I just want to say really quickly before I proceed that I’m really honored to be have given this chance of interviewing such an important person who I admire and grew up with and their works. I really want to thank everyone involved in this.
This interview has been planned for a while, and I’m finally glad to be able to write this article and interview, honestly. It’s been such an honor, and I hope that this article and interview will be of interest to all the readers out there! Let’s start this with a quick summary of who beatMARIO is and what they do.
beatMARIO is a music producer, songwriter, vocalist, and VTuber from Japan who has been around since 1998. This is someone who I would call a legend within the otaku culture, especially within the Touhou fandom and community. If you don’t know, beatMARIO is the founder, songwriter, producer, and vocalist for the group COOL&CREATE. The same group that made the iconic song:
”Help me, ERINNNNNN!!”.
Maybe you’ve seen beatMARIO’s VTuber around as well? If you’re a VTuber fan or familiar with the agencies Hololive or NIJISANJI, then it’s not really surprising! Not only have the talents talked about him, but beatMARIO have also worked together with them such as Houshou Marine. Everyone’s favorite pirate!
If I may add some personal perspective into this real quick (like I usually do when writing my articles), beatMARIO have been a staple musician for me when growing up. A person that I really admire through all the hard work they’ve done, all the music pieces they’ve done, and over all the things they’ve done for the Touhou and VTuber community.
I’ve been growing up with Touhou since I was about 10, and beatMARIO & COOL&CREATE were one of the first musicians that I came across while exploring the fandom and community. It was them and then also IOSYS, which is another icon. Therefore, being allowed and able to execute this interview is like healing my inner child, to be honest, in a way. Also, as someone who wants to work with music sometime and is already singing since a few years back, interviewing someone you look up to like this is just amazing.
Anyway, during this interview I got the chance to ask 10 questions that I’ve always wanted to ask and I thought would be perfect for an interview like this in order to get to know this amazing person. My intention, like always, is to help the artist get their name out one way or another while exposing them to a new audience outside of Japan. Of course to fans around the globe too! I really hope this will be an interesting read, so let’s get to it right away!
Q1: Can you tell us why you started your career?
- BM: It actually started with me creating a website back in 1998, but I didn’t have a name for it since I didn’t really know what I wanted to do except for posting a few illustrations, or under which handle I wanted to use for these sort of things. But then I came up with the handle ”beatMARIO”, and the idea behind it was to just put the ”beat” from ”BEATMANIA”, which is a KONAMI music game, together with ”Mario” from the Nintendo franchise ”Super Mario”. However, I started creating music around the year 1999. I wanted to create music in the style of the songs that are in the game ”BEATMANIA”, and I used the BMS to do so which is the thing that is used for the game. I actually tried to copy the sounds and songs from various eroge visual novels, kinda like a midi song. I would listen and then try to copy it with the BMS.
Q2: At what point in your life did you decide that you wanted to be an entertainer and make music your career?
- BM: Actually, it all started when a friend from college asked me to create a song arrangement for an erotic game he was going to sell at Comiket, and I was so happy about it because it was the first time doing it and I could actually create music for something that I really liked and music that I enjoyed. And it was from that day I knew that I wanted to create and work with music. I also dropped out of university around this time as well, and one of the reasons was because I was so addicted to the game ”Ragnarök Online”. But also during this time, one of the Touhou games had become so big, so I took that chance to use it as a creative outlet for myself. So I moved to Tokyo around 2004, and it all continued from there.
Q3: I have been watching your VTuber activities for a while and I have always been curious about your VTuber avatar! Is there a story behind this avatar and character?
- BM: Alright so, you know Amane who has been in COOL&CREATE? She is my wife now and we have a child together, actually. Anyway, this avatar is actually an illustration of Amane. I’m using my wife as a VTuber model as a way to always remember the work we’ve done together through all these years in COOL&CREATE. It’s a way to never forget everything we’ve done and gone through together!
Q4: Do you have any dreams that you have achieved in your career? Do you have any dreams for the future?
- BM: Right now, I actually have two dreams I’d say! First I want to say that I don’t really enjoy doing the same thing over and over again, I’m a person who enjoys doing new things. That’s actually why I’ve been doing so much YouTube things and VTuber activities as of late. My current dream with that is to reach.. well, first I want to reach 50k on my Youtube channel! Then to, let’s say.. 300k, and then to 500k, and eventually to that 1 million! As for the other dream… In 2009 I actually achieved one of my dreams by performing ”Help Me, ERINNNNNN!!” during Summer Live. But again, to the other dream that I currently have, it’s actually to perform the song again! Especially in Saitama Super Arena.
Q5: Who are your musical influences?
- BM: I’ve had one musical influence since my middle school days actually, and that person is Cranky. He is a music creator who used to do a lot of BMS back in the day. I used to listen to him a lot. And of course, ZUN. ZUN is a really big influence to me as well. I really look up to and admire them both!
Q6: Do you have a favorite song among your own songs?
- BM: I actually love all my arrangements when it comes to my songs, honestly. But there are three songs that I consider really important to my career that I also really, really love. These songs are my Night of Nights arrangements, Saishuu Kichiku Imouto Flandre S. and Help Me, ERINNNNNN!!
Help Me, ERINNNNNN!! is especially important and dear to me because it was like the song that got me to sing in my own songs I’d say. It was also the first song I got to perform live with vocals. So it’s a really important piece to me.
Q7: This is a Touhou related question, but who is your favorite Touhou character?
- BM: I want to say that I wasn’t actually a fan of the characters in themselves in the beginning, and I never was with any game that had characters as their thing so to say. I was a big fan of the shooting game genre and the music. However, after I started working with Touhou for a while I did actually begin to like the character ”Patchouli’‘. And one of the main reasons for that is because my wife actually cosplays her! It started to become like: Patchouli = Amane, and Amane is my wife and I love her. So because of that, I started to love Patchouli.
In other words: PATCHOULI IS MY WIFE! (laughs)
Whenever I play Touhou I do often play as Hakurei Reimu, which is a character that I also really like. But more in the sense that I find her to be the essence of Touhou Project.
Q8: Can we expect any new songs or music soon?
- BM: Alright so about 2 years ago.. was the first time that I’ve actually noticed and properly listened to the Vocaloid music, and this is thanks to the mobile game ”Project Sekai”. And this made me realize how many good songs there actually are in the Vocaloid world! This actually made me want to try it out myself, and what fascinates me the most about it is that since it’s AI.. that means I can create anything that isn’t necessarily made for a human being to be able to sing if that makes sense. I can create songs that will be really, really hard to sing. So I want to try it out and release some music soon with the Vocaloid program.
I also really want to try and sing and do covers of Vocaloid songs for my YouTube channel. Like, I really want to try singing ”Melt” and ”Black Rock Shooter”. I’ve actually already experimented with Vocaloid and Touhou before, so I want to continue to do something in that style. Overall, expect some Vocaloid related things in the future!
Q9: If you had the chance to go abroad to participate in an event or to perform at an event, would you take that offer and chance?
- BM: Yes! Of course! I would love to do that! It’s a new experience first of all, so that in itself makes me want to do it. I wouldn’t mind anywhere! Actually, around 2009 I did get an offer to go to the USA.. But due to a busy schedule and life, I couldn’t go in the end. But then I thought that more offers could come and that I’d for sure go the next time I get the chance! But since then, I’ve never gotten the chance. So I’ve been waiting!
Q: Would you come to Sweden?
BM: Yes! And I have to add, performing overseas for me is seen as a good thing as well in the sense that I don’t need to communicate to people in terms of words, but instead, I can communicate with them through my music. I find that really interesting, to be honest!
Q10: How do you practically create or make music?
- BM: I use a really old program called Cakewalk SONAR8.0, and I use this program because I’ve been using it for a really long time. Like, ever since I was younger I’ve been using this program. I never had the time in my life to learn any better program honestly! But for the Vocaloid stuff, I’ve begun to use the program that is usually used in the creation for Vocaloid music. It was actually really difficult in the beginning if I’m gonna be honest, because I can’t get Hatsune Miku to sing so naturally that easily. It takes a lot of time to reach that level! Lately, me and IOSYS have also created some remixes together with these programs.
Q11: How do you create music that resonates with other people?
- BM: First of all, if you make music with passion then that will for sure reach and touch people. Like, for me personally: I find my music to be the best ones in the whole world within its genre. I think with this mindset and that amount of confidence you’ll be able to make and create a really good song or music piece overall. I can’t do any kind of genre that I want due to restricted technology and perhaps knowledge within that technology, but within my own genre… I do actually like to think in my own little domain that I’m the best in the whole world with it if that makes sense. If I have that mindset and thought process then I can use it as a kind of weapon and create a really good song! But the most important point with all of this: You have to like your own music in order to succeed.
Q12: Is there anything that you would like to say to your international fans?
- BM: Yes! On YouTube and overall SNS: If you’re a foreign fan, then don’t be scared to say so in my comments or livestream chat! You can just say that or say that you really like my music or content, that in itself would make me really happy if I see it! If you happen to meet me or see me in person when you’re in Japan, then I’d be really happy if you came and said this to me as well. Even if we can’t communicate verbally due to the language barrier, I’d be happy to just hear it one way or another. Even through motions and hand gestures! Please, come and see me and communicate with me!
And this concludes the interview with the iconic beatMARIO! I hope this was as interesting for you to read as it was for me when I was talking with him and the staff, this was actually such an honor to do which I have now mentioned a few times I think.
beatMARIO’s socials:
❤︎ Youtube❤︎
❤︎ Twitter ❤︎
❤︎ Spotify (COOL&CREATE) ❤︎
❤︎ Website ❤︎
