Kobametal interviewed: BABYMETAL in the studio, popularity and negative press

BABYMETAL Producer Kobametal was interviewed by Colin of MyFoodeeBlog at the Brixton Academy in London, England on November 8 of 2014. Kobametal talks about BABYMETAL songs, working in the studio, future songs for Moametal and Yuimetal, popularity and negative press. Read the full interview below. 

Does the sudden interest in Babymetal surprise you?

Kobametal: "It does. Mmmmmmmmmm. YES!"

But why does it surprise you?

Kobametal: "Well… I thought it might have taken a little more time. But the Internet, YouTube and more, the power of these things is so much I think. I was surprised that Babymetal spread so rapidly like, BOOOOM. Every audience knew even though we haven’t had a single live show there before."

There are many other Babymetal songs, but why do you think Gimme Choco proved so popular?

Kobametal: "Well it’s because – the lyrics have – English nuances? And the rhythm, the rhythm of the song is catchy? The lyrics in Japanese mean almost nothing. The song is almost just notes and a melody which makes its sound more enjoyable. So those characteristics might be why it was more accepted. And the dancing, or combination of the dance and melody might attract many fans."

When I first saw Gimme Choco, it was information overload and I couldn’t understand it at first. What are your thoughts?

[This gets slightly garbled by Nora, bless: when he watched a footage of Gimme Choco for the first time, he got interested because it was too complicated; there were too many elements tightly packed. What is it?… What on earth is it…? That’s the image he remembered the most]

Kobametal: "Well… Hum… that was what actually happened. But some of another songs by Babymetal are more complicated, even chaotic, so in my mind it is a simple one, I thought (laugh)."

Nora: He thinks that the band takes the visual side seriously. And there is a genre called Visual-Key, is it? Is Babymetal categorised as another form of Visual-Key?

Kobametal: "Yes, I think so."

Nora: Then, is there no influence from it?

Kobametal: "Hmm… well… some motives we took from it but Babymetal are different."

What did you first see in Yuimetal and Moametal that made you choose them?

Kobametal: "The reason…? Only the Fox God knows!"

As Yuimetal and Moametal grow up, how is the image of the band going to change?

Kobametal: I don’t know at the moment.

We heard that the song Megitsune took about 30 takes to get right. Is this because you are a perfectionist? And do you know how a song should sound when you first hear it or do you know when it’s right only when you hear the right version? [for Kubrik fans out there]

Kobametal: "Well, the retakes you mentioned are not about vocals but about the arrangements. We tried different arrangements again and again. It’s the our routine for all songs. Yes, we did arrangements again and again. It might be because Babymetal songs are different from others’; in the case of other Idol units in Japan, it’s often the case that one dedicated track-maker writes a song on their own, then the person hands it to a singer saying “Sing it, please.” Then the singer sings it just once and it all ends. That is a standard procedure.

But Babymetal build up all of their songs by all the band members via multiple sessions. We do that even when our band member don’t meet. Between some of our sessions we often communicate [via email or phone call, but the translation is ambiguous] like “Let’s change the drumming like this” and “Let’s change the guitar like that.” So it needs many arrangements. In a word, it is because we goes to our studio again and again and do a lot of pre-production work."