RAISE A SUILEN, (previously known as THE THIRD (仮), is the third band from the BanG Dream! where the voice actresses of their characters can play musical equipment. RAISE A SUILEN performs covers songs from the other BanG Dream! bands and perform their own original songs.
RAISE A SUILEN:
Hi, I’m Reo Kurachi, voicing PAREO. I play the keyboard for RAISE A SUILEN.
I am RAISE A SUILEN’s drummer, Natsume, voicing MASKING.
Hello, I’m Raychell, the bassist and the vocalist for RAISE A SUILEN. I voice LAYER.
I’m Riko Kohara, voicing LOCK, the lead guitarist of RAISE A SUILEN.
GAME PRESS:
Thank you for returning to CharaExpo this year. Since the release of BanG Dream! 2nd season, how does it feel for positive response from Japan and globally of the group and its characters? What did each of you think when you saw your characters for the first time?
Kohara Riko: I have been a big fan of BanG Dream!, so I was happy to see myself in the anime that I love so much now. We started as a support band for the other bands that usually don’t play at actual live concerts. When they create our characters, the character reflected our own personalities into the anime characters as they are, which was really fascinating to see.
GRAND GEEK GATHERING
In BanG Dream! concerts, you have performed songs for Afterglow, Hello, Happy World! and Pastel＊Palettes. Was it difficult to perform
these songs since they’re completely different genres?
Raychell: We have covered songs for Afterglow, Hello, Happy World!, Pastel＊Palettes and Glitter*Green. Each band has its own color and its own sound. I don’t think it’s awkward to perfo
rm their songs but it is difficult to express the color with our own spice. We do love all of the BanG Dream! songs and we would love to convey the greatness of BanG Dream!.
Did you all come from a musical background or resume before RAISE A SUILEN? Can you share some experiences from then to now? Maybe there’s some similarities or differences?
Natsume: I’ve been playing the drums for a long time. I’ve actually been to America before to perform as a support band for anime conventions. As for Raychell, she’s been singing for a while as well. The reason why we met was that I was a support drummer for Raychell’s solo concert. Raychell, Sae Otsuka from Poppin’Party and I performed at a live house and that’s where the chairman, Kidani-san suggested that we should be a support band for the BanG Dream! project. That’s where I met Reo Kurachi as well. She didn’t have any band experience before, but she’s been playing the piano for a while. All four of us have started as THE THIRD （仮）(仮 means temporary) but after that, Sae, who was a support member of the band,left. That’s when we had Riko Kohara join us.
Riko Kohara: I have a musical background as well. I’ve never been to America to perform, however, I’ve been on a previous band called The Sketchbook that performed several songs for the anime SKET DANCE. So, I’m glad that I could be in both music and still be in anime songs.
Natsume: Risa Tsumugi, our DJ, had no background in music before. Since it was decided that she will be joiningthis band, she’s been practicing so hard and now she’s a great DJ. She even performs as a solo DJ artist now. So hopefully, you can see all five of us performing next time.
ANIME TRENDING:
We hold a lot of polls for anime and anime music as well. Recently, your song Invincible Fighter was very popular and frequently place in the Top 10 and even placed top 5 at one point. So how do you feel, knowing you’re so popular around the world and especially with your fans here at CharaExpo?
Natsume: I totally didn’t know that our song even made it to Top 5. We’re very surprised so thank you so much for telling us! RAISE A SUILEN was born from the BanG Dream! project and the project is loved by everyone all over the world. Our goal is to spread our music all over the world. We will keep trying and practicing even harder so that we can continue to do that.
We read that Kidani-san has said before he would love RAISE A SUILEN to expand overseas because he thinks you have great international appeal and in the previous question you were surprised to hear about your song placing top 5. Would you like to fulfill that expectation on that massive global scale?
Raychell: One of our song “R・I・O・T.” contains the lyric phrase, “We are going to take over the world.” As the song states, we would like to take over the world with BanG Dream! and RAISE A SUILEN sound. We would like to perform, not only in the US but all over the world in the future to convey the RAISE A SUILEN and BanG Dream! music. I’m sure there are still so many more people that haven’t seen our performance live before, so hopefully, you can spread the word of our concert you saw today, and more people would know and learn about RAISE A SUILEN. That way they can visit our live concerts closer to your local cities and countries. You could lose yourself to our live concert, so please come and enjoy our music.
