Rob: How did Eternal Elysium get started?
Yukito: I suppose that we started around 1991, by October of `92 We started selling our demo and it was based on heavy attack metal sound...then we added some dark heavy parts at the same time...we got influences from N.W.O.B.H.M.(?) so we couldn`t be ourselves... So we tried to figure out our own style. Around early `93 they started recording our album. By March we went on tour and at the end, the original Bass player and Drummer quit. I stopped playing live and started focusing on promoting the album. And towards the end of `93 I got an offer by a German label called `Black Mark` for a record contract, but it didn`t happen because of in-differences between my manager and the labels owner. The next couple of years I started jamming with several different musicians but no band was solidified and there was still no record contract to be had. So we were basically taking a long break. Around October of 1995, I started jamming with the current Bass player Okuyama and things clicked and we started really concentratring on the music. In spring of `96 I finally found a great drummer Kuroda. By May of that year, finally the first recorded album that had been sitting around got some label attention from Eclipse Records and the agreed to release it on their label. Now it is out of print. That summer we went out on tour as the new line up , things went well and I was confident that the line up was solid with no problems.
After the tour I got real sick and wound up in the hospital for a while. By `97 my health had been recovered and went back on tour. Between June and September of that year we started selling the album called `Spiral Conclusion`. At the end of the year in Japan, the heaviest Japanese Stoner band `Doom` my favourite band, we started working on a split album with them.
Early `98, My own label was born `Cornucopia Records` and I put out a compilation record called `Doomsday Rectation` featuring the bands: Church of Misery, Millarca, Bernice, etc... By the end of the year, the British label called `Miskatonic Foundation` put out an album called `At the Mountain of Madness` with us on it...a compilation... and also Survive Records put out the split compilation with us ...it is still available and it is called `Survive List` In Japan. By `99, we did a track for Black Widow Records from Italy who is to put out a tribute album for the 70`s cult band Black Widow at the end of this year year...around October I think. We also did a song on the American horror movie `I Am Vengeance`...supposed to be released around the same time...Fall of this year. Meteor City Records put out an Iron Maiden tribute album called `Slave to Power` which we did a track for. After that we signed a record deal with them and put out our second album `Spiritualized D`. This album we tried to dial in our sound, and ended only a couple new songs, and mostly previous recordings re-done. This last April we released the album, and after we went on tour around May, Okuyama quit and we got a new Bass player `Zion`, who played on the movie soundtrack that I mentioned... We also did an extra soundtrack song... a cover of Witchfinder General`s `Burning a Sinner`. Another good opportunity came up. Recording a song for a Sci-Fi movie called `Godzilla`. Now we are recording for the Saint Vitus tribute album...the song `Just Friends`. We we are currently writing new material for our next album.
Rob: What are some of the bands that influence you?
Yukito: Well, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Trouble, Santana, Flower Travellin` Band, Sly and the Family stone, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Peter Tosh, Tommy Bolin, Saint Vitus, Paul Chain, N.W.O.B.H.M...
Rob: Do you plan on touring the States or Europe soon?
Yukito: I want to go to the U.S early next year, and also play at some Stoner Festivals that have been going on...
Rob: Really? How long have you been playing guitar?
Yukito: About 15 years, but seriously about 7 or 8...
Rob: What do you think about the Stoner rock Movement?
Yukito: I like the music, the sound, but I don`t the catagorizing of it. I want to feel like what I am doing is my own sound... maybe it`s tagged as StonerRock, but the music is timless...
Rob: What are your favourite guitars and gear...
Yukito: Gibson SG Melody Maker from `69, and I mainly use a `71 Standard. Amplifiers are Marshall 2555 I use live, and for recording I use `70`s Fender amp. Pedals are Crybaby, Boss anolog delay, Phaser, Guyatone wah rocker, Roger Mayer Voo-Doo-Vibe, and a Electro Harmonix Memory Man.
Rob: What are some of the Japanese bands you would like to give props to...
Yukito: Mainly in the 70`s, the Flower Travellin` Band and Blues Creation.
Rob: How much pot do you smoke and what are your favourite munchies? (hehehe...)
Yukito: I smoke pot every day and night and I love the fresh fruits, also traditional Japanese snacks are good...
Rob: What is your favourite Black Sabbath albums?
Yukito: Hmmm...depends on my mood, I guess my favourite is Master of reality, and then Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, man that one changed my life. Then after that The first one, that one is so good... and Never Say Die, that took me to a new level.
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