QUEEN BEE’s Avu-chan on ‘Mephisto’ & Her Vision for the Band’s Global Future : Interview

QUEEN BEE’s “Mephisto,” the ending theme for the smash hit anime 【OSHI NO KO】, has itself become a long-running hit song. The video for “Mephisto” performed by “Avu-chi, the Idol from Hell” on the YouTube channel THE FIRST TAKE reached 4.57 million views in less than a week.

The heart of QUEEN BEE, vocalist Avu-chan, who is responsible for both the lyrics and the music to “Mephisto,” spoke with Billboard Japan for the first time. In this wide-ranging interview, she discusses 【OSHI NO KO】 and “Mephisto,” performing in a band, and QUEEN BEE’s full-fledged start as global band.

“Mephisto” is the ending theme for the anime 【OSHI NO KO】, and the song has become quite the hit.

Avu-chan: I think the anime introduced a lot of people to “Mephisto,” but even more than that, I think there were people who had heard of QUEEN BEE before, and “Mephisto” reinforced for them what a tremendous band we are. It was wonderful that Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari, who created the original manga, and the creators of the anime all supported us in handling the ending theme. It’s a strange feeling, like they recognized and validated the approach we take to life.

The new song has given people an opportunity to see what an amazing band you are.

Avu-chan: Right. Just look at how many people are listening to our music. We’ve lit the flame of QUEEN BEE and kept it burning, and now we’ve been given this opportunity by something even bigger than us. But we’re not going to burn out, and we’re not aiming to fan these flames in new directions, working toward some new goal. We’re not going to allow ourselves to get swept away, we’re just going to quietly keep pushing forward.

Without getting anxious or restless.

Avu-chan: We knew that we could achieve synergy by pairing up with 【OSHI NO KO】. We’re very grateful for that. However, in the end we just want to do what we think is interesting — what we find wonderful. That’s going to be the path we continue to follow in the future. All that said, I’m amazed that “Mephisto,” which is just brutally honest, has been so widely accepted. It’s not just about idols, it’s about every kind of work. It’s about how we stake our lives on our work, how once you start there’s no turning back. It tells these truths in uncouth, unvarnished words. If people are enjoying it by making vocal covers and dance videos, I don’t know what to say.

What are your impressions of 【OSHI NO KO】, which recently aired its final episode?

Avu-chan: I think it’s wonderful how the original creators of the comic have enjoyed the anime adaptation, which has become a social phenomenon. But what 【OSHI NO KO】 is really depicting is a serious message of social reform, set on the stage of the entertainment industry. It’s so ironic that it became a hit overseas and people are like “Japan is so fascinating.” I guess one saving grace, in a way, is that the people who made it are brimming with love, and that our own music is part of it.

The love and passion the creators feel for their work is making the serious message of social reform into a hopeful message.

Avu-chan: Right. There are people who, when they talk about the entertainment industry, are like “Your job is being on stage, so you need to just grin and bear it.” They want to treat the entertainment industry as if it’s an anomaly.  【OSHI NO KO】 is directly challenging that idea, saying “This is a story that relates to everyone.” I think it challenges the viewers. But there are a lot of people who aren’t seeing it as a battle, which may be a reason for its popularity.

“Mephisto” is the name of a demon in German folklore, and appears in Goethe’s drama Faust. I’ve heard that you developed the concept of the song some time ago.

Avu-chan: From the time of the decision for the tie-in, I thought that the theme of “Mephisto” would be a great match for the anime. I was sure the anime would be great, and I was so confident that I cried with joy on being selected to provide the ending theme. I drew the motif from Goethe’s Faust, and I was influenced by authors who richly depicted the doings and passion of people — authors like Go Nagai, who I’ve enjoyed since I was little, and like Yukio Mishima and Shakespeare. I think those sensibilities lie at the heart of “Mephisto.”

So you’re expressing the doings and passion of people through music.

Avu-chan: I feel the same kind of passion in 【OSHI NO KO】 as I feel in the works of those authors, so “Mephisto” was a great fit for it. However, the music drew on that passion more than it drew on any specific information about the anime, so I didn’t think that many people would realize the intent behind it.

If you look at YOASOBI’s “Idol” as broadening the world of the anime, it would seem to me that “Mephisto” deepened it.

Avu-chan: Thank you for saying that. Drawing out context from a work of art — that’s our specialty. YOASOBI and QUEEN BEE have really just blown the lid off this! (laughs) I don’t think if this would’ve happened if our musical styles hadn’t been so different.

I’d like to talk to you for a moment about the band as a whole. You performed two live shows in the U.S. this April. Do you have your eyes set on establishing a full-fledged global presence?

Avu-chan: We hadn’t originally been thinking about that. I love the Japanese language and I’ve always felt it was important to sing in Japanese, so starting all over from the ground up, writing lyrics in English — that’s a decision I’ve struggled with.

Sure, but the situation in the North American market is changing. Song lyrics used to have to be in English to be successful, but now it’s no longer that hard to compete even when singing in your own native language.

Avu-chan: True. When we played in America in spring, I started to think that the passion and strength of Japanese could serve as our passport. We performed in Seattle and Los Angeles, and when we put on the kind of show QUEEN BEE usually does, the venues went wild.

Even though there were a lot of people who didn’t speak Japanese?

Avu-chan: Right. And another thing that people who praised the show all mentioned is that the audience had people of all races. There were senior citizens and little kids, and looking at how much fun everyone had, I thought “QUEEN BEE really needs to go international.” Of course, succeeding in Japan is itself no easy matter. However, I recognize that I myself am a melting pot of races. At the two shows, I got a glimpse of just why I should be performing to overseas audiences.

You want to be someone who stands on stage surrounded by people of every race.

Avu-chan: I just bare my heart for all to see. I think overseas success is still a major challenge, but I hope to stir up some chaos on a global scale.

Is there anything that you’d change in your efforts to go global?

Avu-chan: If I changed anything, people would notice immediately.  In our case, if you change yourself in order to curry popularity, then you’re left with nothing. We don’t want to use that kind of marketing approach.

Because that wouldn’t be true to QUEEN BEE.

Avu-chan: I’d like to think that we just can’t do things like that, and that’s one of our strengths.

I’ve heard that you already have plans for future overseas shows.

Avu-chan: Decisions about overseas shows are starting to get made, so in the future I think we’ll be playing abroad more and more.

In Japan, you’ve got plans to perform in festivals and events, and in November you’ve lined up a performance hall tour, “Juni-jigen + 01.”

Avu-chan: We’ve decided how we’re going to present ourselves in our shows, so now we’re working on internalizing that at the physical level. There’s a lot we still want to do, and we’re always thinking about what challenges to take on next. I feel like we have to keep updating ourselves, stimulating our own cycle of creativity, shedding our skin. If we don’t, we’ll die. I wonder what kind of beast we’ll have become at the end of this transformation.

It’s like QUEEN BEE’s own theory of evolution.

Avu-chan: The end result of evolution is collapse, so what I’m talking about isn’t quite evolution. What will lie at the end of this cycle of metabolism? I’m not going to hazard any specific guesses, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who are encouraged by how QUEEN BEE refuses to simply be satisfied with how things are, but instead is always taking on new challenges.

Avu-chan: Looking back, from two or three years ago until just recently, there were no discussions about tie-in songs. But even during that time, we were making our own music videos and keeping our focus on QUEEN BEE in all that we did. I think that all combined to put us where we are today. Right now, people are enjoying “Mephisto,” but I don’t see this as our peak. No matter what the situation, we’re just going to keep being on stage — that’s what we’ve made up our minds to do.

—This interview by Itsuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan