Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi was given the opportunity to speak to J-Pop idol girl group callme in Tokyo and is so excited to reveal our conversation to you guys now! callme is a trio made up of former Dorothy Little Happy members Koumi, Mimori and leader Ruuna. Their defining feature as an idol group is the fact that they are completely self-produced. These smart girls get inspired by a variety of artists and music genres, and use these influences to create their unique sounds. callme released their debut album “Who is callme?” three months ago, on Oct 28th, 2015, confident that their new songs will satisfy the domestic and overseas fans alike.
Want to know more about these girls? Read the interview below and get ready to be surprised!
KKS: Hi, we are Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi, a web magazine based in Los Angeles that spreads the most Cute, Cool, and Amazing cultures from Japan. Nice to meet you! Can you introduce yourselves to our audience please?
Mimori: I’m Mimori and I’m in charge of music composition. Nice to meet you.
Ruuna: I’m the leader, Ruuna. Nice to meet you.
Koumi: I’m Koumi and I’m in charge of choreography. Nice to meet you.
KKS: Can you tell us about the concept of callme?
callme: We callme are a group that self-produce all our music, lyrics and choreography.
KKS: I see. Which part of the production do each of you specialise in?
callme: Member Mimori is in charge of all the music composition. Composing music has been one of her hobbies since before, so she told us she would want to be the main composer for the group. From there we started callme. Then we thought, “Now that Mimori takes charge of the composition, why don’t we try self-producing the lyrics and choreography also?”
As for lyrics, all three members write lyrics. We either write individually or collaborate.
Finally, member Koumi designs the choreography that matches our music and lyrics.
KKS: What genres of music do you make?
Mimori: If we have to categorize our songs, I think most of them fit in the genre of dance music. We have EDM, as well as Jazz-funk numbers. Anyway, we always would love to try out new genres.
KKS: What made you start the new group “callme”?
Ruuna: All of us are 19 years old and just graduated from high school. Firstly we formed callme with the theme of “graduation project” in mind, for we self-produce everything in the group like everyone does for their graduation projects. That’s how we adopted the self-production style for callme. We really liked it and decided to carry it on. So basically we first started callme as our “graduation project” and continued working as callme after that.
KKS: Are you getting along well in the group?
callme: Yes we really are (laugh). We have meals together every day!
KKS: Do you hang out together often? Like go shopping together?
callme: Well, we do, but each of us have a distinct fashion taste…
KKS: Really? So what kind of daily fashion do each of you wear?
Koumi: I love high-fashion styles that feature only white and black. “Opening Ceremony” is one of my favorite boutique stores.
Ruuna: I enjoy cute and girlish clothes and wear skirts a lot in daily life.
Miromi: I tend to wear casual and baggy clothes a lot.
KKS: Your stage costumes look fantastic! How do you come up with ideas for the designs?
Koumi: I watch the latest collections of fashion houses and read lots of fashion magazines to look for ideas. We combine our ideas with our stylists’, and try to come up with something that would be accepted by everyone in the group.
KKS: I see, thank you. Let’s move on to the next question. What kind of music do each of you often listen to?
Koumi: I listen to western music the most. I’m quite into the English singer Charli XCX recently.
Ruuna: I listen to Perfume a lot. They are really good examples for us and we aim to be like them someday.
Mimori: Although I listen to so many genres of music, songs from Nico Nico videos are one of my favorites. I also love the musical group Sound Horizon, whose songs were featured in the hit anime Attack on Titan.
KKS: Who are some of your biggest musical influences? You’ve mentioned Perfume, can you tell us some other artists that have influenced each of you personally?
Koumi: K-pop group 2NE1 is a big influence to me. They not only encouraged the crowd to fight for their lives but also managed to make them super happy, which made me realize it’s very important to excite the audiences during a show. I learned a lot from them.
Ruuna: Idol group Morning Musume first inspired my dream of performing on the stage as part of a group. They were extremely popular when we were very young. I admire them so much ever since that time and dream of becoming like them someday. So I would say Morning Musume influenced me the most.
Mimori: I admire the Japanese singer/songwriter Oku Hanako. Composing music on the piano is what I learned from her after listening to the songs she created. Oku Hanako inspired me to become a composer myself. By arranging her songs in my way while singing and playing them on the piano, I gradually picked up how to compose my own songs. By the way, I really love her song “Unchanging Things”.
KKS: If you are going to perform overseas, which countries would you want to visit?
Koumi: I’m interested in learning English and watching western films. There are also many British actors that I like. I would want to go to Britain and perform there.
Ruuna: I really want to perform in Asian countries with callme. I remember the last time I visited Asia, while I was walking on the street, the locals asked me in Japanese if I was from Japan. That happened in Taiwan and Hong Kong, which was such a fresh and delightful experience to me. I definitely hope to visit Asian countries again and make us better known there.
Mimori: I love Europe and would want to visit Sweden if I have a chance. Sweden is also the setting for the Ghibli films that I enjoy a lot. I do hope to perform in my favorite place as callme and hope people there would like us.
KKS: Can you introduce your new album “Who is callme?” to the overseas listeners?
Ruuna: Our first album “Who is callme?” includes 16 songs in total and 7 of them are news songs. We spent about 4 months producing it. The album is titled “Who is callme?” because through our music we want to interest people who haven’t heard about us before and make them wonder who we are. It is an album filled with our confidence that it will surprise the new listeners. Furthermore, we titled each song of the album in English and incorporated lots of English in the lyrics, so that listeners from outside Japan could be able to enjoy our music as well.
KKS: Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi aims to spread the cute, cool, and amazing aspects of Japanese culture to the world; what is the Cute, Cool and Amazing in your opinions?
Mimori: To me, it is Piano. It makes Cute sounds and one looks really Cool while playing it. The piano action mechanism (the fact that it makes sounds when the keys are presses) is really Amazing.
Ruuna: I think fashion has all three attributes. Fashion helps us to look either Cute or Cool, and gives us confidence. No matter to women or men, fashion is necessary and loved by everyone.
Koumi: It is Individuality, in my opinion. Everyone has his or her own lifestyles and preferences, and tends to be different from others. Your opinions might be agreed or objected to, and everyone thinks differently; but that is exactly what diversifies the world and creates more possibilities. This is truly amazing, so I choose Individuality to answer this question.
KKS: Lastly, can you send a message to your fans abroad?
Koumi: Although callme are only performing in Japan for the present, we really want more people from overseas to get to know about us. I am pretty confident that our album “Who is callme?” would satisfy the overseas listeners, so please listen to our songs! I do hope to visit other parts of world as soon as possible, please make sure to come to our show when we visit your country! Thank you so much for your support!
★To purchase “Who is callme?” on mu-mo shop overseas site, click here
★To purchase “Who is callme?” on iTunes, click here
Special Thanks To:
Avex Group
for making this interview happen on KKS!
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