For those who may not be familiar with them, Knosis is somewhat of a Japanese heavy supergroup. Featuring the incredible talents of vocalist Ryo Kinoshita (who you may recognize from the song “Mayday” from Fire Force ) and producer Yosh Morita (who you definitely recognize from Survive Said The Prophet), the band is pushing heavy music into experimental, uncharted territory. The previous works have been amazing but the brand new album, GENKNOSIS , takes things to the next level. I spoke with Ryo and Yosh about the new album, working with Yukina from Hanabie (who you may recognize from the Momentary Lily OP), and how growing up around anime in Japan guides their creative process. How excited are you about this new music? Yosh : It took us a year to just record everything. We’ve only had a little bit of time to celebrate and then we were on to the next one. Ryo : It's been a busy blessing, all in all. Yosh and I did get to finally say, “Yo we did it!” Everyone is super excited to have so many new songs! Yosh : Absolutely. You can imagine how much anxiety we have toward wanting to release something new. But fortunately the time has allowed us to look over the songs and make it the way it is now. I’m sure a lot of people recognize your names, but can you tell us a bit more about how Knosis came together? Ryo : When I left Crystal Lake I was in the darkest place in my life. I hadn't contacted anyone for like a year, or I don't know half a year or more. I don't exactly remember when, but I just contacted Yosh or you contacted me. I didn’t pick up for a while, but then I decided that because you called me too much I should at least tell Yosh I’m OK. At first I was like, “I can't answer this call.” But one day I decided to call him back. And then I was like, “Yeah, what's up, Yosh?” I told him everything about what happened, with me and the band. Yosh already knew almost everything about it. Yosh : I used to work with Ryo on lyrics for that band. We used to talk about it all the time. Ryo : Yeah, like, for 10 years. And then I told him, I'm thinking of quitting music. He told me I shouldn’t and that I should keep doing music, and then he pushed me to get back on the right track, and then, yeah, here we are. Yosh : I do remember at first, before anything, I was concerned as a friend. We both were the most excited when we talked about music. It was like he needed me as a friend first before he needed me as a producer and I needed him in the music scene more than I needed him as an artist to produce. He was always there shaking up the scene in ways that other people couldn't. And it wasn't only his voice that made that evident, it was his humility. Ryo : No matter where I was or how big I was getting in the scene, he would still be concerned about my well-being. Yosh : So I've always told him I'm going to be there like, and it's, you know, for me it's not being there doesn't always mean giving him chocolates and hugs and cuddling together under a blanket and watching Netflix. It's like, “Hey the world is waiting for you and I'm waiting for you.” And every single time we talked about music you could see the spark in his eyes, so it wasn't too hard for me to push him out of his comfort zone in a way that wouldn't put him back in a dark place. Ryo : I think that kind of like proved to myself that, like music is and always will be, beautiful. I like to portray a lot of darkness, not only in music, but just in life. And that's why we choose to be positive in places that need positivity. Yosh : Knosis is, to me, an example of a way that could be done, I don't want to use the words the “right way,” but like a way that could be healthy for people. There's a lot of shortcuts, and there's a lot of easier ways to get something done. But as long as you enjoy the process like we have been, and it's not always easy, this form of work allows people to have courage to rethink and redevelop themselves the way they want to, instead of being like, “We have to do it this way.” And it's been really cool so far, being Knosis. Ryo : Yeah, so true. Knosis started as a therapy project. We've been working together for like 10 years, like he said. We have known each other since our early twenties. Yosh knows me like he's another me. This time with Knosis, we don't have a limit. Yosh : So we'll play video games or put together like footage from scenes that we like and we'll talk about a feeling and ask ourselves, “How do we describe that?” It's like a different way that I've always wanted to try where, he's definitely got so many references to so many things we've never talked about and applies to music as well as anime. Ryo has taught me a lot about both. So he’ll put on a show. And he puts in those sounds from all these references. I've seen him put in Armored Core sounds and Elden Ring sounds in there. It's just cool to hear how much you both inspire each other. I think that's like the exact kind of dynamic you want when you're making art. Yosh : Absolutely, absolutely nothing but respect. RELATED: Naethan Apollo on His New Album and the Art of the 12-Episode Anime There is a lot of amazing stuff on this record, but as a fan of Hanabie I’m curious to learn more about the video and about working with Yukina on “Fuhai.” Yosh : We just needed to sit and stew with the song a bit. Ryo : Yeah, we needed to write a single worthy song. Yosh pitched me the idea of having Yukina in a song, because we’d played a couple shows with Hanabie. I thought it was a great idea. I texted her and she was immediately in. We wanted this song to be a mix of ‘90s metal with an element of like Kawaii. Like, Machine Head plus Dying Fetus plus Kawaii culture. As for the specifics of the song itself, the lyrics are about the fake relationships in our life, including in the music scene! A lot of people talk sh*t about each other behind their backs, but when they see each other they pretend to be best friends. I think the line “everybody knows, and nobody knows” in the chorus expresses it very well, our daily life, wearing masks. Yosh : Ryo and I were both going through a time where people were like verbally telling us they want to be on the Knosis train in so many different ways like, whether it was like business or whether it was entertainment or whether it was artistically, and I think, like they all like, would say something. But you would hear something else and it would be frustrating and confusing. And that feeling, I think, just led to that line. “Everybody knows, and nobody knows, what you do to me and what you do to them.” This has become a norm in this society. And everyone's OK with it. Now, we are allowed to have this online identity. I think, when he started talking about where that part of the lyrics explains it. Well, we took it further by repeating it from the verse we're like, “No, no, you don't get it.” I think you've mentioned before that it's kind of a full circle moment because you'd known Yukina from a music video in the past. So what's it like to bring that into your own project? Yosh : That is definitely a defining line. The new generation, metal, streamer, singer. They're definitely breaking borders. Ryo : To be able to not only pass the torch in this way by collaborating and doing a music video was amazing. It was very important for the song that she covers those identities and fields and perspectives that we can't, and I think that that was an important aspect of experimental metaphor that I want to develop. How do you visualize your creative process? Ryo : I always want my art to feel like a Japanese, sci-fi dystopian world like Dorohedoro . For our videos, I didn't want it to be like Akira , because everyone knows Akira . So I didn't want to be like, typical yeah. Japanese sci-fi things. And then I love Elden Ring , so of course I’m going to work some elements of that in there. Yosh : Some of those elements are very vivid in the music videos. Like when Yukina comes out, it's like the second formation of Malenia. I don't know if you'd be yeah before. Let the record show that Ryo and I have not beaten Malenia. We are very ashamed of ourselves. Are there other anime you think about when creating besides Dorohedoro ? Ryo : Dorohedoro , Ghost in the Shell , Berserk , and Fullmetal Alchemist . Dark sci-fi anime. It doesn't matter if it's traditional like fantasy anime or more like future cyber anime, it doesn't matter. I like that dark feeling. Yosh : Those type of elements come naturally to him because he's born and raised in Japan. So I feel like it's not very strong like, I gotta put anime essence in there. He's like, “I like that scene from there and I definitely know this scene will fit this.” And he's got the list for sure. He'll keep throwing out sh*t I've never heard of like Dorohedoro was definitely one of them. I was like, “Oh, I've seen that poster but I’ve never watched that.” I love to hear that artists from Japan and heavy artists from America have similar creative responses to dark anime. It's cool to hear that that experience is universal. Yosh : It makes you want to beat *ss! Ryo : Yeah! Overall, what is your relationship with anime like? Ryo : It’s in my life very naturally, since the day I was born. I always looked up to Goku. Every week. It was certain anime was on at the same time, and before you knew it, we were already locked onto those schedules to watch those like different types of anime. Before I knew I was into anime. Yosh : It can easily be seen as an “otaku,” or a nerdy activity. But for us, growing up, it was the same as watching a movie or reading a book. It was a form of literature that has been in my life all along. It’s very natural for it to sync up with music. RELATED: PSYCHO-FRAME on How Anime Provides That Creative Spark You’ve both been on songs that have featured in anime before. What was it like to go from fan to part of the production? Yosh : I wanna talk about this because people don't shine a light upon that song. For a while it was the most streamed song in Coldrain’s catalog. It was very evident that he definitely made a mark. For me, I was having to adapt my process a bit to something that was a bit different. It was still a very modern production, but it wasn’t the same as a modern metal production. For Ryo, he was just doing exactly what he's good at and I feel like he deserves a little more spotlight in allowing the heavier side of music to be portrayed vividly in darker anime. I know you sang at it at the big Coldrain show, too, right? Ryo : Yeah I sang “Mayday” with them. Yosh : He’s way too humble about it. He can feel sometimes like he didn’t contribute to the “anime” portion of the song because a lot of his parts get cut out in the 90-second version, but I think he did an amazing job with it. He’s part of the reason that song is so popular. Follow Knosis here . Listen to the new album, GENKOSIS, here .
