Rockin'On Magazine May 2016 release very special content about BABYMETAL including a very exclusive photoshoot (Check it out here), and 2 separate interviews, with Su-Metal and Moametal x Yuimetal. In this 8.000 characters interview with Yuimetal and Moametal, the girls talk about their connection and friendship through the years, experiences with BABYMETAL and more! Read the full interview translated below.
Rockin'On Magazine May 2016 separate interview with Yuimetal & Moametal
Following upon the Su-Metal interview we now bring you a joint interview with Yuimetal and Moametal.
-Watching these two at their live shows one gets the feeling that they really understand each other to what must be a very deep degree, or you could even say that there are things that make one think that it is more than that and that they ‘know’ each other and just kind of totally bypass the necessity to ‘understand’ one another. They seem, I can only say, to be in perfect synchronization with each other, that they seem to think with a single mind shared between the two of them. And I feel the most incredible thing about these two is that they both share the same stance of not questioning or fiddling around with the way Babymetal was formed or its concepts but rather totally devoted themselves to Babymetal right from its inception. I feel that it is correct to state things in that way.
In this interview we will go into the nature of this fate filled mission that they have shouldered themselves with.
To start off with, what kinds of things did you think about regarding the creation of this new album?
Moametal: "2 years have elapsed since we released the first album. And I felt that the fans must be waiting fervently for the next album. We worked to put our feelings and thoughts into each and every song and while some of them are totally new songs I was thinking how can we deliver these new songs to the fans and equal to that was the concern and pressure of how will we equal these songs that the fans have already heard and have even made it into the charts, and so there was a great sense of pressure. So there was a sense of unease but this was more than overbalanced by the feeling of feeling of fun knowing that everyone will love these new songs."
Yuimetal: "Since we have put out the first album and that has with each and every song been filled with the thoughts and memories of not only ourselves but also the fans there was a sense of uneasiness about whether the new album would be able to exceed the first album. However, when we would record each song I felt that there was so much fun and playfulness reflected in them that this flavor and depth of each song will be drawn out if at least in part by the Ai no Te parts of myself and Moametal. I think this new album is something that we can be confident in that it will be enjoyed by everyone."
Moametal: "We recorded many patterns for each song during the recording sessions, you see. And because of this we did not know which version would be included on the album and so when we listened to it it was like, ‘Ah, this is how it came together’, and ‘this is so interesting.’."
-It has been two years since you made your first album, right? Since that time the environment around you and all of the circumstances have changed, what do think, in light of your own feelings, has changed the most since then?
Moametal: "Our first album we often referred to as a type of replacement for business cards. We did our best to put our own style into that album and so in light of the fact that we had since then traveled around the world doing tours we really needed to show how much we have grown and developed in that period. You could say that it was a process where we tried our hand at some of the many varieties of genres that we came across at Festivals and other locations leading to this album having a wide span of differing songs on it. We approached it will the desire to fill up the album with the things we have challenged ourselves with in the past and to show how we have grown."
Yuimetal: "Making the 1st album we performed the songs that we were requested to play but with this album we would approach the songs with thoughts like, ‘What will the fans think when they listen to this song’, or, ‘This song will probably come out like this or that when we perform it at a show’, and I think our imaginative involvement with the album attests to our growth."
-Do you mean you can envision the faces of the fans?
Moametal: "It has gotten easier to imagine how things will be. Also, I think there are a lot of songs that have a strong message aspect to them on this album but we have learned how to even in light of that to sing and perform without putting our feelings into the songs. Instead we have chosen to sing the songs with a flaring up, or passionate feel them."
-The two of you do many of your performances as one and not separately as two. Listening to this album I thought to ask you how do you each think of the other?
Moametal: "Up to now we have always done our ‘Ai no Te’ parts together but with this new album we sing parts separate from each other at times. In ‘Tales of The Destinies’ there is a part where we perform in three separate parts. Since we have always up to now performed our joint parts together in harmony I felt that with this trio we have grown and devoloped."
Yuimetal: "That is true that with this album it is the first time for us to perform our parts singularly."
Moametal: "Right? Since that had never happened before we were a bit happy about it."
-I would imagine that when you perform so many live shows that you come to see how each of you have changed. How do you feel about that?
Moametal: "When you meet your aunt after a long time you can see how she has changed, right? But with your own family since you are together all the time you don’t notice how they have changed, right? It is like that. Since we are together almost everyday and we are both growing and changing we don’t know how the other has changed. But, when it comes to the live performances I can depend on her without doubt. I feel at ease just with her next to me. I truly feel that she is a huge presence for me."
Yuimetal: "For myself as well, since we are always meeting each other there are very few occasions when I feel that she has changed. But as far as sensing, ‘Ah, this is not the usual Moametal’, or, ‘She is not so happy right now’, or, ‘I think this is how she is feeling now’, for those things I feel I know her better than anyone else (laughs)."
Moametal: "Fufufufu….(laughing)"
-You are able to sense those kinds of things?
Moametal: "Yes, we know those things. Because we are always together."
-Right, and I think that you two are doing something that is truly difficult. What I mean when I say difficult is that it will not do to have either of you stand out excessively. You have to do things to the maximum level for each of you respectively while maintaining the overall balance between you. You can’t have ‘Just Yuimetal’, or ‘Just Moametal’ taking the spotlight, you have to standout equally as a two person set. And on the other side of things, at certain times you both have to slip into the background at the same time. I think that the moment that balance goes off kilter is the moment that your magic would fall apart. I would guess that the two of you achieve that balance without paying particular attention to it but if what I have said drums up any thoughts, please let us hear them.
Moametal: "No, not really."
Yuimetal: "Nope."
-(Laughs) Is that right?
Yuimetal: "I have never been consciously aware of anything like that. So, when I was listening to you it was like, ‘Wow!’. It is most likely just that while we are not twins, we have just always been two people that function as one and that was from when we first met."
Moametal: "Yes."
Yuimetal: "To us that is just a natural matter of course. We have never given any thought to one or the other of us has to be this way or that. However, if that means that it is something that we are doing on an subconscious level then that would make me very happy."
Moametal: "(Laughs) Thank you very much."
-But, it must be with the sense of trust you have for each other that when Yuimetal feels a certain way, for example, she must feel that Moametal certainly feels things like so and so, right? I get the sense that the two of you have developed your own way of communicating between yourselves that is only for you.
Moametal: "I do feel that. Like when we are listening to Kobametal speak I think to myself, ‘Ah, Yuimetal is surely thinking such and such as well’ and when I glance secretly at her I find that she is grinning making me think that we are thinking the same thing."
-I see. That is something that happens to you?
Yuimetal: "Yes, things like that happen sometimes."
Moametal: "(Laughs) Yes, they do."
Yuimetal: "Yeah, and sometimes our opinions are different from other people, right? When that happens I think, ‘Ah, it is most likely that Moametal is thinking of me right now’ and when I look over at her she is looking back at me and we make eye contact like that."
Moametal: "Fufufu….(Laughing)"
-How is it during live performances? For example, if one of you is really hyped up and really going at it, but knowing that things will fall apart if you alone charge on like that, do you check on the other’s state of affairs and try to line things up?
Moametal: "Really in live shows for the vast majority of the time we are totally engrossed in a mindless performance oriented absorption. There are very few points in time when we come back to our senses. On the rare occasions when I feel we must calm things down a bit and I look at Yuimetal’s face I see that she is thinking, I feel, the same thing."
Yuimetal: "Yes. There are times in the live shows when our eye contact timing matches up absolutely perfectly. On those occasions I always get the sense that, ‘Oh, today’s show is going to be a doozy’. This is a way we can verify our team work and so if I am feeling things are getting a bit too much for me in the middle of a live performance I can just look at their eyes and get power from them. At that time they pick up on the fact that I am having a tough time, so if one of us is not in the best of spirits the other two will help to restore her to a powerful state by making eye contact like that. The existence of these two girls is an extremely big thing to me."
-What there some kind of factor that served as a trigger for this type of communication between you in this manner?
Moametal: "Probably because we have been together for so much and for so long that this type of communication just naturally developed, I would say. For example, at times one of us will screw up on something. The ability to cover for the one who made a mistake is a kind of power that came out of that way of communicating, I feel."
-You must feel very mentally confident now that you have obtained that kind of power.
Moametal: "Yes, we feel very strong and confident."
-So, Babymetal now has that strong confidence and a sense of unity that goes beyond words, right? I feel that that is the most important thing for you. I would really like to hear you speak about what kinds of experiences you went through that created this kind of relationship amongst yourselves.
Moametal: "I think there were mountains that we had to climb over. I feel there were many mountains that could only be traversed by the three of us, by this team. Some examples of those would be the Budokan shows, and places like Mexico and Italy on last year’s World tour-all of these were very difficult experiences for us to overcome. We could do it with this team work and because of these hardships this team work grew in size by order of magnitude, I feel."
Yuimetal: "Instead of isolating one instance I would say that it is because we have overcome so many difficulties in so many shows and because the time time we share colored with the same kinds of emotions that we have been able to create such a strong sense of unity and trust between us."
-The live performances of Babymetal are truly amazing, aren’t they? They have a feeling of, ‘We are going to carry this show with this energy right up to the end’. I believe there are things that each of you for yourself have that you feel are the obstacles that you need to make it over. And with each and every show you manage to clear those difficulties. There is something that you draw out of yourselves to make it through to the end of each of these shows. I feel that that something has some kind of deep connection to your mutual relationship with one another. Like you must say to yourself that things are tough for Moametal, and things are tough for Yuimetal. I think that this is something that doesn’t happen by chance but is a quality that is only born out by the relationship that the two of you have.
Yuimetal: "At the present time the group known as Babymetal is becoming a really big thing, right? Involved in this I feel the that there is an increase in what is demanded of us and a heightening of our sense of responsibility. But that load is not something that I carry alone and when I realize that it is also shared equally by Moametal and Su-metal, I feel that the three of us together can plow ahead even farther. If something happened and we did not have this two person relationship I feel that I would not be able to do anything."
Moametal: "I feel the same. If this relationship of us as two people working together were to go away I wouldn’t know what to do after that. We can’t envision what the end of Babymetal would be like, right? I think that if we could know how Babymetal will eventually end it would not be very interesting. I personally really like this Babymetal that just flies on ahead without giving consideration for how it will all end. I like this Babymetal that believes it can we can do so much because of the team we are. And so I want to keep plowing ahead into the future with the team we have."
-What do the two of you think about during the live performances? Or, is it that you don’t think anything?
Moametal: "Basically, I just dance without thinking about anything. However, there are moments when I suddenly come back to myself. When that happens I suddenly can’t remember how to choreography goes for a part even though I have danced it for what seems like forever of the past five years (laughs). Because I have had experiences like that I try to not think in my head and just try to enjoy things through my body."
Yuimetal: "I don’t think about hardly anything on stage as well. I have no memory of what happens during a live show and I think that is because I am under the influence of ‘having the Fox God descend and merge with me’. When I am my usual, day to day self I tend to draw back into myself and lose confidence so easily and quickly, but when I am on stage as Yuimetal I get the sense that I can do anything. Those times when I am totally free from a sense of a personal self and absorbed totally in the performance and I am just performing without sense of deliberately being conscious of anything- those times I truly love."
-Incidentally, Su-Metal was saying the same things as you. There is a separate entity known as Su-Metal and this Su-Metal is able to do things that her ordinary self can not do on her own. Do the two of you have that kind of sense as well?
Yuimetal: "I think almost all of what I do I could not do not being Yuimetal. My ordinary self could not do that, you know, the things we do (laughs). When I look at video images of our live shows there are times when I think, ‘Wow, that is what we were doing!’. I am so happy to be able to see this kind of a new me every time we do a live show."
Moametal: "I really think that Babymetal is place where I can find a new ‘me’ as every time we do a live performance there are moments in the show where I think to myself, ‘Wow, I didn’t know there was this kind of ‘me!’. There are times where I am surprised that there is a me who can dance in this or that way, or a me who can bring excitement to the audience in this kind of fashion. At the Yokohama Arena shows I was doing a kind of movement that I usually don’t do in ‘Catch me if you can’ and found a new and interesting way to hide. I was really surprised when I watched a video of it later."
-One thing that Su-Metal said that amazed me was she said that she has a sense when things are going really well where she can she what she will be doing 1 or 2 seconds before she does them.
Moametal: "Oh, wow!"
-She said that she usually has a feeing of being led by something. And she knows that this will be well received by the fans as well.
Moametal: "I see."
-There is a way of seeing the world that is uniquely Babymetal and when the way she thinks about how to act out that world view and her own sense of being get blended in a perfect balance she says that something explosive happens. At least that is how think she meant her words to say when talking about this. Do the two of you have something like this?
Moametal: "Speaking honestly, Moametal doesn’t have so much a sense of being led by something. How should I put it? That is why I think what Su-Metal is saying is so incredible. More than being led by someone, the sense of walking with my own two legs is a stronger sense for Moametal. Babymetal is a group that doesn’t look back at the past-it is a group that doesn’t get attached to what has happened before, I think. Babymetal is a group that thinks more about the future than the past and I feel that it is really cool that it is plowing ahead into the future rapidly and surely by its own power. And so I want to also advance ahead by my own two legs. I don’t think about what will be well received by the world but because of the members that make up Babymetal I quite sure that we will continue to get more and more interesting. There many, many times when I am able to think that we can move ahead like that with the members that we are now."
-How about Yuimetal?
Yuimetal: "I feel the same way. The three of us talk amongst ourselves and we are well aware that we must do our utmost best as the three of us when we are performing. Because once we take our places on the stage it is only the three of us and so we have the feeling that we have to make things work through the efforts of the three of us. But as we travel around on tours the distance between us and the staff and the Kami Band keeps getting closer and closer and so through this process I have come to realize deeply that it is all of the people who are involved with Babymetal and ourselves who are creating these shows. Now when we do live shows we have the Kami Band standing behind us and if I look back sometimes our eyes meet. And that kind of team work gets stronger and stronger the more we perform together. I would hate to think of not being a member of this band. The desire to spread Babymetal as far as possible as it is with the members we have now gets stronger everyday."
-You really fly around wildly in the live performances, don’t you? Why do go at it so hard?
Moametal: "I wonder why myself."
Yuimetal: "That is true when to step back and think about it. I would certainly not be able to do that as my ordinary self."
Moametal: "Yeah, that would not be possible. But, there is the fact that we are enjoying it. The live shows seem so much shorter than the rehearsals, you know. They are over in a flash. Since it is so interesting creating Babymetal during the roughly 1 and 1/2 hours and that must be why we are able to fly around like that."
-You mean you know just what a great feeling it is so you are able to move around like that?
Moametal: "Yes, it an incredibly good feeling. Whether we play in a small venue or a big one our feelings for the live shows doesn’t change. We treat each show with great importance and because we have had so much fun in the past, this sense of fun piles up higher and higher and develops rapidly into new versions of our shows. Because of that it feels like a split second of time."
-How about Yuimetal?
Yuimetal: "I think it is because I am not alone. If it was just myself on stage I could never perform like that, but because everyone is there with me it is possible. When we have flown around on stage like that and make it to the end without losing that energy, that moment is the greatest feeling. It is a feeling of achievement for performing successfully you could say, of a sense of satisfaction for how the show went. So, even when I feel things are getting a bit difficult in a live show I remind myself that that moment will soon be upon me and I am able to carry on."
-What Su-Metal was saying a bit ago is that during your first solo performance and things were getting rather tough….there is the scene in ‘Ijime, Dame, Zettai’ where the two of you fight, right? When she saw the two of you giving it your utmost best she thought to herself, ‘I really have to up my game!’.
Moametal: "Whoa, I am happy to hear that (laughs)."
-I believe that the two of you have that kind of power. It is like you believe in something without a hint of doubt, or you could say that you do not allow yourselves to admit that you are tired out and just focus intently on ‘making it through to the end no matter what’. You have a power like that.
Yuimetal: "Yes, and I am was so happy to hear that Su-Metal said that she got energized by watching Yuimetal and Moametal’s fight scene and also, I think the same holds for myself as well. When I am feeling a bit overwhelmed in live show and look over and see Moametal and see that, ‘Oh, Moametal is giving it her best!’, I am motivated to put myself into the same kind of state. And when are off stage when Su-Metal is doing her solo songs I think to myself that now Su-Metal is on stage doing her best. I also get power by realizing when I hear the sounds of the band through my ear monitor that they are also giving it their all. Because all of the people around me are moving on ahead taking care of things I know that it will not do if I stand still. I don’t want to be left behind and I want to catch up with everyone."
Moametal: "It could be a sense of having a mission to do. Also, I don’t want to leave the stage, you see. Leaving the stage is not a possibility for me so I have to keep going. Also, no matter how tough things get, I love Su-Metal’s singing voice, you know. And so, when we exit the stage and and Su-Metal starts singing a solo song like ‘Akatsuki’ I get hit with a burst of fatigue but that tiredness is also a part of a time where I feel happy. It is because of things like that that I can lose myself totally into the performances and keep doing my best."
-You said ‘I don’t want to leave the stage’ with a very fervent feel to your voice. That must be a source of power and that when all is said and done becomes the belief and strength possessed by the group known as Babymetal. People who do not allow themselves to choose not to do their best in these tough situations are the kind of people who are able to think to themselves from the outset, ‘I will never lose my way. I will give it my all’.
Moametal: "I think that is absolutely right. The choice to retreat back is not there for us, or, at any rate not there for me. I believe that there is something waiting for us up ahead on the road and so all that is left for me to do is to do my best, to enjoy what we are doing. So I think that is how it is."
-You know what it is that is waiting for you, right?
Moametal: "Fun and enjoyment is waiting for us."
Yuimetal: "The altitude in Mexico is way too high so the amount of energy and stamina we had to use in the show was ridiculously huge when compared with our usual shows. I was really apprehensive about whether we could actually do a live show there and I was very uneasy about it, but the thought of giving up never crossed my mind. I only ever have the single choice of doing my best. And it is that kind of Babymetal that I love. When I am Yuimetal I am able to always think in a positive manner. I want things to continue like that. I feels like when I am Yuimetal I can be strong and dignified. It is truly a mysterious thing."
-It is like you are casting a magic spell on yourself and moving ahead. I think that all three of you have that kind of sense about you. How do you feel about that?
Moametal: "I feel like I am wide awake you could say. There are times when I feel I am not myself."
-And that is a good feeling, right?
Moametal: "Yes, it is a good feeling (laughs). No matter how tired I may get and now matter how else you look at it, I know once we have completed a show there will be a fun, happy feeling waiting there. And that always surprises me. I will continue to do my best."
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Scans: BABYMETAL photoshoot for Rockin'On Magazine May 2016, check here.
Read: Rockin'On 15.000 characters separate interview with Su-Metal, click here.
Get your copy of Rockin'On Magazine May 2016, click here. and here.
