WOWOW interviewed BABYMETAL girls Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal to promote the exclusive WOWOW Broadcast next October 18 of the BABYMETAL show at Makuhari Messe on June 21 "Kyodai Tenkaichi Metaru Budokai" which is at the moment the biggest BABYMETAL show to date. The girls talk about the experience of the World Tour 2015, what are the differences with World Tour 2014, overseas food, the show in Mexico on May 9, the experience on June 21 at Makuhari Messe and what they expect for the shows at Yokohama Arena in December and Wembley Arena in April. Full interview translated below.
BABYMETAL talks about the World Tour 2015 with WOWOW
BABYMETAL is a metal dance unit who can boast a high profile and level of popularity not only in Japan, but also overseas.
Through their world tour in 2014, and the live show held in January 2015 at Saitama Super Arena "Shinshun Kitsune Matsuri" [New Year's Fox festival], starting from May in Mexico their "BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2015" will cross through 10 countries. In addition to solo shows, they will perform at renowned festivals, further increasing their experience.
"BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2015" started in May. During the first half of the tour you performed in Mexico, Canada, United States, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom. Could you tell us something that left an impression on you?
SU-METAL: "Yes, well this is our second world tour, and in addition to places like [North] America and Europe, which we visited previously, we went to South America for the first time. Personally, the show in Mexico really left a big impression on me. The way they react during the show is totally different when compared to the audience in Europe! In Europe, they all react together in sync with the songs and the music, but in Mexico it's sorts of like 'Are they watching us?' 'Are they listening to our song?' - like in a festival, everyone is partying freely as they please (laughs). At first I was surprised, but people from South America are cheerful, they have this 'it's all fine if I'm having fun' kind of feeling, so I understood it and I got a lot of power from the audience. It was really fresh."
While touring all these countries, is there something - aside from live shows - that left an impression, things like 'the food here was delicious'?
YUIMETAL: "When we go abroad to perform, we look forward to things like food as well. This time too, we ate lots of delicious things, but in particular I think German cuisine was delicious. Actually, during the previous world tour they told us in Germany sausage and potatoes is famous for being tasty, so we all went to a restaurant to eat it. It was really tasty, therefore this time in Germany we ate a lot of sausage and potatoes again."
You performed not only at solo shows, but also at festivals. At festivals lots of bands and artists perform, so I think you received lots of influences and motivation. Please tell us about your impressions.
MOAMETAL: "We had the opportunity to take part to 'Reading and Leeds Festivals 2015' in the UK. At Reading we could watch only a little of the other bands performing, but at Leeds we could watch the performance of bands like Marmozets, Bring Me the Horizon and Metallica. Among these the most impressive was Metallica. They are really cool, for sure.
In the past, we met them for the first time at Summer Sonic in Osaka, and after that, we could meet them at other festivals as well but our time schedules didn't really fit, and we could never watch their live shows properly. But at Leeds we finally had the chance to watch, therefore being [Metallica] the band who triggered our interest in metal, we really looked forward to it. And, not surprisingly, it was amazing. They made us think 'how can it be so much fun?', and it was really cool."
This is your second word tour. Comparing it to your previous "BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2014" do you think you have grown in some aspects?
MOAMETAL: "We completely lost all our nervousness. The feeling of performing 'away' turned into an enjoyable one. In the previous tour, when we performed abroad we were anxious, but when the audience gave us their positive reaction, during that moment we thought it could turn into something fun and enjoyable."
To close the first half of the tour, on June 21th at Makuhari Messe the BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2015 "kyodai tenka ichi Metal budou kai" took place. That performance will be broadcasted by WOWOW on the 18th of October. Looking back at that show, is there a scene in particular you would like to show to the viewers?
SU-METAL: "It's an all-standing with 25000 people. Really a lot of people went to the concert. During the show there's circle moshing in various places, being able to see the audience reacting in ways we couldn't see during our usual shows was really impressive.
The circle pits were amazing, but what moved me the most was the big chorus of 25000 people during Road of Resistance. "We all, becoming as one, we open up the 'one' road", when I heard everyone's chorus at such Road of Resistance, that gave me power. I would like all the viewers on TV to see this, but I'd like to see this scene again myself, as well! (laughs)"
On September 16th you started the "BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2015 in JAPAN" around the Zepp halls nationwide. Now (at the time of this writing) you are in the middle of this tour. What kind of tour is it going to be?
YUIMETAL: "Up to now, we made tours abroad but this is the first time in Japan. There's also several places we visited for the first time, it was really fun. Because of that we were also anxious, wondering if we could bring to all the people who waited for us something up to their expectations and more. But starting from Zepp Namba, even in the initial stage of our tour we could see everyone's faces showing their great enjoyment, so I thought it was good, riding on that momentum, to be able to tour around Japan."
Next on schedule is on December 12-13 a 2-days at Yokohama Arena. And then next year's April a live show is scheduled at Wembley (SSE Arena) in the UK. What kind of thing will you try to do there? Tell us about your enthusiasm.
SU-METAL: "The live at Yokohama Arena will bring the 2015 tour to an end, and this year we visited several countries, and we also made a tour in Japan. Therefore I think we will give our best in order to show our growth.
I still can't really believe we will perform at Wembley Arena (laughs). When we visited the UK, we went to a live show at Wembley. That moment we said "we wish we could do a live show in a place like this, one day!". And this has turned into reality. So we will work hard, and all these emotions we got when we watched the show that day, we would like to give them from the stage to all the people who will kindly come and watch us."
Translation by: gakushabak
