Kyo

Who is Kyo?

Kyo is a Japanese musician, poet and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the vocalist of the metal band Dir en grey. He has been with the band since its inception in 1997 and was formerly in La:Sadie's. Kyo was inspired to become a musician when he saw a picture of Buck-Tick vocalist Atsushi Sakurai on the desk of a junior high school classmate.

While he has only composed a handful of Dir en grey's songs, Kyo is responsible for all the lyrics, which usually have negative implications and touch on a variety of dark, sometimes taboo, subjects, such as sexual obsessions, abuse, and mass media. Several songs deal with specifically Japanese issues, such as the country's casual attitude towards abortion and its conformity-oriented society. Others deal with more traditional subject matter such as personal feelings, emotions, and lost love.

The vocabulary used ranges from vulgar to exalted, with wordplay and double entendres occurring frequently. For example, the title of the song "Mitsu to Tsuba", which is about rape, means "Honey and Saliva", but is written with the kanji inverted, suggesting reading them with an inverted pronunciation - "Tsumi to Batsu" - which would translate to "Crime and Punishment", a more appropriate title.