“Art can be a light in dark times, but it can also be a mirror” – interview with Esprit D’Air

I love Japan. I speak japanese. These are just two of the million reasons why I had the enormous pleasure of interviewing Esprit D’Air, a metal band that has just released one of the best albums of 2025. Kai, Vincent, Takeshi and Yusuke were my guests and we talked about music, touring, and time.

Hello guys, how are you doing?

Kai: Doing great!
Vincent Velazco: I’m good, thanks.
Takeshi: I’m hungry but feeling pretty good!
Yusuke: very good thanks, hope everyone else is well too!

The album title “Aeons” suggests vast stretches of time, yet we experience time so subjectively—a year can feel like a moment or an eternity. How did your personal perception of time shift during the creation of this album, and did that influence the sonic pacing or structure of the songs?

Yusuke: When something has already happened, it’s easy to say “that went quickly!”, but depending on what is going on with life, a day/week/month can finish instantly or end up being the longest wait for the next exciting thing. The writing for this album occurred during quiet and busy times, and that definitely impacted the results; words, melodies and rhythms that we come up with change a lot depending on if we’re feeling excited, bored, destructive, stressed etc. 

With all four of us experiencing various professional and personal events over the past year, I believe this has resulted in quite a varied set of songs being completed for this album. 

Kai: Time actually felt like it was speeding up while making “Aeons”. We worked on it really fast. The whole project took about a year or so, immediately after our Spring tour in 2024. I was also writing lyrics and composing while on tour, recording demos in hotel rooms, programming on flights and in airports. Everything was happening around me, but I just kept creating whenever I could.

That sense of urgency probably shaped the record. I wanted every track to be concise, with no filler, with songs like “Lost Horizon” and “Broken Mirror” being just straight to the point but still sounding like a full song. The songs ended up shorter than the ones on “Oceans”, and that was intentional. It’s almost like the pace of life at the time dictated the pacing of the music.

Do you think humanity’s relationship with time has fundamentally changed in the age of social media and instant gratification? How does that tension manifest in the music?

Kai: Yeah, definitely. Everything moves so fast now. People want things instantly, whether that’s songs, news, or validation, and it makes time feel compressed. 

With “Aeons”, I didn’t want to feed into it, but the songs are tighter and more direct, but they still have space to breathe.

Takeshi: With all the notifications, feeds, and short videos, I feel like our ‘now’ has turned into a bunch of tiny fragments. Basically, the whole idea of ‘waiting for something’ has kind of disappeared, and ‘instant gratification’ has become what matters. I’ve started thinking this way myself, so even though I used to love dramatic, progressive songs when I was younger, songs I actually make these days usually end up more compact.

Yusuke: Generally, of course; none of us want to be the odd one out. But if you believe something isn’t right, it’s fine to have the courage to be different and I think it’s important for “influencers” to spread that message.

Vincent Velazco: Yes, I think so. People’s attention spans are definitely shorter now because of social media. We’ve all gotten used to scrolling through endless clips until something grabs us, I’m guilty of that sometimes too. But I’ve always loved progressive music with long intros, big instrumental sections, musicians really stretching out. That kind of slow build still excites me. It reminds me that some things are meant to take time.

If you could suspend one moment from the recording of “Aeons” in time forever, which would it be and why?

Kai: Probably “Shadow of Time” — since I wrote the lyrics 「時よ、時よ止まれ」 which means “Time, oh time, stop!”. I have been trying to make time stop ever since… Still waiting for it to work. In all seriousness, maybe the quiet part of “Habatake” with all the clean, shoegazey guitars. I actually wanted that part to go on for ages — it could loop forever. Maybe that’s a remix idea waiting to happen.

Many artists say their darkest work comes from their darkest times, but some find they can only process darkness retrospectively. Where were you emotionally when writing these songs—in the storm or looking back at it?

Takeshi : Both! In the storm and looking back at it.

Yusuke: I’m in the mindset of “without light there is no darkness”, so it’s easier for me to look at dark matters when not being within it.

Kai: Honestly, both. “Like a Phoenix” came from being right in the middle of depression. I was feeling really low, and writing that song was my way of trying to pull myself out. It’s about finding the strength to rise again when you’re at your lowest.

But “Zetsubou no Hikari” was different. That one came from a place of motivation. Using the darkness as fuel instead of drowning in it. I wanted to turn despair into energy, into something that shines through the heaviness. So yeah, some songs came from inside the storm, others from looking back at it, but they’re both part of the same process of survival and growth.

The world is increasingly uncertain, as you mention. Do you feel artists have a responsibility to provide hope, or is bearing witness to darkness equally valuable?

Takeshi: This is a difficult question. Personally, I don’t think that artists have a responsibility to provide hope, but I would be happy if we could find songs that give us a reason or meaning to feel hope.

Yusuke: I wouldn’t call it a responsibility, as I don’t think anyone can be a spokesperson for how others are feeling. All we can do is give shape to our observations in the form of music and lyrics, and hope that it can be a positive addition to someone’s day. 

Kai: Art can be a light in dark times, but it can also be a mirror. Sometimes people need hope, and sometimes they just need to know that someone else sees the same darkness they do. Both can be healing in their own way, but I don’t think artists owe the world hope.

“Aeons” is the first album without guest collaborators, entirely self-produced by yourself. How did that change the creative dynamic? Was there a sense of liberation, or did you miss the external perspectives?

Kai: All of our albums have been self-produced, but you’re right that “Aeons” is the first one without any guest features or remix collaborators. So I think this one is a bit more personal to us only. I do enjoy collaborating with others, but there’s something nice about creating our own entire little world and story together.

How do you balance maintaining your artistic vision with the inevitable external pressures that come with success?

Takeshi: Esprit D’Air is a completely self produced band, and even Kai sings in Japanese, people of all ages (from way younger than me to way older folks) come to our shows. So I don’t feel much pressure, and I think we’re able to keep our artistic vision pretty well without stress.

Yusuke: I guess there will be pressure from expectations like how this new album will be received compared to previous releases. However I’d say the excitement of being able to share the new material far outweighs any pressure!

Kai: Like Takeshi said, we’re a self-produced band that chooses to be without a record label, management, producer, booking agent, or promoter, so there’s not really any pressure from anyone telling us what to do. I do not feel any external pressure at all. We just have to keep being ourselves and make music that is true to us without seeking validation or trying to please anyone.

You’re choosing intimate venues for this tour after successfully playing to bigger crowds across Europe. What can you communicate in a small room that gets lost in a larger space, and vice versa?

Kai: I love the sense of scale in big venues where our shows are almost cinematic, but to play small rooms will feel personal again, kind of like reconnecting with why we started in the first place, so I am really looking forward to doing that again.

Takeshi: For me, in a big venue, it feels like I’m enjoying the live show as background music along with everyone around me. But in a small venue, I feel the emotions get across more directly between us performers and the audience.
I personally like small venues more, whether I’m performing or just going to a show.

Vincent Velazco: I’ve always loved playing smaller, more intimate venues. There’s a real sense of connection. You can feel the crowd’s energy up close, see every face, every reaction. That kind of engagement can sometimes get a little lost in the bigger shows.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the scale and power of playing to 1000 or 5,000 people; the sound, the lights, that wall of energy coming back at you. It’s an incredible rush. But in a smaller room, there’s a rawness and immediacy that’s hard to replicate. The energy flows both ways in real time; when you see the audience right there responding to every hit, it makes you want to give even more.

Do you feel the music world is finally moving past the need to categorize hybrid sounds, or are you still fighting against those labels?

Kai: Haha, I don’t think so. People still love to label bands, but I think audiences care less about labelling now. I personally do not like it when people say we sound like “this” or that”. To me, Esprit D’Air has always sounded like “us”. We never try to sound like anyone else. And I also don’t like being labelled visual kei — it kind of puts us in a box.

Takeshi: I was born and raised in Japan, and I’ve been listening to X Japan since I was little, where piano ballads and thrash metal songs are on the same album. I grew up in a place where it was normal for a band to mix different genres, so I know there are genre labels but I’ve never really had it in the first place. 

Kai, you also play in The Sisters Of Mercy—a band with decades of history and a very specific sound. How do you mentally switch between that world and Esprit D’Air? Or do those experiences bleed into each other more than people might think?

Kai: I find it fun that I can do both. With Esprit D’Air, it’s completely my own vision. I write, produce, and shape everything from the ground up, so it’s much more personal and emotional to me. With The Sisters Of Mercy, I am stepping into a legacy that already exists, but I also get to bring my own touch with my guitar parts and backing vocals. They definitely do bleed into each other though — playing in the Sisters has taught me a lot about dynamics, space, and restraint, and I think that’s subtly influenced how I create music now.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview! Is there anything else you’d like to add to our readers? 

Kai: I am waiting for you to listen to our new “Aeons” album from start to finish! 

Takeshi: I often tend to skip to the next song before finishing, or just play songs and kind of listen without really paying attention, but I’d really appreciate it if you could listen to our songs from start to finish! I also plan to take some time to calmly and properly listen to the finished works XD