– Hello, thanks for your time. What’s currently keeping SIGH busy?

Right now we’re working on the Bathory tribute track which was planned by Metatron of The Meads of Asphodel and is due out some time later this year. We’re covering «Under the Runes».

 

– First of all (and if you don’t mind) I would like you to start making some history of the band.

Sigh were formed in April of 1990 and did two demos before the ‘Requiem for Fools’ 7″EP on Wild Rags, which led us to sign to Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions. Since then, we released:

Scorn Defeat (1993)
Infidel Art (1995)
Ghastly Funeral Theatre (1996 mini album)
Hail Horror Hail (1997)
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams (1999)
Imaginary Sonicscape (2001)
Gallows Gallery (2005)
Hangman’s Hymn (2007)
A Tribute to Venom (2008)
Scenes from Hell (2010)
In Somniphobia (2012)

The current line-up is:
Mirai Kawashima – Vocals, Keyboards, Sitar, etc.
Dr. Mikannibal – Alto Saxophone, Vocals
Satoshi Fujinami – Bass
Shinichi Ishikawa – Guitar
Junichi Harashima – Drums

 

– And why did you pick the name «Sigh»? Both its origin and the meaning it has personally to you.

We just didn’t want typical black / death metal name. And we wanted an easy-to-remember one. Then we came up with the word Sigh. Sigh gives you varied impressions. It sometimes stands for anxiety. Other times it shows relief. So we thought the name fit us perfectly because our music direction was as varied.

 

– You will soon release your new «In Somniphobia»; what are your expectations?

We just hope as many people as possible will have a bad trip listening to this album. We strictly recommend you smoke before you try this and listen with the headphones!!

 

– I could say this is your most varied effort so far; was this something you were looking for?

I’m not sure if it is as varied as «Imaginary Sonicscape» was, but yes, it’s way more varied than last two albums. It’s got lots of elements from traditional heavy metal to free jazz, classical music, Indian traditional music, etc. The influence is very wide such as Sun Ra, John Zorn, Frank Zappa, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Varese, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost, Death SS, The Beach Boys and so on. We put all of them into the cauldron and made a nightmare.

 

– The two first tracks are really Power/Heavy, quite different to your usual sound, and we then find an interlude. And almost the same near the end of the album; an interlude and then two outstanding tunes: one more rocker and the other one with a certain psychedelic vibe to it so; what did you want to express with those songs? Or what do the interludes represent?

Yes, the first two are pretty much straightforward heavy metal stuff. And the «Lucid Nightmares» intro comes. It is like an opening theme of the midnight TV show. It clearly tells you that «Lucid Nightmares» part will begin. «Somniphobia» is something about losing a boader line between nightmare and reality or life and death. This is a very important theme on this album. I love the movies like «Jacob’s Ladder», «Others», «Dead and Buried» etc. which have this concept. Musically this song is quite chaotic with wide influences from free jazz to African stuff to rather normal rock. I believe this turned out to be quite a scary song. The next track «L’excommunication a Minuit» is kind of funky stuff with the Indian traditional music influence. This is based on the image of heretic ritual like witches dancing around the fire on the top of the mountain etc. Naked, drunk and enthusiastic.

 

– In fact those 4 songs are really different between them, we can find epic sounds, 70’s/psychedelic keyboards (as on «The Transfiguration Fear»). How do you make all those different elements fit between them?

It’s all spontaenous. And of course there have been a lot of trials and errors. I usually keep experimenting until I am 100% satisfied with the result. Also 70s vintage keyboards such as Minimoog isn’t something unusual in metal stuff. You can hear a good example like «Who Are You» by Black Sabbath.

 

– For example, some years ago you included a saxophone to your music, quite unsual for a Metal band. How and why did you think that was a good idea?

Saxophone may be a bit unusual for metal, but still it’s a basic instrument in rock music. Even in extreme metal, Warfare succeeded to blend sax in thrash metal on «A Conflict of Hatred» as early as in the 80s. Also Death SS used it very effectively on «Black Mass» album. And needless to say John Zorn proved that Saxophone could give a power to extreme stuff with Naked City stuff. I use anything if it is required to express the visions musically, be it Saxophone or Sitar.

 

– Still with the album, we can even find elements from traditional Indian music (on «Far Beneath the In-Between» for instance) so, what are your main musical influences? Sound-wise, where do you draw inspiration from?

I’ve been a big fan of Indian traditional music and I even used to take Sitar and Tabla lessons. If you’re not familiar with there things you should pick up an album by Zakir Hussain. His Tabla technique is incredible. Extremely fast and exciting. It’s so powerful. Indian traditional music is one of the most complicated, extreme and psychedlic music in this world, so it’s natural that so many rock musician have been trying to take it in their music. As for my musical influences, I must say heavy / thrash metal and classical music are the biggest two. I grew up listening to lots of heavy / thrash metal in the 80s. The music you listen to during your youth never goes away. Also I was taking classical piano lessons for 20 years. So I can safely say these two are the biggest influences on me. Then after I grew up, I started making music for video games, TV shows etc. and had to learn varied musical styles from jazz to techno. That’s why I have a lot on my musical pallet.

 

– And due to this; how does the songwriting tends to be like in SIGH?

I always have a music notebook with me, and whenever I come up with new ideas, may it be riffs, melodies, chord progressions, or even more vague ideas, I’ll write them down. Then I record them on my PC to see if it sounds good enough. Usually I keep listening to them and changing the structure etc., and once I feel it’s done, I’ll give the demo and the score to other members. Sometimes when I come to the dead end, I’ll pass the song in progress to our guitarist to have him finish it up.

 

– As I said, «In Somniphobia» is a really dynamic effort, containing nuances from different styles but; how could you describe this opus in just a few words?

A sonic nightmare!

 

– All this being said; does SIGH have any limits? Is there something you are afraid to try?

Yes, definitely there’s a limit. As far as we release an album under the name of Sigh, at least it has to be metal. We’ll never release an album with only synthesizers as Sigh.

 

– Kam Lee and Metatron have cooperated with vocals and lyrics on «Lucid Nightmares». Could you please shed some light on this? How did you come up with the idea, etc?

Yes, Kam Lee wrote the lyrics for one of the songs and did the vocals too. I was quite sure that he would be the one of those who understood the concept of «In Somniphobia», so I asked him to help us. On «Far Beneath the In-Between», I believe the triple vocal between Kam, Dr. Mikannibal and me works very well. Kam is a good friend of ours, and I myself have been a huge fan of Massacre for a long time, so it was a big honor to have him on our album again. Metatron also wrote the very long lyrics for one of the songs. He also did some narrations too. We’ve been working together for a long time for both The Meads of Asphodel and Sigh, so we understand each other quite well.

 

– If I’m not mistaken the own band has taken production duties; how positive is this for the band? Are you guys satisfied with the final output?

Honestly it isn’t easy to have a decent producer here in Japan, so doing it on our own is the only way for us. Production-wise, I think «In Somniphobia» turned out to be really well. It’s very powerful, but not too digital. I believe it has a good balance.

 

– On the other hand, cover artwork was crafted by Eliran Kantor, and I must say it really caught my attention. What does it represent? And what’s the link between the cover and the lyrical content on «In Somniphobia»? And this being said, what’s the main lyrical concept on this new record?

Here I’ll answer two questions together. The concept is a nightmare. To be more precise, losing a border between dream and reality or life and death. I really love the movies with this kind of concept such as «Jacob’s Ladder», «Carnival of Souls», and «Dead and Buried». And I myself often have lucid dreams. Also it is about a fear to the unknown. We’re afraid of death as we do not know what it is. At least until 1970s, people had a fear or a fantasy about the unknown place, so there were masked pro-wrestlers whose nationality was supposed to be unknown. Lovecraft wrote about the Mad Arab, which is a good example about a fear to the exotic thing. We wanted to express these things with music and lyrics on this album. The cover artwork is definitly a nightmare. I believe it’s a realization of Eliran’s own nightmare. Seriously Eliran is genius. We’re proud to release the album with such a beautiful cover. At a first glance, it may look like just a beautiful painting, but if you look into the details, you’ll find a lot of eerie things!

 

– If I’m not mistaken during your career you have worked with different labels, even you already worked some years ago with Candlelight. What happened with the previous labels? And what made you go back to Candlelight?

I must admit that we are really bad at the business side. At first we were on Deathlike Silence Productions, but as you know, the owner Euronymous was murdered. Then we went to Cacophonous, who are / were one of the most notorious labels. We still cannot get back the rights to the albums on Cacophonous. Next, Century Media. They were cool and decent, but our music wasn’t commercial enough for them. «Gallows Gallery» was released on Necrophagia’s Killjoy’s label and it was licenced to Candlelight Records in Europe, so we weren’t directly on Candlelight back then. Then we moved onto The End Records, who is a horrible rip-off label. During our US tour, we paid $10,000 in cash to them for the cost they had paid in advance for our flight etc., however, later they claimed they had NO RECOLLECTION gettin paid $10,000 and re-charged it on our royalty. How could you forget getting paid $10,000? I seriously think you should be VERY careful about them as we are not the only victim. And finally now we’re on Candlelight Records. Actually when Euronymous was murdered, we got an offer from Candlelight Records too. But just because Cacophonous was fast in replying, we chose them. Huge mistake indeed!

 

– The Metal scene in Asia seems really strong, and still growing each day with bands into different Metal subgenres. How’s (as an insider) your view on this?

To be honest, I’m not keeping up with today’s scene at all, so I am not sure, you know I’m gettin old. But if it’s going strong, definitely it is amazing! Last year we went to China to play two concerts, and China seems to have a lot of cool bands too. Of course Japan has some cool bands such as Genocide Nippon, Abigail, Sabbat etc.

 

– As 2011 is about to finish; what are your 3 favourite albums released this year?

Definitely the biggest release of 2011 for me was «Smile Sessions» by The Beach Boys. «Smile» was the huge mystery for a lot of music fans for more than 40 years, and finally it was released officially. However, probably it should be filed under 1967, not 2011, so here’s my top 3 for 2011:

1. Vektor – Outer Isolation
2. Hell – Human Remains
3. Riot – Immortal Soul

 

– And finally, what are the near-future plans for the band?

Now we are sorting out the tour for this year. We do hope it’ll work and we can come back to Europe any time soon. Also later this year, 5th album «Imaginary Sonicscape» will be released on vinyl on The Crypt. They did a wonderful job on other albums of ours vinyl releases, so it should be something excellent again.

 

– That’s all from my side, thaks once more for answering to our questions.

If you now want to add some final words; feel free to add them.
Thank you very much for the interview. For the lates information on us, follow us: http://twitter.com/sighjapan

 

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com

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