Esprit D’Air sold out their show at The Grand Social Dublin on the 23.02.2024, and before the band took the stage, our interviewer Abigael had a chat with the band’s lead singer and founding member, Kai. Read below to see what they discussed.
Abby: The special edition of your last album ‘Oceans’ was recently released. What feedback have you received so far?
Kai: It’s been incredible. Today, it just got into the Rock Metal Albums Chart at number 9. I haven’t checked the rest yet, but it’s really cool to see an album that’s two years old charting again for the ninth week. It’s a great achievement, very reassuring, and I’m very happy about it.
Abby: What message or emotions were you hoping to convey through your music in this album?
Kai: Every song I write has a specific meaning. There isn’t an overarching theme. For example, “Leviathan” was written during the pandemic, which was a very dark time. Like everyone, I was trapped inside for a long time. My partner and I have since adopted cats—Zack, named after a Final Fantasy character, and Pan, which means ‘bread’ in Japanese—which helps me cope now, but we didn’t have them back then. Writing was a way of coping. “Leviathan” is about hope, learning from human weaknesses, and building a new world.
Abby: I love your cats’ names [laughs]. What challenges did you face during the creative process of your album?
Kai: It took many years because our first album was in 2017. For “Oceans” to release five years later is a long time. The biggest reason is that in 2019, I was halfway through, but my laptop got stolen with all my files.
Abby: Oh no! And you didn’t have any backups?
Kai: No… I have multiple backups of everything now—online, in the cloud, etc. I won’t make that mistake again!
Abby: I know it can be very frustrating for the fans! If you had to convince people to listen to your music, how would you do it?
Kai: I’ve never thought about that. I just make music that I like. Whether people like it or not is up to them. It’s okay if they don’t—it’s not for everyone. But it’s great when people do, even if they don’t understand the lyrics. We set up shows in the UK, Ireland, and Europe, and many audiences don’t know what I’m saying, but they connect via emotion through the melodies and compositions. I don’t want to make music that isn’t true to me by following trends. I want to create something I feel good about.
Abby: That makes total sense. What can people who don’t know you expect from your shows?
Kai: What they hear from our recordings is very different from what they see live. It’s obvious that we love what we do on stage, and we try to show that. We have smiley faces even when playing the heaviest riffs. We jump around a lot…
Abby: High energy, then?
Kai: Yeah, I think so!
Abby: How has the tour been so far? And how excited are you about playing here?
Kai: Very excited! This is our first time here, and it’s the first time in many cities for us. I’m amazed that this show sold out very quickly—within a few months of being announced. It’s been sold out since July, and it’s now February. Belfast was the same, only a few days apart. We also have sold-out shows in Cologne and Hamburg. It’s really amazing, especially since we don’t use booking agents. Coming to Ireland is something I really wanted to do. The whole point of this tour was to visit as many places as possible. I don’t know why a lot of bands skip places like Ireland…
Abby: Wow! What were you looking forward to the most for your time in Ireland?
Kai: I had a brief time in the city, but honestly, there hasn’t been much time because we arrived to load in, soundcheck, and then there’s not much time to do anything else. It’s the same in every city—after a gig, we head to the next hotel for the next one…
Abby: I see, it doesn’t leave much time to explore then. I’m not sure if you drink at all, but the question you’ll usually get here is: did you or will you try Guinness?
Kai: Yeah, I don’t drink [laughs], but I have tried it in the past!
Abby: Ah! Okay, next question then [laughs]. What is your favorite song you’ve ever written, and why?
Kai: That’s a tough question. It might be torn between the first song I ever wrote, which means a lot to me because it was the first time I felt I could do something good. It got into the video game Rock Band 3 and 4, and it was the first Japanese song on that game. Then there’s “Leviathan,” because I spent a lot of time on it [laughs], and it has become a fan favorite.
Abby: Yeah, it’s your most listened to on Spotify. Would those be your favorite songs to play live as well? Or do you have other ones?
Kai: Oh, I really like “Glaciers.” We recently did an amazing video with a green screen for that one. Sometimes I cry singing it—I don’t know why… it’s so emotional.
Abby: Well, it touches you! What is your least favorite song out of all of your songs, and why?
Kai: Probably “The Awakening.” We don’t even play it live anymore. It’s from my first album, and it feels very generic, like I wasn’t very forward-thinking in the writing—we just made a rock song, you know?
Abby: Yeah, I get what you mean. What was your worst moment on stage ever?
Kai: There’s this one time in the Netherlands where I fell over for the first time ever. I rolled off the stage and tried to act like nothing happened.
Abby: Yeah, as if you totally meant to do that! [laughs]
Kai: Yeah, exactly.
Abby: Did you hurt yourself?
Kai: A little bit, but nothing too serious.
Abby: That’s the main thing. Are there questions that you wish journalists would ask you but never or rarely do? Or topics you’d like to be asked to talk about?
Kai: Mmh… I can’t think of anything, actually.
Abby: Fair enough. When can your fans expect new music?
Kai: We’ve started writing a new album. We’re going to make it more of a collaborative effort this time. They’re great people and amazing musicians. They’ve been with me for five years now, so I feel we’re very solid as a unit…
Abby: So, in a sense, you feel like you can trust them with your music?
Kai: Definitely, yeah! We’ve started working on this, and right after the tour, we’ll start recording.
Abby: Amazing, that’ll surely make a lot of people happy!
Kai: Yeah!
Words Abigael Paquet.
Photos Ian Mc Donnell.