstand the damage as much as someone in North America/Europe might.
Ok? There…I'll stop playing Dr. Déjà D'être – Cardiology and Pulmonology. Hell my salary isn't that big enough for anyone to believe that I have a specialty in those areas. …Do I have a salary? Or do I even have an actual specialty? – we'll call it…JRockology – Ph.D B**CH HAHAHAHA!!!
^_^
It may be poor technique. If you’re doing growling correctly it shouldn’t be ruining your vocal cords.
interesting question! I think the c-u excuse may be plausible due to their super tight contracts! Miyavi/Melody is a perfect ex.!
I’m generally inclined to think the high pitches that so many sing. I know Hokuto no Ken has killed my karaoke voice.
Its gotta be the constant growling and pitches. I miss Juka HGP!
the deer are still adorable <3
coolllllllllllll