Though they are relative newcomers to the Japanese modern metal scene, Saiseiga already makes serious work of the international interest they have been getting. Because of this, we got the chance to speak to their singer Regan about how the band works, and how both her singing voice and her performance style changed since joining Saiseiga.

“I’m from Japan, and I can’t speak English”, Regan explains. “At first, I was very resistant to trying to make something work internationally as a result. Also, in Japan, it’s very difficult to stand out, and there wasn’t that much of a response to what we did. But on YouTube, there were so many reaction videos that the comment sections started to include more and more English. I thouhgt: how kind of them to notice us.

Seeing that so many people outside Japan were interested in a band like us was very unexpected, especially because our lyrics are in Japanese. However, in Japan, a lot of people don’t seem to like my performance style, because they think that it’s scary. Or at least they used to be the case. I guess part of the reason why is the fact that the people around me in my previous bands were seen as cute.

When people overseas started to comment on our videos, however, they thought it was ‘awesome’ or ‘crazy’. To be completely honest with you, the first time I saw it, I didn’t even really know what ‘awesome’ meant. But it seemed like they had a lot of fun!”

One of the Guys

Prior to Saiseiga, Regan and drummer Tohko were part of the power metal quintet Zettai Club, in which her voice sounds fairly different from the defiant, occasionally aggressive tone she prefers in Saiseiga. “The songs themselves are quite different”, Regan says. “My mindset is also a bit different now to how it was when I was in Zettai Club, which was an all-female band. When we worked on songs, we wanted to create something that appeals to our audience, and that will be pleasant to listen to, in terms of the keyboard and vocal melodies. We made a conscious effort to do so.

Up until then, I had only listened to visual kei bands with male vocalists. But when the lead singer is a man, I tend to prefer those who sing in a relatively high register. I never really had a traditionally beautiful voice, but some of my bandmates were writing songs in that style, and I wanted to play that kind of music myself as well. So I really worked on developing that side of myself.

These days, when people think of me, they see me as someone who can hold her own against men, or even as just being one of the guys. It’s more or less a case of changing my style, and then going back to my original style, or something like that. I have been working out a lot as well. There is a real difference between Saiseiga and Zettai Club. It’s all about high intensity, putting yourself out there, and making an impression.”

All About Being Powerful

“Actually, I had intended to adapt my approach to whatever the band needs from the very beginning. I believe the role of a singer is to embody the music and align with the band members’ intentions, and to express oneself in a way that harmonizes with the band’s style. So, rather than just putting my own spin on things, it was more about capturing the collective spirit and mindset of everyone involved at that moment for me. I try to adjust my voice to the sounds being made around me.

Initially, I tuned my voice to the core identity of the band. The way Saiseiga has developed since we started makes me feel like it’s okay to sound more like a guy sometimes. And since there are actual men in the band, aiming for a more masculine vibe doesn’t throw off the harmony, so I can really go all-out. It’s all about being powerful.

I can basically do whatever I want with this version of myself. I don’t have to force myself to be girly. To be honest, I have never been good at this whole ‘I have to act feminine’ thing, which is why I’m like this now. Back when I was doing visual kei or more masculine-leaning performances, I felt like it didn’t quite fit with the performances as a whole. But it does with Saiseiga.”

Giving Fighting Together a Try

“Before Zettai Club ended, Tohko and I actually had a plan to go hiking in the mountains. The idea was to climb a mountain before it all ended as sort of a ‘good job’ celebration, and to talk about the future, just reflecting on everything that we went through. That is when Kiri-chan (Tohko’s nickname) told me she was really disappointed, and she had no intention of quitting music, or leaving the band.

I really, really wanted to take a break. Just to relax. But that was the first thing she said to me. I had never quit a band before, so I was curious to see what would happen if I did. I wanted to go on a bit of a journey of self-discovery. But Kiri-chan knew I’m not the type of person who likes to take breaks, and she didn’t want to stop playing just like that. Plus, she was the one who invited me onto that ship.

Since we weren’t on bad terms or anything, I couldn’t find a reason to say no. Feeling stuck like that was frustrating to me too. While I was unable to escape the situation, I just couldn’t bring myself to telling her that I wasn’t going to fight. But then I realized: wait, I can just continue. So I decided: alright, let’s give fighting together a try, and I said: let’s do it!

Katsuki (bassist) is a longtime friend of Kiri-chan. They have played in rhythm sections together in a small studio, and probably even jammed together at some point. They go way back. When we were putting the band together, we were specifically looking for someone who could play seven-string guitar. When I mentioned this to some of my friends: one of them said: I know someone who might not be flashy, but he is a serious musician with a great technique. That’s how we met Wakkun.”

Moment of Clarity

“Every band member in Saiseiga has a shared calendar, so we can book our studio time accordingly. For example, you can see that there are four days in a row for the rhythm section. They use that time to share ideas and then sync everything up, to lock in the grooves and get the rhythm section feeling just right. Then, Katsuki takes those tracks, and he makes demos of them by adding programmed parts, guitar tracks, and melodies.

Once it’s all arranged and finished, they send it to Wakkun and me, so we can add our input. Every band member gets to contribute to the songs that way. Sometimes Wakkun comes up with songs, but that has only happened twice so far: ‘Chaotic’ and ‘Ambition’. Tohko and Katsuki create most of the songs. Sometimes they are kind of fighting each other: I need more space! But they can always talk it out and pretty much split it fifty-fifty.

At first, Katsuki would just throw things my way, and I would wonder: what can I do here? Especially on the first EP (‘Me’, 2021), I would have to create my own vocal melodies on top of the demo material. However, lately, Katsuki has been creating vocal melodies by himself on those demos. He does give me the freedom to make changes if I want. But most of the time, I tend to stick pretty closely to what he has written.

We had a fairly clear idea of what we wanted to do with Saiseiga in the beginning, but we also came to terms with letting go of certain other ideas, in a good way. It’s not a compromise; it’s about input. And it was really an amazing process. We tried things out, saw what was possible and what wasn’t, and we got feedback on it. It was through that process that we really locked in our direction and realized: this is what we should do. I think that moment of clarity really came with ‘The Black Hole’ (2024).

My inspiration for the lyrics mainly comes from the music itself on the demos. The music doesn’t exactly inspire softness or romance. For the most part, at least. But I’ve been going at it since the Zettai Club days. I have always been looking for answers to questions like ‘what does it mean to be gentle?’ or ‘what does it mean to be strong?’, or even topics like menstruation. I still don’t have the answers, but at the moment, it feels like I am exploring these themes through music. That hasn’t changed since my Zettai Club days.”

Changing Your Persona

Saiseiga is Tokyo-based, but the members themselves are from different parts of Japan, Regan herself being from the northern island of Hokkaido. “Back when I was in Hokkaido, I was in a visual kei band where we used to be painted white”, she says. “There is a huge difference between the band scene I was a part of in Hokkaido and the scene I found when I first came to Tokyo.

First of all, the music culture is very different. The audience mostly consisted of girls who wanted to see good-looking guys. So in the visual kei scene in Tokyo, it’s all about being a guy. Even if I painted myself white and would sing in a scary voice, it would have been no use, because I was a girl. The situation was that if I was going to go to Tokyo, I had no choice but the play the part of a girly girl. So I thought: well, that’s how I have to do it. And that’s what happened.

It was kind of like changing your persona when you change schools. And I was going to Tokyo, not just transferring to another local school. At first, I really didn’t want to take off the paint. It felt almost as exposing as actually being naked.

Sapporo itself has kind of lost its energy; the band scene has cooled down a bit. Because of that, I actually feel a strong desire to give something back. Many acts from Hokkaido come to Tokyo to perform these days, and we are in the middle of that.”

Twenty Roles at Once

When asked what inspired her to start singing, Regan doesn’t have to think for a second. “Musicals!”, she exclaims. “And ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in particular. I used to sing along with all the songs in ‘Beauty and the Beast’. And now I can do both parts on my own, haha!

Since I was singing all the parts of songs in musicals on my own, including the parts of grandmothers and grandfathers, I was doing a lot of voice impersonations, and switching between them. I was doing twenty roles at once at some point. I could have done a musical on my own if I wanted to.”

That also means that Regan can do all her vocal parts live, and Saiseiga doesn’t have to rely on backing tracks too much. “I really like that live band aspect”, she nods. “That raw, unpolished, human quality. It’s not about technical skill or personality, it’s just that you can tell that there are real people up there. Live bands are amazing.

We do use a backing track for the synthesizer sounds that we can’t do ourselves. But the backing tracks have to be kept to a minimum. This way, every live performance becomes something that will never happen again, and make it a really valuable experience for each of us.”

A Kind of Fighting Style

Saiseiga is an independent band, which comes with its own challenges and advantages. “The biggest advantage is that we can do whatever we want”, Regan emphasizes. “As for the downsides, or maybe really just the tricky parts of it, that’s really just a case of advertising and promotion, as well as connections and networking. Since there aren’t exactly any highly sociable, outgoing members in the band, we always have to ask others for help with that side of things.

At the moment, we are working with a professional wrestler here in Japan. A local professional wrestler; he is not a major name yet. On his social media, he posted a Saiseiga song with #saiseiga added to it. That’s how we noticed this guy was following us, so we invited him to one of our shows.

That’s where we started talking about how he had been looking for some sort of original theme song to play at professional wrestling events. We are working on that right now. We have kind of an idea what it should be like already, and we are working on this with him. It’s not that different than what we usually do, because a theme tune for a professional wrestler needs this kind of fighting style.”