Babymetal's music is something that no artist has attempted in the past, uniting people as one by crossing language barriers and national boundaries. It was a huge revelation when we realized that our music has such power.
Suzuka Nakamoto
In the 'Doki Doki Morning' video, there were lots of parts where we weren't dancing. It was just, you know, our faces. But fans thought up their own movements and dances for those parts, and they made lots of outfits, too.
There's a shift and a change in how we've matured to becoming adults. 'Elevator Girl' represents our maturity.
Like Muse and Linkin Park, we are also striving to be the one and only to create a new genre called BABYMETAL. We hope to be as cool as them.
It's always fun to see fans getting into the rhythm, enjoying our performance, and seeing them sing along with us!
Eating good food energizes me.
It didn't really sink in for me when I first heard that we would be supporting RHCP. But when I heard people around us commenting on how incredible it is to be on tour with such a celebrated band, that's when it finally sunk in and realised what a remarkable honour it is to tour with RHCP.
The surprising thing is when we met Judas Priest, they all recognized us. They knew our songs. They knew 'Gimme Chocolate!' and started dancing along with the music.
We've noticed that even though we sing in Japanese, our fans study Japanese and sing along with us, and that people who like J-pop and people who like metal both enjoy our music just the same.
The theme of 'Karate' is about fighting yourself to break down barriers and move forward.
When people saw us for the first time they were just open-mouthed. Then they really got into it and started wearing Babymetal T-shirts.
My mum wasn't the sort of person who would ordinarily listen to heavy metal. But she thinks Babymetal's songs are cool. She's a big fan.
We've taken Japan's 'idol' music genre of pretty girls singing and dancing and added 'kawaii metal,' which is totally new.
Our goal is not to be number one. Our aim is to be the only one.
I would describe our concerts as pretty intense.
One thing that brings everyone together are the lyrics. Even if the people singing don't know the Japanese words, they still sing along.
The Fox God created Babymetal by coming to us in a dream and telling the three of us to form the band. It is because of the Fox God that we are able to be who we are and perform all over the world.
There's no-one in particular that we look up to, because we strive to be something that's never gone before.
Our fans are made up of different groups of people: people who enjoy this Japanese idol scene, versus metal fans. The crowd is disorganised because everyone is reacting to the band in a different way.
Gabrielle Aplin is one of my favourites.
We are pioneers of creating a new genre of metal.
I learned to say 'hello' in German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Indonesian, and Italian - languages of the countries I've visited.
I am sure there are some people who say that we are not metal, but we want to create a new genre that will appeal to people of all ages, both boys and girls.
When we first started out, we had no idea what metal music was all about. But now we listen to everything from cute songs to all sorts of metal music.
Through playing so many shows now outside of Japan, what I realize the most is that there is a very diverse fan base that comes to our shows. Sometimes you see older people, younger people, kids, female, male, a lot of different demographics, people from different backgrounds as well.
For me, every time I step on the stage it feels like a battle is about to start. It's not like we're going on stage to fight against our audience obviously, because for me, when I go on stage, I'm always trying to reach a new level of how am I going to make today a great night for everyone that's present.
We feel it's really interesting to see how our music translates to such a broad audience.
When it comes to influences, we are influenced not just by Japanese and overseas metal acts, but J-pop acts too. One Japanese rock band we're particularly fond of is Seikima-II. We were attracted by their brand of devil imagery and of course, their high-quality musicianship.
In the beginning, Babymetal received critical comments since the genre was new, but now we have an impression that Babymetal's music is getting accepted and spreading as one genre of music.
We are aiming to create a one and only new music genre that exceeds the limits of pop and metal music.
We want to gather everyone together as one, transcending any barrier of language and culture.
Our aim is to bring everyone together through BABYMETAL's music.
We never imagined ourselves in this unbelievable situation that we're in today such as having concerts all over the world and we believe this is all given to us by the Fox God.
We don't really know a lot about the Fox God, but we believe in him.
We always do this fox sign that appears in our choreography very often. Our fans enjoy doing this sign together at our shows.
In Singapore, when we actually met foreign fans and talked to them, it was like 'Wow! They really exist!'
While we don't always 'get' metal, we're doing our very best.
In the beginning I thought that metal was something scary, but I learned how thoughtful and amazing metal is. I'm so honored to be a part of it.
I don't expect for people to like the same things, so I don't feel a need to force people to understand who we are.
The American audience has always without fail shown us very real emotions. We always try to just be ourselves and show them who Babymetal are.
We came to be Babymetal after receiving a divine message from the Fox God.
We have never met the Fox God in person but he assigns us inconceivable challenges, so he is crucial for the progress and growth of Babymetal.
We're girls and we're feminine so it naturally comes into the music but at the same time we intentionally put beauty and females and also Japanese culture J-pop into the music so it creates unique music.
Sometimes metal music tends to be very masculine, but because our version of metal is a fusion of dance and heavy metal, all the mixing will create a very different type of music and the female aspect of it will help to create more uniqueness to it.
A collaboration with Rob Halford, the 'Metal God,' has always been my dream. I never imagined that dream would come true!
I've often been asked, 'aren't you going to sing in English?' So I'm very glad to have a song in English.
I cherish our songs in both Japanese and English.
Our sound is really hard metal but looks cute, and in some parts of the song the lyrics are really cute.
We already knew that Glastonbury is one of the largest music festivals. We always wanted to perform here, and it's like a dream. It's really amazing.
There's so many things about Babymetal you cannot just grasp with the sound. The visual has to compliment the sound, the costumes have to compliment the sound.
