Intervista Babymetal

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Intervista a cura di Davide Sciaky

Hello, welcome to TrueMetal.it!
You are about to release your third album, “Metal Galaxy”: this is your first album without Yuimetal, how has her absence influenced the music?

We had to rearrange release schedule due to member change. However, every album Babymetal brings new style and keep evolving, so we could express new Babymetal style that you had never seen in this album.

After Yui left you used backup dancers in your live shows, but you didn’t replace her with a permanent member, why so? Are you planning to do it in the future?

We tour with support dancers called the Avengers. That brings new type of show and hope you all like it.

About new member, only the fox god knows.

Mixing idol culture and Metal was somehow a bet, especially in the western market where the idol culture is less known, but it ended up paying off. Were you ever afraid that it could not work out?

The band name, Babymetal means a birth of new metal. We keep creating new sound that does not caught up with existing styles. That’s our mission. We are not afraid to try new things.

We cherish the mission and meaning of the band name, and continue to create new metal. Hopefully that leads to make bright future of metal music.

The band quickly became successful both with the public and with fellow musicians, ending up playing with bands such as Metallica and Slayer, and being joined on stage by Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. What is the accomplishment that surprised you the most, and what are you proudest of?

When we performed with Rob Halford of Judas Priest, he told us “Stay Metal.” We believe that he entrust the future of metal to Babymetal.

Through Babymetal, we hope to send message to young generation that joy of metal music.

Despite the success you had some people, some metal purists, criticised Babymetal. Has that influenced the direction you took the band after the first album?

BABYMETAL has a theme of Metal resistence. It is resistance of stereotype of pop and metal music. In addition, the group name means birth of new type of metal.

When something new arise, there are pros and cons. When now legendary bands such as Metallica and Slipknot came out, there were people criticize about them. Since the beginning in 2010, we believe ourselves and kept going, so we are and will be one of the kind artist.

Do you see a difference in the demographic of the people who come to your shows depending on the country where you play?

Audience change not depends on country, it more depends on city.

Babymetal is originally a project that had various elements from pop and metal and encountours are from everywhere. Now it is very obvious. At our show, you see from young to old, many demographics. 

Talking about your fans, what kind of people come to your shows in Japan? Is it more metalheads, J-pop fans, or is it an even mix of the two? Is it common in Japan for people to listen to radically different genres, and to go to concerts of different genres?

Just like we mentioned on the previous question. There are kids to old, male and female fans in Japan. It’s all mix. It’s because our music is so much variety and people learn about the band from different sources. That makes our fans base very unique.

You collaborated with different musicians like Sabaton’s Joakim Brodén and Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz in the new album. If you could choose any artist to work with in the future, who would that be?

Bring Me the Horizon will tour with us as special act this November, 2019. We hope to collaborate with them in the future.

You started very young, you basically grew up on stage, do you ever get stage fright or are you always completely at ease going on stage, doesn’t matter where or in front of how many people?

Su-Metal: I get nervous still sometimes. It’s sometimes scary when we perform in front of a crowd who have never seen us before outside of Japan. But through our experiences, we’ve learned to believe in ourselves and enjoy every moment.

I read that none of you were familiar with Metal before starting the band. Do you listen to it now, or is it something that you just leave to the stage?

Moametal: Our experience as BABYMETAL has allowed us to understand the beauty of music. I’ve been listening to metal music and I especially like Bring Me the Horizon. I really enjoy metal all-around!

Davide Sciaky