BABYMETAL featured & interview on The Japan Times print edition July 18 issue

BABYMETAL was featured and interviewed on The Japan Times to promote their performance at Fuji Rock Festival on July 24 (Sunday). the feature includes a small appearance in the first page of the newspaper an a page including an interview with Su-Metal, Yuimetal and Moametal, check more details below. 

 

BABYMETAL was featured with article and interview on The Japan Times Digital Edition (Check here) and also in the print edition issue released on July 18 in the Music Section. In order to promote their performance at one of the Big 4 Festivals in Japan, Fuji Rock, The Japan Times wrote an article and had the chance to talk with BABYMETAL.

 

Below some quotes of the interview (Full article): 

Hard rock life: Metal-meets- idol-pop act Babymetal has figured out the right combination of marketing and music to score. In the run-up to Fuji Rock Festival, the event’s digital team will post video messages on YouTube from performers that are slated to play at the three-day gathering in the mountains of Niigata Prefecture. They tend to get, on average, around 1,000 views. This fact has held true for this year’s batch of clips, which find domestic staples such as Denki Groove (1,923 views) and non-Japanese headliners such as Sigur Ros (548 views) wishing the festival all the best on its 20th anniversary.

 

One brief message, however, has racked up just over 27,100 views since going up two months ago. Babymetal’s video for Fuji Rock — which finds the three teenage members of the group talking about how much it rains at the event and the quality of food — easily eclipsed any other artist video, and acquired more clicks than the much-anticipated first lineup announcement video from this spring (21,730 views).

 

The big news, however, was when this year’s “Metal Resistance” recorded the highest-ever position by a Japanese album on the British music charts and the U.S. Billboard Top 200, moving a respectable (for these days anyway) 12,914 units in its first week. At home, “Metal Resistance” sold 132,881 units and debuted on the Oricon album chart at No. 2, beaten only by J Soul Brothers latest album (the highest-selling of the year so far), and moving more units than several prominent boy bands.

 

“I was very happy when our fans raised up many different countries’ flags while we sang ‘The One’ at Wembley Arena,” Yui Mizuno, 17 years old and better known as Yuimetal, tells The Japan Times. Yuimetal, along with Suzuka Nakamoto (Su-Metal, 18) and Moa Kikuchi (Moametal, 17), are busy with schoolwork and prepping for the second half of their American tour, which runs until the Monday before their Sunday set on Fuji Rock’s White Stage. It’s the last major summer festival in Japan the trio have yet to play.

 

“I’ve heard Fuji Rock is a festival where you can enjoy music in nature, so I can’t wait to see that environment,” Su-Metal says.

 

 

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Article and interview by: The Japan Times. 

Read full interview BABYMETAL on The Japan Times, "Hard rock life", click here. 

Check BABYMETAL at Fuji Rock Festival: Show report, click here / Show photos, click here. 

Photos of the print edition by: Kaoi.