原文
GMB Chomichuk: ...Other things that happened in LA was I got to meet with Amuse Group USA, who are the US arm of the BABYMETAL management company, are also there. So I made a special trip to go and meet the team that is helping organize the world tour and putting the book together, and that was a singular and wonderful experience. They were just so... in full disclosure, I was nervous about being the outsider to the project. You know, they've all worked together for a long time, and here's this western artist coming in to work on this Japanese, you know... experience, because it's the only way to really talk about BABYMETAL, they're not really a band.
The whole thing is organized like a cross between an opera and a metal show and a stage performance. Because they explained to me while I was there that Kei* Kobayashi organizes the event in that way. Like it's not just a rock show, it's not like a metal show, it's a story. Each of the concerts has their own narrative that is in the imagery and often that only appears in that one particular show. And then they'll scrap those costumes and they'll never use them again.
So, I got to see some of that. It was neat because a number of the editorial directions that I got for some of the initial designs, where I thought what I should be doing is researching the iconography of the group that exists and then calling back to that in the book, that was sort of frowned upon. It was like: "No, invent something new, invent something new" and that's great, that's awesome to be given that freedom but I wasn't sure that I would be allowed. So, now I understood why. Because they want a new experience at each time a person experiences what it is they're crafting and creating, they want them to find something they didn't find the first time.
Q: Is there a canon to this story? Do they have like... everything they create, does someone keep track of it and they have like a... I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere with all their stuff on it?
GMB Chomichuk: So, what's interesting is I found out too: yes, the fans try to keep track. But there is from the top down a level of secrecy... or not even the top down, from the creative side to the corporate side. Creative keeps a lot of the mystery intact. And they're not expected, Kei's not expected to share. They trust and have given him that freedom to come up with it and to have a say. Very different than the western way of doing things, right, where the publisher or the production company gives the approval, it goes the other way. And that was really wonderful to see and also it felt interesting to be a part of that. And we're arranging, I'm meeting him face to face in Nashville later in the week, so we were are also prepping for that, because there's some protocols and some things that we have to do. On the 18th of May.
