Back in January 2023, Banzoin Hakka debuted as part of HOLOSTARS English -TEMPUS- alongside Gavis Bettel, Josuiji Shinri, and Machina x Flayon. Ahead of his one year anniversary with the group next year, Siliconera got in touch with him over email to talk about streaming, performing, and singing.
Jenni Lada: Now that you’ve been with HOLOSTARS English -TEMPUS- for half a year, what has being one of the Hololive Vtubers been like?
Banzoin Hakka: A Vtuber??? I am just but a little exorcist fella!!!
It has been so much fun, I adore my TEMPUS brothers so much and I love having fun with them and going out on funky adventures, jokes aside, it has been such an honor and an amazing experience. I am very happy to finally find a place where I feel I can belong and be myself, it is truly an honor to be part of such a crazy but very well-knit community as well <3
What does a normal schedule for you look like as you prepare for each week?
Banzoin: I am gonna be honest with you, I would like to sum it up as something as simple as I eat, I sleep, I STREAM, I DO MUSIC, but it is a bit more than that!
I try to wake up as early as I can to maximize my day in order to transform that into content ideas or work on some behind-the-scenes stuff like meetings and recording brainstorming sessions all those happen either by myself or with the help of my tempus brothers :3
But aside from my exorcist responsibilities, I also have my Singing and Japanese lessons! Believe me when I say that investing in your own well-being and development is the best you can do! Stay healthy and always keep learning folks!!!!!
You play a really wide variety of games each week. How do you decide what to play and what does the process of preparing look like?
Banzoin: GAMES ARE SUPER FUN IN GENERAL, I will be honest with you, I love staying in touch with indie releases and the latest platforms.
But in general, I like to have fun while playing games! I am a huge advocate that if I enjoy something I will always try to showcase it so people with similar tastes can also enjoy it! I love sharing knowledge :D
What led to you deciding to also share your cooking and oil painting experiences with your community?
Banzoin: Cooking is one of my biggest love languages! Honestly, having someone cook you a meal and share it with you is the best of the best!!! So I want to share my appreciation towards my Hakkitos just the way I like it!
AND AS FOR MY ARTIST ARC, I will give you a tip, DO NOT DO OIL PAINTING AS YOUR FIRST PROJECT, OH GOD IT’S STILL DRYING… Now with that out of my system! I’ve always appreciated art very closely, in fact, it has ALWAYS been a dream of mine to be able to draw and create cool stuff…it’s like a printer but for your BRAIN!!!
To keep it short, doing fun stuff with my lil birbos while entertaining and chatting with them is such a DREAM and I wouldn’t have it any other way!!
What is it like recording things like the HOLOSTARS English -TEMPUS- Animations and Summer Camp voice drama? What is that process like?
Banzoin: THE RULE OF THUMB IS TO HAVE FUN!
Recording the funky lil voice dramas and animations has been so much fun! I’ve never really done solely VA centric stuff until HOLOSTARS, and MAN- IT’S BEEN A BLAST TRYING SOMETHING NEW! Being in character and portraying our feelings makes me feel like a superstar, it brings me back to when I was tree #4 in a school play, MY BEST ROLE EVER!
Jokes aside, it really is so cool to learn a new art! I have always been very fond of dramas and stuff like that, and honestly (Machina X) Flayon has inspired me to pick up voice acting!! And I love trying new things to serve as one of the tools for my big mental shed of TOOLS for when I maybe need it!!!
How do you prepare for your covers and songs? What sorts of exercises and preparations go into it, and how do you protect your voice, and what would you recommend for your followers who’d also learn to start singing like you?
Banzoin: OH HERE COMES A LONG ANSWER BABY, BUCKLE UP!!!!!!!!!
If you want to start singing the first step is to start taking vocal lessons!!!!
BUT HAKKA THAT COSTS MONEY??
OHOHOHOH NOW HERE IS THE NEXT BIGGEST THING I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW
The internet is literally your best friend, there are plenty of resources and not to mention AMAZING communities that are online AND FREE!
There are so many free lessons online that can be just as good as paid classes! I love professional vocal lessons, I recently started them and honestly, they are SUPER helpful :>
BUT I want people to remember that I BANZOIN HAKKA and MANY amazing utaites/v-singers started off self-taught, we learned and grew our skills with those free sources and not super pro equipment!!!
I MEAN HECK I WAS JUST A 14-YEAR-OLD BIRB WITH A DREAM AND A GUITAR HERO MIC ON HIS SCHOOL COMPUTER WHEN I FIRST STARTED!!
The biggest thing to remember when you DO make that first step in training is to remember your vocal folds are muscles!!
Don’t measure how good you’ll be with how much “talent” you start off with!
JUST LIKE IF YOU WANT ROCK HARD ABS OR A GOOD BUTT-With proper and consistent training, you can make them sound good!! JUST LIKE EXERCISING IN THE GYM!!
You DON’T need to be born with the talent to sing, but instead, be willing to put in the hours to work out those pipes!
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t sound like your favorite artist or people you idolize at first!
Keep sticking with practicing and surrounding yourself with people/communities who also are passionate about music like you are!
BUT LISTEN TO ME NEVER GIVE UP AND! YOU! WILL! GROW! PROMISE!!!!
You’ve already released two original songs so far. What does the songwriting process look like for you?
Banzoin: Well you see as a certified sad boi™ it is my job to make people FEEL with my music!!!
Now with that being said haha, I will give you a bit of a technical explanation, the songwriting process usually comes with the thought of a concept! This could be an emotion, a place, an object!!!
Once you have your concept down- it comes to play on how you want that to be expressed. What is it that I want to share? How do I want to portray it? And what do I want to achieve with it?
Words can mean a lot of things depending on how they are conveyed and structured! Music is amazing, isn’t it!!!
Once the concept and the tone of the song lyrics have been picked-usually a melody is made! OR! With the flow of the song and the timing of it, sometimes the melody can come first, or even the structure of the song can be made first, honestly for music creation there really aren’t any rules, aside from the obviously written ones (MUSIC THEORY HARD LOL).
Usually, for my part of the job, I do the concepts and I help with toplining, it is thanks to AMAZING producers that most of my creations come to life, producing is hard but I am learning little by little!
With your covers, what does the process look like for picking your songs?
Banzoin: DID YOU REALLY THINK I WILL GIVE YOU MY SECRET SAUCE??? HOW I CHOOSE A SONG AND HOW DO I DECIDE I WANT TO COVER IT????
Well since you asked so nicely, I will share with you a MILLION DOLLAR SECRET!
When it comes to Japanese music (which is what I mainly cover) I am a HUGE vocaloid fan, and with that, I am also a HUGE J-Rock/Anisong fan! I have so many favorites I am not kidding when I say that I literally THRIVE on exploring new music!
When it comes to picking a song, I always try to imagine how I would sound singing a song and being able to give it my own twist, I love being able to make songs my own and have fun while singing them. I LOVE MUSIC AND SINGING SERIOUSLY!
Once THE SONG has been picked I ask for perms (CONSENT IS IMPORTANT!!!) and once I got that covered, I record and then send it over to mixing, ONCE THAT IS IN MOTION I start the process on the MV for it, which is commissioning art and a video, I upload it to YouTube, and BOOM, new Hakka cover!
How would you feel about collaborating with other artists on tracks, and do you have any people you’d really like to work with?
Banzoin: I LOVE SINGING AND MAKING NEW FRIENDS, THOSE ARE BOTH THINGS I SUPER DUPER LOVE!
There are so many singers from my childhood that I would love to sing with, and MAN honestly the list is super long but I am always open to collab and having fun.
Do you think we’ll ever see a Hakka solo live? How would you feel about a full album?
Banzoin: Who knows, maybe in the future.
Now that you passed the half-year anniversary, what would you like to possibly accomplish when Vanguard’s first-year anniversary rolls around?
Banzoin: THERE IS SO MUCH IN MY MIND WHEN THIS QUESTION IS ASKED AAAA!
BUT ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I WANT TO ALWAYS DO MY VERY BEST, I WANT TO COLLAB WITH MORE WITH PEOPLE, I WANT TO RELEASE MORE COVERS AND DO MORE ORIGINAL MUSIC, ALSO I WOULD LOVE TO START DOING TRAVEL AND FOOD CONTENT, I WANT TO DO SO MUCH MORE AND MY HAKKITOS ALWAYS KEEP ME INSPIRED!
People can follow Banzoin Hakka on YouTube and X (formerly known as Twitter). He also appears in the visual novel Doppelganger.
