2014/07/12

[History of BABYMETAL]

This interview was included in the Budokan limited edition of the first album, sold only at their Budokan concerts on 2014 Mar. 1st & 2nd. Probably recorded just before the Legend "1997" concert at Makuhari Messe on 2013 Dec. 21st.

The company said they wouldn't sell it anywhere else, so I've uploaded this video with English subtitles for non Japanese purchasers and for the overseas fans too far to get there. The video uploaded on YouTube was blocked a day later, and the copies on DailyMotion were deleted, so I uploaded the video to Google Drive on 2019 Aug. 31st.

I tried to translate literally but modified many clause structures to keep the phrase orders, and sometimes gave up translating literally.

Click [CC] or "Settings" at the bottom-right if the subtitles are not displayed.
There are blanks at both the top and the bottom of the video, but this is the proper aspect ratio.

Notes

  1. BABYMETAL was started as one of the subgroups of a girl idol group "Sakura Gakuin" (さくら学院; Cherry Blossom School). It was also called "juu-on-bu" (重音部; the heavy sound/music club), compared to the extra-curricular (club) activities of Japanese high school.
  2. They talked about their debut at Sakura Gakuin's school festival (audience: 300?).
  3. This date is the first time this tune was performed (according to Wikipedia), and it has been performed many times since then though the CD single was released on 2013 Jan.
  4. This day they performed six tunes without band. Before this, they performed four tunes in similar situations on Jul. 7th in Osaka and on Jul. 8th in Nagoya, which are called "Hedoba Angya" (ヘドバ行脚; headbanging pilgrimage). But they are regarded as the CD release events, not as solo concerts.
  5. "鹿鳴館" (Rockmaykan / Rokumeikan) is a music venue (capacity: 250) established in 1980 at Meguro, Tokyo, named after a famous building of Meiji period.
  6. Many famous Japanese bands (not limited to the metal) have performed here in their early days. "Gateway-to-success" is for "登竜門" (tooryuumon), an idiom based on a Chinese legend that a carp swimming up the rapids named "Dragon Gate" of the Yellow River will become a dragon.
  7. It was the premium concert for those who bought the limited edition of "Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!" including a neck brace. The audience were required to wear the neck brace.
  8. Only two encores ("Headbangeeeeerrrrr" & "IJIME, DAME, ZETTAI") were performed with live band.
  9. It seems that well-trained idol fans can find at first moment what they should do and immediately do it.
  10. They sang "Over The Future". Karen Girl's (可憐Girl's) was a girl group consisting of Ayami MUTO, Yuika SHIMA & Suzuka NAKAMOTO (10-12 yr. in 2008). They were formed to sing the opening songs of the anime "Zettai Karen Children" (絶対可憐チルドレン). Miss Yui wrote she had acquainted with Miss Ayami before Karen Girl's and why she loves the song, in the recent article of Sakura Gakuin's school journal.
  11. The dance remix version is called "Headbangeeeeerrrrr -Night of 15 mix-", played as BGM of this part of the interview. The choreography was a bit modified and they danced with four lady dancers wearing bone suits, called "Sisters Bones".
  12. The members of Sakura Gakuin, as its rule, leave the group when they graduate from junior high school. 2013 March was the time for SU-METAL, but the management office had not announced anything about BABYMETAL's activity (until the end of this concert). That's why so many fans were afraid that BABYMETAL might disband then. After the concert they announced the "limited-time" extension of BABYMETAL, but the deadline has not been announced as yet.
  13. MOAMETAL misspoke. They performed in Osaka first of the tour.
        Many artists say Osaka audience react to good/bad performance more frankly than Tokyo, that is, say, if performance ranges from 20 to 80, Osaka reaction ranges from 20 to 80, while Tokyo reaction ranges from 40 to 60. It would make a good performance at Osaka more impressive than elsewhere.
  14. I guess YUIMETAL probably referred to the last concert of the tour. They held two concerts on that day.
  15. In the stories narrated with painted pictures in the concerts of the tour, four Metalmasters showed BABYMETAL four things important to the true metal, and BABYMETAL got them: speed, prayer, fortitude and pride.
  16. MOAMETAL sang "Love Machine" (Morning Musume.'s hit in 1999). She had already sung "Onedari Daisakusen" as Black BABYMETAL, but perhaps she had in her mind more melodious songs than such rap music. She had also sung many solo parts as a member of Sakura Gakuin and its subgroup Mini-Patissier.
  17. BABYMETAL appeared at "Music Japan" (NHK's TV program) twice before then (one tune in 2013 Jan. and one tune & few minutes talk in 2013 Jul. (recorded in Jun.) ). NHK is the Japanese public broadcasting and the capacity of the hall is about 3600.
  18. It was the Rainbow Stage (capacity: 10,000), and SU-METAL said (in some radio program) they watched the performance of Momoiro Clover Z, a famous Japanese girl idol group. They performed on that stage in 2013, and will perform on a bigger stage in 2014.
  19. I'm sorry I can't hear well what SU-METAL says in this part. I guess perhaps she referred to such people to watch non-popular artists to find the newest star among them, and so translate.
  20. They performed on an open-air stage around 16:00 in the Osaka site (while on an indoor stage with air-conditioning in the Chiba site), and Osaka was hell hot that day.
  21. MOAMETAL actually said "even at away" (of "home and away" of sports games). BABYMETAL had already performed at some idol festivals, but there seem to be some unspoken rules in such festivals not to discourage the performers (e.g. even if non-popular performers agitate the audience, most of them kindly return positive responses).
        Ordinary music festivals are away stages, and BABYMETAL seemed to be somewhat discouraged by the scantiness of reactions at first. But later they said it is the true charm of music festivals that the audience who show no reaction at first become to show more and more reactions while watching their performance.
  22. I don't know what else BABYMETAL did, but, as far as I hear, many of audience waved small red lights during the performance, and BABYMETAL handed their autographs (or postcards) directly to their fans after (before?) the overseas concerts. Those are ordinaries among Japanese idols but BABYMETAL and their fans don't do them inside Japan.
  23. The capacity of the event hall of Makuhari Messe is about 8000.
  24. Actually BABYMETAL had already performed at Budokan once before. They performed "Headbangeeeeerrrrr" as guest performers of DJ Piere NAKANO at the event called "DECEMBER'S CHILDREN" on 2012 Dec. 27th.

  The transcription (.srt file) is below.
  The timestamps are for the original and differ 6m15s2 because the video on Google Drive lacks the music part.