Kyo

Kyo is a French rock band.

Biography

Since attending collège in Yvelines, the two brothers, Fabien and Florian Dubos, and two friends Nicolas Chassagne and Benoît Poher, discovered they had the same passion for bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden. In 1997, they met their manager, who convinced them of their potential, and obtained a contract with Sony for the group. They have since released three albums and one DVD entitled Kyosphere. After the recent success of their album Le Chemin selling 1.5 million copies, the group went to a house in Brittany, where they worked on their new album 300 Lésions which went Gold in 4 days with sales reaching upwards of 500,000 copies. "Le Chemin" was used as the ending of the second episode of the anime OVA Strait Jacket.

Members

• Benoît Poher - vocals
• Florian Dubos - Guitar / Backing Vocals
• Nicolas Chassagne - Guitar
• Fabien Dubos - drums

The Message

Kyo is very concerned about how humanity is going towards its own destruction and they also give their own experiences in the search for the Truth. In some songs they even give the solution, artistically encoded, but clear for fans to realize. Their song Kyosphère summarizes their ideologies and purpose. Lyrics:

Faire partie du fleuve, ne pas sortir du rang
Puis courber nos corps portés pas le courant
L'infini nous dépasse comme des fétus de paille
Nos âmes flottent sans jamais s'élever
Regarde, qui oserait s'opposer à la soumission
Sans avoir conscience qu'on a tous le don
Ne serait-ce qu'une seconde, d'apercevoir les ondes
Les tracés de nos vies qui nous inondent

Refrain :
Tu dois fermer les yeux
Faire le vide dans ta tête
Garder le silence
Et entrer dans la kyosphère

Communier nos âmes,communier nos corps
Retrouver la faille en liant nos efforts
Les rituels nous éloignent lentement du message
L'image qu'ils insèrent a dévié nos regards
Qui oserait espérer garder le contrôle
Sans avoir conscience qu'on a tous un rôle a jouer dans l'équilibre
Un battement de cil, pourrait briser le cercle pour de bon

Refrain (x2)

This song tries to make the listener aware that he is only following the current, the river of life without questioning reality at any point. They say however that we are all able to comprehend the complex structure of the lie we are all living by understanding the Truth. The Truth, they say, is for everybody to see (or to listen, as they constantly use the word son (sound in French) or ondes (sound-waves)) by following the simple steps that he gives in the chorus (refrain): close your eyes, empty your mind, keep silence and enter in what he calls ma kyosphère.

Many of their songs, such as L'assaut des Regards, give a slightly different aspect of how to achieve this experience:

Capturer l'horizon où tout semble Désert -seize the horizon that seems empty
Il faut savoir se taire pour en tirer le son -you have to know how to be quiet to hear the sound
Je ne saurais vous dire si la lumière est là -I wouldn't know if light is there

Note that the word son (sound) is used. Here he proposes to instead of closing your eyes, you fix the horizon to achieve a similar effect. The end of the song ends up with a few seconds in which, no music is played, but you can hear the sound of water waves. This implies that the sea or a lake might be a good scenario to achieve this feeling.
Many other songs develop this general idea of exposing the Lie, fictional world made of values that are not true ones, suggesting what the Truth is and how to find it.

Faithless, a very famous band from the UK, tries to express similar ideas to these ones, specially in their song Reverence.

Discography

Albums

• Kyo (2000)
• Le Chemin
• 300 Lésions (2004)
• Best of (2007)

Singles

• Il Est Temps
• Je N'Veux Pas Oublier
• Le Chemin (2003) #14 SWI
• Dernière Danse (2003) #6 FR, #14 SWI
• Je Cours (2003) #20 FR, #41 SWI
• Je Saigne Encore (Version 1) (2004) #13 FR (both combined), #39 SWI
• Je Saigne Encore (Version 2) (2004)
• Contact (2004) #8 FR, #37 SWI
• Sarah (2005) #33 FR, #65 SWI
• L'Or de nos Vies (2006) with other French artists of Fight Aids

Filmography

• Kyosphère (2004)

Awards

• NRJ Music Awards
  • Best French Song (2004)
  • Best French Album (2004)
  • Best French Band (2004)
  • Best Musical Site (2004)

• MTV Europe Music Awards
  • French Band of the Year (2003)

External links

• (French) kyomusic.com The band's official website
• Biography of Kyo, from Radio France Internationale
• (French) Kyosphere Site of the official fanclub
• Kyo at BandoftheDay.com