The Evolution of Band Maid - Then, Now, and In Between

Band Maid's management company was about ready to disband the ladies, as they had not found much success in their native Japan. Until this song, their Twitter page and other social media accounts started seeing increased traffic.

Someone had posted this video to a J-POP fan group on Facebook and the die was cast. As I said above their management group was about to disband them as the vide for Thrill had used up the last of their budget. So it was either success, or failure at that point. And some unknown individual, posting them to a Facebook group, brought them to the attention of the West.



The ladies of Band Maid worked with songwriters and also submitted their own writing to their management, but were told to keep trying.



According to a post I can't find on Reddit, this song, "Alone" was the first song the ladies of Band Maid wrote that was accepted by their management. Miku Kobato, the rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist had written lyrics for a few previous songs, but this was the first song that was written by the band themselves.

The lead guitarist, Kanami Tono, is the main song writer for the group. With the main lyricist being Miku Kobato the rhythm guitarist. Over the years, this has changed, so the principal writing is done by Kanami, which is then tweaked by Akane Hirose the drummer, and MISA, the bassist. And yes, the bass player is a mononym. Hear her play enough and you will agree. Then once the music is set, it is up to Miku to finish up the lyrics and Saiki Atsumi the lead vocalist helps as she knows her own range and style.



Quite honestly, this is just one of their songs which actually makes me tear up. A song of longing and desire as well as a scream of pain in the guitar solo reminding me of loneliness. The visuals of the video just reinforce that loneliness and make this songs impact that much stronger.



Their sound crosses genres, You just can't say they are Rock and Roll, or Pop, or Hard Rock, or Rhythm and Blues, or even Metal. Their music encompasses many genres. As several YouTube Reactors have stated, Band Maid's Genre is Band Maid. And Band Maid's songs are Band Maid doing Band Maid Things.

You will notice that I haven't posted any live video's of them so far. That is because you need the above video's to get your mind and ears ready for "Live Band Maid"



This video is from their Line Cube Shibuya Concert and is the sixth song of their 23 song 2+ hour concert. I will be posting a few more from this concert, but you will now SEE for yourself, the POWER of Band Maid.



This is the 21st song of their 23 song concert, and as you listen to the next song which was the 22nd you will notice, that the ladies go directly from this song into the next one with maybe 4 seconds between them. Just long enough for the ladies to walk back to their pedal boards and set them for the next song.



Did you feel that energy? This was the 22nd song of a 23 song set, that had already been going on for over 2 hours. Can you imagine putting out that much energy for that long, and still performing to the top of your ability?

That coupled with the music is what has drawn me to these ladies. But we're not done yet. There are a few more videos for you to see.

These ladies were all set to perform at one of the bucket list venues, Budokan, when the pandemic hit. When the ladies realized they couldn't perform and meet their fans, they started doing on line concerts. At one of them, they had watchers from 63 country's. They have worked hard, assembled a new album and released it. Had other on line concerts which they then release video's from to their YouTube Page for their fans.

But throughout the pandemic they still missed thier fans. SO they wrote a letter to their fans in a song.



Another song which made me tear up, especially as I had read the translation of the lyrics and the translation of a small staement given by Saiki before they started the song.

But we are back to the begininng. They did a live performance of the song which kept them from crashing and burning. Modified with their new sound, it shows both where they have come from and where they have journeyed to.<br/>


The also released a few other choice tracks from that on line concert.





And I know I posted this just the other day, but I really enjoy it. An acoustic version from their Christmas Day Acoustic online concert.



If any of these videos aren't showing up to be watched, you can watch them all at Band Maid's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/BANDMAID/videos

So please give them a listen. I wish I had the first time I had been recommended their video's. I might have been able to watch their acoustic concert live myself, if I had.