Music

Balloon, one of the 2010s most iconic Vocaloid producers, has created hit song after hit song, like “Charles.” In 2017, he also began creating music under the name Keina Suda. On April 16, 2025, he will be releasing a new concept album, Fall Apart. 
Billboard Japan took the occasion of the new release and the “VOCALOID Collection (VocaColle) – 2025 Winter” (a submission-based Vocaloid event held on Niconico) to talk with Reol, and Sheeno Mirin, who joined Balloon on “Redire,” one of the songs on the new album. The three artists talked about the process of reinterpreting “Redire” and reflected on their shared roots: Niconico and Vocaloid culture. 

Reol, Sheeno. How long have you two known Balloon? 

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Reol: I first discovered Balloon when I heard “I touched a vase.” Afterwards, I saw the live-action music video for “MOIL,” which he created as Keina Suda. I started paying close attention to him in part because of his artistic style, going from the Vocaloid scene to singing using his own voice, and in part because the timing of his major label debut was very close to my own. Going back through his past music, I discovered that this was the person behind Balloon. 

Balloon: Before I knew it, Reol and I were friends. I don’t remember how I found out about Reol, but one thing that made a big impression on me was the music video for “Give me a break Stop now.” At the time, people who had come up through Niconico were very cautious when it came to revealing themselves. Reol, on the other hand, just burst out of the gates. I hadn’t met her yet, but she made a really big impression on me as someone with an incredibly strong spirit, which also came across in the way she presented herself. 

Sheeno: I think I found out about Balloon through “Charles” when I was in elementary school. When I was in elementary school, all I listened to was Vocaloid, and I especially loved Vocaloid rock. 

Reol: When I first found Niconico, Vocaloid made a huge impression on me, too. Vocaloid’s not the name of a musical genre but the name of the software, so Vocaloid culture includes all kinds of different music. Every day, people were uploading new songs, so it was really exciting and I was just glued to it. 

Balloon, what led you to reach out to these two to work on “Redire” for your new album Fall Apart, which comes out on April 16? 

Balloon: I’d like to answer that by first talking about when I wrote “Redire.” At the time, I’d been thinking about starting to release music under the name Keina Suda. Back then, when people emerged from the Vocaloid culture, there was always this risk that they’d never be able to return to the Vocaloid scene. So when I was writing “Redire,” I was thinking “this just might be my last Vocaloid song.” On top of that, I was juggling way too much at the time. For some of the songs I wrote, I was in such a conflicted state of mind that after I finished the songs, I couldn’t bring myself to listen to them myself for a while. 

Unlike me, Reol is really strong—in her lyrics, in her singing voice, and as a person—and that strength is apparent to anyone who sees her. I wanted to hear Reol take these songs that I’d written with such mixed emotions in the past and sing them in a bright, radiant style. 

Reol: Keina always felt like a colleague or a classmate. There’s what I’d almost call a kind of pressure felt by people who started out on Niconico and went on to debut on a major label. A feeling that they have to create output that can make them proud to have roots in the Niconico scene. So hearing Keina say that when he wrote “Redire,” he was ready to bid a temporary farewell to the culture, I thought, “Ah, so that’s why you let me work on it.” 

Balloon: I think I found out about Sheeno through “Heterodoxy.” Of course, I love it as a tune in its own right, but I also thought “his musical sensibilities are the exact opposite of my own.” I felt envious—he was doing something I couldn’t do even if I tried. That got me thinking about how a person like that would reinterpret one of my own songs. I couldn’t even imagine what it would sound like if Sheeno’s music and Reol’s music intersected. 

The album is titled Fall Apart, which carries this nuance of “destruction.” Balloon, did you make any requests of these two when you asked them to work on the album? 

Balloon: For me, personally, the album’s title has a hidden theme, a hope that that’s what would happen, but I didn’t make any specific requests. I just trusted in everyone’s own interpretations. 

Sheeno: I really agonized over it (laughs). The original song is just too perfect. But when I heard Reol would be doing the vocals, I started thinking that an electro sound would be a good fit. It’s a sound I use in my own music, and it matches Reol’s musical sensibilities, too. I designed the sound of the song to emphasize the restlessness of the original by speeding up the BPM and adding some sharp-edged synth. 

Reol: I think it came out feeling even more heartfelt. I discovered Mirin through “Then Your Thought Should Just Die,” and my impression was that he had a really powerful personal philosophy which came out in the songs he wrote. When the new arrangement of “Redire” arrived, the lyrics were Balloon’s, but in the sound you got a strong feeling of Sheeno Mirin’s philosophy. 

Balloon: I know. I listened to Sheeno’s new arrangement, before Reol recorded her vocals, and it was a huge surprise. It was like something completely new and unknown. I knew I’d made the right choice in reaching out to him. 

For all three of you, your roots lie in Niconico. What kind of place was it for you? 

Balloon: In one word, “home.” It’s a place that will always welcome you back, and if you go out into the world, you can feel proud that your roots are in Niconico. 

Reol: Initially, for me, it was an escape. There was a time when I just didn’t feel like I had a place in the world. When I discovered Niconico, it was like it accepted all of my gloom. 

Sheeno: Earlier, Reol talked about how all kinds of things came together in Vocaloid. That’s how I felt about Niconico. That foundation is the reason that there are so many genres of Vocaloid songs, and why you can find truly niche songs. 

You’re all taking part in the VocaColle 2025 Winter playlist project. What criteria did you use when choosing songs? 

Balloon: I picked songs that shaped who I was a decade ago. There’s a lot of music on Niconico that made a huge impression on me, but I picked the true giants, artists that are like “you can’t talk about Niconico without talking about them.” 

Reol: My theme was “another style of schoolhouse.” I put the songs in chronological order, and I included songs from recent years. It goes without saying that the songs I cover are all songs I would recommend, so for my playlist I limited myself to songs I haven’t covered. 

Sheeno: I have my own playlist of about 2,000 songs that have less than 10,000 plays, so I selected at random from that list. A long time ago, I tried to listen to every single Vocaloid song on Niconico, and there are lots of great songs with few plays. I want people to know that. 

—This interview by Yuuka Higaki first appeared on Billboard Japan