FATE GEAR
Interview conducted on November 10, 2021
By Dan Locke
The all-female steam punk metal band FATE GEAR is heading over from Japan and ready to conquer uncharted territory. With founding member Captain Mina at the helm, this band is well on its way to international success; conquering stages all over the world, battling enemies, hunting treasure and stealing hearts of metal fans along the way.
Back in 2007, Mina was the founding member of DESTROSE, one of the initiators of the all-female metal band boom. DESTROSE paved the path for bands such as Babymetal and Lovebites. Starting out in 2015, Mina was determined to create a band with a unique persona and a heavy sound that resonates with the outstanding steam punk theme. She found her allies in demon drummer Haruka, mechanical doll keyboardist Yuri, master shredder bassist Nino and Nana with her insane death vocals, clean vocals, screams and growls. FATE GEAR’s career really took off when their song Megabullets was featured in the Netflix Anime ‘Kengan Ashura’.
How did you start to write music?
Mina: when I was a high school student, I started write music by guitar and computer.
How did your band form?
I found FATE GEAR crew by social networks.
How did you get your bands name?
“gear” is important item in Steampunk genre.
“Fate” is famous anime title.
Describe your music.
fantasy, powermetal.
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
What is the process of writing your music?
“Deathless Memories”. that recorded by my former band called Destrose. always I write chorus melody at first.
Tell me about your concept album “The Sky Prison” and your EP Scars in my Life”, which were released earlier this year.
“The Sky Prison” has a story through to the end. at first, I wrote the story of a girl have adventure with pirates’ airship called The Sky Prison. I wrote songs based that story. this album includes many musical backgrounds. for example, folk metal, power metal, death metal, doom metal, blues.
Scars in my Life, all song recorded in English. we translated four songs from Japanese.
Tell me about the making of the video “Battle Against Justice”?
Battle Against Justice, an awesome artist Birumachi Kuu made background for us. so cool art! isn’t it? we did most aggressive performance we can. that was tired but fun.
How was it working with Mitsuru?
she is clever so much. she made awesome guitar solo at Battle Against Justice ending.
How did you find your new bassist NINO?
I knew her ex. band. I emailed to her through her Twitter after she left that band.
What is your favorite track on your album?
“Draw you dagger”. but I like all songs!
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
that’s good. Streaming can bring music to needly people too.
Digital vs. vinyl?
in my opinion, CD is most popular yet in Japan.
fans buy CD for correction, and listening on Apple Music.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
hasn’t killed. because many people dig new music on internet in this Covid saturation.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
wearing mask when go out. washing hands when come home each time. Japanese people are doing every winter for protect from flu. I’m doing same thing in Covid saturation. I’m wondering why mask is not general in other country.
In the past if a musician stops doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants. If you can’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
I’d to improve skill of design. I’m working as a designer too.
There are many platforms out there that allow artists to get their music heard. Artist Republik, DistroKid, Tunecore & plenty others offer distribution services. These services enable independent artists to put their music on some of the most popular streaming services globally, from Spotify to Apple Music & everything in between. If you’ve been in any part of the music industry in recent years, you probably know someone that has distributed a song.
Spotify reports that in 2021 there are about 8 million artists on the platform. Of those 8 million artists, about 57,000 are raking in a whopping 90% of the total revenue from streams. That means that .71% of the artists on Spotify are making good money. In 2020, there was a total of around $5 billion paid out to artists on the Spotify platform alone.
Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.
What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
musical platform is changing at every generation. live music, radio, vinyl, CD, video, and digital. artists need flexible thinking for new platform.
You have an endorsement deal with SP custom guitar pickup. What is special about their line of pickups?
those have clear sound for any tuning. for example, I have low-B♭ tuning in heavy distortion effect but SP custom pickups are working well.
Anything you would like to say in closing.
I’m writing songs for new EP which will out by May.2022. please look forward to it! thank you.
