Moran
ZY. VOL. 40 (May 2008)

Moran - the only pioneer. 

On March, 29th Moran officially started their activities. After Fatima's disbanding Hitomi (Kanoma) did some sessions while looking for band-members. Now he, Soan (Towa), ex. KuRt's Zill (Saburo) and a newbie called Velo have formed a 4-man group full of individuality. With aggressive and thrilling sounds they want to bring a change into the Visual Kei-scene. 

 Hitomi, Soan, you changed your stage-names. Why did you do that? 

Soan: I like the word "soar", which means 'to fly high' or just 'to fly', but Hitomi told me that it doesn't sound well, so I made it to 'Soan'. 

 And why did you want to change your name?

Soan: To separate from the past. 

Hitomi: You can put it like that. We want to start as different people. However, when I started with Fatima, I also called myself Hitomi, later I changed my name to Sanaka and next to Kanoma. Now I came back to Hitomi again. 

 You don't separate totally from your past, do you? (Laughs)

Hitomi: Better to say, I returned. Actually I wanted to make Moran to my name, but then it became the band's name. Long ago, when I last started something, my name was Hitomi. I wanted to start as a Hitomi with a feeling like burying the old bones for Moran, that's why I came returned to Hitomi. 

 And Moran's meaning?

Hitomi: Moran is a character of "The Moomin's", who freezes everything she touches. I liked her since Junior High.

 Tell us some details about the formation of Moran. 

Hitomi: After my previous band broke up, I did some sessions. The first I met then was Velo. Soan was also up to make a band, but it didn't seem to work out for him, so I asked him, too. Velo is an old acquaintance of Zill. I thought some private connections might be okay as well, so he asked Zill for me. 

Zill: It went all very smooth. When KuRt disbanded, I worried about what I shall do. Then Hitomi contacted me, we went out to have dinner together and talked about his ideas. Next we want to the studio and I was all like: "All right, let's do it!!"

 Hitomi, the time after Fatima's disbanding, which you spent doing sessions, was considerably long, wasn't it?

Hitomi: Well, it took me a long time to find such good people.

 What was important for you and what did you specially cared about, when you decided upon your band-members?

Hitomi: I was looking for people who have a special charm, which other don't have. That was a really important point. I hate those band-men, who are just easy to replace. There were many good people, but they had nothing special about them. Searching with such critical eyes, it was hard to find someone. 

Velo: Hitomi's presence is unique, that's why I approached to him. He can respect and meet others sensibly, so I felt that I want to perform with him. 

 Soan, when Hitomi asked you to join, what did you think?

Soan: "GOAL!" (Laughs)

Hitomi: After Fatima's disbanding both of us agreed that we'd stick too much to the image of our old band, if we started a project together. It was better to keep at distance, at least in this respect. But as time passed by that feeling also passed and it became better. We came to think that we can play together in a band again, if we only want. 

 Did you plan to make a 4-man band from the beginning?

Hitomi: No, we want a second guitarist. There's still a lot we want to play and I think it's only possible when we have two guitarists. 

 When you had founded the band last year in February, what did you do?

Hitomi: I kept looking for band-members. (Laughs)

Soan: Besides, we wrote songs and discussed about what Moran's sound will be like.

Hitomi: It's really hard to do your first steps when doing something unusual.

Soan: When they - Zill and Velo write Moran's songs - made some demo-songs, their songs' quality got higher and higher. These two are awesome! In a good way, I mean... Their openings are really strong. 

 And back then, did you plan your activities?

Soan: We wanted to perform as soon as possible!

Hitomi: I thought we could start to perform, since all necessary parts were already there. As for the music, we can fill that current gap, where our second guitars ought to be, but the feeling of our lives could be harmed, so it's better to find a second guitarist in the beginning phase.

 The pictures of you are really elaborated. 

Hitomi: We thought about how we can make various expressions independent. That means our lives don't have the same atmosphere like our pictures. We know that compositions can't express everything completely and that is what we express visually and with our appearance on stage. To say, we're tapering. There are many bands which look all the same, so it's useless to throw only one stone in order to bring a new flow in. We feel like being pioneers, so - in various meanings - we want to challenge the new.

 Interview by Akemi Oshima
 Copyrights by Zy.
 Inofficial translation by Kibou