GrindHouse Magazine released a very deep interview with the girls before going to London, England to perform at Wembley Arena. They talk about their experience gained in the last 2 years since the their first World Tour in 2014, meeting Metallica and Bring The Horizon, yummy food in Germany and many more! Read the full interview translated below.
BABYMETAL Interviewed on GrindHouse Magazine
During these two years, BABYMETAL has grown a lot! The girls will talk about this path themselves!! Soon we are approaching the release date of the long-awaited new work 'METAL RESISTANCE'. An even bigger explosion for Japan of course, but there's no doubt something is happening here and there in the West as well. We asked BABYMETAL about these two years.
-- Exactly two years have passed from the release of the album 'BABYMETAL'. During this time you toured in Japan and you also went many times abroad, and appeared more and more in festivals. Looking back, how do you see those two years?
Su-Metal: "Two years ago is when we did the concert at Budoukan I guess, we didn't start touring abroad yet, so in that sense I feel we really did a lot of live shows. We improved so much that I almost can't believe 'BABYMETAL' was out two years ago. I have grown so much when it comes to BABYMETAL, that I feel a great difference between my actual self going around the world, and the view of myself from two years ago.
I can feel the fact that BABYMETAL has become widely known, the way we deal with music has also changed. Two years before it was like - if I had to say it - 'we have to do the live show', but now it's more like 'we want to do the live show'. We learned how to enjoy our performances and also the strength of the bond between us three has grown stronger in these two years, I think.
The chances to interact with the staff during the tour have increased as well, it's not just ourselves but we really feel supported by the staff members, and we can feel anew what it means to be able to see the audience during a live show. I think we had the opportunity to grow in many ways."
Moametal: "As Su-Metal has just said, the impression that these two years went by so fast, is very strong. I guess the fans have been waiting all this time for new works and live shows, but I think the songs gathered during these two years, and the endurance we gained during this time, made us steadily level-up and after these two years have passed, I really look forward to seeing where we will go in the future!"
Yuimetal: "I guess I'm going to repeat what the other two just said, but looking back at these two years, there were so many important things that I feel they are overflowing (laughs)
I think it has been a long time, but we frantically ran along the stream of those two years, therefore it feels like the blink of an eye, it's hard to express it in words. It's almost exactly two years since we started going around in foreign countries, and going abroad and being in contact with people who think in a totally different way than how I used to think, made me change my point of view greatly.
People who listened to BABYMETAL songs breaking the language barriers, the friendship between Japanese people and foreigners, the fact that we could perform at BABYMETAL shows, while personally experiencing a world that has become one. The feeling about BABYMETAL has gradually become stronger and stronger. I also think the sense of responsibility about going abroad and being myself part of BABYMETAL has increased during these two years."
-- Your experience has increased abroad by performing shows in big and small venues, your mental horizon has widened, and your knowledge has increased as well. But this isn't something anyone could experience. With the experience from these two years, you could feel your actual growth, but by experiencing many things not everyone could experience, didn't you feel the change from being 'girls' to being 'adult women'?
Su-Metal: "To begin with, Japan's common sense doesn't really apply abroad (laughs) On this side, we were supposed to be prepared for that, but going there all of a sudden many things changed, and we had to deal with it. Even this has been an experience for us I think.
The way of thinking of people over there is fundamentally different, so sometimes even when talking with them, we realized the things we imagined ended up as being different from what we thought, and I think we could also grow by getting to know a new world. More than anything else, over there the age gap is almost nonexistent. When we were having lunch at a cafe, a little girl who could have been in elementary school looked at us like having the impression we were her juniors lol... and people who really looked to us like young ladies were in fact younger than us, really it was difficult to tell people's age. Over there there's a lot of kids who have a sense of responsibility and act reliably, by looking at them we felt we had to be dependable as well. According to countries, we were also dealt with as adults so in this sense I think we could realize we were closer to adulthood."
Moametal: "The first time we went abroad with these members was in Singapore, at that time we realized many differences with kids the same age as ours, so we felt we were becoming a bit more like adults. But then recently the occasions to tour abroad increased, and we could fully realize our way of thinking was really different. Even if I could experience from the heart the fact that music is a worldwide thing, feeling it for real is a fairly difficult thing, isn't it. But by doing live shows abroad I could think that music is really an amazing thing, and by increasing my passion in several ways I started thinking I wanted to do my best more and more, the three of us together as a team, and I guess this is also connected to our growth, isn't it."
Yuimetal: "Really, I think that we have really grown in several ways, but right now I think I would like to grow even more. When I was abroad, actually even if I had many chances to talk, I couldn't talk with foreigners, even though I had the occasion I let it go away many times. Next is our third World Tour, so I'd like to go forward more willingly, if I could grow more of my own accord it would be a nice thing."
-- European countries share their borders but people's traits, food, customs and environment change greatly. What was the country you liked most while touring?
Moametal: "For me, it's Germany. I really love their food. It's really delicious DEATH!
In Germany I could celebrate my seitansai. When we go abroad, we mostly do interviews and live shows, so we don't really have much time for sightseeing, but when it comes to eating food, I think I could see the merits of this country. I really loved German food and I think it's delicious."
-- Talking of veal cutlets, I know about Wiener Schnitzel (laughs)
Moametal: "Wow! Did you eat it?"
Su-Metal: "I ate schnitzel"
-- 5 minutes walking from Köln station, there's a restaurant along the river where schnitzel is really good.
Su-Metal: "I'm taking notes! (laughing)"
Moametal: "I'd like to go!"
Su-Metal: "The place I liked the most was New York. In that city, the number of people who look like they were born and raised there is small. Tourists and working people come from several places, everyone is open and they start talking when they first meet you. Even if you don't understand English, maybe the other person is not a native English speaker, so even when you don't know what to say you try to start talking. The town itself is really stimulating, before that I had been in Singapore, in Asia, but New York was the first western place I have been to, we went there even before going to Europe, so when we went for the first time, the surprise was really big."
-- You have the expression 'melting pot' and New York surely is a melting pot of races and cultures.
Su-Metal: "Yes, it is so. Therefore when I go there I feel it's a stimulating place."
Yuimetal: "For me, the country that left an impression is France. It's the place where Yuimetal's seitansai took place. So the day of the live, there were people who kindly showed 'Yuimetal happy birthday' banners, and at the encore they sang 'Happy Birthday' for me. Before the live, the staff members prepared a cake as surprise celebration, I think it's a place full of warmhearted people. Being surrounded by such people, I thought that country is really good. And also the townscape is totally different than Japan, there's a lot of castles and it's incredibly beautiful, when I was walking around I felt like I was inside a movie, and I was really happy so I'd like to go there many times."
-- Performing at festivals abroad, you could share the same stage with famous artists, like Judas Priest. Seen by your point of view, rather than senpais they are probably at the 'grandpa' level (laughs) Which artist was the most fun, among those you've met up to now? Who was friendly when you first met, and whom you could get on good terms with, without getting nervous?
Moametal: "What comes right now into my mind, is the first time we met Metallica's Kirk san at Summer Sonic. When we met for the second time in Canada at Montreal, I was so happy he remembered about us. We couldn't really talk to each other, but I think it was pleasant. And also, we performed many times in festivals with Bring Me The Horizon, we also were together at the awards, and we had a lot of occasions to take pictures together. When we performed at festivals in the UK we talked a bit, they told us we'll give you a T shirt... I'm happy they kindly talked to us."
Su-Metal: "For me, I guess it's Metallica as well. We met them at Summer Sonic in Oosaka, it was in 2013, which means three years ago. That year we were appearing in Japanese festivals for the first time, when we met them we had just started and we didn't know much about metal. We met them before the live, so at first we thought they were some kindhearted old men (laughs)"
-- Metallica, some kindhearted old men? (Laughs)
Su-Metal: "Thinking about it now, it was an amazing thing, but at that time we still didn't know anything (lol)
After that, we went to Metallica san's live show, and I remember we were so shocked that we had just met such amazing people. When we first met them, they were really friendly when they talked to us, but the gap when we watched them at the live was so great, to the point you could think it was different people. The way they moved looked really cool, and also the feeling they could really involve the audience. They were totally different from the backstage, I thought that gap was really cool, and it left a big impression."
-- On the occasion of the live report about last year's Yokohama Arena show, we wrote about Moametal's comment that said: 'When we performed as BABYMETAL for the first time, we had no idea about what metal is'. Since then time has passed, and you did a lot of activity, did you get to know about metal?
Moametal: "We are the 'BABYMETAL' style of metal, I guess, and honestly I don't know whether that can be called 'true' metal or not (laughs)
We could take part to many and many festivals, and had the occasion to watch Slipknot's and Slayer's live shows, we had more and more chances to think about what metal truly is. Honestly, I don't listen much to this kind of music, so I think I can't understand it properly. But recently metal isn't much popular, right? And I don't like this. I think I would really like BM to make metal popular once again in Japan."
-- It was impressive to see, among all the fans on the way to Yokohama Arena, the number of girls with twin tails. I really felt a lot of fans would like to be closer to BABYMETAL, even a little bit. I can really understand the metal uniqueness of BABYMETAL we talked about before. How do you react to this strong longing and expectation by the fans, and the fact that this is becoming a phenomenon?
Su-Metal: "Honestly I'm happy. When BABYMETAL had just started, if I had to say, there were more idol fans. But when we started going to festivals, people who like metal music became fans as well. And also, on YouTube there was an increasing number of people who uploaded videos doing the choreo of Gimme Choko. From then, ranging from people our age, to people who are much younger, and recently even older generations they kindly come and see our live shows."
-- It's really a wide range of people.
Su-Metal: "Yes, that's right. I'm really glad to see the image of the gradually increasing fans."
-- How is it? Looking from the stage, you see there's a lot of girls with the same twin tails.
Yuimetal: "I'm really happy. Even during the shows I keep thinking things like, that girl is kawaii (Laughs)"
-- You move around so much, and yet it's amazing how you have the margin to look clearly at the audience (laughs)
Yuimetal: "At festivals, many times we are 'away', but at first glance I know it's BABYMETAL's audience and I try to do my best at watching them."
Moametal: "I'm absolutely happy. Honestly, I still can't believe it. I'm so happy that girls our age try to imitate us. I take that as admiration, but when I think about that, I think we must really give our best for those people."
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Intervew by: GrindHouse Japan
Translation by: Gakushabaka
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