Day 1 of the J-POP Summit got off to a very unique start. Taking place at the historic Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture in San Francisco over September 9 & 10, the Japanese culture festival was filled with exciting performances, guest appearances, and plenty more. The KKS team managed to sit down for an exclusive interview with edgy rock group BAND-MAID who told us what they were most looking forward to about their J-POP Summit appearance and other band insights including how they managed to make Ibaraki Prefecture resemble California!

BAND-MAID has a cool concept, from the cute maid costumes to the edgy hard rock music! Who designs the costumes? Do you write the songs, if so how?

BAND-MAID: Our designers make the costumes to suit our hard rock music style and we discuss with them how we would like them to make it. Usually Kanami, who plays the bass, helps with writing the songs.

BAND-MAID calls live concerts “services”, male fans as “masters”, and female fans as “princesses”. How were fans reactions about this at Sakura Con in Seattle and MCM Con in the UK last year?

BAND-MAID: The audience was excited to have the opportunity to be called “masters” and “princesses” so we are really happy about that. When we went to Seattle for Sakura Con we could see the audience was really excited and it was a great reaction in the UK as well. It was unexpected that we would get such an exciting reaction as it was never seen before so we were really happy to be doing this concept.

You performed at Summer Sonic Music Festival! How was that?

BAND-MAID: We have always wanted to perform at Summer Sonic so we were really glad to be able to perform there. It was a super hot summer for us though!

How many times have you performed in the U.S.? How do you like it?

BAND-MAID: This is our second time performing in the US and we are really excited about performing here at J-POP Summit.

The music video for ‘Non-Fiction Day’ reminds me of California, where did you shoot the music video?

BAND-MAID: We really like that it looked like California because it shows our view is universal, but actually, the music video was filmed in Japan! It was filmed in the Ibaraki Prefecture beside the ocean. We really wanted to make it look like California!

Please tell us which band you would like to play with in the future.

BAND-MAID: (Kanami) Carlos Santana! I really like him.

What is BAND-MAID’s dream and goals?

BAND-MAID: To conquer the world!

What band or artist do you look up to?

BAND-MAID: BAND-MAID’s concept is very unique so we would like to create a new genre.

Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi introduces cute, cool, and amazing Japanese things to the world! Could you tell us what is cute, cool, and amazing to you?

BAND-MAID: BAND-MAID!

Having the opportunity to interview BAND-MAID was great. Despite their gothic image band members were lively, friendly, and cute, and KKS had an amazing time interviewing them. Shortly after the interview, there was time to explore the rest of J-POP Summit!

J-POP Summit provided a bit of something for everyone. For food lovers there was the Ramen Summit where some of the best ramen spots came to showcase their tasty dishes! To complement Ramen Summit, there was a Sake Summit for attendees over the age of 21 which turned out to be fan favorite feature, along with the ramen.

J-POP Summit featured amazing performances on the event’s main stage throughout Day 1. The crowd was particularly hyped to see May’n performing among the lineup on the first day. After wrapping up with more enjoyable performances, it was safe to call it a well spent day.

Stay tuned for our article on the recap of Day 2 at the summit for more exciting news and interviews from May’n and Mitz Mangrove.