Starting October, we will be featuring a different OC.com registered member every other week and asking them about their personal experiences with Dir en grey! Please keep on checking your inboxes because you may never know~ you might be the next featured OC member!

This time, please let us introduce peri, a 21 year old girl from Germany! A self-professed "dragon" and Pharmaceutics major by day, she spends her evenings by subtitling PVs (promotional videos) and lives for the fandom! Apart from that she also dabbles in writing fanfiction and translating German interviews in English. You can checkout her subbed videos on her YouTube account!

For her, Dir en grey's music has made her feel "complete" and has also given her a chance to meet wonderful people to share her love and passion for this band that has given her so much more in her life. Her journey to find music that echoed her soul was over when she encountered Dir en grey.

--Tell us more about yourself.

In the internet I go by the name of Peri. I'm from the north of Germany, live in a small village near Hamburg. I'm 'studying' pharmaceutics. I'm 21 years old and a dragon with every cell of my being.

--Can you tell us more about why you say that you're a "dragon"?

My Chinese Zodiac is dragon. I've always had a fascination for dragons - long before I even knew about astrology. When I found out that I was a dragon I immediately felt like this creature is just perfectly reflecting how I was, am and always will be. It's scary how much it resembles me.

--How long have you known Dir en grey?

I've known Dir en grey since early 2001. They were featured in the German anime/manga/j-style/j-music magazine MangasZene. They seemed utterly interesting to me just judging by the pictures and the description of their music and the member profiles. But it should take 4 more years until I finally got my hands on a CD of theirs. So in 2005 I could finally check them out and was blown away since the very first second.

"Normal bands are like α-radiation. They rarely even reach you on the surface. Dir en grey is the γ-radiation of music. It goes right through your bones, intestines, heart, soul, mind."

--What exactly about their performance caught your attention in 2005?

The way the band performed during 2005 surely was mesmerizing. Looking at the fact that they still had some leftover visual aspects back then made it even more interesting to see. The more saddening is it that I wasn't able to attend one of their European lives at that time. Especially at festivals their performance must have been categorized as exotic. But behind the fact that they indeed were exotic there was - and still is - this raw emotion that just captures you.

--What do you think sets Dir en grey apart from other bands?

Normal bands are like α-radiation. They rarely even reach you on the surface. Dir en grey is the γ-radiation of music. It goes right through your bones, intestines, heart, soul, mind. You need to have concrete walls around your whole self to not get touched by their music.

--Do you also travel far to watch their performances? Like for example go to other cities to watch them live?

Up to now I've been traveling through whole Germany with my friends to see them; and I was lucky to be able to attend their concerts one time in Denmark and two times in the Netherlands. If I had more money I'd surely travel a lot more to watch them live. Actually I wanted to fly to NY for this tour, but it seems like it just wasn't meant to be. The travel and meeting up with other fans is also another reason that makes their concerts such an amazing experience.

--Do you have friends or a group interested in Dir en grey? What do your friends think of Dir en grey?

Unfortunately no one I have to do with in my daily real life is even interested in Dir en grey. And when I start talking about the band they either do have no clue what I'm talking about or start rolling their eyes; I'm sure a lot of other fans know what I'm talking about here. Anyway I'm torturing my best friend with Dir en grey all the time. But I think she got used to it now, even though it still annoys her. (laugh) On the contrary almost everyone I know and am friends with online likes the band and I can spend hours just talking about all the little details you can only talk about with someone who feels the same love for the band as you do.

--Are you active in the fandom?

Active as in I share whatever I'm able to share. I've started subbing Dir en grey PVs and lives (from their DVDs) with English translations about three years ago and try to translate German interviews with the band into English whenever one pops up in a magazine and such. Besides that one can find me in communities at lj, but I keep most of the talking about the band in my friends locked journal. I attend Dir's concerts and from time to time you'll find me drawing fanart or writing fics. So yeah, I'm pretty active in the fandom; looking at how this is actually my only fandom.

--It's interesting to know that you sub Dir en grey PVs and lives. How did you get started?  Do you share your subbed PVs to just your friends?

How did I get started... That's a good question. I was watching the 'A message for [a knot]' video on youtube three years ago and got that sad that I didn't understand as much from their talking as I wanted to. While randomly scrolling down the comments I found a translation of what they were saying posted by this one girl. My only thoughts in those moments were 'I do have a translation and a video... what shall I do with these two? Why not throwing them together?' So that was what I did. Later when my friend M. was watching the PV for '304goushitsu, hakushi no sakura' she gave me the idea for putting subtitles on other videos as well. In the beginning I was asking friends for what they wanted to see subbed and just put the translations on my videos, until some mistakes within the translations started bugging me and I decided to edit them. Today I'm even translating whole lines on my own to guarantee the most accurate translation to my loyal subscribers. So the basic idea was: More understanding, more comprehension for everyone. All of my subs are public, everyone is able to see them! ♥

--Wow! That's great to hear about your subs. Where do you share most of your subs?

Youtube. (You can find my account by typing 'periX' into the search box.) It's the only place where I'm sharing the subs. If you find them on any other sites it wasn't me who uploaded them.

--Do you know Japanese? Any plans on learning and becoming fluent in it?

Neither I did learn it nor I'm planning to learn it. It's not like I will need it all the time in my life. What I know, I did teach to myself; even though that might sound stupid and makes me seem incompetent; but I think I'm some kind of an autodidact when it comes to languages. 80% of my English is self-taught as well.

--What other hobbies or interests do you have?

Writing is pretty much my favorite hobby. I'm interested in a lot of artists and different styles of music, but I lack the money for actually seeing them in concert. Besides that I'm interested in video games/anime/manga, nature and movies. To be quite honest... I'm not that exciting.

All of them are beautiful, talented men with amazing personalities. Each of them has a very special place in my heart. But when it comes to who's turning my world quite upside down it's surely Kaoru and Kyo.

--What exactly about these two people turns your world upside down?

The whole package. It's not only one or two certain things. This is hard to put into words - the way they act and not act, say, think and feel, make feel, show and not show - I've found their characters highly interesting; not to talk about the specialty of how they are as musicians and performers. And I would lie if I'd say that there is no physical attraction at this point as well. Which only increases since their minds are fascinating to me.

--If you were ever to meet all the members of Dir en grey and get the chance to say something to them. What will you say to them? Why?

I would probably be in somewhat of a shock and awe condition, not saying a word, blushing, not looking them straight into the eyes or maybe just saying 'Hi' and then quickly running of. But this would totally depend on my mood and on other things as well. It's also possible that I'd make a fool of myself being talkative and smile-y. But then again this would depend on who of the members is standing in front of me. It's tricky and I can't even tell, what I would say to them. In fact there are a lot of things I would like to say, but I probably wouldn't have the courage to be as random and tell them. Or even approach them in the first place.

Still, to answer this question and as cheesy as it sounds I would go with just two words which would be simple but heartfelt: 'Thank you.' And everything that comes from my mouth after this sentence depends on their reactions.

And a lot of 'depends' in this text. If I say 'depends' one more time now I forget what it means...

--Tell us about the fanfiction that you write? Who is the easiest and hardest member to write about?

It embarrasses me to answer this question. I've always been a writer, it already started in elementary school. When I got older and found out about Dir en grey I've changed from stories with my own characters to stories with the members in it. Mostly it focuses on their lives and experiences during a tour, the interacting with each other. Since my English isn't good enough I prefer to write in German.

The easiest member to write about... I prefer writing in the 'I'-style, something that I hated in the past, but I just got so used to it that everything else feels unnatural to write now. The easiest must be Die and Kaoru; I don't have this 'How would he react now?' feeling all the time. Not sure about who's the hardest to write about, but I'd say Toshiya, since - in my opinion - he has such a complex and deep personality; there's so much inside of him that he doesn't show but keeps to himself that makes it hard to analyze him.

--What do you plan on doing in the future? Do you plan on having a career in Pharmaceutics? Or do you plan on also focusing on the arts as a sideline?

Hopefully I will have a career in Pharmaceutics in near future, because I don't get younger and I need money and a real employment. But to be honest I'm still not sure, if this is what I really want. I have to see what it's like and then decide. As for the arts... I definitely want to publish novels sometime in the future. The problem is that my creativity comes and goes; and that's not so good for a writer. I admire people who do have such an amazing output as writing 50.000+ words within only a month.

"They helped me finding true friends; amazing people all over the planet I would have never even known about without them."

--Can you say that Dir en grey has made a significant impact in your life? If so, what kind of impact did they have on your life?

This is gonna sound weird, but before I knew Dir en grey I've always felt that there was something missing in music. Something that really grabbed my heart and gave me the feeling 'This is it.' And so I've been always searching for something that truly reflects how it looks inside of me... When I found this band and listened to their music for the first time (without knowing what Kyo was singing about in the first place) it just literally made BOOM or CLICK. All I could think was 'Wow'. And I've never felt that music or a band could touch me that way, so intense, before. In a strange way they helped me finding myself and made me more confident. They helped me finding true friends; amazing people all over the planet I would have never even known about without them.

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