No, I think this band is fantastic because the band members have become close friends first, and totally respect each others musical talents.

absolutely! Everything else is just sugar on top

spot on right...

That may be true but there appearance came first. If they were average looking they would have had to work harder for success, that's the case in any profession and even more so in public facing ones. We are all hard wired to give biased attractiveness. This recent trend\movement to rise above it just mass lie. We are just very clever primates at the end of day.

@@Dayandcounting True indeed

She seems extremely sane, but with the rest of the band being what it is, that's pretty easy to do 😁

It's not about being underrated. It's about being unknown. People just haven't heard of them, let alone heard them play. They will never be a mainstream act that gets played on the radio. The large acts/producers have that pretty much sewn up, but they should look to be where Babymetal are now in terms of popularity, playing 20 date US tours in venues holding 5000, not 5 dates in places holding 500. How much of Babymetal's growth was organic, through social media etc, and how much was due to promotion, I couldn't say, but it doesn't feel like the band's management are doing much to promote them overseas, or even in Japan for that matter. They are playing festivals in Japan, and are way down the bill each time.

Part of it is because they're girls. Some people don't want to take them seriously. I showed them to my cousin, and his response was is it because they're cute girls? Some of those folks don't get it.

@@RevStickleback Don't get me wrong, Babymetal has some great stuff, but in the end, they are a corporate idol band. Most idol bands get cast aside when the producing company says it's time, never to be heard from again. I feel like that is Babymetal's fate within the next few years. B-M was self-starting and has built their brand like the old-timers did, by word of mouth and starting small and moving up. Unfortunately, even though I don't personally care, the language barrier will limit how high they rise. From a pure business perspective, they would do well to write the majority of their songs in English and work on their pronunciation, BUT, in doing so, it would change who they are as a band and I don't think that would be good. I personally love the mix of Japanese and English they currently use. My favorite lyric of theirs is the way Miku and Saiki sing "Daydreaming" as "Day-Dweeming." It's so pure and true to themselves. I just love this band just the way they are. Instead of them switching over to English, they inspire me to want to learn Japanese so I can better appreciate them in their own element. There's also something about not understanding the language as a listener. It's as if the brain processes what it's hearing in a different way. Instead of the language centers of the brain processing what you are hearing, it's like the music accesses a more primal part of the brain, as if speaking directly to your soul.

@@frossbog I prefer Band-Maid and their story, the fact that they weren't casted, are a real band etc, but the fact is that they had almost three entire albums of songs written for them, and Miku talks of how, when she was recruiting Kanami and the others, she had demo tapes of songs they could play. While they may have been a more organic creation, without Miku's record industry contacts from her idol days, and their support, Band-Maid would almost certainly not happened.

@@RevStickleback That's true, but it's also true of many great bands. They all had to make contacts somewhere. The most important aspect is that they have still had to earn their place the hard way, which galvanizes them and they are not owned by anyone else. They're not under the thumb of a huge production company that can pull the plug whenever they wish. After Budokan, you will watch their star rise like you would never believe. I can't wait to see it.

Thanks man

The silent assassin

Totally!...I was hoping she knew just a little more English..but it all worked out !

Mincho rocks my world! I loved her answer and the band reaction to her favourite Manga. 😆 Oh Band Maid and Mincho please keep doing what you are doing!

Yes she is their Queen. But they are all goddesses. 🙂❤🇬🇧

...like ANY japanese

my thoughts exactly :D

That is SO AWESOME to hear...I hope maybe some of the 80s and 70s band thay have melody you can find to like also. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch my interview!

Kanami, Misa, and Akane are all older than Miku. When Miku found Kanami online she was about to graduate college with a degree in economics. That puts Kanami at age 22 at that time in 2013, and she turned 23 that year September 28th. That makes her 28 years old now. Kanami knew Akane and that's how she got into the band. At Akane's last birthday party December 14th, they got her a cake which had 29 strawberries on top. Akane is obviously 29 years old. Misa and Akane went to music school together, and her birthday is October 15th, which would put her at 28-29. Why a lot of people think Miku is oldest at 27 is beyond me. Saiki joined the band at age 19, her birth year 1994 is confirmed, as well as 1991 is Miku's. The other members ages are based on circumstantial common sense evidence. They have been together almost 6 years now. Look at the facts and do the math.

@@barrycurtis4056 That's good info, Barry. As I said, my figures were an estimate I made some time ago. Your reasoning appears solid. I just wish B-M management were a bit more forthcoming about the personal and professional lives of the members. I mean, fans want to know stuff, right! I'll correct their ages in my piece after a little more conformation. Mahalo!

@@TomClark-Futoura this will change. Miku has declared 2019's theme "turbulence" for her band. They are currently a top five Japanese rock band. They have the talent, charisma and ability to be the biggest hard rock band on the planet today. They need exposure on American TV like Saturday Night Live and then a summer music festival tour across the states. It is coming. "You're a legend." Best regards fellow fanatic.

@@barrycurtis4056 check you out letting everyone know! :) Glad you liked my interview man !

Oh boy, one hell of thing with MISA you are missing out - she can DRINK, which adds stars...

Yes! I was hoping Kanami went into more detail about writing them usic...I will pick her brain more next time hopefully

Miku has said in interviews that normally she comes up with an idea for a song and writes the lyrics, handing them to Kanami who writes the melody first. Then Kanami hands the song to Akame and Misa who write their own parts, handing the song back to Miku to polish the lyrics. After that, they just practice the song until they're all satisfied. Seems to me that they all have equal parts in the songwriting which shows in how well they sound and how tight that sound is.

Xolotlです s,yes! A Perfect Cirlce,no wonder her name was so familiar!!!

Yeah that's rad. Both amazing bassists. Paz's work on that first Perfect Circle album is incredible.

APC and Zwan

Awesome!

My pleasure to do this interview!

Thank you! :)

Will the behind the scenes video be back up as well? That was a great video!

My pleasure buddy !

I hope we get another interview next time! :) It was such a great night for us!

@@pathaden Thanks for this interview, there is a great lack of such conversations with them in English, but maybe before the next interview a small market research and gathering questions from fans?

AWESOME!

Thanks so much for watching! Take care

I couldn't quite get there period the manager cut us off during the interview period that is why I stood up because I was trying to persuade the girls to keep talking to me

Much appreciated my friend :)

Dennis Mayo oh i think it was to appeal to the american speaking audience. also i think japanese people like foreigners

Could be so buddy !!! I will ask !

Only Miku does that ! hahaha

そのとり。 本当に。

What does the word “Po” mean? I’ve noticed she uses it frequently at the end of sentences.

@@bmack2938 It's not even a word. It's just a sound she makes at the end of every sentence. As I mentioned, that's sort of normal in Japanese, but she's the only one who uses that particular sound. It's kind of like adding style or intonation to your sentence. Personalizing it.

Her name means little pidgeon or dove. From what I understand in Japanese "po" is the sound the bird makes. I maybe wrong i heard this from the internet.

Is 'po' an honorific? What is the meaning?

@@Jac70 Lol, no, It's about Miku... She likes to pretend she is a cute pigeon. Apparently, pigeons say "po" in Japanese. If you listen carefully, you'll hear her add "po" at the end of phrases quite regularly. It's so unusual that it even throws off Japanese show hosts that aren't used to her. So we also like to add "po" in our comments... it is so endearing, don't you think?

Mika isn't as cute as she pretends to be. Infact shes an extremely well informed manipulator of whats fashionable, creative and desirable in entertainment. BM is her dream, and she had the smarts to make it a reality. Which was enough to convince Saiki and Kanami, the latter being an extremely sought after guitarist in mainland Japan; and no doubt eventually even further afield. You don't attract talent by being aloof and saying 'po'. You do it by being very clever at what you do. Mika had a complete turn around considering her early difficulties and its been good to see her re-invent herself like this, seeing as she wasn't all that far from where my uncle and his family grew up. Times were pretty tough for her back then. Kanami alone drove me back to my interest in Music and guitar, so thats my edge. Maid culture, is inherently J orientated and its fine to appreciate it. Don't however neglect the real effort the founder put into it. She wants to come across as likable and endearing, which is much different from legitimately being that way. There is alot more going on under the surface. People might be surprised.

@@libertylizard_ Indeed, however... you saw more than was written... I never underestimated Miku, she is very clever indeed, and endearing... whether she's truly endearing or not... we won't know until we get actual private info on her... which is not likely anytime soon. So meanwhile I like to think she's really endearing! Po!

It really isn’t hard to meet her and ask questions when she’s back home and not touring lol I don’t get it...I get the sense most here only know her from Band Maid. Which I suppose in hindsight makes sense. I’m probably being a little presumptuous on people’s location/language ability here. Anyway, if you are all that curious visit Japan during the primary tours. It’s not that expensive here and she’s pretty much always back playing maid between sets, it’s nice that she hasn’t forgotten her roots in that sense. It’s a good way to meet a lot of people really. I bumped almost smack face into Ono Haruna last year. So if I can do it, just being stationed out here on tour, so can most of you if you are such big fans. Good luck with the stalking lol. Gambatte!

I should have asked them some of the song titles but I was really pressed for time during the interview

it means there's alot of a good song probably if they allow ? do you think ?

Actually...it was made for the Band Maiko which came out shortly after this interview! :)

I thought you where going to say ,,have a few bourbons,,haha...

The silent assassin

When they first started they had others writing their songs. The song Alone was the first band-maid song that they wrote themselves. Since then, they have been writing their own material or co-writing their own material.

No luck this time buddy...Maybe next tour!

There's probably hundreds of amazing female bands in Japan, not to mention jazz musicians, so yes, it's really stupid to think they don't play their instruments just because they are pretty.

The Thrill video Miku wasn't playing the guitar cords...That's why the question was asked

Great band.

I am trying my friend. I was denied at Tokyo Coast and in London last year. Thanks for watching it!