Three Girls and a Baby

No other band is as controversial in the scene as BABYMETAL. What isn't stoppping these three Japanese girls from taking their spectacular show on tour in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Throughout its history, our magazine on culture has often predicted the collapse of the Western world. But if you thought things couldn't get any worse after an interview with Heino [German singer], think again. Ladies and gentlemen: We give you BABYMETAL! Even though these three young ladies from Japan really need no introduction, since the metal scene considers them the embodiment of treachery and horror and every other evil that has befallen the world. On the one hand, this is somewhat understandable, since nobody in their right mind is likely to have managed to listen to their album in its entirety. Therefore, an interview with BABYMETAL's fans would be far more interesting than an interview with BABYMETAL themselves, but we'll get to that later.

On the other hand, we shouldn't be too hard on Su-Metal, YuiMetal, and MoaMetal: These three Japanese girls whose real names are Suzuka Nakamoto, Yui Mizuno, and Moa Kikuchi, currently between 16 and 18 years young are the least to blame for this mess: When they fell into producer Kobametal's clutches through a casting project--for "idol" group Sakura Gakuin--in 2010, they were neither masters of their own destiny, nor did they really like the music. Credit goes to the diligence and unlimited discipline of these three girls who have been able to fill entire arenas worldwide with their spectacular show and have wowed even skeptical metalheads. The trio has a lot of supporters among the pros anyway: Slash recently called them "the most exciting thing that I'd seen recently," Kreator's Mille defended them by saying they weren't hurting "real metal bands," and even Napalm Death's Shane Embury praised them for luring a younger generation towards metal.

A short telephone conversation with frontwoman Su-Metal shows what it means to be in BABYMETAL (the other two brats just jump around and shout weird things like "Watatata taata taatatata dokkyun"). Approaching her for an interview proved a little difficult, with the record company in Germany, her in Japan, the translator in the US, and the author writing these lines from China. When it finally happened over several different timezones, the young lady had already been churning out interviews since in the early morning. And as countless neon lights illuminate the Japanese night, Su-Metal is about ready to turn off her light [for bed]. But she puts on a brave face and greets me with a delightful "Hellooo Lock Hald[RockHard]!“ through the Skype ether, while other girls her age are in bed or in karaoke bars.

I respond with moshi moshi.

You're about to go back on tour in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. What's it like for you when thousands of people sing along in a language of which they only know "Toyota" and "Mitsubishi"?

The first time we performed outside of Japan, we were really scared, because we didn't know how people would respond to us and our culture. It still surprises us that so many people sing along to our sings, and it makes us happy if our music can overcome all barriers.

Your shows are very physically demanding. Add to that jetlag and constant touring. How do you manage to deal with that?

Our rehearsals are actually much more exhausting than the shows themselves, because we practice every move and every choreography down to the minutest detail. The show has to be absolutely perfect from beginning to end, after all. That costs a lot of energy, but you get used to it, and we really look forward to the shows themselves. They always cheer us up.

But that can't be because of the music. You say you don't like metal.

It's true that we didn't know much about metal when the band started. But when we started to get to know it through our work, we did start to like it. Of course, it's totally different from the "idol" music we used to play. But if so many people all over the world like our songs, they can't be that bad.

Alright. At your age, how are you able to make so much noise with a band dressed-up as ghosts in front of hordes of metal fans night-for-night without going crazy?

That's sort of normal for us, because we grew up doing that. Of course it seemed kind of intimidating at first, but we grew into our roles. BABYMETAL allows us to reach other people our age who might also have problems and concerns, and hopefully we can encourage them.

Speaking of growing, you've changed a lot compared to when you started, and soon you'll be grown-up women. Is BABYMETAL going to turn into Grown-Up-Metal?

Only the fox god knows.

Very informative. As mentioned earlier, it would be much more interesting to see what goes on inside the head of BABYMETAL fan when listening to their music: Austrian scientist, Gernot O., says, "Headobang! Headobang! Headobang!" Inna W., programmer from Stuttgart, says, "Ring. Ring. Ring. Doki doki morning!" Werner S. who runs a popular bar in Cologne says, "Kinkirariiiiinnnnn! Uki uki midnight!“ And Gylve F., mailman from Oslo, just says, "BABYMETAL DEATH! BABYMETAL DEATH!“