Billboard Japan

Two all-women rock bands hailing from different countries — Japan’s BAND-MAID and Mexico’s The Warning — got together to record a collaborative single called “SHOW THEM,” due Wednesday (Aug. 7). The members of the two groups hit it off after first meeting at a U.S. music festival where both bands performed in 2022.

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In this rare chat with all the members of both bands — five from BAND-MAID and the three sisters from The Warning — in attendance, the women who continue to blast out hard rock for fans around the world spoke about their respect for each other’s music and the process of recording their new single together.

Your bands first met when you performed at the Aftershock Festival in California in 2022, right?

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Miku Kobato (Guitar/Vocals): Yes. We performed on the same day, and the members of The Warning found us and said hi while we were doing an interview there. They said, “Let’s do something together” and we were like, “We’d love to!” We hit it off and had a great time.

Daniela Villarreal Vélez (Guitar/Vocals/Piano): I’d wanted to meet BAND-MAID all day that day.

Paulina Villarreal Vélez (Drums/Vocals/Piano): BAND-MAID are great musicians and I’ve loved them for a long time.

AKANE (Drums/Percussion): That makes me so happy!

Kobato: We also became really curious about The Warning after our bands joined the lineup at the Aftershock Festival, po. I thought it was so cool how three sisters are in a band together, po.

MISA (Bass/Vocals): There’s a groove that can only come from sisters, isn’t there?

KANAMI (Guitar/Vocals): They’re so synchronized, on the same wavelength. It’s something we can’t imitate. 

Daniela: We’re very close and share a sisterly bond.

Paulina: We try to be aware of clearly separating our time as sisters from our time as band members, so I think there’s a good balance there. But we did just have a fight this morning. [Laughs]

Alejandra Villarreal Vélez (Bass/Vocals/Piano): We often clash when we’re composing. We each come up with a lot of different ideas, so sometimes we get into big arguments. [Laughs] But we fundamentally have a good relationship and make up quickly.

What do the members of The Warning find compelling about BAND-MAID?

Daniela: Japanese rock and the rock you hear in the U.S. and Mexico are the same genre but they sound completely different. That’s the main reason why I was drawn to BAND-MAID’s music. I also like the fact that they put a very high level of technique into their music.

Paulina: AKANE and I have totally different playing styles, so there were some phrases that were hard for me but I really enjoyed practicing them. BAND-MAID helped us grow and I appreciated that.

AKANE: Wow… I want to return those exact same words to you! [Laughs]

Alejandra: MISA also has a different style from mine, and I think her performance is awesome. I find it really amazing how she can combine parts where she plays with a pick and parts where she slaps in a song, and it’s so fascinating. Tell me how you can play like that. [Laughs]

Daniela: And of course, I think SAIKI and Kobato’s voices are really great, too. It must be the difference in language, but Japanese is unique in that the melody changes one letter at a time, and it’s really amazing how they can sing that so well. I got a lot of inspiration from the vocal side as well.

By the way, do you know why Kobato ends her sentences with “po”? [Translator’s note: Kobato has a signature way of speaking in Japanese, ending sentences with “po,” an onomatopoeia expressing the call of a pigeon. The kanji for Kobato is “little pigeon.”]

SAIKI (Lead vocals): Tell them why you say “po.” Tell them who you really are.

Kobato: I’m Kobato, meaning I have a little bit of pigeon in me, po. That’s why I end sentences with “po,” which is the sound a pigeon makes, po. 

Daniela: So it’s pigeonese. [Everyone laughs] I caught that just now. “Narimashita, po.”

Kobato: [Laughs] It feels like we’ve become a little closer again, po.

Let’s talk about your collaborative single, “SHOW THEM.” How did the production process go?

Kobato: KANAMI first came up with the foundation of the song. We started off by having the members of The Warning listen to it.

KANAMI: We wanted to venture out and make a song that would bring out new aspects of each band for this single, and that’s how “SHOW THEM” came about. Everyone in The Warning made changes to the demo I made. Then we made new suggestions in response to that, and repeated the process over and over again until the song was finished.

Daniela: When we heard the demo that KANAMI made, we were very surprised because it was completely different from the direction of our usual music. But we soon began to enjoy figuring out how to mix our own colors into it.

The lyrics are credited to Miku Kobato and The Warning.

Kobato: Yes, po. Since this was a collaboration between two all-women bands, we first discussed making the song about rising to the top together by depicting a strong female figure who can fight in the world.

Paulina: While we started off by sharing that lyrical concept, there were times we interpreted things differently because of the cultural differences between our countries. But when we came to Japan and worked on the lyrics together, it felt like we were on the same page. The nuances that Kobato was looking for became clear.

Kobato: By talking face to face, we were able to understand each other down to the smallest details, po.

Did you record the music together in Japan?

KANAMI: Yes. But we didn’t have much time, so BAND-MAID recorded beforehand and The Warning recorded later. I basically directed the performances, and the three of them were really great. We were done in no time.

Paulina: We didn’t actually play until after we arrived in Japan, but did a lot of mental rehearsals on the plane.

Alejandra: Yeah. We listened to the song over and over.

AKANE: My passion towards performing has really intensified through our collaboration with The Warning. I feel so pumped now and don’t know how to handle it. [Laughs]

Paulina: It was a great experience for us, too, and gave us tremendous motivation.

How did the vocal recording go?

SAIKI: It was my first time recording with another person, so everything was inspiring. I also discovered a lot of things by singing while listening to someone pronounce English really well up close.

Daniela: The melody and prosody are different from our usual songs, so everything was a challenge. But it was really fun to try something new!

SAIKI: The key was really high, too. We both did well!

KANAMI: I really like vocals that make an effort in a higher key, so I might have given them both a hard time. [Laughs] But the result was really satisfying so I’m happy about that.

Your bands became closer through this collaboration, so it’d be great if you could do something together again.

Kobato: Since The Warning came to Japan this time, we’d love to go to Mexico and do a show together next time, po!

Alejandra: Maybe next time we can work together on a song that we wrote the base for.

Daniela: I’ll lower the key a little bit then. [Laughs]

—This interview by Hideyuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan

Newspeak, a three-piece band made up of vocalist Rei, drummer Steven, and bassist Yohey, have released their third full album, Newspeak. Newspeak has been praised for its bold, borderless sound, influenced by UK and US rock. It’s drawing attention from all corners, having been selected as an opening act by artists such as The Fratellis and Mando Diao. Billboard Japan talked to the trio about what went into their new album.

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Since you named the new album Newspeak, I get the strong feeling that you see it as a crystallization of what you are as a band.

Rei: After we finished our last album, Turn, we decided to work with Warner Music Japan. We were thinking about what kind of album to make next, and our minds kept turning to why we started Newspeak in the first place and why we were making music. We kept thinking about how we started this band because we wanted to make this kind of music and to share this kind of message, so what else could we do besides making it a self-titled album?

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Starting with this album, I get a feeling of hopefulness and expectation for the future from you for the first time. The songs are powerful, positive, and energetic. It’s like they have the power to just blow away any uncertainty or worry. I think that you can especially feel that strength in what is, effectively, the album’s first song, “White Lies.”

Rei: We wrote “White Lies” after “Be Nothing,” and the director of the music video asked us to send pictures of times when we found ourselves at crossroads or critical moments in our lives, along with pictures of people who are important to us. Looking back on my own photo albums, I remembered how I felt back when I was 20 years old, in America, looking down at the scenery below me from the top of the Empire State Building. I think everyone feels that way, when you go up somewhere high: “I’m going to make it big!”

That hallmark of youth!

Rei: Yeah, exactly. Like, I had no particular foundation for that belief, just this vague desire to make my mark on the world. I was like, “I’m going to achieve something!” [Laughs] But even now, looking back on it, I feel like that’s the way it had to be. Now, I want to express that unfounded confidence.

The songs are so powerful, it’s like they could rekindle that motivation slumbering inside — tap that well of energy deep within.

Rei: That’s why the album starts with the question “What would you do if you weren’t afraid at all?” That concept is at the root of everything I do, and I feel like I’ve finally been able to express it really well.

Having a powerful will is important for anything you do.

Steven: I like powerful songs with that confidence of “I am the best!” “Nobody stop me!” with no deeper thought, but the songs that speak to me even more are the ones that demonstrate an understanding of the darker aspects of reality. In that sense, Newspeak’s songs, like “White Lies,” are well-balanced, showing that we see the negative parts of reality, too.

Most of Newspeak’s lyrics are in English, and your sound is heavily influenced by the UK and US rock scenes. There’s a strong sense of focus on the foreign music scene, but you’ve also established a unique position in the Japanese music scene. How much attention do you pay to trends or fashions?

Rei: Just trying to revive old music all the time would be fruitless. As a musician, I think it’s important to enjoy music, to convey a message, and to create a new sound, so I listen to new music, and when I hear new or interesting sounds, I try to incorporate them.

Yohey: I don’t just listen to rock. Lately, I’ve even been thinking about going to see Dua Lipa (Editor: She is scheduled to perform in Japan in November). Trying to incorporate every kind of different sound in our own style of music would be impossible, but there are some sounds where I think “this might be interesting to work into our music.”

Rei: We like sounds that are really striking. Not things we’ve heard before, but more sounds like “booooiiiing.” [Laughs]

Steven: Sometimes we use modern synth sounds, but sometimes we go the other way, using old-school drums or old bass sounds. It’s a mixture of classic and modern. I think there’s some originality in that approach.

“Alcatraz” is a danceable song with a catchy melody. The phrase “So many faces and faces to please” stands out.

Rei: No matter where you go, there are always faces to please, whether they’re other band-mates or even in situations like this interview. In “Alcatraz,” we’re singing about how you can’t let yourself always get caught up worrying about that. You have to make yourself happy, or what’s the point?

We’re in an era in which there are a lot of “faces to please” online.

Rei: That’s true, of course. But the message of this song is more about “let’s enjoy the music.” The main message is to have fun and set yourself free.

The song “Tokyo” has a line that stands out: “This city can hurt you or ignite you.” What’s your image of Tokyo?

Steven: It’s huge — I think it’s the world’s biggest city. It’s always busy, and so many people come to Tokyo from the countryside to make money. I think that’s why even for people who love Tokyo, there are times when it’s hard. The song “Tokyo” sends the message to those people that “We understand. We think the same way. I know it’s hard, but you’re not alone.”

Rei: There are a lot of songs about how hard it can be to live in Tokyo, but what I wanted to convey through this song is that no matter what city or community you’re part of, it’s the same. I mention it in the lyrics, too, but we’re using Tokyo as a symbol to represent being a member of a community, so instead of Tokyo it could just as well be London or New York or Kuala Lumpur. No matter where you go, there’s stress. How you respond to that is up to you. You may find your school or your company tedious, but then when you go outside, you realize that you were agonizing over something inconsequential. So what I wanted to say is that all you have to do is just go out. Why are you clinging on so tenaciously? Why do you look at the world like it’s your enemy? I think the same about myself. Just because I’m in Tokyo, or just because I’m in Japan, doesn’t mean I can’t go overseas.

The last song on the album, “Nokoribi,” closes with the line, “A wingless believer on the night before the revolution.” It feels like here you’re singing about Newspeak itself.

Yohey: The lyrics to this song are an answer to the question posed in the intro to “White Lies.” It’s the kind of song you’d expect from Newspeak, but surprisingly, we’d actually never written a song like this. We have a lot of songs that are like “just be yourself” or “don’t give up,” but we hadn’t written any songs that praised the beauty of striding forward. It’s a song with the power of self-affirmation, like saying “we shine because we act.”

Rei: It’s a song about how there’s a beautiful world out there, so why don’t you go set out into that world? You’ve got “Tokyo,” about being stuck within a community, unwilling to step out, and then that’s followed with this song, the final one on the album, about the moment when you finally take that step forward. We thought it would bring the album to a nice close. We actually wrote the song a long time ago, but it just happened to fit here really well, so we were like “Now’s the time to use it.”

In closing, what kind of future do you want to see for the band?

Yohey: I want to play at Coachella.

Rei: I used to perform as a musician in Liverpool, so I’d like to make a triumphant return by playing at the Glastonbury Festival.

Yohey & Steven: Yeah!

—This interview by Azusa Ogiwara first appeared on Billboard Japan

On June 29 and 30, Revo put on a series of concerts, “Revo’s Orchestra Concerts,” at Hitomi Memorial Hall, in Tokyo’s Showa Women’s University. Revo leads two groups of artists: Sound Horizon, which tells original stories through the use of musical suites and is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its debut this year, and Linked Horizon, which he created for collaborations and tie-ups with other works, such as the Attack on Titan anime. In this concert series, Revo performed pieces from both groups along with a full orchestra. There were four shows over a two day period—two during the day and two at night. In this article, we’ll be looking at the June 30 performances.

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The “Revo’s Orchestra Concert” series presented not only works by Sound Horizon, but also Linked Horizon’s “Guren no Yumiya” and “Akatsuki no Requiem,” from the TV anime Attack on Titan, “Onward Into the Light: An Overture,” used in Square Enix’s fantasy RPG BRAVELY DEFAULT, “MOON PRIDE,” a Momoiro Clover Z song for which Revo wrote the lyrics and wrote and arranged the music, and more. It was almost like a retrospective of the best pieces Revo had created over his long career. Conductor Hirofumi Kurita led the 70 members of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in a powerful performance that conveyed Revo’s sweeping worldview.

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In the first part of the show, all the pieces were performed entirely by the orchestra, except when Revo took the stage to speak. Toward the middle was a discussion between Revo and a music critic. For the daytime performance, he spoke with Akihiro Tomita, and at night he spoke with Akimasa Munekata. In part 2, guest singers performed “Guren no Yumiya,” which Revo himself sang in 2013 on NHK’s 64th Kohaku Uta Gassen. The guest singer for the daytime show was SAK., while for the nighttime show it was voice actor Yui Ishikawa. The show came to a close with Revo inviting guest performers and guest speakers to join in a performance of “Sunawachi…Hikari wo mo Nigasanu Ankoku no Chou-juu-ryoku” and “Eikou no Idou Oukoku – The Glory Kingdom.”

Revo makes use of his classical music background in both his Sound Horizon and Linked Horizon pieces, but with this concert series performed entirely by an orchestra, these sensibilities have finally come into full bloom, elevating expectations for Revo’s future as a musician. The great cheers of “Bravo!” from the audience of fans were a testament to this.

—This article by Akimasa Munekata first appeared on Billboard Japan

On June 29 and 30, Revo put on a series of concerts, “Revo’s Orchestra Concerts,” at Hitomi Memorial Hall, in Tokyo’s Showa Women’s University.
These performances by Sound Horizon, the collective of artists led by sound creator Revo, were part of a series of events held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Revo’s major label debut. One of Revo’s projects is Linked Horizon. He launched Link Horizon to carry out collaborations between Sound Horizon, which tells original stories through the use of musical suites, and other works such as the Attack on Titan anime. The concert consisted of orchestral performances of Revo’s works—not only those of Sound Horizon, but also pieces by Linked Horizon. The pieces were played live by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, led by conductor Hirofumi Kurita. Kurita and the Tokyo Philharmonic have enthralled countless audiences not only with their numerous classical music concerts, but also concerts in which they play orchestral arrangements of modern music, such as their Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba orchestral concerts, the FINAL FANTASY XIV ORCHESTRA CONCERT 2022 -Eorzean Symphony concert, Galaxy Express 999 cinema concerts, and more.

Sound Horizon is known for its distinctive musical style, but this two-day concert series showed Revo’s talent as a composer and his pride as an entertainer. First, let’s look back at the daytime and nighttime shows of June 29, the first day of these joyous opportunities to experience the superb music prepared by Revo.

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“Revo’s Orchestra Concerts” consisted of a total of four shows over a two day period—two during the day and two at night. The venue was Showa Women’s University’s Hitomi Memorial Hall, which has a reputation for excellent acoustics. Each show was divided into two parts. The first part was a pure orchestral concert, which began with “Onward Into the Light: An Overture” from BRAVELY DEFAULT, a classic RPG-like theme well-suited for orchestration. After this, the program was like a chronology of Revo’s works, with early pieces such as “Chronicle 2nd,” from Revo’s indie album era, followed by songs that marked his debut into the majors. These included performances of music that he created for Momoiro Clover Z and for the anime Attack on Titan.

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Speaking to the audience, Revo said “Even one-hit wonders have a history.” Compared to his early period, which was characterized by dreamy, mysterious short pieces, the latter pieces, closer to his more recent compositions, were longer and more classical. Their structures grew more diverse, with dynamic shifts within individual pieces. At the same time, they also became more melodic and had more of a pop feel. One of the charms of this instrumental music was how well one could feel Revo’s evolution as a composer and gain a true sense of his history.

The vocal portions of songs were replaced with various instruments, such as flutes, violins, and harps, bringing smiles to the faces of everyone familiar with the original versions. Some of the concert’s more famous pieces included “Akatsuki no Requiem,” which took the completely opposite approach, using majestic horns to perform the fevered soprano part while maintaining the original piece’s dignity. In addition to pieces which used the tried-and-true technique of performing vocal solos with instruments, there were also pieces like “MOON PRIDE,” with castanet triplets evocative of the floor tams of “Moonlight Densetsu.” The playful approach, brimming with love for the source material, provided a cornucopia of joy for listeners.

Another example of Revo’s playfulness was “Gyoukou no Uta.” In the original version, the song ends with the lines “Mutti. The light. It’s so warm,” and then the sound of a book being closed. In the concert, this sound was created by all the musicians on stage turning their sheet music over at once. This performance instruction was even written directly in the conductors’ and performers’ sheet music. This was evocative of the famous final page of the sheet music for Mauricio Kagel’s “Concert Piece for Timpani and Orchestra,” which directs the percussionist to plunge head-first through a drum. In “Shinwa -Μυθοs-,” the sound of a chirping bird was performed using a bird call, and in “schwarzweiß -Kiri no Mukou ni Tsunagaru Sekai-,” a wind machine replicated the sound of wind. Both of these instruments are used in classical concerts, but they also tickle the ears and open up the gates of classical music to a wider audience.

The first part of the concert ended with a discussion by Revo, which provided the conductor and orchestra with a break. Revo was able to engage closely with his “Laurants” (Sound Horizon fans), after which the second part of the concert began with a vocal piece featuring a guest vocalist well known to the audience and singing by Revo himself.

At the June 29th daytime concert, the guest vocalist was RIKKI. The original version of “Ishidatami no Akaki Shaytan” was sung by RIKKI and three other female vocalists, joined by one male vocalist. In the concert performance, RIKKI and Revo performed multiple people’s parts. Revo showed a deft ability to instantly switch between falsetto and his normal singing voice. Likewise, in the “eleven letter message” sung by RIKKI in the original song, backed by the tide of emotion provided by the orchestral backing, she now brought out a more motherly voice, having matured over the 17 years since the song was originally recorded.

At the nighttime concert, the guest vocalist was Fuki. Her performance featured numerous highlights, among them her performance of “Star Dust,” in which she directed the line “Tell me why?” at conductor Kurita. This was an ad-lib direction from Revo. Kurita responded in top form, “That’s what I want to know. Why?” It was a striking example of Revo’s dedication to entertainment, seeing live performances as carefree, liberating spaces. The show’s finale used a racing starter pistol to reproduce the sound of a gun, causing those in the audience who knew the original piece to break out in grins.

The encore began with Revo asking the audience, “Has anyone here sung with an orchestra before?” He sought to provide the entire audience with the opportunity to form a giant chorus. From start to end, beautiful music flowed through the hall, while various clever ideas, both within songs and within the show’s performance direction, broke the tension and opened the audience’s hearts. Kurita encouraged the audience to show their feelings without reservation, applauding until their hands turned red. It was evident that he, too, felt the enthusiasm of Revo, ardent explorer of the arts. Every moment of the two performances was a testament to Revo’s talent as a creator.

—This article by Koji Shimizu (Seven Days War) first appeared on Billboard Japan

Billboard JAPAN interviewed Official HIGE DANdism for the latest edition of its  “MONTHLY FEATURE” series, highlighting today’s leading artists and works. The four-man band recently released Rejoice, its first album in almost three years.

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Starting with their breakout 2019 release “Pretender,” they have created countless hits, become a beloved band throughout the country. Their October 2022 release “Subtitle” was an especially big success, claiming the No. 1 spot on five of Billboard JAPAN‘s charts for the first half of 2023, such as the “JAPAN Hot 100” chart. Rejoice, their new album, contains a total of 14 songs, including “Subtitle” and “Mixed Nuts,” the opening theme of the SPYxFAMILY anime.

Billboard Japan spoke to all four members of the band about what led to the creation of this new album and the growing support they’re enjoying from overseas fans.

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When did you first start working on the overall image and concept of your new album?

Satoshi Fujihara: When we finished our last album, Editorial, we were talking about making our next album a more joyful one. The last album had shined a spotlight on deep-down feelings and melancholy about the future, we wanted to change the mood and go in a happier direction next.

How have the past three years, since your last album, been for you, as a band?

Fujihara: Our fan base has been growing since 2019. When we started out, I thought I might find that uncomfortable, but over the past three years, I’ve become comfortable with the fact that I live a kind of unusual life, in a good sense. A very blessed life. At the same time, it’s also felt like we’ve been able to expand our potential, always striving to create even better music, but not in a stoic way — instead, we’ve been able to do that while having fun. It’s been an extremely fruitful and pleasant three years.

Daisuke Ozasa: I think over these years we’ve become more confident in the music we like, our own individual character, and the kind of music that has shaped us through the years. I think that all comes out through the music on the album.

Masaki Matsuura: The discussions we had while creating the new album were relaxed and at ease. I think that was a sign of just how much we grew over those three years.

Makoto Narazaki: Of course, I want to get better, and I want to record good songs. But in the past, I felt like I had to hold myself up to a really high standard, while now I feel like I can just be myself. I think that the whole group’s atmosphere has changed in the same way. It feels more open, with more room to breathe. There’s this sense of “Why don’t we just try to have fun with everything we do?”

I’m sure you put a lot of care into the arrangements of the songs on the album, and how the songs develop, but you’re saying that one of your driving forces was a more simple sense of “It might be fun if we did this” or “It could be interesting if we did that”?

Fujihara: Exactly. Without that, it would just be a copy-and-paste job. I think that approach of arranging songs is a more natural style for us.

I think one of the things that makes Official HIGE DANdism’s music so appealing is that it goes in directions that the listener isn’t expecting. Your songs take on all kinds of musical challenges.

Narazaki: One of the biggest and most prominent examples of that is the structure of our songs, but we’re also taking on new challenges with our tone and in other areas which maybe listeners won’t notice. Songs are more fun if there’s some playfulness to them, and it’s great to listen to a completed song and be like, “that sounds really cool.” When you can do that, there’s the potential for doing it with different concepts, as well, which presents its own new challenges. I find that really satisfying.

Which are each of your favorite songs on the album?

Narazaki: For me, it’s probably “TATTOO.” We all got together in the studio, started up the DAW, and we were looking at the demo data on Satoshi’s computer, talking about how we wanted the song to sound. The demo had these vintage synth and keyboard sounds. It may just be me, but I find those kinds of sounds cheesy but at the same time kind of cool. Like, they put me at ease when I hear them, or they strike my fancy at the time. They’re timely, in an odd way. That’s why I like “TATTOO.” “Nichijo” and “Get Back To Jinsei” have a similar feel. If you think of each song as a stew, then it’s like they’re different stews but they have similar spices. They have that same sense of place in time, that same kind of nostalgic flavor. After working on them, when we worked on the other songs (on the album), I got that same sense of cool cheesiness and that same nostalgic feeling.

Fujihara: For me, it’s “Sharon.” In terms of musical theory, what we’re doing is a little fiddly, but the end result is incredibly natural. I’m very happy with how it came out. Now, we’re rehearsing it in preparation for live shows, and the power of the band really comes across. In a way, it’s a very dependable song — I can feel comfortable giving myself up to the music, which makes it one of my favorites.

Ozasa: I like “B-Side Blues.” It’s the first song that the whole band has recorded in a single take in about five years. The whole album isn’t exactly packed with notes, but this one has even fewer notes than most, so the feeling of each of our performances comes across very vividly. It’s also a beautiful song for bringing the album to a close. The word Rejoice has this image of profound, powerful joy. The album starts off with extremely energetic songs, like “Get Back To Jinsei.” But as the album progresses, the joy it expresses comes closer to home. Little by little, it becomes more personal, more about the things we value in our own lives. The album ends with “B-side Blues,” which truly expresses this personal joy.

Matsuura: Of all the songs on the album, the process of recording the drums took the longest for “Mixed Nuts,” so it left the strongest impression on me. It has a lot of jazz elements, and the tempo is fast, making it a hard song to play. I don’t have a jazz background, so I had someone who used to play jazz show me the ropes. There were a lot of cases like that, where I was studying new things, and when I’ve jammed with other musicians, sometimes they’ll ask how I played my part on “Mixed Nuts,” or they’ll say they think it’s a really interesting song. It’s the kind of song that spurs a lot of talk as a drummer, and was a ton of fun to play.

I expect you’ve been hearing from overseas audiences, too. Tell us about what their reaction has been like.

Fujihara: Yes, we’re getting a lot of messages on social media from overseas fans, in languages we can’t read, asking us to come to their countries and perform. It’s a strange feeling, but also a wonderful one. We did once play in Korea, a long time ago. There were only like three people in the audience. That makes all the feedback we’re getting from overseas audiences now feel that much stranger.

On Billboard JAPAN’s Global Charts, songs like “Pretender” are also very popular in Korea. They’re ranking highly in various countries throughout Asia.

Fujihara: Every time we hear a fan saying they’re waiting for us to play a show in their country, it makes us want to go there and perform even more. We haven’t done any overseas shows since that show in Korea, but lately we’ve been talking about how it would be nice to perform overseas sometime in the near future.

—This interview by Tomonori Shiba first appeared on Billboard Japan

INI will return to California later this week to hit the stage at KCON LA 2024, the third time the group has participated in this event since their first appearance in 2022. This year’s KCON takes place Friday (July 26) to Sunday at Crypto.com Arena, L.A. Convention Center and Gilbert Lindsay Plaza in Los Angeles.

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INI — pronounced “eye-en-eye” — is an 11-member global boy band born from the survival audition program Produce 101 Japan Season 2 (GYAO!/TBS), broadcast in 2021. The group has been popular from the start — a special program with a title that roughly translates to Nice to meet you! We are INI! (GYAO!) aired in Japan before the band’s debut, and the members were featured on a segment on the TV show Yoru no Brunch (TBS) from the day they debuted. The group’s fandom has grown steadily since then, and while its continued popularity can mainly be attributed to the appeal of each member, another major reason behind the group’s breakthrough is that in the early days of the group’s formation, it took measures that had rarely been implemented in Japan before.

For example, prior to the release of their debut single “A,” INI released teasers of two songs, “Rocketeer” and “Brighter,” and invited fans to vote for their favorite. As a result, the powerful dance number “Rocketeer” came out on top, which helped set the image of INI being a group skilled in hip-hop-tinged dance tracks. When launching this voting system, INI announced on its official website: “We adopted a new system where fan votes determine the group’s music, since INI is a group chosen by popular vote.” This message suggests that the band wanted to welcome its fandom — collectively called MINI — that had been watching over them since the audition as part of its team. In fact, the hashtag “#TeamINIandMINI” has recently been created on social media.

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All of INI’s singles released since have reached No. 1 on Billboard Japan’s weekly Top Singles Sales chart. Also, the group’s sixth single “THE FRAME,” which dropped June 26, launched with 812,184 copies in its first week and became its best-selling single to date, far exceeding “I,” the second single that had been the group’s previous best-seller at 742,208 first-week copies. “THE FRAME” went on to hit No. 1 on the Japan Hot 100, the comprehensive song chart that includes six metrics in its methodology including downloads, streaming, radio airplay and more. The music video for “LOUD,” the lead track off “THE FRAME,” has been viewed over 11.8 million times as of July 24 after being released June 17 on the group’s official YouTube channel.

The members are gradually becoming more and more involved in the production, beginning to present their individualities. Hiroto Nishi took part in writing the lyrics for “SPECTRA,” “DROP,” and “LEGIT,” and the songwriting for “Walkie Talkie.” Xu Fengfan was involved in the lyrics for “I’m a Dreamer,” Hiromu Takatsuka for “My Story,” Shogo Tajima for “Runaway,” “TAG,” and with Takatsuka for “Dirty Shoes Swag,” Kyosuke Fujimaki for “YOU IN,” Rihito Ikezaki for “10 THINGS” with Tajima and “Ferris Wheel” with Fujimaki. Furthermore, Masaya Kimura choreographed “Moment,” “YOU IN,” and “KILLING PART” (with Nishi).

The group’s popularity lies not only in each member’s creative abilities, but also in their performance skills — when all eleven members perform together, the result is powerful and bold. The word “flamboyant” is probably the most apt description, and their gripping performance has the strength to captivate a wide audience. The members come from different backgrounds — some are good at dancing, others at singing. In particular, Ikezaki and Yudai Sano participated in the audition with no prior experience in singing or dancing, but have both now reached the level of uploading their own dance videos on TikTok, and now all eleven members make their presence felt in their stage performances. That the traces of each member’s hard work can be seen adds to the appeal of their performances.

INI has also gained experience by performing on numerous stages. The INI 1ST FAN MEETING took place right after their debut, and showcase events have accompanied every CD release. The band successfully completed a hall tour in 2022, an arena tour in 2023, and on February 24 and 25, 2024, they performed at Kyocera Dome in Osaka for the INI 2ND ARENA LIVE TOUR [READY TO POP!] IN KYOCERA DOME OSAKA concerts. The [READY TO POP!] arena and dome tour drew a total of 200,000 fans.

The group has also performed in many outdoor rock festivals including the 1CHANCE FESTIVAL 2022 presented by power trio WANIMA and JAPAN JAM 2024, steadily gaining fans by showcasing its unique appeal in situations where not all the people in the audience are familiar with the group. This summer, INI will take the stage in some of Japan’s premier music festivals such as ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2024 and SUMMER SONIC 2024, and will likely expand its fandom through its overwhelming performances.

INI has also become a fixture at KCON, not only at the L.A. event — again, their third consecutive year to perform — but also at KCON 2023 THAILAND, KCON in South Korea, and the music program M COUNTDOWN, gradually gaining experience performing outside of Japan. After almost three years since the group’s debut, INI is on its way to winning the hearts of new MINIs around the world.

KCON LA, including INI’s performance, will be broadcast on The CW.

—This article by Azusa Takahashi first appeared on Billboard Japan