Bonjour Suzuki & RinRin Doll Share Their Message to the World Through Lolita Fashion: Interview

Bonjour Suzuki is a singer-songwriter who has sung and produced music for anime, video games, movies and more, demonstrating her wide-spread talent. RinRin Doll is a Japanese lolita fashion model and YouTuber active worldwide. Together, they form the unit “Bonjour Suzuki & RinRin Doll.”

On June 30, the duo released their debut song “Carnival Dolls,” showcasing Bonjour Suzuki’s music production and RinRin Doll’s lyrics and direction, putting the unit into high gear. Both have separately enjoyed tremendous popularity within Japan and overseas in Japanese pop culture, and now they’ve combined their areas of music and fashion, opening a new door to the world. What message do the two have to share?

What led to you two deciding to form this unit?

Bonjour Suzuki: When I  had performed at an Angelic Pretty fashion show (a popular lolita brand), I found myself drawn to this cute model with a curious allure.  When I got a closer look, I realized that it was RinRin, who models for several magazines and brands, so  I was too nervous to talk to her.  But I had another chance to know her through friends and we grew close.  I had known she could dance and perform, but when I heard her sing, her voice was so cute and so charming,  I immediately said, “Hey! Let’s do something together!” It was only natural for us to create the unit.

Could you talk a bit about your roots and what you do?

Suzuki:  I started learning classical piano when I was three. I’ve also studied the koto, shamisen, harp, and viola, among many instruments. My mother had sung jazz, so I grew up listening to soul music, jazz, Bossa Nova, and motown.  I also have relatives in France so I listened to a lot of French music as well while growing up.  I ended up studying French through music, movies, and anime, then went abroad to study language and music in southern France.  There, I had a vocal teacher who inspired me so much with her words that I still, to this day, reflect on her advice.  Following that, I started listening to even more songs from Iceland, France, and the like and discovered new vocal styles that have now reflected in my current style.

You do everything, right — not just the vocals, but also writing the lyrics and the music, performing the music, and mixing?

Suzuki: I sometimes ask other people to handle a part of it, but I usually do it all myself. I’m a big fan of French artist Emilie Simon, so I wanted to do everything myself, too, and I started studying how to do it.

RinRin, when did you get into music?

RinRin: Since I was a little kid I learned to play the piano and the guzheng (a Chinese zither). I also loved listening to all kinds of music  and studied music theory in school as well.

Did you start modeling and posting on YouTube after coming to Japan?

RinRin: Yes. I started modeling for a well-known lolita fashion brand called “Angelic Pretty” in 2009 for their catalogs and fashion shows. I also became a dokusha-model (an influencer for print media) modeling lolita and street fashion in iconic subculture magazines like KERA and Gothic Lolita Bible, among others.  Starting around 2013, the popularity for the style grew overseas and I was often invited as a guest to lolita fashion events and anime conventions all around the world like The Netherlands, France, Germany, Mexico, Canada, the US, Chile, Korea, China, Australia, and so on. I noticed I often get asked a lot of questions all about Lolita fashion and beauty, so I started a YouTube channel to answer commonly asked questions and post content I hope people will enjoy.

What kind of reactions have you two had from overseas audiences?

Suzuki: I sang, composed, arranged, and wrote the lyrics to the opening theme for the anime “Yurikuma Arashi” directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, who’s famous for creating Sailor Moon R: The Movie, and he has countless fans around the world who listened to the song. People from countries like Germany, Russia, Spain, China, and Indonesia, even covered the song in their own languages!  I’d been making rap and electro songs with friends overseas, but when I started working as a soloist, I wanted to make songs that fused Japan’s unique kawaii culture with a more mysterious aesthetic to create a distinctive feel. I was looking for a female artist who I could create this music with, so it was fate that I met RinRin. I want the two of us to make a lot more songs that could be used to create a cute ambiance for events  like lolita tea parties.

RinRin: I get a lot of comments online asking about how to get into lolita fashion, what it’s like to work in Japan, what’s the current trends in beauty and fashion in Harajuku.  I find a lot of people are interested in Japanese fashion and culture, only not knowing how to get closer to it and participate.  I hope I can inspire more people who want to try kawaii subculture fashion to be able to be comfortable in expressing themselves.  When I do lolita fashion tea parties (where everyone wears lolita fashion and has tea) overseas in person, I have a chance to talk to everyone directly and learn that usually everyone has an open and positive reaction.    I also always request to play Bon-chan’s music at these tea parties.  It really fits the vibe and everyone falls in love with it.

What’s the atmosphere like in these tea parties?

RinRin: Depending on the event, it can be anything like doing a fashion show or talk show, but I also request to go from table to table to chat directly with people about themselves and lolita fashion. No matter what country, the people who come to the tea parties see lolita fashion as a way of expressing themselves. They say that no matter what kind of difficulties they might find themselves up against, when they put on Lolita clothing, it makes them feel strong. Everyone’s happy to have this opportunity to wear cute clothes in an accepting space at lolita fashion tea parties, and there’s a tight-knit community every place I go. It makes me want to create even more opportunities and safe spaces like this and support people who  enjoy cute styles.  Through our unit, I’d like to connect Japan and the rest of the world and show everyone how much confidence Lolita fashion provides.

What was the idea behind your debut song, “Carnival Dolls?”

RinRin: When I first heard part of the track that  Bon-chan had come up with, it immediately reminded me of faerie rings of European folklore. The story goes that if a human sees a ring of fairies dancing they would get enticed into the ring to dance with the faeries and before they know it, two decades would go by. I feel like there’s a connection between this story and current social media, where everyone looks like they’re having fun so the viewer would be drawn into it and lose track of time. However, I also felt there’s an ephemeral quality of staying in the moment and feeling like “while we’re all together, let’s just have fun and dance!”  

For the music video, we knew exactly who we needed to bring on to produce the music video.  Our friend, SAKUnoTORIDORI, who is an art director, set producer, photographer, and brand creator,  is perfect for the image we were going for.  She has a fairy-tale-like vision with all her works and we were so happy to come together as a trio to bring this vision to light.

Suzuki: In writing the music, I was inspired by RinRin’s faerie-like, intriguing aura. When she told me about the faerie rings, I reworked the track to include that faerie ring image.  The song starts with the opening of J.S. Bach’s Fugue in G minor, layering baroque classical instruments. I brought my harp to the studio to play on the track, and violinist Asuka Mochizuki played violin and viola, which we layered on top of the programmed tracks. We used our instruments to depict this image of RinRin dancing, faerie-like, in the forest, and arranged the song like a sonic representation of the faerie ring feeling that the song had given her.

The lyrics are in several different languages, right?

RinRin: Yes, since we wrote the lyrics together, we used our experiences and languages we know.  We hope people in parts of the world have that “Oh hey!” moment when words they understand suddenly pop out.

Suzuki: French has a mysterious sound to it that creates a wonderful atmosphere, so we sprinkled it throughout. Even a single word is enough to create a vivid image. Just like how I learned French from listening to songs, I looked up words from RinRin’s English lyrics to use in my own daily life, and I think it would be wonderful if people in English-speaking countries were able to learn some new Japanese words from the song.

What kind of activities are you planning for the unit?

RinRin: I plan to continue doing lolita fashion tea parties, fashion shows, concerts, and other events within Japan and overseas,  with the hope that our music can create safe spaces where we can enjoy community together. I also hope to work hard to serve as a bridge between Japan and overseas; and that more people can come to know about lolita fashion and kawaii culture.

Suzuki: I want to go with RinRin and perform shows at overseas events. I’m also going to do my best so that one day our music will be used in anime or games.

—This interview by Takayuki Okamoto firs appeared on Billboard Japan