Raise a Suilen

strong vocal style. I am also a bass vocalist; I watched and learned from “Suzi Quatro” how to sing better.

Natsume (Dr.): I started playing the drums when I was in high school. First of all, I didn’t often listen to songs from overseas, but I was shocked when I heard Marylin Mason’s music. From that point, I started listening to heavy music like heavy metal and rock. I like listening to Mötley Crüe, KISS and Megadeth. In particular, who inspired me the most as a drummer was Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe.

Reo (key): As a keyboardist, I was inspired by Minami from Las Vegas and Masayuki Hiizumi. I watched and learned from their performances many times.

FUSION: What are some of your inspirations, and what keeps you motivated as music artists?

Reo(Key.): Each member of RAISE A SUILEN has a role of character, and we are getting inspiration from our different characters. Our characters are in a game called Galiver; in the game, our characters play out different stories, so we also get inspired from the game setting. Our songs are provided to us from Elements

Garden. Elements Garden produces various versions of songs and there is more inspiration and new song ideas coming from within us. We put these inspirations and different styles into our performance on stage.

Natsume (Dr.): Personally, I think live performances are significant for me. Everytime we receive a new song, we create a new style of performance. So I always watch many other artists’ performances. I keep motivating myself to learn and train from other artists.

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.): I always think about what RAISE A SUILEN’s performance is like at live shows. I think about how my character, LAYER, would sing and perform with a new song on stage. I also imagine how our audience will react towards new songs, and that’s how I stay motivated at the concerts.

Risa (DJ): My biggest motivation is performing our live concerts. The time period of the pandemic restrictions was so long, and at that time, the audience couldn’t use their voices. Recently, the conditions have returned to normal. A few weeks ago, we had a live performance and the audience did a call and response during our concert.

Riko(Gt.) : My motivation is putting my love into the songs. Not only the band, but also loving our songs is what keeps me motivated.

FUSION: Can you talk about the challenges that you all face together as a group, and how you overcome those challenges?

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.): We currently participate in a band project called Poppin’Party, and there are seven bands currently, and more new bands sometimes get added to the band project. We think about who we are and what we like when we see the new bands coming in. When we think about what makes us unique; we do headbanging and foot stomping, and we perform in a physically aggressive way. Our challenge is how we can keep progressing as a rock band with each new song.

FUSION: If there is one concert venue that you would like to perform, which would it be and why?

Natsume (Dr.) : We would love to have a performance at Tokyo Dome and we also want to go abroad again!

FUSION: You are now working on new music, can you talk a little bit about the new release?

Risa (DJ) : We are about to release our 11th single. We’ve been releasing standard rock songs with RAISE A SUILEN, but this 11th single sounds like we go back to the origin of RAISE A SUILEN, with a hard rock song. I also sang the rap part of this song. It was the fastest we’ve made a song. Check it out!

FUSION: You’ve been on tours around the world before, but more specifically, you’ve traveled to Los Angeles in the past. How was your experience, and what do you look forward to when you’re overseas?

Riko(Gt.) : We went to Los Angeles around 2018 or 2019. It was the first time for us to see the reaction of the audience in LA. At the time, we were still starting as a band, so we were nervous to see the audience’s reaction. The fans’ reactions were very good, and we made so many fun memories with them. We want to go back to LA again if we have the opportunity.

FUSION: Can we expect you to do another tour in America this year or maybe next year?

Reo(Key): YES! We really want to do a world tour!! Not only one place, but we also we to go to many places! We are looking forward to seeing all the fans on the North American tour!

FUSION: What was the best concert you’ve seen, and why?

At RO-KYU-BU!’s final live show. RO-KYU-BU! was a unit made up of cartoon characters that sang and danced like us. I had a memorable experience at their final live show at Saitama Super Arena.

Natsume(Dr.) I like Mötley Crüe. I went to Saitama Super Arena to watch their performance when they came to Japan. Tommy Lee played the drums, turning around 360 degrees while he performed. But at the time, his performance was stopped suddenly, so I would love to go see him perform again! I’ve also never seen Marilyn Manson’s concert, so I want to see him perform, too!

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.) : Last year, Lady Gaga came to Japan to do her tour at Seibu Dome. I went to see her live and I was very impressed.

FUSION: How would you go about energizing a tired audience?

Risa (DJ): Our music helps fans forget their tiredness! Raychell tells fans, “your heads are still attached to your necks, you need to do more headbanging, trying to go home with a sore neck!” If someone told you that, you would forget if you were tired! Our concerts are meant for those who feel particulary tired. Please come and see our performance and get energized again!

FUSION: Question 15: What’s the best show or tour you’ve ever played, and why was it so special to you?

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.): Our memorial special stage was when we performed at Nippon Budokan. There was a full audience and we played our live performance in the middle of the stadium. We have released many new songs since we last played a Nippon Budokan concert, so we would like to go back again and have a performance including those new songs.

FUSION: What are some of your favorite songs to play live?

Riko (Gt.): I have one song that is great to play live, it’s a favorite of both fans and band members. The song is, “Shakunetsu Bonfire!” We have a particular movement for this song. I have the impression that our fans who come and watch our shows might wanna physically move with our songs. We feel our fan’s passion to dance along with the songs, and we also enjoy performing this song.

FUSION: What’s next for the band?

Raychell(Ba.&Vo.): What’s next is that we wanna keep having many more live performances. Our first single is, “R·I·O·T ‘’ and there are some lyrics that go “we possess the world.” We wanna keep flying around the world and have many performances in many countries.

FUSION: In America, many groups like to collaborate together to make music. Are there any chances that you would like to collaborate with other musicians in America, and if issue! How do you feel about that, and what do you want viewers and fans that are reading this to get out of it?

Natsume (Dr.): RAISE A SUILEN is a rock band, but we have a DJ in the band as well. We play our songs with DJ elements. If we have the opportunity, we respect him a lot and would love to collaborate with Zedd!!! We would like our CHU2 and Zedd to make a remix together and have a performance on stage together!

FUSION: How can fans stay up-todate with the band’s activities?

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.): We have our own official website, Instagram, Twitter, and social media accounts, so please follow us on any of those platforms. Each of us also has personal social media accounts. You will get a lot of updates and new information about us from there.

FUSION: You are the featured artist that will decorate the front cover of Fusion for July’s issue! How do you feel about that, and what do you want viewers and fans that are reading this to get out of it?

Risa (DJ) : We are so honored to be appearing on the front cover of Fusion magazine! Fusion magazine is not Japanese, it is an American magazine. I don’t think everyone gets to be on the front cover of a magazine in America. We are very honored to be on the cover and personally, July is my birthday month. Capturing us on the front cover of Fusion would be the best birthday gift for me!

FUSION: What message do you want to deliver to all the fans that are reading and watching this?

Raychell (Ba.&Vo.): There will be more people knowing about RAISE A SUILEN through Fusion magazine. Our appearance is between cute and cool, but our music is heavy rock. Please listen to our music and come and watch us perform live on the stage. We would love to see everyone there. We are going to break down the wall and deliver our songs to the world! Please connect with us through our music! We also released our new single”NE-M-E-S-I-S,” on June 28th, along with English versions of, “EXPOSE ‘Burn out!!!,” and, “Takin’ my Heart.” We put our heart into it, please check it out!!

Notes

From The Editor

Working with these musicians, in my opinion, was an honor. I got the chance to chat with each and every one of them, and I can assure you that they are an up-and-coming band that you should absolutely give a chance to hear. If you listen to their new song, “N-E-M-E-S-I-S,” you can get a good idea of what they sound like.

This new song has inspired me, and I’ve been playing it over and over again. What I like about it is that you can hear the heart rock slash metal melodies, and at the same time you have a great lead singer who sings the song very well. Not only that, but you also have fast hip hop vocals. It brought back memories and histologic of when I used to go to heart rock concerts in Los Angeles.

This is one of those songs that you absolutely need to listen to, and if you support them, they will have the opportunity to visit Los Angeles and other parts of the United States. I believe that this is a band that you should keep a close eye on from now on,

RAISE A SUILEN is they Rock band straight from Tokyo Japan is a Japanese girl band associated with the BanG Dream! media property produced by Bushiroad. Formed in 2018, the group’s members not only play the instruments featured in the BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! anime series and mobile game, but also represent the roles of those characters in real life performances.

Raychell (vocals, bass), Riko Kohara (guitar), Natsume (drums), Reo Kurachi (keyboards, vocals), and Risa Tsumugi (DJ, vocals) make up Raise A Suilen. Rei Wakana (Raychell), Rokka Asahi (Kohara), Chiyu Tamade (Tsumugi), Masuki Sat (Natsume), and Reona Nybara (Kurachi) all play fictional versions of themselves in the band. Having unique mix melodies such as a little bit of electronic and rock and metal makes you want to rock really hard