VISUAL KEI GROUP AYABIE PAUSES ACTIVITIES, JROCK BAND MEMBERS ON TEMPORARY HIATUS OR BREAK. WEBSITE UPGRADE TO NEW, FASTER SERVER.
It’s gotten to the point where it’s become a joke. The latest trend in Visual Kei and J-rock appears to be… breaking up. Taking a break, moving onto different dreams: choose your own wording.
This week, the VK band in the news is is Ayabie. Recently, members Yumehito, Takehito, Intetsu and Kenzo resigned from the group. Vocalist Aoi intended to plug on alone, but now, he’s announced that all Ayabie activities will be on hiatus. He stresses that this is a “temporary pause” and that the band hopes to continue on later.
At this point, I’m skeptical of these “pauses.” Seems to be a marketing scheme, to get Jrock fans antsy for a lucrative “reunion tour”…
A small programming note. You may have noticed that La Carmina blog has been offline or half-dressed in the past 48 hours. It’s because I had to republish everything onto a new server; one that can handle the insane amount of traffic that’s been buckling this site. The process was a total nightmare, but thankfully, the blog is now back as it was — including all your comments.
Please let me know if you discover any errors, such as truncated posts, missing images or bad links. Hopefully you’ll find that the site loads faster and doesn’t get glitchy any more.
Once I catch my breath, I’ll post Halloween cute food photos from Tokyo. Thanks, everyone, for your support!
How’s the new site working out for you? What do you think about the recent slew of Visual Kei breakups?
Japanese Word of the Day: Akumu = Nightmare
Song of the Day: Ayabie – Kirisame
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49 Comments
why does this keep having?!
>_< I think it's the new way to save face..
Oh so that’s why I saw a sort of flashback of the past when I visited like about 7 hours ago. But so far, the site’s working well, still stable and everything’s A-ok. But I haven’t exactly toured around to check.
As for all of this JRock chaos…well – I have no idea what to say. I remember Ayabie from way back. Or at least it felt like way back lol. 2006 or so haha. They wanted to get an add from me on MySpace…and I really really loved their sound. But after hearing all those crazy things happen such as Ryohei leaving to create Megamasso…and the other 4 deciding to leave to start their own band leaving just Aoi. “Aoi from Ayabie” – is the title people use these days from the band. And it just kind of makes me sad for what happened and such.
I’d like to say it’s all for the best, that all the members will create and continue to evolve the level of JRock. And well…I think Ryohei leaving was for the best – though he was awesome with Ayabie…MEGAMASSO JUST FREAKING ROCKS!!!
Can’t wait to see what the other 4 think of.
As for Aoi…I don’t know what he’ll do, but I just don’t hope he quits music or anything like that.
I hope the site is working properly from now in. I had never been so stressed!! Thank Satan for my first mate of the pirate shop, Naomi, for helping me brainstorm a fix.
Megamasso! I haven’t kept up with them lately… I remember being really into them a while back. xo
My feeling is just like any other band, they burn-out and they need time apart to be able to take a fresh new view on their music. I also think that these breaks can sometimes lead to better music.
I spoke to some musician friends who also agree about the importance of taking breaks for personal exploration…
The site seems to be working fine for me.
I think the J-Rock scene is just in a bit of a tough time… and needs to be rescued, encouraging other bands to stay strong. I hope Aoi stays doing what he’s doing, but Ayabie suddenly going on hiatus when they JUST “reformed” not too long ago? Give me a break -_- I think there’s something going on with the record companies more than anything…
I don’t think this whole crisis of bands breaking up and going on hiatus will last much longer. The fans are getting impatient. With the record companies, they will definitely give into demand sooner or later. Unfortunately, provoking the fans is also part of the business.
Oh wait a minute…Ayabie reformed? Really? Oh…ok well at least Aoi isn’t alone anymore.
To my knowledge, 彩冷える-ayabie- broke up (while Aoi just went solo) and then reformed AYABIE.
It was kind of a slap in the face to Aoi if you ask me -_-
haha! The capitalization makes all the difference! :P
Oh wait a minute…Ayabie reformed? Really? Oh…ok well at least Aoi isn’t alone anymore.
The fans are getting pissed off, for sure. >_< Sigh, it's true — any reaction, especially an emotional one, is better than a neutral response.
amazing pics<3 fetishes parties seem soo wow and whoahh :O lol and I love your cat basil<333 *meoww* :3
Hopefully there will soon be a new wave of visual bands that will make the scene active again >> DRAVARIOUS ^^
The next new wave!!! <3
I’m going to cry if one more band I like goes on hiatus (TT-TT)
I have a fear GPKism will be next….Kiwamu keeps talking about it on FB
Yeah… he said he’s downsizing the activity X__X Hopefully they stay strong!
Site working is so far so good! Thumbs up for the big effort. Republishing is a long and unenjoyable task, so thanks for going through it for your readers <3
I think the only thing that can balance the rocking boat of Jrock is a strong fanbase that discovers, encourages, and spreads the word about new upcoming bands or indies that deserve a piece of the pie after years of hard work. Keep the optimism, keep the flow of music coming, keep interests up because one day all of the bands we love are going to break up, but there's gotta be/gonna be someone to replace them too.
Thanks, I really appreciate it! <3 It was hell but I'm glad I did the server move. This will keep the site well-grounded for at least a few years.
Dravarious is ready to take the VK world by storm!
Hey did all these bands forget their followers. May be followers should forget them.
Fans being used and abused as usual. Glad to see the music
industry is still the same after 20 years. No wonder people
don’t buy music anymore. Wish I could just up and quit my job
like these people do. VK is going down the tube! I was
loyal and didn’t quit. Shelled
out money too…NO MORE..this
is only my view on the situation.^_^
I think a lot of the times, the decisions come from the labels and not the artists… but it’s very frustrating for all fans.
“At this point, I’m skeptical of these “pauses.” Seems to be a marketing scheme, to get Jrock fans antsy for a lucrative “reunion tour”… ”
I totally agree!
Sigh sigh..
This kind of scares me. I love their music so much, that I am terribly sad everytime they break up or do a pause. I remember when Rentrer En Soi disbanded I was so… “nooooooo!!”
I just hope that my favourites ones won’t break up or do a pause. :/
>_< I know…
Really can’t wait for the cute halloween photos! #^^#
Hello dear! <3 Long time since we chatted – hope all is well!
I'll post the Halloween food pics in a bit :)
:(
aww wow love this pic^_^
I would not be surprised to see Aoi move over to the new label with Ayabie after some time has passed. They wanted to move to another company and he made the choice not to go with them but It really doesn’t sound like they hate each other or anything.
We lose a lot of good bands each year, I think its just that the English speaking side is becoming a lot more aware of it as our generation of bands start cycling out. I’d say the top three reasons among the bands I’ve known are money issues, band members moving into other careers or settling down, or members not getting along with eachother.
I think these are wise words.
The next step is likely a new wave of bands that are geared for people who are younger than us that we’re all going to hate so we can spend our free time reminiscing about the good old days. =P Weeee.
Amazing!
No way D.:
I saw this coming..
A lot of bands are taking pauses because their vocalists are having throat/voice/health problems. Just to get them back to normal before contiuing. Something must be going around. I’ve heard 6 bands having the same issue.
Tokyo Damage Report more or less gave all the skinny on how unhealthy the industry is as a whole, and has no support system to fight off such things. More absurd Japan, and it’s questionable business practices. Or more a haven for Yakuza would be business folk not unlike the Mexican Mafia, you decide..
It’s also frustrating that these bands’ attempts to branch out to the West are not going efficiently, a lot of the time due to stringent Japanese management and labels… I’ve had some negative experiences with them myself.
Read that ex-executive interview, pretty disturbing stuff but not that surprising. I wonder if the trends have changed at all these days. Probably not much considering bands are still releasing those maxi-singles in versions A,B, and C. I hate that stuff, but I love the visual kei sound so it’s a pretty conflicted feeling.
They’re hybernating for winter….. Tokyo is rather chilly.
just you wait and see… these bands will be coming out soon enough to the u.s. in full force. x has already done good for themselves… i’m starting a vk inspired project out west which will also open up the market. it’s just a matter of time before vk is taking over the world again
Probably a shift in “popular”, JStuff seems to go through phases, even in the relatively short 10 years that I’ve been listening.
I think Visual Kei is taking a break, if you look at it KPOP is a new trend right now – it’s all the rage. Visual Kei isn’t dead, even if i have to painstakingly ulcerative quote Myv on the “Rock n’ Roll is not dead” – You’re talking about a genre that was brought up through the underground and is just shifting polars to another country… just watch, Japan will have it’s time in the sun again for Visual Kei.
Aoi went solo but he’s taking a hiatus after the end of this year :( the other members have already created a new band also under the name AYABIE (lol) I heard that they broke up because problems with the company but Aoi stayed under it because he felt indebted to the staff.
No idea why so many bands are starting to disband or are taking hiatus (unless it’s to become stronger like DELUHI is doing) & vocalists are having so many vocal issues but it is sad to see great bands go.
I don’t think that the genre is dying out though because while some bands may be taking breaks and disbanding, other bands are being formed and our older bands (X, Luna Sea, etc.) are having comebacks! The only problem with newer bands forming is that their visuals outdo the music but there are some promising bands out there. We just have to hope for the best and support the artists :D
I would like to say that the Tokyo Damage article is questionable in that the Yakuza is NOT something talked about so openly, and due to some other things (I have some inside info that the majority of the article is about Dir en grey and Dynamite Tommy/Free Will, NOT about the vkei scene as it is entirely…)
I think there is a lot of truth in that interview, but I also know through experience that what was said cannot be applied to every band out there. This interview has no known source and is published on a relatively unknown blog. From a journalistic standpoint there is no credibility to this, and most industry people that I work disagree with the way its being mass applied. Its like writing on the bathroom wall.
Visual Kei is practically built on a fantasy business model. As long as most of the fans think there are a bunch of single men goofing off and making music in host uniforms all day they will be there forking out money. Its an escape that fans can pay into. There are bad apples in any industry you could name, not just visual kei. So passing around this article like its the absolute truth and we’re all being tricked is going to hurt us in the end when fans walk off for the wrong reasons.
Business is business, music is music. Separate the two and its easier to be happy.
I spotted a fault. At first I thought it was just my PC going mad. But now I don’t know for sure any more… The comments on the blog don’t organize chronologically. I figured out when I posted a comment and it turned up somewhere in the middle of other comments, and not on the top.
Thanks for letting me know! I just checked it out – and it appears that things are working ok. In my comment system, new comments appear at the top UNLESS there are higher-rated comments. SO your comment will appear below the comments that people “liked”, but above all the others. Hope that helps! xo
Oh, wait. I got it. The comments that are ‘liked’ are on top of de comment list! xD