When I first became involved in Babymetal, I honestly hadn't known what metal music was about so everything was new to me.
Heavy Metal is the most conservative of all loud music. Let's face it, not even a gym teacher could get as many people to dress alike.
I have been metal all my life, only I did not know about it. The people in this album (Charlemagne) and I, share the same values.
When this genre of music started in America, Metallica was up north in California, we were in Southern California, Anthrax was on the East Coast. We each developed our own metal music, and after 30 years, we're still playing our metal music.
Headbangers' are people who like heavy-metal music, which is performed by skinny men with huge hair who stomp around the stage, striking their instruments and shrieking angrily, apparently because somebody has stolen all their shirts.
Some of the smartest people I know are metal fans.
You'd be surprised the type of people who are into metal when you see them. Sometimes I'm even surprised, but it's cool. That's the reason it's still around.
When you look at metal, it's probably one of the healthiest genres when you look at it in a worldwide perspective - every single country listens to metal.
If heavy metal bands ruled the world, we'd be a lot better off.
I love metal songs about metal. That's one of my favorite things. Nobody does that any more. Nobody sings about how metal they are, or about their fans, or about how crazy their pits are.
Japan has really great fans for all kinds of music. I think they're keeping metal alive. They're really great supporters, and they really love music. I think it's a total outlet for them.
I don't know if I was a poseur - I really did love metal, always - but I gave a lot of other things a chance. I wanted to meet, um, girls, so I would check out Depeche Mode. But mostly I wanted stuff with pentagrams and crowns of thorns on it.
