For HANABIE., the last two years have been transformational. The Japanese “Harajuku-core” band has broken through internationally, touring Europe and America, and hitting the festival scene in the process.
With summer festival season in full swing, HANABIE. is once again about to depart Japan for stops in Spain, Germany, and Poland, before embarking on a headline UK and Europe tour later this year. Ahead of that, though, we got to sit down with the band to discuss their music, anime, games, and what it’s like being one of the most unusual bands in the world.
So, Who Exactly Is HANABIE.?
If you were to Google search HANABIE., you’d very quickly stumble across the phrase “Harajuku-core”. It’s a self-styled label created by the band to describe the members’ unique, colourful Harajuku-inspired fashion, combined with its metal/metalcore sounds.
“We’re heavy-driven, but we combine different fun, interesting, and joyful elements into our music”, lead singer Yukina tells me. “Each song has a different flavour, we’re very chaotic.”
Guitarist and singer Matsuri was the first to embrace heavy music, with her father introducing her to bands like Maximum the Hormone and Green Day early on. Bassist Hettsu also found a love for metal at a young age, telling me she “often listened to music from anime, and heavy music from those was inspiring.” Drummer Chika found her love for metal when performing with a previous band. Although that band didn’t play particularly heavy music, they shared a bill with a band that did, and her fondness for the genre was formed.
Yukina, who attended an all-girl school, found her love for metal when she heard a girl in a higher grade “copying Maximum the Hormone, singing in a brutal way.” From here, she began to explore heavier music herself, specifically Maximum the Hormone, and she cites the band’s song F as the reason for her talent for screaming.
“I listened to it all night long,” she says. “I was trying to mimic their singing and found out when I rolled my voice and then shot it out, I could scream.”
I’ve always been particular about my music. I don’t want to copy other people’s style.
Matsuri tells me that, although the band is inspired by Maximum the Hormone, it’s vital that their sound is their own.
“We haven’t changed in the last ten years. I’ve always been particular about my music. I don’t want to copy other people’s style,” she tells me. “We hope our style encourages more bands to do what we do - make the type of music they feel good about and don’t worry about fitting a genre or a label.”
There’s An Otaku In All Of Us
An otaku is a Japanese term used to describe “a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture,” so naturally, being somebody obsessed with games, I had to ask the band about its song ‘OTAKU Lovely Densetsu’, which translates to “The Lovely Legend of the Nerd”.
“Everybody has an otaku in them,” Matsuri tells me. “You don’t have to love anime or games to be an otaku; we’re all otaku for different things.
“The song itself is to cheer on the otaku spirit in people,” Yukina adds. “We’re inspired by otaku. It’s a common language that we discovered as we traveled around Europe and the US for the first time. We could form connections with people, speaking about anime and games, and they were all happy, friendly, and peaceful.”
I always look for song ideas when I’m playing games.
Although Matsuri told me you don’t have to love games or anime to be an otaku, the band admits they are fond of both media.
“I lovedSailor Moon, Oja Majo Doremi, and Pichi Pichi Pichi growing up,” Yukina tells me. “I’m an otaku for anime with strong girls who have magical powers.”
While Yukina leans into anime, Matsuri, who writes the band’s music, is more into gaming. “I make music and I get a lot of inspiration from games, anime, movies, dramas,” she says. “But because gaming is my hobby, I always look for song ideas when I’m playing games.” She cites theDragon Questseries as one of her all-time favourites, whileOverwatch 2is her most recent obsession.
One of the band’s more recent singles,Tasty Survivor, ticked an item off HANABIE.’s bucket list, soundtracking an anime called Momentary Lily. The anime, which follows the story of a girl with magical powers in a post-apocalyptic world, was the perfect first soundtrack for Yukina.
“It was really an accomplishment to do this,” she recalls. “I got to watch the anime before writing the song, and I got into the mindset of anime lovers, reflecting the worldview of the anime. It was a really precious thing for us.”
Their ambitions don’t stop there, though, with the band expressing a desire to soundtrack more. “I often write songs for fun,” Yukina says. “I like to write songs about villains, so one day, maybe we can do a soundtrack for one of those.”
When I mention how iconic many villains’ songs are in video games, particularly Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7, Matsuri lets off a wry smile, saying, “I’d like to do that.”
Entering The Spicy Queen Era
HANABIE.’s latest song,Spicy Queen, comes ten years after the band entered its first music festival, and Yukina shared an insight as to how it came about.
“We went back to the original production process of the early days,” she says. “It was written and arranged just by the band members, nobody from the outside. It was very DIY but also very meaningful for our tenth anniversary.
“I’d say our first song that broke through was We Love Sweets, so we wanted a spicy counterpart to this that shows we have grown up and have different taste buds. It really matched the feeling of what we wanted to write.”
We want to be stars who can fill arenas.
With the band turning ten, Yukina reflects on the most significant moment of her career so far, and what it means going forward. “The first year we went on tour, we were one of Limp Bizkit’s opening acts,” she recalls. “I went on stage and did a song with them. It was completely different from what we had done before, but they made it so much fun.
“Someday, we want to be like this. We want to be stars who can get that sort of reaction and fill arenas. But really, we just want to make people happy with our music.”
