Brandy Senki on Their Self-Titled Debut Album That Reflects Who They Are Today: Interview

Brandy Senki released their first album, BRANDY SENKI, on May 14. The band, which formed in August 2022, is made up of Hazuki (guitar and vocals), Minori (bass), and Bori (drums). They’ve picked up a tremendous amount of momentum, selling out shows on both their first solo tour of Japan, in January 2025, and their upcoming BRANDY SENKI 1ST ALBUM RELEASE TOUR, which will begin in June.

Their major label debut album, BRANDY SENKI, is the culmination of their efforts so far. It’s a collection of 13 songs including “Musica,” which brought them to the attention of the world at large, “Coming-of-age Story,” which generated a ton of buzz when it was shared by NJZ’s Minji, and “Fix,” a dramatic song that depicts the weaknesses we all have. Billboard JAPAN took the opportunity of this momentous release to talk with Brandy Senki about how they felt as they enter this new stage of their musical careers.

To start off, could you tell us about Neon Oasis Fest 2025, the Taiwanese music festival you just finished performing at in late April? What did you think of your first overseas show?

Hazuki: Standing up there on stage, you could feel the love, even in another country with a whole different language. Also, the way people listened was a little different than the way Japanese audiences do. There were people who were really amped up, but there were also people slowly swaying to the music. There was this striking feeling of personal freedom. It was a lot of fun.

Your new album, BRANDY SENKI, is the same as your band’s. What led you to choose this name?

Hazuki: There are only really a few times when you can self-title an album. This album has lots of songs that we’d released in the past, so we talked about making it a self-titled album to share the message that “this is what Brandy Senki is today.” That’s why we called the album BRANDY SENKI.

I think the first song on an album is important. Why did you pick “The End of the F***ing World” to start off the album?

Hazuki: We thought a lot about how someone who didn’t know Brandy Senki would feel when they listened to the album for the first time. We thought it would be good to start with a song that would get the listener excited, like “What’s about to start?” This song was perfect for that.

You’ve said that this song was influenced by the British show The End of the F***ing World. When you write poetry or music, Hazuki, are you usually influenced by things like novels or movies?

Hazuki: Always. But being inspired by a single work, like I was with “The End of the F***ing World,” is unusual.

Could each of you share a song on the album that is especially important to you?

Bori: For me, it would be “The End of the F***ing World.” There’s this bouncy beat that goes through the entire song, and it was a bit of a struggle to perform. Now, having finished the song, whenever I hear it or when I play it live, I’m glad I put in the effort.

Minori: For me, it’s the fifth song, “Water Mirror.” We’ve been playing it pretty much since our first show. I think it was also the first song that I wrote a bass line for after Hazuki sent me a demo. So, for me, it’s an important song because it represents a lot of firsts.

Hazuki, what about you?

Hazuki: I’d probably answer that question a different way every day (laughs). Today, I’d say the first song, “Spring.”

The lyrics of “Spring” are very evocative of summer. They mention the beach, and a shirt, and a “Sicilian painting,” which conjures the image of the seaside.

Hazuki: The reality is that, for the people in the song, spring hasn’t even come yet, let alone summer. The heart of the song is this longing to go to the beach, this yearning for Sicily, that kind of feeling. But time just passes in this room.

You’ve also been playing “Last Live” since your early live shows, right?

Minori: It goes back to right around when we were starting out, but we changed the arrangement a little when recording it.

How so?

Minori: In the middle, when the tempo changes in the bridge. There’s a drum fill there now, but that wasn’t there originally.

Bori: We decided to make that part, so we changed the arrangement around that.

Hazuki: We were thinking of a cool way to speed up the tempo of the song.

I also saw the music video. It has this very “kawaii” feel to it. What did you and the director Nathalie Scarlette talk about when making it?

Hazuki: Nathalie came up with pretty much every aspect of the music video, starting from the initial idea. For us, filming in Akihabara or a roller skating rink was really novel. We were really impressed with how great the visuals came out.

Minori: Nathalie really loves Brandy Senki. She understood the lyrics Hazuki had written at a deep level, which was wonderful. Nathalie’s Australian, so she understands what Japan looks like from the outside. She sees beautiful things that we overlook because we take them for granted. It’s wonderful having someone who notices those things and can depict them. I’m always impressed at how she can make these interesting music videos that wouldn’t have even occurred to us.

Bori: It was all shot guerilla-style, too. We set up a drum set in a truck, and there were tourists out there taking photos of us. It was a very different experience than the usual filming of a music video, and really stimulating.

Then there’s the lead single, “Fix.” That word has a lot of different meanings, right?

Hazuki: It’s used to mean a lot of different things, so we thought it would be an interesting name for a song. You can fix something in place, or you can fix something that’s broken. In the song, we use it in different senses, singing about whether you can fix these relationships between people–between yourself and others.

There’s also a brand-new song, “Memento Waltz” Does the title simply mean “don’t forget this waltz?”

Hazuki: Yes. We wanted to make a waltz, or rather a song in triple meter. That was our starting point.

It also has a string part. Was this was your first time using strings since “Nightmarish – Acoustic?”

Minori: “Nightmarish – Acoustic” had strings, too, but this was our first time using strings that were performed live. On the album, there are strings on “Memento Waltz” and also on “Untitled”

“Untitled” is an acoustic piece. When was it written?

Hazuki: We wrote “Untitled” over a year ago. It’s the only song on the album that I think you could call a pure love song.

To close off with, are there any new things that you’ve been trying your hand at, or that you want to try to do in the future?

Minori: I like going on long train trips, but you need to have a whole day free to do that. I want to make time for myself and learn about trains throughout Japan.

Bori: In a certain sense, I’m taking on the challenges of drumming. Ever since I started playing in a band, I’ve been learning different beats and really making them part of my own repertoire. Lately, I’ve been reexamining just what a drum is, and learning more about drums — how do you get a better sound? What form should you use when drumming? That sort of thing.

Hazuki: I just want to work hard on writing our next song.

—This interview by Tatsuya Tanami first appeared on Billboard Japan