AILIFDOPA is a four-piece rock band from Tokyo who have gained popularity on their home turf thanks to their eclectic music and wild live shows. We had the opportunity to be the first English media to chat with them, back in August 2024 at their GYAKUDOPA NO HI show, where we dived into their history while enjoying plenty of playful banter.

The year 2025 marks AILIFDOPA’s 15th anniversary and is part of a new era, with an album coming that vocalist Eyegargoyle describes as their “best album yet”.

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to have an interview with us. Seeing as this is AILIFDOPA and JROCK NEWS’ first time meeting, let’s begin with introductions.

Eyegargoyle: I’m the vocalist, Eyegargoyle.

Donaldy Ketchup: I’m Donaldy Ketchup on drums.

RedZibra: I’m RedZibra on bass.

Paprika Papriko: I’m Paprika Papriko. I play guitar.

A friend told us about AILIFDOPA, and when we looked you up, you seemed like a lot of fun! We’d love to use this interview to introduce AILIFDOPA to an overseas audience.

Eyegargoyle: We’re happy to hear that! Thank you.

There isn’t much information about AILIFDOPA in English. Is this your first time speaking to an English-language publication?

Eyegargoyle: Yes. We can’t speak English, so please tell everyone about us!

[Everyone laughs]

Sure thing! There’s no doubt that AILIFDOPA is a band that leaves a very strong impression. Do you have a concept or message that you want to convey to the audience?

Eyegargoyle: We don’t have a constant theme, it’s always changing. Recently our goal is to make heavy music with a sense of humor, but we also want to emphasize that we aren’t a comic band. Lately, we’re really trying to be cool while remaining funny. We’re aiming for a similar vibe as overseas bands like Kontrast or RAMMSTEIN. They joke around, but they are also quite serious. In the past, we joked around more but recently we’re leaning in the direction of being more serious and cool.

Why did you decide on this theme?

Eyegargoyle: Originally we wanted to be like a musical or something out of Disneyland. We started out wanting to be like a Disneyland parade, but metal. Over time, our sound has become more refined.

At first, we were more focused on being entertaining and the music was secondary to that, but now, it’s the other way around.

So you weren’t focusing on just the music, but on the overall experience?

Eyegargoyle: Exactly. We were putting on a show, but now music is our focus. We want to see to what extent we can express things through our music, that’s what’s important to us now.

Speaking of an overall experience, while looking at your website, we noticed something peculiar. The band’s biography begins with the Onin War of 1467 and includes historical events like the Meiji Restoration, Apollo 11 Mission, and more. Between these events, there is some strange information about “Deidarabocchi/Maniheke” as well. Can you please tell us about it?

Eyegargoyle: We forgot to delete all that.

[Everyone laughs]

It’s like a folk tale that was part of our original concept, but we aren’t keeping that up anymore.

We included those events and stories of our ancestors to build the majestic saga of AILIFDOPA. The information there isn’t really useful because it’s mostly just a funny story.

Of course, the parts pertaining to Japanese history are true, but the story of the Deidarabocchi, a giant that broke into four and created the band, is made up. Don’t take it seriously! It’s all a big joke.

Of course, we’ll take note of that [laughs]! AILIFDOPA began as a Limp Bizkit cover band and from the beginning, you were influenced by bands like System of a Down, MAXIMUM THE HORMONE, and Mr. Bungle. However, what kind of music have you taken inspiration from recently?

Eyegargoyle: Recently, I like EDM like Skrillex, drum and bass, noise, and metalcore. I’ve been listening to August Burns Red a lot lately, and Killswitch Engage. I also like instrumental bands such as Liquid Tension Experiment, that Mike Portnoy is in, and Electrocution 250, even though I haven’t been influenced by them. I like those types of unorthodox progressive instrumental metal bands.

RedZibra: Smashing Pumpkins are the best!

Paprika Papriko: Yesterday I was listening to Asian Kung-Fu Generation in my car.

Donaldy Ketchup: I’m not really into anything specific lately.

Those are all great bands! What about your musical influences and roots?

Eyegargoyle: We all have different roots. I write all our songs and I like the bands you mentioned earlier, like System of a Down, Maximum the Hormone, and Mr. Bungle, so that’s evident in our music.

You can see the other members’ musical influences in the way they play. They like pop-punk bands like Rancid, and Green Day. How about it, guys?

Paprika Papriko: You got it all covered!

All those influences come across in AILIFDOPA’s sound, but your music also feels fresh and like something we haven’t heard before.

Eyegargoyle: Really? Thank you.

As you mentioned earlier, Eyegargoyle writes all the music and lyrics. In preparation for today’s interview we came across one you did a few years ago where it said that you write music without using a guitar, and instead record yourself singing melodies and rhythms that come to your mind. Do you still write songs this way?

Eyegargoyle: Now, I write songs on the guitar because I can write better riffs that way. Recently I think my songwriting capability has finally reached the level of other musicians. When I started, it wasn’t from zero, it was from negative numbers! I wrote songs without using instruments. It was like a kindergartener playing around. Now, I’m at an elementary school level.

Donaldy Ketchup: It’s just recently that you started playing guitar.

Eyegargoyle: Yeah. Our recent songs have a lot of riffs in them.

Donaldy Ketchup: It’s only been about a year. Until now, all the writing’s been in your head.

That’s quite unconventional. Nowadays, most bands tend to write songs by sharing demos files over the internet without meeting in person, and then meet up to practice. Is your songwriting process like that?

Eyegargoyle: You got it [laughs]. I stay home and write the songs, send them to the others, go back to writing, send again, and then we practice, do a session, and record.

That’s very typical of current times.

Eyegargoyle: It is.

So why did you change your songwriting process?

Eyegargoyle: Originally, I was a guitarist, but I hit a dead end and quit, which led to me writing songs in my head. But once I picked the guitar up again, I began to enjoy writing songs on it. Guitar is such fun! [In English] Much fun, man!

The rest of the members liked it too, because I ended up making a ton of riffs that turned into songs. I was having a great time, so I kept writing more.

Donaldy Ketchup: You didn’t start playing with the intention of writing songs. When you got back into playing guitar, you just came up with riffs and they became songs.

Eyegargoyle: Writing songs on guitar makes communication between the band members much smoother because the piano and guitar are very different. Since it’s easier to communicate through sound, even recording has gotten easier.

As the guitarist, what do you think? Are the songs fun to play, or are they hard?

Eyegargoyle: Is it fun?

Paprika Papriko: About 90 percent of it isn’t fun at all [laughs]. It’s pretty tough.

RedZibra: The riffs are getting more complicated because his guitar has improved, so I can’t play them live.

Eyegargoyle: Yes you can! They’re riffs that even I can play.

RedZibra: They’re a pain to memorize.

Eyegargoyle: All you guys have are complaints!

[Everyone laughs]

Does Eyegargoyle also come up with the bass and drum parts?

RedZibra: Yes, and then we change them into our respective instruments.

Eyegargoyle: It’s kind of the same process as KNOSIS, who we are playing with today.

Just like KNOSIS, your lyrics mix both English and Japanese. How do you decide when to use each language, and why?

Eyegargoyle: Although my father is from England, I can only speak a little English.

Writing lyrics is the hardest part for me. When I write, I start by scat-singing the vocal parts, and then add the lyrics. I try to find the right lyrics and look for words with the best meaning. Japanese is quite rigid, like the way “kon-ni-chi-wa” sounds. But English is more fluid, like when you say, “heh-loh” (hello).

Japanese sounds like it has hard edges and is harder to fit in, so I choose which language to use based on that. When I want the lyrics to flow like they do when I scat, I use English, and when I don’t mind if they are more rigid, I use Japanese.

Of course, I’m better at speaking Japanese than English, so when I don’t know how to say something in English, I find a way to make the Japanese work by force. When I really want to focus on the meaning, I use Japanese but because I have mixed roots, I like to create a nice balance.

That’s really interesting. Another interesting thing about your songs, even just by looking at the titles, is that they have a lot of different themes like horror, fantasy, food, etc.

Eyegargoyle: Most of them are about food or living things.

Where do you get inspiration for these themes?

Eyegargoyle: From movies I’ve seen, words I’ve learned that I think are cool, and from living things.

Donaldy Ketchup: Don’t you usually write the song titles first?

Eyegargoyle: That’s right. I come up with a title and then think about the kind of song that would fit. I believe that if I have a good title, the song will also be good, so I start from that.

I think this is true of all aspects of AILIFDOPA, including your song titles, but your music videos are very flashy. You use all kinds of effects, including animation and 3D CGI (computer-generated imagery), that really draw the viewer into your world. When you choose to make a music video of a song, do you already have an image of what it will look like?

Eyegargoyle: I don’t have an image in mind, but I’m the one who decides everything about it.

Do you discuss it with the other members before making the video?

Eyegargoyle: No. The way I think about the music videos is separate from how I approach the songs, but they do have some things in common.

Firstly, I make the song and if there’s going to be a music video, I think of that, and then write the lyrics last. When I want the lyrics and video to have things in common, I adjust the details and write the screenplay.

There’s a director we frequently collaborate with who is excellent at working with CGI, so we bounce ideas back and forth and see which of them are possible to execute. I don’t share any of this with the band members, so when we shoot the music videos, I just tell them what to do. They don’t know what it will look like until it’s finished. I don’t tell them anything.

Donaldy Ketchup: We’re actors [laughs].

Eyegargoyle: I tell them how to act or what face to make. They follow my instructions without really understanding what’s going on and only know what it was all about once production is complete.

RedZibra: Once it’s done we find out the story and how it ended.

Eyegargoyle: It’s not like you’d really get it if I told you in advance. Would you prefer that I did?

RedZibra: Not really.

[Everyone laughs]

I guess doing it that way makes it more fun.

Donaldy Ketchup: Exactly. We don’t really have any outtakes!

Eyegargoyle: Anything goes.

RedZibra: That part of it is fun. We don’t know how it will turn out, so we just go for it.

Donaldy Ketchup: We do our best to perform as we are told.

Eyegargoyle: The director and I decide everything and tell the members what to do. Most of the time we are using a green screen, so nobody knows what’s actually happening in the video. They only find out when it’s done.

RedZibra: We see the final product in the same way our audience does, so it can be quite enlightening [laughs]. That aspect is exciting.

Eyegargoyle: By the time the video is ready to come out, I’m really tired of looking at it. I send it to the members shortly before it’s set to release, and if I get a good reaction, I know the video turned out OK. When they don’t react that way, I know it’s no good.

RedZibra: We’re the first line of viewers.

If that happens, do you redo the whole thing?

Eyegargoyle: No, we just post what we have.

RedZibra: If he thinks it’s good, then we tend to agree.

Eyegargoyle: Recently, when I send them demo tracks, they don’t tell me if it’s good or bad anymore. They don’t react at all. They just leave my texts hanging with a “read” receipt.

Did they tell you if they didn’t like it before?

Eyegargoyle: They wouldn’t say they didn’t like it. We don’t usually scrap things. We’ll force it through.

RedZibra: It takes a while for us to understand what he’s going for, just like our audience [laughs].

As you mentioned earlier, a lot about AILIFDOPA has changed recently and the way you write your name also changed.

Eyegargoyle: We made it easier to read.

That’s true! Along with the change to “AILIFDOPA” you released the RIP single “P.H.E.”. Do you think of this rebrand as the beginning of a new era?

Eyegargoyle: To put it simply, fans, especially those overseas, didn’t know how to read “Ailiph Doepa”. They’d think it was pronounced “Eylif Do-ey-pa”. Some YouTubers reacted to some of our songs like Machu Picchu or My right hand thumb is a Kraken, but they couldn’t say our name. We realized that wasn’t good, so we changed the spelling. Do you think it’s easier to read now?

We think so! To tell the truth, we weren’t sure how to read “Ailiph Doepa” until we saw it in katakana, but the new spelling “AILIFDOPA” is much easier to read phonetically and it matches the katakana spelling better.

Eyegargoyle: That’s good to hear! If neither people in Japan nor overseas can read it, only those in the know, that’s no good. We’ve had people misspell our name a lot, even on our dressing room sign.

RedZibra: How about this? Can you read it? [Points to logo]

アイリフドーパ (a-i-ri-fu-doh-pa)AILIFDOPA

Not at all. It’s the katakana though, right?

RedZibra: It’s hard to make out but we wanted our name to be easier to read.

Eyegargoyle: Even though we’ve been around for more than 10 years, we only recently thought that it would be better if our name was easy to read. It’s a new start, for our musicianship, too. We’re becoming more polished.

So it’s a new era for you?

Eyegargoyle: After the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, we thought it would be a good opportunity to play overseas. We did have a show in Hong Kong planned, but it didn’t pan out. I’d love to go to Europe. I really like foreign countries.

Where would you like to go?

Donaldy Ketchup: I’d like to go everywhere I haven’t been before.

Eyegargoyle: Personally, Germany.

Instead of just a one-off show in a single country, do you think you’d like to do a world tour and visit a lot of different places?

Donaldy Ketchup: I think it would be a waste to go to places where people don’t know us.

Eyegargoyle: He [Donaldy Ketchup] likes backpacking.

Eyegargoyle, you mentioned Germany. Why there, in particular?

Eyegargoyle: They have good beer and I like the country’s vibe. I also have friends there so I’d like to visit their hometowns and see bands perform there. There are a lot of cool bands from Germany like Kontrast or RAMMSTEIN.

How about the other members? Would you like to go overseas?

RedZibra: I’ll go wherever people invite us. If there’s demand for us in a certain place then I’d like to go there.

Eyegargoyle: If we have fans there, then we’d like to go.

RedZibra: Please invite us!

Paprika Papriko: I want to stay home and sleep. I would prefer to go somewhere that has washlet bidets.

They have portable ones!

Eyegargoyle: Japanese toilets are the best.

They are a bit different from Japanese washlets but some European countries have bidets, so you don’t have to worry about hygiene.

RedZibra: We should go there.

[Everyone laughs]

Eyegargoyle: I really like the architecture of old buildings in Europe and England. In Japan, everything gets rebuilt because of earthquakes but over there, a 100-year-old building is still young. Japanese buildings don’t have that elegance.

Nowadays, everything has an edgy, 3D CGI vibe and is very polished. It looks like the neo-Tokyo concept that Americans often envision about Japan. Everything is going for a feel that’s reminiscent of [the anime] Ghost in the Shell, such as [the modern venue we’re in today], Veats Shibuya. I like that style as well, but while Japan is high-tech, England isn’t exactly low-tech, but it seems that way in comparison and that’s what I like about it.

New Zealand is beautiful, too, because it has vast plains with nothing but nature. It makes me think of [the Irish singer] Enya or [Irish musical ensemble] Celtic Woman and that type of scenery has inspired me a lot lately. I wrote Wenkamuy, which is about a bear, while staying at a hotel with a sea view in Izu. I want to use the energy I get from nature to write songs, so I want to visit a lot of places.

I guess the theme of nature also applies to your most recent release, DEATH BABOON. You’ve also announced a new album. What can you tell us about the upcoming record?

Eyegargoyle: It’s going to be our best album yet. I haven’t told the other members about it yet, but I think it’s going to be the best. I only told the members the titles but I’m constantly writing and recording songs for the album. I’m having a great time writing songs all the time. I find writing to be a hassle, so I’m slow to start, but I’m writing a lot of guitar-focused songs and I’m improving.

I’m not looking at social media because it’s depressing. In the past, I would spend my free time looking at songs other people wrote on social media, but now I don’t do that, and I think my songs are the best. What was the question again? [Laughs]

I think you covered it! Finally, please say a few words to your fans overseas.

RedZibra: Please invite us to your country!

Eyegargoyle: There are a lot of great bands overseas and the culture of the heavy music scene there has had a big influence on the Japanese scene. If our music can be accepted overseas, which is where heavy music originated, then I’d love to go there.

I heard that the scene is really hard to break into because there are so many good bands and we might not stand a chance there. But if we have any fans in other countries, please leave us a comment on YouTube. We want to know if there are people listening to us overseas and we’d love to make it there someday.

Paprika Papriko: I’d like to avoid going overseas, so if you like our music, please come to Japan.

[Everyone laughs]

While AILIFDOPA may not be coming to a city near you for the time being (to the delight of guitarist Paprika Papriko), you can catch the band in Japan on their 15th Anniversary ONE MAN TOUR “MANIHEKE” in March and April.

Much of AILIFDOPA’s upcoming sixth album still remains a mystery but you can stay up to date with the latest news from the band on their official website and X (formerly Twitter) account.

Delve into the surreal and fantastical world of AILIFDOPA on YouTube and check out their latest music video, Dinosauria. While fans aren’t allowed to record during their shows, the band uploads plenty of footage to their official Instagram account.