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Utattemita is Japan’s online culture of uploading vocal covers of Vocaloid tracks or pop songs to video sharing sites, and the singers who post such covers are generally referred to as utaite. From Nov. 22, the country’s largest video platform, Nico Nico Douga, will be hosting Utattemita Collection (commonly referred to as Uta-Colle), a four-day event inviting utaite singers to submit such covers. Uta-Colle is the utattemita version of The VOCALOID Collection (aka Voca-Colle) submission project that began in 2020.

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At the Uta-Colle event held this spring, utaite Underbar (officially stylized as __) submitted an a cappella cover of “Igaku” by Sasuke Haraguchi. He reproduced all the notes using only his own voice without using any musical accompaniment, and ranked No. 5 among the top 100 submissions to the event. Underbar is a veteran utaite with 1.05 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, celebrating the 15th anniversary since his debut this year. 

Sasuke Haraguchi began composing music at the age of five and made his major label debut in 2018 as track maker SASUKE when he was 15 years old. He submitted his representative track “Hito Mania” to the Voca-Colle Summer 2023 event, and this hit song went on to achieve 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard Japan‘s Nico Nico Vocaloid Songs Top 20 list.

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The two artists sat down together to chat about today’s utattemita culture ahead of the upcoming Uta-Colle Autumn 2024 event, sharing their views from the standpoints of utaite and track maker.

Underbar, you covered “Igaku” a cappella for the previous Uta-Colle event. Why did you choose that style to cover it?

Underbar: When listening to the way the sounds are put together (on the track), I got the impression that it was unusual and quite different from other Vocaloid producers (Vocalo-p). I really like the way it uses sound effects as accents and male voices, and thought, “I want to try doing this with my own voice.” I thought it would be interesting to be able to express a composition of unusual sounds with my mouth instead of using a normal guitar or bass. He’d officially released the stem data, so I also used that as a reference.

Haraguchi: I thought the stem data would be used for remixes or something, so I never imagined it would be used for utattemita (a vocal cover). [Laughs]

I’ve heard that when you create tracks using Vocaloid, you try to be aware of things that make people want to cover them. Could you elaborate on that?

Haraguchi: There are a few, but one is to keep the tracks short. People seem to think I do this to make them TikTok or (YouTube) Shorts-friendly, but that’s not the case. It’s to make recording vocals easier when covering them. I sometimes record temporary vocals for commercial productions so I know how singers feel, and I’m glad when (the tracks) are short. Some songs have the same lyrics in the chorus, so you could copy and paste if worse comes to worst.

Underbar: I really like your videos, as well as your music, of course. I think it’s amazing how you make such stylish videos at a low cost. Nowadays, it’s like a race to see how much money you can spend to come up with a good video, the utattemita community included.

Haraguchi: Yeah, there are music videos that make you go, “Is this an opening sequence for an anime series?”

Underbar: Right? So it’s amazing how you create that stylish collage feel using live-action footage. I’m like, “Wow, I never would have thought of that!”

Sasuke, could you share what creative aspect about Underbar that you respect?

Haraguchi: You were already well known when I was in elementary school, and I respect the fact that you’ve been consistent all this time. Rather than taking years to establish the way you do things, you had it all worked out from the start. That’s awesome, and at the same time, you’re expanding the scope of what you do.

Underbar: I’ve always liked festivities. This might be something common among people of my generation who post videos on Nico Nico Douga, but the main thing is that I wasn’t doing it for the money. This is the big difference between now and then. Now, many people start posting with the aim of earning ad revenue or becoming a major-label or professional artist, but back then there was no such thing as ad revenue, and just because you became famous didn’t mean you could be signed to a major label or appear on TV and stuff. At the base of why I got started was, “It’s popular and seems like fun.” That still hasn’t changed for me, and when I see a new fad that seems like fun, I get the urge to join in. 

When did you start watching utattemita videos, Sasuke?

Haraguchi: Around 2015 or 2016, maybe?

You were probably already composing by that time. Did utattemita videos influence your own production?

Haraguchi: I did hope singers would cover my works like that someday. But I wasn’t making that kind of music at the time. If you want to make a song that people will want to cover without using Vocaloid software, it either has to go pretty viral or be tied to an anime series. I wasn’t doing either.

Underbar: When choosing a song to cover, it’s certainly easier to choose a Vocaloid track. Songs that use Vocaloid are open to a wide range of interpretation, so everyone can be “correct.” With the ones that have human vocals, both the cover artists and listeners tend to think that the original version is correct, so the singers will cover them in a way that’s closer to the original. I tend to prefer utaite singers putting their own spin on their covers.

Haraguchi: I know what you mean. Maybe because my songs are a little unusual, some people sing them in a way that’s similar to the original Vocaloid version, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I want people to just do whatever they want and mess with it.

Have you noticed any changes in the feedback you receive, or any differences in your fanbase since you started releasing Vocaloid tracks?

Haraguchi: Yes, very much so. With the music I’d been doing up until then, I never really had the chance to hear directly from listeners, so I didn’t really know how many people were listening to it. The culture in the Vocaloid community is that if you think something is good, you make sure to say so, whether you’re the listener or the creator. The comment section on video platforms are like that, and communication on X (formerly Twitter) is, too. I feel like I’ve suddenly been thrown into such a place and it worries me in an opposite way. Sometimes when I’m at home alone, I tell myself, “Don’t get carried away, you have to work hard.”

How do you feel about events such as Voca-Colle and Uta-Colle that Nico Nico Douga has primarily been organizing since 2020? 

Haraguchi: There was a period when Vocaloid culture had cooled down, so I’m glad many people are making (tracks) and watching (the videos) again now. But I also think that it’d be scary if the mood became like, “We have to work hard at it.” I want to use the opportunity to expose myself to a lot of other people’s works to feel things like, “This trick is interesting” and “I want to do this too,” no matter how they’re ranked.

How about you, Underbar?

Underbar: I think projects like Uta-colle are great. The reason is that utaite have never really had a clear goal to aim for. Now it’s possible to be signed to a major label, but even if that happens, if you don’t make it big then it’s over. And a song you covered could become a hit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will become famous, because the original version is the main focus. After all, utattemita is derivative. So even if you suddenly decide to write your own lyrics and music, people might be like, “No, that’s not what I want to hear.” The hard thing about being an utaite is that just because you’re good at singing doesn’t mean you’ll make it big. I’d like to see a trend where utaite can dream and be like, “If I keep doing what I do on Nico Nico Douga, I can get this far,” and Nico Nico Douga actively promotes the winner of the Uta-Colle.

—This interview by Yuuka Higaki first appeared on Billboard Japan