Re:O return with their ninth single, “Crimson Desire”, a powerful track blending heavy riffs, vampiric imagery, and emotional depth. In this interview, the band reflects on growth, creativity, and their evolving sound.
1.
“Crimson Desire” is your 9th single. What does this release represent in the
overall journey of Re:O so far?
Rio- Realisation. It’s hard to describe our sound but this song made us
realised what kind of music we are going for
James - progression and determination, we've learnt a lot and been through a
lot together as a band, this song and it's reception has shown to me at least
how much we've learnt, developed and refined our sound and grown as a band and
individual musicians.
Jay - i agree with James, these series of songs were all recorded at the same
time back to back and i feel that we have grown and learned how we all play and
what each member brings to the whole sound of Re:O
2. The song explores ambition and the hunger for more, conveyed through
vampiric imagery. What inspired you to use vampirism as the metaphor for this
story?
James - Me and Rio were playing Baulders Gate 3 whilst wracking our brains on
what conveyance we wanted this story to be by and there walks in Astarion, one
of the most lovely characters on the game. And it just clicked, vampirism.
That's how we decided it and it works perfectly.
Rio- I always start writing sound not lyrics nor vocal Melodies. I didn’t think
about the vampirism at all and I didn’t see that great idea coming! It’s a
clever idea that we use the vampirism as a metaphor for this song. It’s a
perfect match for this song vibes. If we didn’t play the game at that time,
this song might have had a different metaphor.
3. Compared to your earlier singles, this track leans more on raw, heavy
guitar riffs rather than your signature Japanese-style synths. What led you to
shift the focus in this direction?
Rio- I don’t think we did it on purpose. We always try to keep everything
harmonised which means we keep balances between each instrument. A tricky point
is that we have some synth layers so we need to be careful when we put other
instruments so a song can have grooves. We just felt the great vibes when we
heard this idea so we decided to work on it.
James - There really isn't a thought process that is in depth about it.
Honestly it's as simple as ‘do we like how it sounds?’ Yes, so we continue
working on it and refine it. If by the end we'd add it to our personal
playlists then it'll be recorded and released.
Jay - like any band by the time anyone hears our songs , we have played them a
thousand times over and over, and if you see us play and the energy we all put
into our performance just goes to show how we all feel collectively in the
music that we write
4. Rio’s vocal delivery balances aggression with calm calculation. How did
you approach crafting a performance that feels both intense and restrained at
the same time?
Rio- I mostly pay attention on words, meaning and change tones depends on words
and emotions I’m trying to highlight. In my opinion, vocals should have several
tones so you can express your emotion. For example, when I try to express
anger, I would sing with a little bit of a sharp tone so I did it in several
sections for verse and chorus on Crimson Desire. As you see, I sing like I'm
depicting the world and telling people unknown stories. Otherwise, the world a
song creates would be ruined and destroyed which isn’t beautiful as art.
5. The track was co-written lyrically by Rio Suyama and James Wright. Can
you walk us through the writing process and how the lyrical themes developed?
James - Me and Rio work closely together on the lyrics. It always starts with
us deciding what story we want to tell. From there we decided on a metaphor and
then it's a lot of back of forth of writing the lyrics until we're happy it's
poetic, leave rooms for interpretation but also has a clear story that's being
told. I focus on the English lyrics and Rio brings the Japanese.
Rio- We share stories what we want to tell the world through songs. We give
ideas each other and try to figure out what story would fit to a song. I often
struggle writing the lyrics so I often ask James if the lyrics makes sense etc.
It’s really hard to tell him Japanese lyrics since it cannot be translated
directly and simply from Japanese to English. But when we mix Japanese x English
lyrics, I think we’re really good about it.
6. With Simon Jackson joining you on production, what new dynamics or
perspectives did he bring to the track?
Rio- He is a great producer and I really look forward to working with him
again. He’s not a normal producer, he understood what each song should go
forward and brought some great ideas that we didn't think of to bring our songs
to the next level. When you are the main character for a project, you need some
advice from a third person because they can see art with fresh ears and eyes.
Jay - i really enjoyed working with Simon like Rio said, he makes you feel at
easy and totally understood that our direction was on the last project and can
not wait to get back into the recording studio with him again sson.
7. Re:O has always blurred the lines between J-pop, dark pop, and modern
metal. Do you feel “Crimson Desire” pushes the band deeper into the metal
world, or is it simply another layer in your evolving sound?
James - I think it's another layer. The synths were dialed back here because
well it sounded good. The synths are important to our sound but as you've heard
from Ronin, Violets, The Haunted, GUILD and Crimson desire we have a sense of
heavy riffs but complimented by Rios vocals and poppier synths and song
structures. Some songs we write are quite poppy like GUILD others are heavy
like Crimson Desire, it really depends how we're feeling at the time and the
feel of the song itself. We'll continue writing like having some poppier songs,
some heavy ones and some in between because we love this genre bending blend.
Rio- I don’t think we sound just metal. We might have opened the door for a
heavier sound but as James said, I believe it’s another layer. We keep on
experimenting with heavy guitar riffs and synth. We work on songs based on my
idea but I always come up with random stuff. Sometimes it’s popy, sometimes
it’s super heavy. We try to work on interesting music with the magic of synth!
8. The instrumentation feels aggressive, but the story feels methodical
rather than impulsive. How important was it for you to capture that balance in
both the music and lyrics?
James - Extremely. We're trying to convey our determination whilst not coming
across as arrogant. The lyrics also double up as a warning. Let determination
drive you to achieve your dreams but don't let it over take you and consume
you, that is a dangerous and toxic place to be.
Rio- For James and me, lyrics are important roles as a part of art and help
people understand the story a song tells. We’re trying to express frustration
in a more poetic way.
Jay - like Rio and James said there needs to be a balance, from myside i wanted
to focus more on the lower tones for this song so thats why i change my
tonality to be higher at some sections whilst keeping the lower toms ends to
keep the darker side of the song.
9. Colin Van Dongen created the artwork for this release. How does the
visual aesthetic tie into the dark energy of “Crimson Desire”?
James - Complete accident. It was actually one of the options we had to use for
Ronin's artwork but it ended up just being perfect for crimson desire.
Rio- It was actually for Ronin artwork but we liked this picture and decided to
use it for Crimson Desire. The girl in the artwork is pale and looks
mysterious… We thought it was a great match!
Jay - working with Colin was such an amazing experience, we gave him the brief
of what we were looking and he came up with several ideas and images which
became the bases of all 4 of our releases.
10. You’ve been consistently releasing singles over the years. Is “Crimson
Desire” part of a bigger project, such as an upcoming album or EP, or will you
continue focusing on standalone singles?
Rio- For now, we are planning to release more singles as we can’t afford the
payment to record an album or EP even though we eagerly would love to.
Unfortunately our finances are very tight and our heart gets hurt every time we
hear from our fans that they would love to hear that too. Hopefully we can
release an EP and Album one day.
James - An album we'd love to do but unfortunately it's extremely expensive and
we are fully self funded and we all have our own families and responsibilities
outside of Re:O. I think we'll continue as we are until we're able to really
put in the finance needed to give you all a high quality album that you'd
expect.
Jay - i think we are all on the same page EP Album yes…. But this industry is
very money driven and things ant’ cheap.
11. Looking at your live shows, how do you envision performing “Crimson
Desire” on stage compared to your past material?
James - now that would be saying too much! I’d suggest if you want to find up
you should come see us live 13/09/25 at the Fiddlers Elbow, Camden
Rio- it might sound like we are cheeky but we need to be because it’s a top
secret! Only you can experience it when you come to our show.
12. Finally, after this release, where do you see Re:O heading creatively?
Should fans expect an even heavier direction, or more experiments in blending
genres?
James - A mixture. We write what sounds good to us and what we'd add to our own
playlists. Sometimes that's heavy, sometimes that's GUILD. We'll definitely be
keeping the high energy genre blending Synths and heavy riffs people seem to
love, but that won't stop us branching out and experimenting.
Rio- Some songs might be dark pop like GUILD. Some songs might be heavier than
Crimson Desire. It depends on what songs we want to work on. We always choose
what we believe is cool. I don’t think we will change our style with Synth and
heavy riffs but perhaps more cyberpunk style would be cool.
Jay - Keep your eyes plead and check out the socials as you never know what
will be coming next….
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