HANABIE.
Girls metal band formed in 2015. Consists of four members Yukina (vo), Matsuri (gt. & vo), Hettsu (ba & cho), and Chika (dr). Their intense metal rock sound, lyrics and visuals consisting of Japanese subculture and values, have attracted the attention of fans. Middle and high school classmates Yukina, Matsuri, and Hettsu started as a four-piece band, bringing on Chika as the new drummer in May of 2023. In July of the same year, they made their major label debut with Sony Music Labels Epic Records Japan, releasing their first album, Reborn Superstar! They embarked on their first solo domestic tour, secured slots at music festivals, and even toured internationally. They released their new single “O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu” on January 19th, 2024. 
https://hanabie.jp
X：@HA_NA_BIE_
Instagram：@ha_na_bie_
Threads：@ha_na_bie_
YouTube：@HANABIE_official

While there are many Japanese bands that have made it to the world stage, the common factor among ones that succeed globally may be that they all exude “Japaneseness”. There is a Japanese girls band that has established a new genre called, “Harajuku core” gaining enthusiastic support from metal fans mostly from the West. The band consists of four members: Yukina (vox), Matsuri (gt & vox), Hettsu (ba & BGVs), and Chika (dr). They call themselves HANABIE. 

We interviewed Yukina and Matsuri from HANABIE., a band that’s been flying sky high. In part one, they shared insights on the formation of the band, the venues they performed in high school, and how they established their performance style. In part two, they shared stories of their international tour and their thoughts behind their new song, “O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu”, and their plans for the future.

International Fans Coined “HARAJUKU CORE”

– International tours are now common for HANABIE., but were you always interested in doing shows abroad?

Yukina: No, it never crossed our minds.

Matsuri: More like we didn’t have the capacity to think that far. So even this time around, we’re like, “wow, we can go?!” (laughs). Like, “people abroad actually like our music?”

Yukina: It’s unbelievable also because our lyrics are all in Japanese. Even during this international tour, everyone was singing along to our lyrics.

Matsuri: And everyone’s good at it (laughs).

– It’s only been about a year since you’ve been able to do this.

Yukina: That’s true. During the COVID pandemic when things were still shut down, the comment section for our song “WE LOVE SWEETS” was filled with English comments. Since then, we always thought, “We’d love to go abroad, but we don’t know how”. 

Matsuri: I think the “WE LOVE SWEETS” era was when we first started charting abroad, too. People from countries we couldn’t even pinpoint on a map were listening to our music. 

– I heard your foreign fans were the ones who first called your music “HARAJUKU CORE”.

Matsuri: Our listeners were like, “This is a new genre! It’s HARAJUKU CORE!” in our comments. We thought it was perfect, so we kept using it in different scenarios (laughs).

Yukina: HANABIE. is a hard band to explain to people, so when we saw those comments, we were like, “That’s it!”

Matsuri: We were. Because everything falls under “metal” abroad, we thought “HARAJUKU CORE” was the perfect way to describe our sound.

– Did you feel uncomfortable with the term “metal” being used to describe your music back then?

Matsuri: No, I think in our case, calling our music “metal” is quite misleading (laughs). People are more inclined to be interested if they just understood we were doing something new. I’d be happy if they could see this as a new style of metal. So it’s not like we didn’t like being categorized as “metal”, we just want people to understand that we’re doing something chaotic within that.

– From there, after experiencing ups and downs, you had your major label debut and booked your first solo show and Tokyo/Nagoya/Osaka tour.

Yukina: We kept on missing our chance to do our solo show. We wanted it to have such an impact that we missed our opportunity and couldn’t get to it until last year.

Matsuri: We waited too long to do our solo show. We kept being like, “We need to do our solo show at the perfect time!” and kept extending it. We waited so long that we eventually got signed by a major label. We thought the appropriate time was our eighth anniversary. 

Show-Intensive International Tour 

– You then suddenly had to go on a large-scale international tour, with no time to celebrate your first solo show or your major label debut.

Yukina: In retrospect, it’s crazy.

Matsuri: Truly! Everyone made us feel like they were waiting for us. Everyone was so warm. Looking back, the shows felt very strange. We were performing in countries we had never been to before. It was like, “wow, we’re really doing this”. 

Yukina: Now that I’m back in Japan and can reflect back on it, I’ve started to realize how incredible an experience it was. Before going, I was quite apprehensive. I was even studying English, and found myself struggling to think about how I would be able to express myself to our fans and staff. But once I was there playing the shows, I realized there are things that don’t need to be communicated with words. 

– Yukina, you were even taking English classes.

Yukina: Yes I was, and crying while doing it (laughs).

– Did it help?

Yukina: I really want to say it did (laughs), but I realized passion is more important than words.

– So real-life interactions were more important in the end.

Yukina: Of course, if we were able to speak English fluently, I’m sure our world would expand and it would enable us to play different types of shows.

Matsuri: It was easier to communicate than I thought. Even during rehearsals or in everyday conversations, everyone was willing to try to grasp what I was trying to convey. I found people from every country to be quite warm.

– That being said, I’m sure the rehearsal process is quite intense. Isn’t it important to have a mutual understanding of what’s going on?

Matsuri: That’s true. That’s why we utilized words we knew and tried to communicate through gestures, like “this is where we want to cut the sound”. They understood quite a lot, right?

Yukina: Yeah. In Europe, we got a PA who lives there to travel with us on tour. They were really stoked about it.

Matsuri: They really listened to our songs in great detail. During rehearsals, the PA would ask if we could play a specific part of the song again so they can adjust it. Because they were so passionate, we were able to get a cohesive sound by the fourth show. I’m so glad we met such a great PA in Europe. 

– How was your American tour?

Matsuri: We had more show dates in the U.S. than in Europe.

Yukina: Our daily schedule was sleep, wake up, rehearse, play a show, repeat. 

Matsuri: We had to make sure which city we were in, because it got so confusing. We also did something we had never done as a band: play six shows in a row.

– And you did it abroad.

Matsuri: On top of that, each venue was so hot. Even if the air conditioner was on, it would start feeling like a sauna each time the show started.

Yukina: That made us become more resistant to the heat (laughs).

Matsuri: I’m confident that we can play in the hottest circumstances (laughs).

Yukina: Sometimes there was so little air circulating that I thought I was going to pass out. 

Matsuri: In a sense, I guess we can now say we won’t get flustered if anything goes wrong during a show.

– Has your experience abroad affected your songwriting?

Matsuri: Absolutely. Our major label debut album, Reborn Superstar!, is our idea of a concept album. In it, we added songs with more of our glittery, upbeat sound. That is one of HANABIE.’s core pillars. We’d like to have two or three more pillars, too. We had a bunch of ideas come up in the process of being abroad, too, like “it might be fun to mix this type of genre into our music”, or “we have too many fast tempo songs, so let’s slow it down”, or, “let’s try changing the tuning”, taking notes everytime we thought of something.

Yukina: We talked about a lot of this as a band.

Matsuri: For the tour we did, I communicated what I wanted to do with the band, got the rest of the band to do the same, and summarized what songs we wanted to include in the next album among the four of us. We’ll use that as a template to start production on our next record.

– You gathered some powerful tools during your time abroad. Now you can use those newly acquired tools to create something new.

Matsuri: There are some songs we wrote at our hotels during tour, which may bring a different flavor to our sound. 

Yukina: We were also heavily influenced by the bands that we played with. In the U.S., we played with Dropout Kings and Fox Lake, as well as with Galactic Empire. It was our first time playing with the same bands all tour, so that was really fun.

Matsuri: It was so fun, wasn’t it.

Yukina: The more we were together, the more we vibed. We were so sad by the end. 

Matsuri: We were so sad, but they were so cool because they told us that there’s no way this would be our last time seeing each other, and that we’d meet again soon. 

Yukina: I was sobbing (laughs). We were able to get through the tour because of them.

Matsuri: After we went our separate ways, I saw Yukina sobbing while listening to super hardcore music next to me, and thought, “how surreal” (laughs).

Yukina: We got fired up every time we saw the other bands’ shows.

Matsuri: Every band did what they could to connect the whole show to us, as we were last to play. Their efforts came across. By the end, it really moved me.

Yukina: I’d love to bring them to Japan one day. 

Matsuri: We definitely want to do that. I think they would be a hit among Japanese kids and band-lovers.

HANABIE. Finally Boldly Embraces “Otaku”. 

– Was the new song you’re releasing, “O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu”, written while on tour?

Matsuri: It was a song we wrote right before we went abroad. We wanted this to be our last super upbeat song for a while. We did everything we wanted to do with this song, more than ever. We added AI vocals, which was something new for us, to give a more 2.5 dimensional sound.

– Are the English parts AI? I didn’t notice.

Matsuri: Yes, that’s the part. We had AI speak, and then combined that voice with Yukina’s real voice to give it a brand new, 2.5-dimensional sound.

Yukina: Personally, I didn’t know that Japanese culture was so popular. I knew that as a fact, but experiencing it and having people approach me and say, “I love this Japanese anime”, or “I like Pokemon”, made me really happy. That’s why we chose this theme for this song.

– You had some references to otaku culture in your other songs, but this time it’s explicit. 

Matsuri: Yeah, the lyrics are really only about otaku. 

– I hear some Sailor Moon in there, too.

Matsuri: All of us like that kind of anime. We tried incorporating the sparkly vibes of our favorite animes. 

Yukina: I think this is a song that can only be executed by HANABIE., and it’s something different from what we’ve done before.

– It’s quite rare to find a band that openly embraces otaku culture, which is also what differentiates HANABIE. from other bands. Other bands may have members who secretly like anime, but not many can express that love so directly in their music. But HANABIE. is different. You have a punk spirit that enables you to show your whole selves. That’s why “O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu” is so refreshing.

Yukina: It’s true that it’s refreshing (laughs). We want to be straightforward and as true to ourselves as possible.

Matsuri: That’s right. We’re like, “We can confidently say we like otaku because we also identify as otaku!” (laughs). 

Yukina: We also want to tell people, “Otaku like these exist in the world, we’ve seen them firsthand!” (laughs).

Matsuri: I think that’s what’s fun about it. If an otaku listens, they’ll understand, but a non-otaku can also listen and be like, “otaku are kind of cool”. 

– I didn’t realize that was the message.

Matsuri: I think otaku culture has been embraced by many people now. We live in a world where everyone, including the beautiful woman sitting next to you on the train, is probably an otaku. We want everyone to know that we live in a society where we can proudly admit to being an otaku!

Yukina: The word for “suteki” in English is “lovely”. So, we wanted people to think that “being an otaku is lovely”.

Matsuri: As otaku ourselves, we thought we needed to address that being one is nothing to be ashamed of (laughs).

– So, what kind of year would you like 2024 to be?

Yukina: There was a lot to absorb from all over the world in 2023. I want to take advantage of that and fully utilize it, whether that’s for shows or songs. I also want to do a proper Japan tour, and we have some international festivals coming up. We’re excited for what we have in store.

Matsuri: In terms of music, we made a lot of lively, sparkly songs in 2023. In 2024, we want to show another side of HANABIE. Hopefully, you’ll get to see some of that .

– Let me ask one last question. Until now, it was long believed that Japanese bands should tour domestically before venturing into the global market, or that English songs would need to be released in order to target international audiences. But I believe that HANABIE. has shattered all these “conventional” beliefs. From your perspective, what advice would you give to Japanese bands that are looking to go global, considering new, unique approaches to expanding a band’s reach that are specific to today?

Yukina: There may be restrictions depending on the country, but I realized through YouTube and social media just how much reach our music has. Because of these different platforms, people across the world sang along to songs that are in Japanese, and we saw passionate fans from countries we had never even visited. So I do believe it’s essential not only to focus on music but also to utilize social media in a visually appealing way.

Matsuri: When we went on tour abroad, we had so many happy fans who, regardless of the language barrier in the music, were having a great time. It was then that I thought we could’ve gone abroad even earlier. Looking back, I think we were unnecessarily anxious. Setting up shows abroad is not simple. It requires different costs, like transportation, so I’m not saying this lightly. But if a band has a desire to go abroad, they should.

Even if your band is unknown abroad, people usually casually walk into venues in places like Europe and the U.S. Even in taxis, the drivers often play their own music, not just mainstream stuff. A lot of the time, they play more unknown, cool songs, just like any other everyday music listener, which there are a lot of. Ultimately, I think it’s a good idea to actively reach out and go find your own audience.

Photography Hamanaka Yoshitake
Translation Mimiko Goldstein

■HANABIE.”O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu” now streaming

O･TA･KUラブリー伝説 | 花冷え。 | ソニーミュージックオフィシャルサイト

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www.sonymusic.co.jp

■HANABIE. Major label debut album Reborn Superstar! official website

来世は偉人！ | 花冷え。 (HANABIE.)

Major Debut Album 『来世は偉人！』 2023.7.26 Release! | HANABIE. Major Label Debut Album Reborn Superstar! 2023.7.26 Release

hanabie.jp

The post Interview with HANABIE., the “Harajuku Core” Girls Metal Band in the Global Spotlight, Part 2: “Chaotic” Music Combined with Japanese Culture appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

HANABIE.
Girls metal band formed in 2015. Consists of four members Yukina (vo), Matsuri (gt. & vo), Hettsu (ba & cho), and Chika (dr). Their intense metal rock sound, lyrics and visuals consisting of Japanese subculture and values, have attracted the attention of fans. Middle and high school classmates Yukina, Matsuri, and Hettsu started as a four-piece band, bringing on Chika as the new drummer in May of 2023. In July of the same year, they made their major label debut with Sony Music Labels Epic Records Japan, releasing their first album, Reborn Superstar! They embarked on their first solo domestic tour, secured slots at music festivals, and even toured internationally. They released their new single “O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu” on January 19th, 2024. 
https://hanabie.jp
X：@HA_NA_BIE_
Instagram：@ha_na_bie_
Threads：@ha_na_bie_
YouTube：@HANABIE_official

While there are many Japanese bands that have made it to the world stage, the common factor among ones that succeed globally may be that they all exude “Japaneseness”. There is a Japanese girls band that has established a new genre coined “Harajuku core” gaining enthusiastic support from metal fans mostly from the West. The band consists of four members: Yukina (vo), Matsuri (gt & vo), Hettsu (ba & cho), and Chika (dr). They call themselves HANABIE. 

Their single “Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now” released in January 2023 triggered their sudden success. The music video released by Epic Records Japan six months prior to their debut has garnered 5.5 million plays on YouTube so far, the video overflowing with English comments from international fans. Wrapped in colorful outfits reminiscent of Harajuku-style Decora fashion, Yukina alternates between a cute anime-like voice and intense death growls, while the instrumentalists deliver sounds with lively melodies and heavy rhythms. It’s this contrast that defines their performance style. 

Not only did they embark on their first solo tour after their major label debut, they also secured slots at music festivals and even toured internationally. We interviewed HANABIE., a rising force in the music scene, to discuss their journey. In part one, Yukina and Matsuri shared insights into the formation of the band and the struggles that led to the establishment of their performance style.

– This past year was quite the year of achievements for you.

Yukina: It was truly beyond our expectations. Of course we had our hearts set on touring abroad, but this was a year we gave our all to each of our performances. 

Matsuri: Emotionally, we felt we needed to tackle what was right in front of us, but I think it was a huge turning point for us as a band because it was a year filled with firsts. 

– Band members changing, your first festival appearance, first solo show, first Tokyo/Nagoya/Osaka tour, your major label debut, and your first international tour all happened this past year. I don’t think there has ever been a band that has experienced their first domestic tour and first international tour in the same year. From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like you had a crazy year. But were you so busy focusing on each task at hand that you couldn’t see your achievements objectively?

Matsuri: There was no time for us to relax. All we could do was focus on our immediate tasks each day.

Yukina: Each event was so intense, yet time passed instantly. Going through this made me want to continue doing it, which made me realize there are so many things I still want to do. So, while I feel grateful, I also feel overwhelmed with excitement for future endeavors. 

– It’s unbelievable that your single “Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now” wasn’t even released this time last year. 

Matsuri: Truly! I had the same thought the other day. I was curious how many plays the YouTube video had gotten, and when I went to check it, I was surprised to see it wasn’t uploaded that long ago. 

– It’s like our internal calendars are fully glitching. 

Matsuri: Glitching (laughs).

Yukina: No, really. 

High School Rock Band Club Era When Rivalries were Rampant

– So, since this is HANABIE.’s first interview with TOKION, I’d like to start with asking how you formed the band. I heard that it was formed in a high school after-school band club.

Yukina: Since we went to a combined junior high and high school, Matsuri and the bassist Hettsu were classmates since middle school. After-school band club was only for high school students, and Hettsu and I had already talked about joining. I had heard rumors that Matsuri, who I hadn’t really talked to until then, was into heavy music, so I approached her and asked if she actually liked that kind of music and what she was currently listening to.

Matsuri: I was already close with the original drummer of HANABIE. She had been in the brass band club, and I was interested in rock bands but not that enthusiastic about joining the club. I was more like, “I guess I’ll join the rock band club”. Yukina approached me at that time, so I joined the club. I thought there would be people who would have the same interests as me, so I joined, treating it like a trial run.

Yukina: Matsuri already played guitar and liked heavy music, so I knew we had to get her in the club. She was also a leader-like figure in the classroom, so I thought her leadership skills would translate well in a band.

– In contrast to Matsuri, you weren’t the bubbly personality, Yukina. You were more of an introvert, weren’t you?

Yukina: That’s right. Hettsu and I were in the art club in middle school, drawing in the corner of the room together. Matsuri, on the other hand, was in a sports club and was the class leader. 

– I’m sure you had to muster up a lot of courage to approach her first.

Matsuri: I feel like it was pretty natural. I think she asked me if I liked heavy bands when we ran into each other in the hallway. As we talked, I got to know Yukina better and we started going to shows together. 

Yukina: We went to music festivals together, too. We got deep in it together.

Matsuri: In our Dickies (laughs).

– Approaching someone in a school hallway is like a scenario you’d see in an anime. 

Matsuri: It is, now that I think about it (laughs). I remember that interaction so well.

Yukina: I don’t remember (laughs). 

Matsuri: We weren’t in the same after-school club in middle school, so I wondered why she approached me. I also wondered why she knew I was into rock bands. 

Yukina: Matsuri would often bring her favorite band’s towels to gym class, and our other classmates confirmed you liked those bands.

– Yukina, were you interested in playing heavy music from the start?

Yukina: I wasn’t sure if we could pull it off, but I knew it would be fun since we had that interest in common.

– And specifically, your common interest in MAXIMUM THE HORMONE.

Yukina: Yes.

– Any other bands you two were excited about back then?

Matsuri: We both listened to a lot of BABYMETAL, which sparked conversation.

Yukina: That’s true.

Matsuri: I also liked punk/melodic hardcore music, like GOOD4NOTHING and SHANK.

Yukina: Or dustbox and ELLEGARDEN.

– And thus, HANABIE. was born, but you started off as a cover band. Which bands did you cover?

Matsuri: I think SCANDAL was first? Or DOES.

– Interesting!

Yukina: We flipped through the hand-me-down scores from our seniors religiously (laughs). 

Matsuri: We picked ones we thought we could play.

– So you honed your skill that way and eventually started playing covers of MAXIMUM THE HORMONE?

Yukina: We actually initially wanted to start with HORMONE, but our seniors stopped us (laughs). They told us to learn the basics first.

Matsuri: We covered their songs after we got the hang of it.

– What was the MAXIMUM THE HORMONE song you covered first?

Yukina & Matsuri: (immediately) “Zekkyou Billy”. 

– I’m surprised you remembered that quickly.

Matsuri: That’s true!

Yukina: I remember it quite clearly (laughs).

– What other songs did you cover?

Matsuri: “Jitterbug” (by ELLEGARDEN). We also did BLUE ENCOUNT.

Yukina: We also covered the song “Katoniago” by a girls band called FLiP, and also WHITE ASH.

Matsuri: Oh yeah we did! I loved WHITE ASH.

Yukina: We also played some ZebraHead tunes.

Matsuri: I brought that score and asked if we wanted to cover it (laughs).

– I can’t believe there are scores for ZebraHead songs.

Matsuri: There are! I still have them back home (laughs).

– The drummer has changed, but have the relationships between the members changed much over the years?

Matsuri: They have changed a bit because we’re all adults now, but I don’t think they’ve changed all that much, fundamentally.

Yukina: Hettsu hasn’t changed, either.

Matsuri: But she’s becoming more and more like an alien.

– Like she’s more liberated?

Matsuri: Yes, she is (laughs).

– As I was listening to you tell this story, I realized the environment of an all-girls school was probably a major part of your development.

Yukina & Matsuri: I think that’s right.

Matsuri: If there were both guys and girls in our school, our band may have been co-ed. But because it was an all-girls band, there was an insane amount of intensity among the girls in the club. We were all like, “I’m going to crush you all!” (laughs).

– Competition with the other bands?

Matsuri: Yes. Of course, we were surrounded by other girl bands with competitive streaks, which created this great synergy among us. We were all only focusing on our bands.

Yukina: It motivated us a lot.

Matsuri: None of us were romantically involved either, because there was no one around! (laughs).

Yukina: We even snapped at our teachers for not letting us do what we wanted.

– For example?

Matsuri: We weren’t allowed to play shows outside our high school. They claimed it was dangerous and that underage kids shouldn’t be playing at venues that serve alcohol. In retrospect, it’s obvious why it wasn’t permitted (laughs). But back then, we wanted so badly to play at an outside venue that we pleaded with our school to let us play if our parents chaperoned.

Yukina: We got signatures from several teachers, too (laughs). 

– You could do that?

Yukina: The paperwork had spaces for our homeroom teacher, head of year, vice principal and principal’s signatures. We rallied the support of some teachers in the process.

– Did you feel like you needed to write original tunes as you were competing with other bands?

Matsuri: Definitely. Other bands in the club started writing originals first. That freaked us out, which prompted us to start writing our own (laughs). We also started participating in high school band contests. Bands that entered those contests usually had original songs, which made us want to start writing our own, too.

– HANABIE. is a band that consciously strays from what other bands are doing. Were you like that since high school?

Yukina: That’s true… (laughs). Even the name HANABIE. was also created because we wanted it to be unique. 

Matsuri: English band names were popular at the time.

– The name HANABIE. is truly quite unique. It’s not a name that high schoolers would come up with.

Yukina: Our then-drummer was quite smart. She found that word for us.

Matsuri: She was also insanely competitive, and wanted us to stand out (laughs).

– HANABIE. then continued to play at many venues, mostly Shinjuku ANTIKNOCK.

Matsuri: We’d often rush to ANTIKNOCK after school, in our uniforms (laughs).

Yukina: We’d bring a suitcase full of merch to school in the morning, leave it in the corner of the classroom so the teachers wouldn’t find out, and take it to the venues after school… (laughs).

Matsuri: I had combined my amp head and pedal board onto a cart, which raised suspicion among the teachers (laughs). Hettsu also had a big pedal board, so the three of us dragged all our luggage around on days we had shows (laughs). 

– And after school, what transpired when you descended the stairs of ANTIKNOCK?

Matsuri: We were so scared when we first booked ANTIKNOCK.

Yukina: It was so scary.

Matsuri: The entrance of that venue is dark, and kind of intense (laughs). We were contemplating who would go down first (laughs). 

– That’s hilarious!

Yukina: I was like, you go first!

Matsuri: We were all pushing each other to go first (laughs).

– I guess you can’t see what’s at the bottom of the stairs from the outside.

Matsuri: No, you can’t. Once we went in, everyone was friendly and super nice, but it was intimidating at first.

– Was there a lot to learn on site?

Matsuri: Most of what we learned was on site. We were blessed with mentors who taught us everything, including how to plan the afterparty. We learned a lot from them.

Yukina: Matsuri asked a bunch of people about how to get the right tone on guitar.

Matsuri: Everyone was so nice, they even let me borrow gear they weren’t using. I was working part-time, but I wasn’t making enough that I could buy new gear. I was really thankful to everyone for helping me.

– There were probably no other high school girls who played ANTIKNOCK, so I’m sure everyone loved you. They wanted to help you grow.

Matsuri: Yes, everyone treated us well.

Yukina: Very much so.

– Like they were your uncles (laughs).

Matsuri: Truly! Whenever I see someone and it’s been a minute, it feels like I’m seeing an uncle because they ask me how I am (laughs).

Yukina: They keep track of us, and tell us their positive opinions on things we’ve worked on.

Matsuri: Everyone reminds us to stay healthy (laughs). ANTIKNOCK feels like a family-run venue.

A Turning Point in Music and Visuals

– What a nice story. I think your colorful outfits, rare for that of a metalcore band, are also what makes HANABIE. stand out. I understand that they’re made mostly by Hettsu, but how were these outfits first developed?

Matsuri: We wore normal clothes at first, right?

Yukina: Yeah, we wanted to fit in with the male bands.

Matsuri: We didn’t want to be underestimated. Back then, the metalcore scene consisted of a lot of skinny black jeans. Skinny black jeans, white T, no smile. We tried replicating that for a bit as best we could.

– You were trying to fit into the scene. 

Yukina: Yes. I even got Hettsu to hold up a white T-shirt at a park so I could splatter red paint all over it to make it look like blood (laughs). We tried fitting in like that, but we soon realized that felt wrong. 

Matsuri: We thought maybe it didn’t align with the type of music we wanted to do. There were a lot of similar bands back then that we wanted to differentiate ourselves from, so we did a 180. 

Yukina: We thought we could take advantage of our collective love for cute anime and Sanrio characters. We knew the contrast between our music and these cutesy elements would be interesting. Hettsu’s hair became increasingly lighter, too (laughs). 

Matsuri: Hettsu really did a lot. She had already dyed her hair on our graduation day. Anything is possible in the dynamics of our band now. 

Yukina: We wanted to do exactly what we wanted. I think that ideology eventually reflected onto our outfits.

– So you eventually realized that that was your natural state and that it connected to the band’s originality. 

Matsuri: Exactly. We thought, “everything works, including the clothes we like, the color we like, and the glitter we like!” It did take a while to get to that point, though.

– At what point did you land on your current style?

Yukina: When we were twenty?

Matsuri: I think we decided to be colorful around after the release of our single “L.C.G.” (released November 2019). Hettsu dyed her hair purple, and mine was blonde. Things gradually started changing from there.

– “L.C.G.” was musically and visually a critical turning point.

Yukina: Yes, it was the biggest turning point.

– I believe one reason for HANABIE.’s steady success is your proficiency in social media. You’ve been using social media as a strong platform for a while now. 

Matsuri: Yes, we have been.

– Were you partly doing it for fun?

Yukina: No, we were told by our seniors that we should do it. They told us that it would be a waste not to upload more photos, and that our fans would be excited to see them. We realized that we could extend our following if we posted more and started to update our social media with more photos everytime we had a show. 

Matsuri: In the beginning, we had an account but didn’t really use it. We would post a photo if we had a show, but that was about it. We realized that wasn’t communicating our individual personalities, and discussed how we could do that more efficiently. We never uploaded selfies until then, but started to post more after we realized that no one knew who played what instrument. 

– HANABIE. utilizes X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and even uploaded live videos on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, even before you had a management team. I was amazed at your diligence. 

Matsuri: All of our shows got canceled because of the pandemic. We made videos very diligently back then because we didn’t want to be forgotten. 

– What you did out of necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic has directly connected to your success today.

Matsuri: Exactly. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, we may not have made full use of social media. We learned a lot from our time during COVID-19.

Photography Yoshitake Hamanaka
Translation Mimiko Goldstein

■HANABIE.”O･TA･KU Lovely Densetsu” now streaming

O･TA･KUラブリー伝説 | 花冷え。 | ソニーミュージックオフィシャルサイト

ソニーミュージックによる花冷え。公式サイト。花冷え。の最新ニュースやリリース情報、ビデオ、ライブ・イベント出演情報、メディア情報などを掲載。

www.sonymusic.co.jp

■HANABIE. Major label debut album Reborn Superstar! official website

来世は偉人！ | 花冷え。 (HANABIE.)

Major Debut Album 『来世は偉人！』 2023.7.26 Release! | HANABIE. Major Label Debut Album Reborn Superstar! 2023.7.26 Release

hanabie.jp

The post Interview with HANABIE., the “Harajuku Core” Girls Metal Band in the Global Spotlight, Part 1: It All Started as a Girls’ High School Afterschool Rock Band appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

BAND-MAID is a Japanese band attracting many fans from all over the world, that plays hard rock while dressed as maids. The band is comprised of five members, starting from guitarist, lead singer and lyricist, Miku Kobato, guitarist and songwriter, KANAMI, drummer AKANE, bassist MISA, and another lead singer SAIKI. They are taking over the world with all their world tour shows in the US, the UK, and Europe being sold out. Recently, they are becoming even more recognized from their appearance in the Netflix original film, Kate, which came out this September. 

In the first part of the interview, we sat down with the girls and talked under the theme, “Why is BAND-MAID so popular abroad”—In part two, they spoke candidly about Kobato’s solo project, cluppo; their appearance in the Netflix film, Kate; doing an opening theme song for the TV anime series, Platinum End, with the song, “Sense”; Japanese girl bands in general; and things relating to BAND-MAID’s future as a band.  

――Kobato, I was surprised with your solo project, cluppo.

SAIKI: HAHAHA!

Kobato: Did I surprise you? Then, I’m happy. 

――I thought it was going to be just an April Fools’ joke, but you actually went on and released a single CD, “PEACE&LOVE/Flapping wings,” on August 10^th, the national pigeon day. 

Kobato: That’s right. Originally, it was just a surprise—I wanted to surprise everyone.

――It seems like you’ve put a lot of effort into this song.

Kobato: Before cluppo, we’ve done high-quality stuff in our past April Fools’ projects, so I started the project thinking, cluppo shouldn’t be a half-hearted thing; if I’m doing this, I should do it seriously enough that it’s hard to tell whether if it’s real or not. If it doesn’t work out, I can just end it, and if it works out, I can carry on with it. 

――And you earned great responses, more than you expected. 

Kobato: That’s right. A lot of people were thrilled with it, so we were like: “Let’s do something with this again,” “I would love to,” “Alright then, let’s make it happen in August.” So, at that time on April 1^st, releasing a single in August wasn’t a plan yet.

――It’s a great song, by the way. 

Kobato: Thank you. We thought that it wouldn’t make sense if I did something that I’m already doing with BAND-MAID, so I did something completely opposite. 

――Though, it’s not a typical J-POP either.

Kobato: That’s true. It would be mundane if I did something close to J-POP, so in the beginning, like with BAND-MAID, we came up with a concept for cluppo. There’s this song called “HIPPIE-POPPO” from the 60s or the 70s. I reinterpreted the song and infused a modern mood to it, and established cluppo’s unique style.  

――I feel like cluppo is going to go on permanently. 

Kobato: I think releasing the CD on August 10^th was cluppo’s new starting line, and I hope I can continue the project as part of a surprise.  

――And SAIKI, how do you view this cluppo project? 

SAIKI: At first, Kobato didn’t have me listen to the song nor say anything about the project, so when she came to me asking to check the music video, I was like, “what, you already have the song!?” After we all saw the video, we were like, “You’re nailing it! Go for it!” [laughs].

Kobato: AKANE is a fan now.

SAIKI: AKANE is, unequivocally, a fan! Because when we did a show, BAND-MAID “THE DAY OF MAID” on May 10^th, the day of maid, cluppo was the opening act, and AKANE went to see cluppo’s rehearsal and every time I pass by her, she kept saying, “Ah, it’s cluppo! She’s amazing! So amazing!” [laughs].

Kobato: I was like, “it’s still me. How could you see me so differently!?” 

SAIKI: I reminded her, too, like “You know, that’s Kobato.” [laughs].

Kobato: Couple days ago, I told her that the CD came out, and she asked me, “Could I possibly get an autograph on both the CD and T-shirt…?” I was like, “Are you serious!?” [laughs].

SAIKI: She’s the only one behaving oddly [laughs].

Kobato: KANAMI, on the other hand, was like, “the song, it’s amazing. I especially love this part!” AKANE is the only one being weird. I’m grateful for her, though. 

SAIKI: Anyway, the takeaway is that all the members are giving cluppo the best support. [laughs]. 

BAND-MAID is certainly moving forward

――Releasing “PEACE&LOVE/Flapping wings” acted as a good bridge to start streaming “Sense (TV Size Ver.)” on September 5^th. On October 27th, the full version of “Sense” was released on CD.

Kobato: Recently, I’ve been more active as cluppo, so I think people were even more surprised with it.  

――I heard the full version of “Sense,” , you’ve managed to fit a lot into it. 

 Kobato: The song is a tie-up with the TV anime show, Platinum End, and it’s got a different BAND-MAID mood from the kind we normally create for our albums—it’s spiced up and there’s a lot of details in this version. 

――I first heard the full version of “Sense,” and although the TV version is made shorter, you’ve managed to fit a lot into it.  

Kobato: The song is a tie-up with the TV anime show, Platinum End, and it’s got a different BAND-MAID mood from the kind we normally create for our albums—it’s spiced up and there’s a lot of details in this version. 

――I absolutely feel so especially in the intro. 

Kobato: We had some requests from the [anime] production committee as well, so the intro changed a bit from what we had in the demo and turned out the way it sounds now. The orchestra sounds more dynamic. 

――And this song is boosting BAND-MAID’s potential. 

Kobato: True. KANAMI was saying, “I’ve acquired a lot!” 

――The song doesn’t merely go by quickly with a momentum, and it’s intricately well structured. 

SAIKI: That’s true. It’s new, but you can still feel KANAMI’s aesthetic from the structures and riffs.  

――Also, after a long delay, Netflix film, Kate, finally came out.

Kobato: I know! We were eagerly waiting for it to come out. We were worrying like, “what if it’s canceled…?”  

SAIKI: We thought our part was cut [laughs]. But then, we saw the trailer and we were surprised that we were there. 

――It was right when your song for Platinum End came out, so it was perhaps a good timing. 

Kobato: That’s true. We were able to make multiple announcements.

SAIKI: With this band, everything works out in the end [laughs].

――The US tour, EU tour, and Asian tour got canceled, and we’re still uncertain about the future, but how do you, as BAND-MAID, picture the future? 

Kobato: We still want to dominate the world but doing an online Okyu-ji (show) during the pandemic was a huge accomplishment for us. Before the pandemic, we’d never thought about doing an online Okyu-ji, but we’ve realized that it’s actually an alluring way to have people from all over the world enjoy our Okyu-ji, so now we’re positive towards it and hoping to use this medium to achieve our goal of world domination.  

SAIKI: We, of course, want to perform in front of live audiences, but we’re well aware that things won’t be the same as before the pandemic and it’s going to take a while for things to get back to normal. Meanwhile, we ask our masters and princesses (the fans) to hold on tight with us until it’s safe to perform live again. We want to stay cheerful, looking forward to the day we see that amazing view again. 

――I believe, BAND-MAID would not be likely to dwell on negative thoughts.  

Kobato: We don’t dwell on things. With our characters, it goes against our grain to be upset and whine like, “it sucks that we can’t do our thing properly….”

SAIKI: The entire team knows that “Now is not the time to do live Okyu-ji,” and it’s better to wait until we’re safe to see each other again than taking risks. Last May, we started an online streaming service (limited to subscription members only,) and although we don’t know when we’d be able to announce good news regarding our Okyu-ji, we’re thinking of various other ways to entertain and please our masters and princesses, providing fun contents to them—so we hope they enjoy our new challenges together. 

Kobato: People often say, “BAND-MAID is taking a break because of cluppo!” But please don’t worry! BAND-MAID is working on its own thing! I hope people see cluppo as a filler until BAND-MAID is ready for the next thing.

――So, you’re saying people shouldn’t take things too seriously. 

SAIKI: Yes, there’s nothing for them to worry [laughs]. 

We want more girl bands in Japan to thrive

――What do you think about the Japanese girl rock bands thriving these days? 

Kobato: I’m honestly happy.

SAIKI: I’m happy, too. Back when we started the band, there were many bands out there doing pop music and not many girl bands were pitching themselves as “kakko ii (cool) girls.” But now, as times changed, there are more of those [kakkoii] girls, and I’m happy to see hard rock fans livening up. 

――Couple days ago, you guys were featured in the TV show, “Matsuko no Shiranai Sekai (The World Unknown to Matsuko.)”

SAIKI: We weren’t told ‘till last minute!

Kobato: We were just told, “You guys might be featured in the show, so be sure to check it out, just in case,” and when we saw it, we were surprised like, “Wait! They’re actually mentioning our name!” 

――In the show, Ms. SAKI from Mary’s Blood was saying that when the international media asked her, “In Japan, women are in lower social status, but why are there so many girl bands?” she responded, “In that sense, shouldn’t there be more girl bands in your country?”—I thought that was a cool story. 

SAIKI: I agree! I thought to myself, “Well said!” [laughs].  

Kobato: I hear that in other countries, there aren’t as many girl bands as there are in Japan. It’s even at a point where we often get asked like, “Why are you playing the instruments?” It seems like in other countries, the idea of starting an all-female band is not much of a thing these days. 

SAIKI: We often see bands with a female bassist, but all-female band is still rare. 

――There used to be quite a lot of female bands in overseas countries, especially in the 1990s. 

SAIKI: Ah, I see. So, now it’s decreasing. 

Kobato: I wonder why, but simply, it might have to do with cultural and historical differences, rather than gender differences. But still, I’m hoping for female bands to thrive more! Since the beginning, we’ve been saying, “It’d be cool if we could lead girl bands to thrive.”  

――In another interview, I heard from SAKI, “In Japan, women are treated as women, and I think that allows us women to do girl bands in whatever form we want.”  

SAIKI: Right, there aren’t that many [female] bands abroad that go for the cute look. They’re more towards sexy or cool.  

Kobato: People overseas are familiar with the word, “Kawaii,” so I think the kawaii culture in Japan is huge.  

SAIKI: In Japan, there are many different types of girls, and I think that’s widening the spectrum. Even if you say, “a Japanese-ish girl,” I feel like there are way too many different types compared to in other countries. I just realized as I speak, that the high level of freedom in fashion [in Japan] may be somewhat relating to this point.  

Kobato: There are so many unique types of girls in Japan. 

――That’s true. In Japan, there are even sub-genres of Kawaii. 

Kobato: There’s a lot! Like, Harajuku-kei (Harajuku-style), Akiba-kei (Akiba-style.)

SAIKI: Also, there’s Yami-kawaii (dark cute girls) and many more.

Kobato: I feel like there’s increasingly more different kinds nowadays. Jirai-kei, Pien-kei…[laughs].

SAIKI: Absolutely, I just can’t keep up. I’m like, “Don’t they all look the same?” [laughs].

――In fact, I can’t even keep up with the Kawaii fad [laughs].

Kobato: I think anime is a big influence in this. In Japan, the anime culture plays a huge role, and people get excited when there’s a new character.

――That’s true. Girls start cosplaying in that new character, and other girls follow and emulate them. 

SAIKI: It’s because we have so many anime shows for girls. 

Kobato: Yeah, there’s a lot. In overseas countries, American comic superheroes are more common, and I think there are more girl protagonists in Japanese anime. Say, for example, Cutie Honey and Sailor Moon. I feel like it’s always been this way.  

――If I think of a US manga or anime with a woman protagonist, I would immediately imagine Wonder Woman. 

Kobato: They usually portray strong women. If not, pretty women like Cinderella. 

SAIKI: Yeah, and also elegant women; I think each country’s view on femininity is reflected on these female characters. 

――So, I guess what we can say is that this country’s culture is the major part of the reason why there are a wide variety of girl bands in Japan. 

Kobato: Yes, I think Japanese culture is major. If you even look at us, we’re dressed as maids [laughs].

SAIKI: The entire genre of Kawaii is in this band [laughs].

Kobato: But I’ve got to say, I’m happy with the fact that, recently, there are increasingly more young girl bands coming out. 

――There are [female] bands that want to be seen simply as a band, and not as a girl band. 

Kobato: We don’t really care now, since there are more hard rock girl bands making appearances in the media and the world now seems to properly understand what girl bands are, though, when BAND-MAID first started, girl bands were lumped together as “idol groups,” and we wanted to prove to people that “we aren’t idols!”  

SAIKI: We were like, “It’s okay if people call us a girl band, but just don’t forget that we’re a band!” 

Kobato: Back then, there were quite a lot of bands that weren’t actually playing the instruments on their own, and we wanted to show that we were different from them; I think that was huge. 

SAIKI: It’s been years since we started, and we have more songs in our repertoire and our own staple tunes that make people say, “these songs are unique to BAND-MAID,” so I don’t care anymore about how people label us. 

――In the near future, I hope to see you become an influential presence with many followers.   

Kobato: We would love to be like that. We want to be more recognized in Japan as much as we are recognized abroad! [laughs]. Also, we want to do our best and be more known outside of Japan!   

BAND-MAID
A hard rock band from Japan formed in 2013. Consisted of five members: Miku Kobato (guitar/lead singer), SAIKI (lead singer), KANAMI (guitar), AKANE (drums), and MISA (base). With their heavy rock sound, opposed to their appearance as maids, they are gaining fans and garnering media attention from all around the world, and have reached over 100-million total YouTube views. In 2019, they announced tour partnership with the world’s largest event promoter, Live Nation, and released the album, Conqueror, produced by the legendary rock producer, Tony Visconti. In January 2021, they released their 4^th album, Unseen World, and made an appearance in the Netflix original film, Kate, that came out in September. On September 6^th, they released “Sense (TV Size Ver.)”—an opening theme song for the TV anime series, Platinum End—on streaming platforms; a CD single of “Sense” was coming out on October 27^th. 
■BAND-MAID “Sense”Music Video
https://youtu.be/BWN6iOFjm9U
■BAND-MAID “Sense”
https://band-maid.lnk.to/Sense
■BAND-MAID “Sense”
BAND-MAID.lnk.to/Sense_CD
Twitter：@bandmaid
Facebook：＠BAND-MAID
Instagram：＠bandmaid.jp
YouTube：https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJToUvYrmkmT

cluppo
The founder of BAND-MAID, Miku Kobato’s solo project. Defining a new music genre christened “HIPPIE-POPPO,” cluppo re-interprets the good old 70s music into lovely peaceful music. 
https://www.cluppo.tokyo/

Photography Akihito Igarashi（SIGNO）
Translation Ai Kaneda

The post “BAND-MAID is Certainly Moving Forward” Interview with Global Icon BAND-MAID Part.2 appeared first on TOKION - Cutting edge culture and fashion information.

BAND-MAID is a Japanese band attracting many fans from all over the world, that plays hard rock while dressed as maids. The band is comprised of five members, starting from guitarist, lead singer and lyricist, Miku Kobato, guitarist and songwriter, KANAMI, drummer AKANE, bassist MISA, and another lead singer SAIKI. They are taking over the world with all their world tour shows in the US, the UK, and Europe being sold out. Recently, they are becoming even more recognized from their appearance in the Netflix original film, Kate, which came out this September.

In Part.1, we sat down with Kobato and SAIKI and talked under the theme, “why is BAND-MAID so popular overseas?” We had them reflect back on their times since they started the band, and speak about how they became known overseas, their shows outside of Japan, and their sentiments embedded in their Japanese lyrics.

――It’s been nine years since you started BAND-MAID. You’re still in the midst of your global invasion, but looking back from where you started, don’t you think you’ve come a long way and accomplish a lot already?

Miku Kobato (from hereunder, Kobato): Actually, BAND-MAID was about to end after two years of starting the band. But we were saved by our overseas audience, and we were able to continue as we were getting good responses from them. If our old selves saw us, I don’t think we would be like, “it’s impressive you’ve come this far,” but instead, they’d be surprised like “wow, you guys are doing this for nine years!?”

SAIKI: We’ve never really told this story before [laughs].

――I didn’t know about it! Was it the “Thrill” MV that made you to be recognized overseas?

Kobato: That’s right. If we didn’t have that, the band was going to end.

SAIKI: But back then, we still didn’t know about it, and we were told sometime later, “that was going to be your last release.” And we all went, “What!?”

Kobato: One day, the head of our agency told us so, and we were all surprised like, “are you serious!?”

SAIKI: Then, we all sighed, “aren’t we glad we made it further…” [laughs]. So, we’re here all because of “Thrill.”

――You can never guess what’s going to happen. Thinking back, other than the novelty of the band’s visual presentation, what do you think fascinated the overseas audience?

Kobato: I think the difference between our music and how we look is interesting to them. We got a lot of comments saying, “are they really playing those instruments!?” People were shocked seeing us girls dressed in cute clothes rocking the instruments. I think people aren’t still use to it.    

――So in that sense, without this winning strategy, you might have not been recognized, even if you still played good music.

Kobato: People overseas knew maids were a thing in Japanese culture, so many people were already curious about us. I think the video was effective.  

――I remember that’s how things worked in the 2010s.

SAIKI: We wouldn’t be here, if we didn’t put out that video.

――Were there any other interesting things people from abroad said to you?

Kobato: Yes, things like, “‘Thrill’ has an American rock vibe.” Also, each member has a unique persona, and since I was using Rickenbacker, someone said something like, “they are the Japanese Beatles!” [laughs]. Ever since SHOW-YA, there weren’t that many girls doing hard rock in Japan, so people were surprised when they saw us and said, “can’t believe there’s a rock band like this in Japan!”

Going worldwide was our goal from the start

――Before this interview, I re-read an interview I did with you five years ago for a different media, and it didn’t feel much different from now.

SAIKI: Oh wow [laughs].

Kobato: So, you mean we haven’t changed?

――You were saying things like you wanted to go international or “one day we want to be able to write songs on our own,” because back then, you were commissioning other songwriters to write your songs. So, what I meant was that you always had a clear vision of yourselves.  

Kobato: We had never imagined we’d be this far, but we’ve been saying that we want to go global and had a big goal since the beginning.

SAIKI: Other than the big goals, we talked about smaller goals as well, and we found out that all five of us unanimously wanted to do the same type of music, so that made us easy to move forward. You see, with bands, if there’s one member that’s off, that just messes up the entire band [laughs]. But with BAND-MAID, that has never been the case. 

Kobato: That’s true.

SAIKI: It may be weird to say this ourselves, but we’re all quite serious that people tell us, “You guys need to have more fun!” We’re determined and have a lot of pride in what we do, and I think that’s what’s good about us.

――Jrock Rock, that introduced the “Thrill” MV to the world, was the reason you decided to pursue hard rock, right?  

Kobato: That’s right!

SAIKI: We were so surprised [laughs].

Kobato: I know! All of the sudden, we had so many followers from abroad on our socials, and we were saying, “is our account hacked!?” But KANAMI first found out that it’s because of Jrock Radio [playing the “Thrill” MV on their show].

SAIKI: Yes.

Kobato: Then we were relieved like, “so glad, our account wasn’t hacked.” It was that random.

――So they played your music without giving you a heads up.

SAIKI: Apparently, they did write us an email, but it was in English and our manager at that time thought it was a “bad” email, so he just ignored it.  

Kobato: At that time, we weren’t doing anything to approach the international market, so we weren’t expecting to receive any email from abroad.

SAIKI: I wonder how they found out about us. I think I asked before, but I forgot [laughs].

Kobato: Me too.

The first overseas concert was in Mexico

――And that opportunity led you to perform outside of Japan, but at that time, you didn’t know much about how to perform on international stages. How did you deal with it?

SAIKI: In the beginning, it was a lot of work buying supplies for our international shows. We had no clue what we were able to buy abroad or what we had to bring from Japan.

Kobato: But thankfully, our first Okyu-ji (show) abroad was at a big event (Sakura-Con that was held in Seattle, Washington, in March 2016) and they had prepared most of the stuff we needed on site, so that made it easy for us. There were still couple things we later thought we needed, but we made note of that for next time.   

SAIKI: Though, we still need to work on our heavy baggage!

Kobato: We always take up so much time at the airport.

SAIKI: In the beginning, we used to take about six hours to check-in at the airport.

――What!? Is that when you had to fly for your first Okyu-ji in 2016?

Kobato: That’s right. It was the toughest when we had to fly for our show in Mexico. I was like, “gears can go in here…but wait, then my clothes won’t fit in the suitcase!” Back then, my suitcase wasn’t that big, so packing was crazy for me. I had to bring in a huge carryon bag. 

――By the way, it’s amazing how your first-ever overseas solo Okyu-ji was in Mexico.

Kobato: When we were suddenly told, “you guys are playing in Mexico,” our reaction was like, “what!? Mexico!?” Back then, we had more fans in Mexico than in the US.

After the Jrock radio thing, we increasingly got messages from people in Mexico, and a promoter in Mexico liked us a lot and told us, “Since you have so many fans in Mexico, we’d love for you to come to Mexico!” But we had never imagined that Mexico would be our first country, and we were told that it was going to be a thousand capacity venue. At that time, we hadn’t done shows that big even in Japan. So, we were like, “what if they [our masters and princesses] were just up in the front row?” But the actual show was packed, and we were so incredibly surprised!

SAIKI: We felt welcomed, and they were all raving, so we were able to have a great time.

Kobato: They were raving over all our songs.  

SAIKI: The crowd was different from the crowds in Japan, so in a good way, we felt a difference from our shows in Japan.

――Usually, artists gain confidence from performing in Japan, and then they’d be like, “alright, let’s go overseas!” But in BAND-MAID’s case, it’s the opposite—you came back gaining confidence from performing outside of Japan [laughs].

SAIKI: Because of our experiences overseas, we became strong-hearted, so even if trouble occurs during our tour in Japan, we’d be like, “it’s nothing compared to what we’ve been through before.” We’re like, “at least we can rehearse! We’re grateful!” [laughs].

Kobato: We’re also more appreciative of things like, “thank god, we can communicate in Japanese!”

SAIKI: The rehearsal before our overseas tour was like, “alright! We’re gonna do this!” [laughs].

Kobato: For overseas shows, we had a different motivation. We prepared without expecting to have rehearsals on site. We’ve experienced way too many troubles outside of Japan.  

SAIKI: But our world tour in 2019 was great.

Kobato: That was awesome!

SAIKI: That was our first successful tour, although there were many small troubles, like our amp was burning.

Kobato: Oh yeah, our amp burned. I smelled something burning, and it was the amp.  

SAIKI: That was in Dallas, US. But that’s about it.

――An amp burning is no big deal to you.

Kobato: After all, it became not much a big deal for us!  

Writing songs thinking of overseas and being particular with the Japanese lyrics

――Since you started touring overseas, do you think about overseas audience when writing songs?

Kobato: We do! Audience outside of Japan do a lot of call-and-response, so we decided to have more singalong songs, and with lyrics, we try to have more parts that are easier to sing even for people who don’t speak Japanese.

――But, you decided to keep singing in Japanese. Kobato: That’s right. In fact, many people abroad tell us that they like the songs in Japanese. There are a lot of people studying Japanese from our lyrics and asking us what the kanji used in our lyrics mean, so we were like, “let’s cherish the language, and keep writing in Japanese.”  

――In the past, people tended to think that they had to make the lyrics in English in order to go worldwide.

Kobato: We never cared from the beginning, and always wrote lyrics in Japanese.  

SAIKI: Since we’re Japanese, it’s easier to express the nuances and close to what we truly want to convey in Japanese. People can interpret the lyrics however they want, but we don’t want them to take the lyrics in the way we don’t intend, so in order to avert that risk, we choose to write in Japanese.

――It’s also easier to put out your emotions in Japanese.

SAIK: I agree. Hearing us live, people can feel the depth of the language through things like intonation. So, we will sing in English for the parts we want to express in English, and in Japanese for the parts we want to express in Japanese. Also, by doing so, we wanted to boost the level our freedom of expression.

――So, the parts in English are deliberately in English.

Kobato: That’s right. We decide like, “this part should be in English.”

SAIKI: There are different intonations in both English and Japanese. When we listen to a melody that KANAMI brings, the song is going to sound good if it’s made based on whether we think the song has an English vibe or a Japanese vibe. BAND-MAID songs are so calorie-consuming in general, with many words and notes, so we try to write lyrics that are easy for people to listen.  

PART2 

BAND-MAID
A hard rock band from Japan formed in 2013. Consisted of five members: Miku Kobato (guitar/lead singer), SAIKI (lead singer), KANAMI (guitar), AKANE (drums), and MISA (base). With their heavy rock sound, opposed to their appearance as maids, they are gaining fans and garnering media attention from all around the world, and have reached over 100-million total YouTube views. In 2019, they announced tour partnership with the world’s largest event promoter, Live Nation, and released the album, Conqueror, produced by the legendary rock producer, Tony Visconti. In January 2021, they released their 4^th album, Unseen World, and made an appearance in the Netflix original film, Kate, that came out in September. On September 6^th, they released “Sense (TV Size Ver.)”—an opening theme song for the TV anime series, Platinum End—on streaming platforms; a CD single of “Sense” is coming out on October 27^th. 

BAND-MAID「Sense TV Size Ver.」：https://lnk.to/Sense_TVSizehttps://bandmaid.tokyo
Twitter：@bandmaid
Facebook：＠BAND-MAID
Instagram：＠bandmaid.jp
YouTube：https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJToUvYrmkmTCR-bluEaQfA

Photography Akihito Igarashi（SIGNO）
Translation Ai Kaneda

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