Interview with RE:lNa

RE:lNa is a band that skillfully blends the good old days of visual kei with a modern approach. Centered around catchy melodies, they deliver a wide range of sounds, from high-energy, head-banging vocal tracks to grand, sweeping arrangements enriched with strings.The experience of each member comes together in Kayuki’s compositions, giving rise to a one-of-a-kind rock sound filled with mature sensuality. Above all, listen to the vocals! Please feel the music while following the lyrics.If it resonates with you, be sure to check out their videos on YouTube too!

■ ■ ■ INTRODUCTION ■ ■ ■

■ Please introduce yourself

Vo.Kei: My birthday is November 14. My favorite drink is Jack Daniel’s, and I smoke Seven Stars. Blood type B. I’m the firstborn son. I have a lot of tattoos.
Gt.Kayuki: Mine’s October 26, blood type O, probably 175 cm tall. I don’t smoke. My favorite food is meat and candies!
Gt.Tokkiy: Blood type A, 168 cm.
Dr.Shima: Birthday: July 14, Blood type: A,Height: 177 cm, Favorite drinks: champagne and craft beer.
SpBa.Hiromaru: I’m Hiromaru! Born on August 25, 1982!

■ Do you have a favorite Japanese mascot character?

Kei: Gengar (Pokemon)
Kayuki: Recently Puppet SUNSUN, and Aggretsuko
Tokkiy: I don’t really know… so I guess it would be Shin-chan
Shima: Abeno Bear, Kotone-chan, and Mikyan
Hiromaru: For Japan I like the local mascot “Kumamon,” and I also like Stitch

■ What’s your favorite kanji character, and why?

Kei: “喫煙所 (Smoking Area)” It gives me a sense of security.
Kayuki: “焼肉! (Yakiniku)” Because it’s delicious!
Tokkiy: “業” (karma). Karma can be read in various unexpected ways (lol). [readings at jisho]
Shima: “縁”  (connection/fate) something precious that can’t be separated from who I am now.

■ What’s your favorite phrase, and why?

Kei: “I will stay alive praying for myself.” I went through a time when I was constantly being controlled by others, so I decided to live for myself. I even got the phrase tattooed on my arm.
Kayuki: “It’ll work out somehow.” Because it probably will.
Tokkiy: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It just popped into my head right now (lol).
Shima: “Better too big than too small.” It’s better to be prepared and have spare room.

■ Is there anything you’re really into now, or were deeply into in the past?

Kei: I often search for cafés on TikTok. Also saunas… though I haven’t been there lately.
Kayuki: Mostly games! Recently I’ve been playing FFXIV nonstop.
Tokkiy: Last year, the Osaka World Expo (lol).
Shima: Drums, piano, weight training, dance, karaoke.
Hiromaru: I wanted a hobby outside of music, so for the past year or two I’ve really gotten into photography.

■ What made you want to become a bandman?

Kei:I discovered visual kei in middle school. Nobody around me was in a band, so I thought, “Wouldn’t this make me stand out?”
Kayuki: I just casually started guitar, and that was the start.
Tokkiy: In middle school, someone from a band called Ru:natic showed me an X JAPAN DVD, and I said “HIDE is cool,” and he said, “Alright, let’s go buy a guitar!” And that’s how I ended up in a band (lol).
Shima:There was a band boom when I was in middle school.
Hiromaru: I did lots of things with friends, riding motorbikes, skateboarding, etc. But the only thing that lasted until today was music, so maybe there wasn’t a specific trigger.

■ Why did you choose your current instrument?

Kei: Because I encountered hyde from L’Arc~en~Ciel. Love at first sight.
Kayuki: Because someone sold me a guitar for 1,000 yen.
Tokkiy: Same reason as above (lol).
Shima: There happened to be drums at my home.
Hiromaru: My bass invited me to play him (laugh)

■ If you could choose another instrument, what would it be?

Kei: I originally wanted to be a guitarist, so a guitar.
Kayuki: Vocalist
Tokkiy: Theremin 
Shima: Keyboard 
Hiromaru: Definitely a manipulator

■ Any hobbies outside of music?

Kei: Cooking, and recently going to shisha bars alone.
Kayuki: Gaming!
Tokkiy: Watching martial arts, movies and anime.
Shima: Visiting historical sites
Hiromaru: Photography and video shooting

■ Do you have a personal motto?

Kei: Not sure if it’s a motto, but Eric Clapton once said:　”Think that you are the best when you are up on the stage. When you are off the stage, think that you are at your worst.“　That mindset really stuck with me.
Kayuki: “It’ll work out.”
Tokkiy: “Do the ordinary things thoroughly.”
Shima: ”Cultivate good deeds”
Hiromaru: “Learn from others’ mistakes”

■ Is there anything you’d like to say to your future self?

Kei: Eat properly and take care of your health.
Kayuki: How are you doing?
Tokkiy: Nothing.
Shima: Health is wealth.
Hiromaru: I have things to say to my past self, but not really my future self.

■ ■ ■ BAND / MUSIC ■ ■ ■

■ Please introduce RE:lNa in 3–5 sentences for first-time listeners.

Kei: We’re a band that blends classic elements with modern approaches, and we’re very flexible. Every song has a catchy melody, and I think we appeal to both visual kei fans and rock fans.
Kayuki: Even if the focus lies on the vocal parts, we are a band where you absolutely can let you go wild and crazy.
Tokkiy: Even our heavier songs have solid and really strong melodies, and we use strings and non-band instruments, so many songs feel quite grand.
Shima: Our matured sound brings  all of our past experiences together, which is expressed through Kayuki’s compositions.
Hiromaru: Listen to our songs! Read the lyrics and try to feel something. And if you feel it it’s good to check out our YouTube channel as well!

■ Can you tell us how RE:lNa was formed, from NiEL to now?

Kei: I originally met everyone through Hiromaru, also I  worked as a staff member for NiEL’s first ONEMAN. After that, I met everyone at year-end parties and handed out flyers together from time to time, and then around last year’s KANSAI ROCK SUMMIT event, Kayuki contacted me and asked if I wanted to join them for a studio session. That’s how it all started.
Kayuki: We all have known each other for a long time, and Kei-kun came to help out at NiEL’s first ONEMAN, that’s how we met. Then, when Aoi left the band and we were wondering who to ask to be our new vocalist, Then I remembered that I heard some Kei-kun songs once before, so I invited him!
Tokkiy: Kayuki suddenly LINE’d me after a while, and like 5 messages later, it was decided (lol).
Shima: A few years ago I saw Kayuki recruiting members and so reached out to him…. And we hit it off, but COVID-19 delayed things, and then NiEL was finally launched. After the despair of former vocalist Ao leaving, our talented Kei, who’d been supporting NiEL a lot, was right there as an ace in the hole, so we could restart immediately as RE:lNa.
Hiromaru: I was the last member that joined NiEL, and apparently there’s a long, long history behind it. But in short, after some years I ran into Kayuki at the local hardware store, and he mentioned struggling to find a bassist… It’d take too long to tell the full story, so the rest is for a TwitCasting! lol

■ Could you tell us about the origin/meaning of the name RE:lNa, and who came up with it?

Kei:The spelling RE:lNa was already set, with about 3 reading options. Since the vocalist says the name most, they let me decide, so I went with RE:lNa (Riana).
Kayuki: I won’t go into details, but when we were naming it, I thought, “The l in RE:lNa will definitely be mistaken for a capital i, hehehe!” So we went with that! The l is the lowercase L!
Tokkiy: Kayuki named it so.
Shima:  I think only our leader Kayuki knows the truth.
Hiromaru: I remember someone suggesting that since the vocalist is changing, we should use RE:, which means rebirth, before I knew it, it was decided! Personally, I don’t really care about the name or spelling, so I don’t really have any thoughts about it! I only discovered that the third letter is a lowercase “L” after our restart announcement, lol

■ Do you have a special name for RE:lNa fans yet?

Kei:　Nope, nothing yet. Should we decide on one? lol
Kayuki: Nothing decided, but when I threw ideas out on X about names, everyone ignored my tweet. So please tell me, is it time to decide?
Tokkiy: None.
Shima:  It’s still…. undecided?!
Hiromaru: Yeah, we should really decide on one! Our band name keeps getting mistaken for the name of a fabric softener, so why not just go all-in and make it sound like a laundry detergent name instead? Like, ‘Always set and ready! Use it together for ultimate power!!‘ or something like that lol

■ Regarding your first single “UNBROKEN,” released on January 14, 2026, please introduce each song, including the thoughts you put into the lyrics and the process of composing them.

01.残響REVIVER
Kei: I wrote this song by overlapping the rebirth as RE:lNa from NiEL with my own revival as a frontman after being away from band activity for two years. The theme is my rebellion against the life I’ve spent smoldering and holding myself back as a vocalist.
Kayuki: It’s not specifically about this song, but ever since way back, when I make music, the theme is always “melancholy/sadness,” with just a little bit of hope at the end saying “there’s hope too.”
Tokkiy: Kayuki-san (the composer) told me to arrange the lead guitar in a style that’s common in recent rock bands, so the guitar arrangement ended up like that.
Shima: Kayuki-san requested that I play exactly like the demo, and it took time to get used to rhythms that aren’t in my usual style. Because of that, it’s a song with high difficulty and a lot of attachment for me!
Hiromaru: I basically didn’t touch anything other than the arrangement.

02.天哭 (Tenkoku)
Kei: Originally, there were lyrics from the NiEL era, and then Kayuki-san rewrote them. I interpreted the title “Tenkoku” in my own way and wrote it with the theme of an explosion of emotions hidden deep inside. The final phrase “空は澄んでみえるか？” (“Does the sky look clear to you?”)—that “sky” actually represents myself.
Kayuki: This song has been around since the NiEL days, but lately people kept saying my compositions don’t sound very “V-kei-like,” so I thought, “What even is V-kei?” and tried making something that felt like it! Also, linking the rhythm and vocal melody quite a bit made it a pretty tricky song.
Tokkiy: For this track, the guitar is basically a parade of flashy gimmicks/effects.
Shima: We’ve been performing this live for over a year already. It has the highest drum difficulty among our songs, so please pay close attention and listen!

03.暁ノ聲 (Akatsuki NO Koe )
Kei: Around the time my joining the band was decided, someone very important to me, whom I hadn’t been able to see for a long time….passed away. I put into this song the gratitude I couldn’t fully express, and the feeling that although I’m still standing still in grief, I’ll someday face forward again. The lyrics in the last chorus are tied to the meaning of my real name, which that person gave me.
Kayuki: When the vocal melody came to me, I thought ballads are hard to do at regular live events, so I made it a slightly uptempo ballad that could work at usual events too.
Tokkiy: The guitar sound in the demo that was sent over had a crunchy feel, so I kept that crunchy tone throughout the whole song. Personally, my favorite part is the guitar solo that’s decided with just a single note.
Shima: Compared to the first two songs, this one has a calmer tempo, but it’s the song on this single where the emotions seep out the most in the drums. I think each part really reflects that kind of expression. Highly recommended for listening to when you wake up in the morning!

■ Could you tell us why you titled the single “UNBROKEN”?

Kayuki: After NiEL was coming to an end and evolved into RE:lNa, I wanted to put in the message: “We’re never letting ourselves be destroyed again.”
Shima:  An expression of steel-like strength that will never break again…?
Hiromaru: I think I’ll probably find out through this interview too! Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity!

■ Who’s the leader of RE:lNa? Could you also tell us why that person was chosen and what his role is?

Kei:　Kayuki-san
Kayuki: Before I knew it, it just naturally became me. Honestly, I’d rather be lazy.
Tokkiy: Kayuki-san
Shima: Guitarist Kayuki-san, the founder of the band.
Hiromaru: It’s Kayuki! It was already decided by the time I joined. His role is mainly composition, guitar, and inspiration!

■ How is RE:lNa’s visual style decided? Where does the visual inspiration come from?

Kei: It’s like embodying the classic style I’ve admired since long ago.
Kayuki: It’s the image I have inside when we produce our music.I personally hate the idea of forcing everything to have some kind of “unified feel,” so I basically just leave it up to the other members! Even if we tried to create unity, I’m probably the one who’d suggest the most flashy/over-the-top stuff anyway, so I’d end up ruining the unity myself lol.
Tokkiy: Especially for hairstyles, I often reference women or manga
Shima: I consider the overall balance while wearing what I personally want to wear.
Hiromaru: I think I’ll find out in this interview too! Thank you so much for this truly wonderful opportunity!

■ Visual kei has all sorts of styles like kote-kei, medical-kei, menhera-kei, etc. What visual kei style do you think best represents RE:lNa’s aesthetic?

Kei: What could it be? lol. In a post by Visual expect Noru-sama, we were categorized as “kirakira-kei”, I guess that felt the most fitting, so maybe we’re kirakira-kei?
Kayuki: None, really! People around us call us kirakira, so maybe we are, but we ourselves probably have zero intention of that.
Tokkiy: No idea (lol)
Shima: I honestly don’t know which style we belong to either…
Hiromaru: Uta-mono (song-focused/melodic style)

■ Visual kei music spans lots of genres like rock and metalcore. What genre would you say best defines RE:lNa’s sound?

Kei: Probably the fusion of classic rock and electro elements is the closest.
Kayuki: Rock, I guess? I don’t really pay much attention to that stuff!
Tokkiy: Rock
Shima: Basically rock, I think, but some songs might have metalcore elements.
Hiromaru: Uta-mono (song-focused/melodic style)

■ Through RE:lNa’s music and lyrics, what kind of feelings do you want to give to listeners? For example, moving their hearts or any other reactions you hope to get?

Kei: I’m quite sensitive and often lean toward negative/mental directions, but in those times, music and lyrics have fallen with me or supported me. I’d be happy if our music and words could become a support in people’s lives in the same way.
Kayuki: Like I said earlier in the single section, the theme is sadness/darkness, but with a little hope inside. Even without lyrics, if the melody or instrumentation alone can convey that, that’d be great.
Tokkiy: I’d be happy if it becomes something people remember in their daily lives.
Shima: While listening to the tracks or during our lives, I want people to forget daily life and just enjoy themselves.
Hiromaru: I’d be happy if it becomes a trigger for feeling happiness, gratitude, or kindness in little things!

■ What is important to you when writing RE:lNa’s songs?

Kei: Whether it’s easy to get into the groove, and whether what we want to convey comes across clearly.
Kayuki: Above all, the vocal melody!
Tokkiy: For guitar, I often focus on phrases that are easy to hum along to.
Shima: Not just going wild, but engraving cool melodies into memory…?
Hiromaru: For arrangement (not songwriting per se), I always keep in mind bridging the melody and drums, adding pitch to the bass drum, and making it easy to groove to live.

■ Is there a song of yours that you think could be turned into a movie? If so, what kind of story would it be?

Kei: Probably “illicit love.” More than a movie, I’d love it to play in those dramatic, messy-but-kinda-emotional short dramas that pop up on TikTok lol
Kayuki: Probably not what the question means, but people have always said my songs feel like they’d be used in movies!
Tokkiy: 残響REVIVER, atmosphere-wise (lol)
Shima: Personally, “RebirtH oF RevolutioN” feels like the song for an anime about fighting in a confined/closed space.

■ ■ ■ VISUAL KEI ■ ■ ■

■ Visual kei is often said to be characterized by its “freedom of self-expression,” but aside from dark or mental-health-themed topics, in what ways do you think this freedom manifests? Also, do you feel there are major differences compared to other music genres?

Kei: I think it’s changed over time, but what’s unique about Visual Kei is how it can coexist within the same band or scene while filtering everything through that lens. You can have J‑POP-style songs about everyday life, hip-hop-inspired expressions, or even dive deep into metal-core, it’s this mix that makes the culture really unique.
Kayuki: For me, it’s all about the visuals!
Tokkiy: Other genres are mostly defined by the music style, but with visual Kei, there aren’t strict rules about appearance, so you can really express yourself freely.
Shima: I think the beauty of Visual Kei is that, musically, it’s not tied down to a single music genre. You can create a wide range of experiences that the audience can enjoy live.
Hiromaru: In recent years, musical diversity has increased even outside visual kei, so the “freedom of self-expression” isn’t as uniquely a visual kei feature anymore. But especially in visual kei, we put a lot of effort into expressing the songs through visuals like costumes and MVs, and fans interpret them in their own ways. That’s what makes this genre so fun!

■ What are the good points and difficult points of visual kei? Also, how do you challenge the difficult parts?

Kei: The good thing… kind of overlaps with my answer to the previous question, but it’s definitely the freedom of expression. I see visual kei more as a scene than a strict genre, so literally anything goes. The tricky part is standing out while also keeping that freedom. If you don’t have a clear axis or direction, people won’t know what your band is really about. We’re still figuring it out, but I’m thinking about how to make my own personality and the band’s original vibe create some real chemistry.
Kayuki: For me, it’s all about the visuals!
Tokkiy: The good thing is we’re not limited by a musical genre, so we can make all kinds of songs. The difficult point is that just being “visual kei” makes some people who don’t like visual kei avoid us, without even trying to listen to our music.
Shima: The plus side is that you can show how your songs are expressed visually. The tricky part is that, to someone encountering it for the first time, it can seem a little hard to approach… (I felt the same way before I started doing visual kei myself).
Hiromaru: Freedom inevitably comes with its own kind of unfreedom. They’re two sides of the same coin.

■ Visual kei artists often seem to incorporate androgynous or feminine styles. Is this mainly to make it easier for female fans to relate to them, or is there another reason behind it?

Kei: I think it comes from things like Kabuki or theatrical stage makeup, it’s about expressing the world of the performance.
Kayuki: Honestly, I’ve never really thought about it! (Laughs) People sometimes mistake me for an onnagata*, but I’m not one.
Tokkiy: For me, I guess it’s about creating my own world and presenting the image I want. (laughs)
Shima: I think the style naturally becomes feminine if it fits the person. I personally only enjoy that style for Halloween!
Hiromaru: Here I have to agree with Shima, he’s the one who does the onnagata look once a year, after all!

※ An ‘onnagata’ is a male actor in traditional Japanese Kabuki theater who specializes in playing female roles.

■ What does visual kei mean to you personally, and what influence has it had on your life?

Kei: Something that constantly gives me an extraordinary experience. The place where I can shine the most. It gave me something when I had nothing.
Kayuki: It’s the genre that completely changed my life.
Tokkiy: It’s what inspired me to start a band.
Shima: Back then, I thought wearing colored contacts and doing makeup was impossible for me, but I discovered the fun of becoming a different version of myself. It also made me take self-care and discipline much more seriously.
Hiromaru: Visual kei isn’t a huge part of my roots as a musician, but there’s no doubt that it’s thanks to visual kei that I’ve been involved in music for so many years. I want to keep that gratitude and spirit of exploration going forward.

■ ■ ■ OVERSEAS CONNECTION ■ ■ ■

■ Are there any members who can speak English or other languages? Also, do they feel confident using those languages?

Kei: I can’t speak at all. Sometimes my Japanese is questionable too (laugh)
Kayuki: Japanese only
Tokkiy: Japanese only
Shima: I think we mostly speak in Kansai dialect… though some of us use Hokkaido or Kumamoto dialects words as well (laughs)
Hiromaru: NO!!!! However, when I occasionally communicate with overseas artists, I try my best to speak in English. 

■ When interacting with overseas fans, do you feel a language barrier? Or does music help overcome that barrier?

Kei: Not just music, but anime too. but even if words don’t get through, if I think “oh, we like the same stuff,” we can just go with the vibe lol.
Kayuki: I can feel a bit of a barrier, but I don’t really worry about it.
Tokkiy: They make it easy to understand for us, so it hasn’t really been a problem so far.
Shima: I’ve always felt that music is a universal language.
Hiromaru: I try my best in English as much as I can!

■ Have you ever been abroad? If so, could you tell us the purpose of your trip and your impressions of the places you visited?

Kei: To Taiwan and the USA. In Taiwan I went to help out at my mentor’s live show, but Japanese wasn’t as widely understood as I expected, so I panicked lol. In the USA, I went to Hollywood for vocational school training. The scale of the food and buildings, plus it being the setting for many various games I was into at the time, got me super hyped.
Kayuki: Nope!
Tokkiy: I went to Los Angeles for a music training program.
Shima: I went on family trips to Guam and Thailand when I was younger. Both had a warm, freeing vibe that you don’t really get in Japan.
Hiromaru: I haven’t been yet, but given my musical roots, I’d love to have the chance to go to the U.K. someday.

■ ■ ■ ROAD to FUTURE ■ ■ ■

■ What kind of feelings do you want to share with your fans moving forward?

Kei: That “Visual Kei is really wonderful and the best”. Right?
Kayuki: Let’s go wild together at live shows.
Tokkiy: I want to see all kinds of scenery together.
Shima: We live in a world where living is tough. So I hope our fans can find the feeling of finding hope and living positively with strength in their hearts, by listening to our music.
Hiromaru: Fun times, gratitude and the maximum of respect!

■ Is there anything you expect or hope for your future self?

Kei: I can really feel my potential, my singing gets better and better and my stage presence gets cooler and cooler, and so the band will become amazing.
Kayuki: to become a seriously crazy amazing guy!!!
Tokkiy: To always stay curious, no matter what.
Shima: Being flexible and open to trying new things.
Hiromaru: I’ve dedicated more than half my life to music, so I feel like that’s how it’ll always be. I just feel this unbreakable connection with it.

■ ■ ■ FINAL MESSAGE ■ ■  ■

■  Last but not least, please share a message for the readers and all the fans!

Kei: We’re still a newcomer band, but we aim to carry the visual kei scene forward, starting here in Osaka. Please keep supporting us!
Kayuki: We’ll make it fun for you in any way possible, so thank you and stick with us!
Tokkiy: Whether you’re hearing about us for the first time or have supported us from the start, let’s create amazing new experiences together.
Shima: With the release of our first single, RE:lNa is officially starting a new chapter. We’ll be sharing more songs and visuals, so keep your eyes on us!
Hiromaru: Thanks for reading all the way through! We haven’t planned any overseas shows yet, but we’ll be in Tokyo this year and I hope one day I can look into the eyes of fans I haven’t met yet and say ‘thank you‘. We’ll keep working hard on YouTube too, so I hope we meet somewhere, sometime! Honestly, if it weren’t for the fans who come to our shows, we wouldn’t even be doing interviews like this. Thank you so much for everything!