BW&BK; recently spoke with guitarist Shu, co-founder of the Japanese band CLOUD NINE alongside former X JAPAN bassist Taiji Sawada. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

“Our sound is about mixture of old and new metal,” says Shu, “with 80's heavy metal at the core adding the modern edge of the times. That means we have something that you can relate to, everything from ‘80s, ‘90s to the present. The style was establshed in our second record, Quick As Lightning, released in '05. The first record, Cloud Nine (released in '03) lacked consistency because it was more like Best Of  album of the songs written from the beginning to '03. For Quick As Lightning we focused on writing for that particular album. We also asked Logan Mader (ex-MACHINE HEAD, ex-SOULFLY guitarist / CAVALERA CONSPIRACY producer) to do the mix and that really made us proud of our style. Of course, our quest is not over yet. In a mini-album released in  '06, which we asked Logan to mix once again, we invited female chorus back-up to give it a little twist to our style.”

Shu explains how Cloud Nine managed to secure Mader’s services.

“Logan was one of the people we approached when we offered the mix to several overseas engineers. He was very positive about doing our mix. I was a big Machine Head fan and I especially liked their second record (The More Things Change...), so it was like a dream come true for me. He mixed the subsequent mini-album, too, but after that, he became so sought after and busy. When we did a song for a compilation CD for WeROCK Magazine, Logan's protege, a guy named Brad, helped us for the mixing. Mikey Doling of SNOT attended the mixing and he said he really loved our music. He gave us a lot of advice. I would definitely want to work with Logan if he's ever free. It's such a compliment when Mikey and Brad told us that he wants to work with us again.”

Check out the complete interview here. For more information on Cloud Nine go to this location.

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