Exclusive Interview With J-Pop Girl Band STARMARIE

The five members of STARMARIE were so lovely to talk and interact with. We got along well, even with three interpreters in the room. The band is known mostly for their theme songs to anime such as Cardfight!!, Vanguard G and Onigiri. With two mini albums and four full-length albums under their belt, the girls are poised to take over the world. We chatted a bit about them being in the US and what their plans are for the future.

Is this your first time in the US?

It’s the third time for the group overall and the first time for the current members.  Our previous members came four years ago for a performance.

How are you enjoying it so far?

We have enjoyed it so much. We went to the aquarium and the Braves vs. Phillies game on Friday night (September 21). What we like the most is the culture.

How are you enjoying Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA) so far?

Since we’ve come, it’s become very similar with the explosion of Japanese culture in the US, especially Japanese Idol. There have been a variety of characters in cosplay, even with Disney characters and other non-anime characters. So it was very fun to see everybody enjoying [themselves] and taking pictures.

What is a typical practice day in the life for StarMarie?

3-4 hours for dancing and singing practice. We adjust the dance moves to the live performance and gear everything correctly. Weekend performances are mostly what we have. We rehearse right before every performance and even change the setlist so it is different from each performance to enhance the viewing of audiences.

What can we expect for the concert tonight?

Since this is AWA, we have three popular anime songs so we are really excited and can’t wait to show the performance, so stay tuned. Because of anime, StarMarie is known and we want to show that performance so that more people can know about StarMarie and know the anime and Japanese culture.

What can you tell us about future projects?

Starting in November, we are releasing a single for each month ending in January for a total of three new songs. We will also be touring in Japan and Taiwan.

What is the nerdiest thing the members get up to?

Shino-san is a lipstick fanatic and arranges them by color and size, even if she doesn’t get around to wearing most of her collection.

Kaechan is an anime and manga enthusiast with Kingdom, OnePiece and FullMetalAlchemist being some of her favorites.

Hiichan is in love with Kpop. Her favorite bands are BTS and Seventeen.

Monya-chan also loves manga and anime, as well as cosplay. She loves the series Love Live! and hopes to do a cosplay performance here in the US like the one they performed last month in the Philippines.

Nonchan loves food, particularly udon noodles. She’s looking for some shops here in Atlanta. (Unfortunately, I didn’t have any good recommendations to give her).

The girls performed live Saturday night and brought the house down. I’m definitely picking up an album and committing some songs to memory.

You can check out their music on their official website here.