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YOMI – Japanese Metal Band "from That side", which was born in Latvia
Татьяна Романова
29.07.2024
As a huge fan of the Japanese metal band Ningen Isu, I tend to talk about them around the clock, but this time I have an official reason. Since our Ningen Isu International Community on Facebook was established, there are a lot of extraordinary and motivated people I have been lucky get to know. Artiom is one of them, who is not a musician only, he is also a professional in Japanese language. Well, let him speak by himself.
1. Hi, Artiom. Thank you for your time. Would you introduce yourself?
Hi, my pleasure talking to you. I am Artiom, the founder of Yomi, a Japanese folk metal band. In the band, I sing and play traditional Japanese instruments.
2. Now, let’s talk about your band YOMI. The name 黄泉 is pretty scary *, what is the story behind or there is no any special story?
The story of the name is that I tried to find something that would sound grim and epic, as well as being related to Japanese culture, of course. Some other names I have considered were Tsukuyomi, Edo and Shinigami, but Yomi was the only one that looked good both in Latin alphabet and in Kanji.
It is also short and easy to remember for non-Japanese, so the choice was easy. From the very beginning, I wanted the name to sound and look presentable enough.
* Yomi or Yomi-no-kuni (黄泉, 黄泉の国, or 黄泉ノ国) is the Japanese word for the land of the dead (World of Darkness). According to Shinto mythology as related in Kojiki, this is where the dead go in the afterlife. Once one has eaten at the hearth of Yomi it is (mostly) impossible to return to the land of the living.
3. Japanese folk metal band in Latvia is less expected than any other genre. Would you introduce the band conception, history and discography?
Ah, yes, very true - usually people sing about their own culture, or at least about a culture that is close to them.
The main idea of the band is to combine European folk-metal tradition with Japanese folk music. In my teens, I discovered folk-metal as
a genre, and since I was into traditional Japanese music, I wondered if there was something that combined these two. It turned out that there was almost nothing (the situation is a lot better now), and so I decided to make such music myself.
That was around 2009, but my ideas didn’t go far - I was not good enough at composing. The real history of the band started in 2013, when I managed to find other people to play together. Little by little we found our own sound, and that’s how we got to our current style.
Since our inception, we have released one demo and three albums. We are currently working on our fourth album, which is a little bit overdue, but we are still very optimistic about the upcoming release.
4. Beside you, how many band members and what instruments do they play?
Besides me, we have four people - two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer. In the future, we are considering teaching the other guys
folk-instruments as well, but that’s a very far-off plan.
5. I would like to ask about shamisen in particular. Do you play any other Japanese traditional instruments and how to gеt them in Latvia?
Besides shamisen, I also play shakuhachi, koto, shinobue and dan-moi (Vietnamese jaw harp). Still, shamisen is my main instrument, meaning that out of all of them I play it best.
As for buying, my go-to place is Ebay. As you might imagine, traditional instruments from the other side of the world can be very expensive, and buying them from well-established manufacturers is not an option, I can’t afford that. Ebay and second-hand instrument sellers are my saviors.
6. How about the band members stage costumes? In my imagination some parts of costumes are not so easy to purchase in Europe. I am just curious. do you have a special way to obtain specifically Japanese stuff?
Our costumes are actually pretty easy to make. We just make them look way more complicated by adding a lot of details.
The base is the pairing of karate gi (jacket) and hakama (pants). You can buy these at any Asian martial arts shop pretty much anywhere in the world.
On our heads, we have kasa (conical straw hats) with an inscribed cloth veil attached. The kasa have been bought on Ebay, and the veils we made ourselves - we designed them and printed the inscriptions at a local print shop.
Some of us also wear haori (outer jacket) - also something you can get on Ebay.
The only truly unique thing is my faux armour, which I made myself from plastic sheets. This one you can’t get anywhere - you would have to either make one yourself or buy real armour, which is expensive.
So, as you can see, none of the separate pieces are that difficult to obtain. None of that is special. The magic is in layering them and putting on details, so that it looks impressive.
7. Let’s return to YOMI music. What music bands inspire YOMI or might be name as an idol?
Well, the first and main inspiration is our local folk-metal masters named Skyforger. They are one of my favourite bands, they are the ones who introduced me to the genre, and in everything I compose I look up to them.
Another one is Ningen Isu, of course. Some of their more folk-ish songs like Shinagawa Shinjuu or Kikka no Kazoeuta are something
I listen to non-stop. They have also introduced me to rakugo and debayashi music, which will be noticeable in the future songs.
And then there is a plethora of bands, all of which have contributed to a million small parts that comprise our music: Nile, Black Kirin, Hatenkohro, God of Shamisen and many many others.
8. YOMI’s song written in English (all of them?) or there some songs in other languages? Who is the main lyrics writer and that YOMI’s lyrics about in general?
English is our main language for lyrics, yes. Some parts are in Japanese, for additional emphasis.
My Japanese is not good enough to write something as complex as song lyrics, but I would like to try doing that at least once in the future. English, being such a widespread international language, has a neutral vibe to it, and so it’s the second best option. We made
a conscious decision to avoid languages that would feel like bringing in another culture to the songs.
As for the authorship, I am the main lyricist. All of our songs are about the usual folk-metal subjects - history, culture, mythology, war. Currently, we are going through a timeline of sorts - from old times to newer ones. Our first album was about the mythic history, stuff written in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (8th century descriptions of even earlier events). The second one was about the Genpei War
(12th century). Then it was the Mongol invasions (13th century), and the upcoming album will deal with the 14th century.
We will break with this tradition in some future releases, but that is still very much ahead of us.
9. Since Covid restriction lifted up, YOMI began to play more active again. What is the band recent and future touring schedule?
The most recent accomplishment was a European tour in 2023, in which we played in Latvia, Poland and Czechia. This year, starting with July and ending with November, you will see us across 12 concerts in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland as well.
10. Any plans regarding Japan?
Not yet, but that is certainly of the Big Goals of the band. Not for a specific time, but just in general, at least once during the career.
Such a trip would require a lot of preparation, and I’m not talking about money or logistics. If we come to Japan and show them our interpretation of their culture, we need to show the very best we have. I don’t think we are ready yet, but we are moving towards that goal.
11. Since recently there are several Asian folk metal pop bands became extremely famous, like the HU from Mongolia,
or Japanese Wagaki, or even band from Siberian region in Asian part of Russia, in fact from my home city Krasnoyarsk – Otyken. How can you explain this tendency, and do you see YOMI one of such famous band in future?
I think we just needed some bands to kickstart the genre, some small unknown pioneers to start making it popular. Even though the first ones were Musashi in the 90ies, only in the last 20 years have we started having more bands that would also market themselves on the worldwide stage.
Little by little, that popularity added up, and more and more people started realizing that you can make pop and metal music with Asian folk influences. It’s like a waterfall - you start with several small streams that join into a river, which then inevitably produces an unstoppable current.
As for Yomi, I would like to imagine that we were one of those small streams, even if we joined 5 years later than everyone. I don’t think you will ever see us before a 50 000 people crowd or on a worldwide tour - our goals are smaller. But I do believe our contribution in some indirect way will live through other, bigger bands, and in the history of the genre itself. And that is more than I could have hoped for 10 years before.
YOMI band on YouTube