ATARASHII GAKKO! Are Still Hungry for Adventure as They Enter Year 11: Billboard Japan Women in Music Interview
Categoria: Musica
SUZUKA, MIZYU, RIN & KANON chatted with Billboard Japan about their philosophy of standing out and what they're bringing to the June 9 show.
Por Billboard | 03/06/2026
Billboard Japan’s Women in Music interview series returns with ATARASHII GAKKO! The initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and entertainment and inspired other women through their work, following the footsteps of Billboard’s annual Women in Music honors. This series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry is one of the highlights of Japan’s WIM project. This new interview arrives ahead of the one-night-only special live event set for June 9, Women in Music – EQUAL STAGE presented by Billboard Japan and Spotify. Making their second appearance in this interview series, SUZUKA, MIZYU, RIN, and KANON of ATARASHII GAKKO! — now in their eleventh year together under the concept of “going beyond (hamidashi ) through individuality and freedom” — chatted again with writer Rio Hirai about their philosophy of standing out, the bonds between them, and what they’re bringing to the June 9 show. This is the group’s second time in this series. SUZUKA, what stuck with me from the previous WIM interview was what you said about wanting to live “one hell of a life.” Now that we’re almost halfway through 2026, how have things been so far? SUZUKA: Coming off our tenth anniversary and stepping into year eleven, hitting double digits felt like the right moment for a fresh start. We’ve been doing all kinds of shows with the idea of going back to basics while also expressing a more forward-charging version of ourselves, one with an eye on the future. In July we’ll be playing Lollapalooza in Berlin, then celebrating our 11th anniversary in the Czech Republic and London. In September we head to Seattle, and in December we have a Latin America tour, making stops in Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. KANON, last time you talked about how important it is to live fully in the present. KANON: That hasn’t changed at all. We always say, “As long as the four of us are living fully in the present together, that’s our seishun (youth).” Every day, I’m giving everything I have to the here and now. What are some of the most memorable moments of the first half of 2026? RIN: After finishing our hall tour, we put on a solo show in April built around the theme of an entrance ceremony. It was a highly conceptual show — we used red-and-white curtains, set up a large lectern, welcomed in the audience with applause — a staging and setlist designed to bring back the feeling of those school entrance ceremonies that anyone who went to school in Japan has a deep connection to. It became a really meaningful show for us where we dug deeper into what ATARASHII GAKKO! is all about. MIZYU: Every single day has been memorable. The shows, of course, but also the days of creation leading up to them, and the days after when we take in the audience’s reactions. We also heavily focused on producing new music in the first h