SCANDAL The Girls That Put Rock in J-Rock

SCANDAL is a Japanese rock band, or J-Rock band, from Osaka, Japan. Also known as the home of the famous running man that advertises for the Glico confectionery company and the touristy destination of Doutonbori street. These girls are sweet for sure, but above all, they are talented, hard-working, and studious musicians here to rock your eardrums and wardrobe with their flare. They have a label, a fashion line, a blog, and of course playlist worthy music. Love anime? Then you most likely have heard of the band SCANDAL. With this amazing track record, we were thankful to get the opportunity to ask them a few sweet questions.

We think women in bands are so powerful and hold a lot of influence! Who would you say are the artists that have an influence on you?

HARUNA:
Growing up, I loved to dance, so I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson and Earth, Wind & Fire. I was also super excited to see the Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and HINDS, an all-female band, live at Fuji Rock a few years ago! I’ve also been listening to K-POP lately. I think it’s safe to say that I am inspired by many different artists and types of music!

The music industry has changed drastically since you first formed in 2006. Is there anything you wish you had back then or something you miss from 14 years ago when it comes to creating music?

HARUNA:
I can’t think of any. We have released many songs in the past 14 years and of course, there are some songs that we don’t play so often, but I think all the songs are very important for us.

You have your own label. What was it that made you choose to create it, and what are some of the key goals you hope to achieve in the foreseeable future?

HARUNA:
I think we wanted to discover who we are and we wanted to have our own place to do this in, to freely explore ourselves. Although we haven’t thought or talked about the main goal of the label yet, I feel like we can do anything and go anywhere we want to with our music at “her.”

What other bands or artists would you love to collaborate with? -Your blog gives us the recommended movies of the month list. If you were to make music for a movie, what genre would you want it to be for? If you could go back in time and play a song for any movie of the past what movie would it be for?

HARUNA:
We simply love to perform the four of us as a band, so I can’t think of any collaboration off the top of my head. LOL. But, actually, I would love to perform at music festivals around the world and have the opportunity to play on the same stage with so many bands!

RINA:
Rina is the movie buff in the band, so she is the one who writes the monthly movie recommendations on our blog. Personally, I love “Stranger Things” on Netflix, so if there is any chance, I would LOVE to make music for that show! hahaha.

Since gaining international success, is there a way that you approach your creative process for music differently?

HARUNA:
We are not native English speakers and we aren’t really good at singing in English, however, we have many fans from all over the world who support our music. I think that’s because those fans think our music is original and cool, so rather than making music differently for our fans around the world, we want to keep creating new, exciting, and original music for everyone to enjoy!

With the rise of popularity in Japanese anime internationally, do you feel your passion for anime and music can reach even more people? What’s been your favorite project thus far?

HARUNA:
Well, there are so many and it’s hard to choose, but maybe “Shojo S” for BLEACH and “Shunkan Sentimental” for Full Metal Alchemist because these songs helped build our fanbase internationally. But with that said, I like our new song “A.M.D.K.J” (Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro) and “SPICE” ( XPICE) too! Many people find our music through anime, or they find anime through our music, so it is very important for us and we really appreciate all those opportunities.

Is there an anime you wish you could write a song for? If you had to live in an anime what anime would you live in?

HARUNA:
I don’t really think I will be in the anime world. Haha!

And I don’t have particular anime titles that we want to work with, but we are happy to think that our music can contribute to the anime world.

You’ve had your own apparel brand since 2012. What inspires you to create the designs and products for Feedback Apparel?

HARUNA:
It’s very exciting to see many different fashion styles and trends through social media, like Instagram, every day. Tokyo is one of the top fashion cities in the world, so I think living in Tokyo inspires us and our designs.

You have a fashion line, your own label “her”, toured lots of places and made music for many anime. What’s something you hope to do in the future?

HARUNA:
I love performing live shows in new and exciting places. Since we needed to cancel our world tour this year due to Covid-19, we can’t wait to visit many cities and meet many new faces in 2021!

However, we are very excited to have our very first worldwide live stream concert on August 21st! I promise it’ll be a great show! We can’t wait.

As for the future, we are continuing to make new music as a band, but I would also like to focus on creating music that showcases my own identity.

Because we are The Honey POP, we love sweet things! Please say something sweet about your bandmates.

HARUNA about TOMOMI:
Her singing voice! It’s so sweet, fans are calling it “candy voice.”

HARUNA about MAMI:
She’s so fun! She always adds many emojis when she sends me emails or texts. It’s so sweet!

HARUNA to RINA:
She really enjoys fashion, make-up, and all those “girly” things. She truly likes being a woman, which I admire a lot.

If you’re sad you couldn’t catch them live we have good news. As Haruna said, SCANDAL is holding their first ever live stream concert on the band’s 14th anniversary of SCANDAL. The SCANDAL WORLD TOUR 2020 “Kiss From The Darkness” WORLDWIDE Live stream will take place live from Japan on Friday, August 21, 2020, at 7:00 PM JST (3:00 AM PDT/6 AM EDT, 11 AM UK). Tickets are $30.

Can’t make it? No worries. It will be up to watch for 48 hours after the event.

Learn something new? Have any burning questions you wish you could ask them? Excited for that live event? Let us know in the comments down below or on Twitter @thehoneypop!

To Learn More About SCANDAL:
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