Hip-Hop Duo Creepy Nuts Talks With Anime Herald

Note: Due to the time-sensitive nature of our coverage, this article will debut on the main Anime Herald site on October 18 . We apologize for the inconvenience.

• Interviewer: Seth Burn

• Editor: Samantha Ferreira

Anime Corner: How does it feel to be performing yet another anime song after your previous hits have been so well received?

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) Yes, the reception was great, but that’s not what we write music for. We write music to create our sound and be ourselves. The reception was wonderful. We’re really happy to see people enjoy our music. But with every song, we do our own thing. We do our very best to create music that is unique to us, and free to us.

Anime Herald: You’ve mentioned a desire to work on horror anime sometime in the future. What are some of your favorite horror movies or anime?

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) I really enjoy the horror genre. Anything I’ve sang about in my lyrics, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre or J-Horror. I also really like special effects that are not CG. The Howling, the Halloween series, Hellraiser. From recent films, I like Some Like it Rare, Slaxx, and Get Out.

Unknown Outlet: Your music blends a number of genres and styles. Who are some of your musical influences and how did they shape your unique sound?

Creepy Nuts: (DJ Matsunaga) It’s really hard to point out one specific influence. It’s everything I’ve absorbed. All the music that has surrounded me. It’s the matrix of music I’ve heard throughout my lifetime that has shaped and influenced me.

ESR Gaming Network: Creepy Nuts, can you explain your band name please?

Creepy Nuts: (DJ Matsunaga) I somewhat regret my choice at this point. I wasn’t expecting worldwide audiences, so I’m a little embarrassed now.

Temple of Geek: How do you navigate the challenges of staying true to your own sound and style, while adapting to the tastes of your audiences?

Creepy Nuts: (DJ Matsunaga) There’s no way of getting to the destination of what your audience is thinking. Trying to guess what they want is very difficult. What I want to do is create music that I enjoy. I want to remain true to myself:

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) Whenever I’ve thought a song was going to be a hit, the fan reaction was “okay.” When I didn’t expect anything and it felt really natural is when we’ve had great feedback from the audience. I’ve decided it’s not worth thinking about.

The Natural Aristocrat: What was your first response when you saw Call of the Night’s animation flawlessly mesh with your music?

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) The one scene that stayed with me as a beautiful moment was when “Lost Time” played during the show. I really saw it come together, how the music and the visuals worked together. Overall, I thought it was an amazing production.

Manga Mavericks: Creepy Nuts was recently featured on Dua Lipa’s remix of Illusion. How did this collaboration happen? Did you approach this remix differently than you would for your original music?

Creepy Nuts: (DJ Matsunaga) Usually, our songs are rap-based. This was really a song-based creation. That was unique. More so, I had to blend the two different languages. I thought synchronizing two different languages would prove to be difficult, but it turned out to be very enjoyable. I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity.

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) My lyrics are usually my personal world, my personal experiences. In this situation, I was entering an existing world. Somebody else’s world. How do I enter into this existing world? As far as this Illusion? What is my interpretation of this? How do I work into this creation? Something like David Copperfield, being split in half. That would not have existed if not for this opportunity. It was really enjoyable to experience something where someone else already exists and I am moving into the situation.

Michael Tom: Can you describe your creative process for your music?

Creepy Nuts: (DJ Matsunaga) Usually, I create the beat in a fairly simple framework. I’ll send it to R-Shitei-san to swim in it. To experience it. To iterate on it. That begins the process of iteration where one person sends something back to the other. There’s the expectation, and then beating the expectation of the other’s performance and creation.

Unknown Outlet: With both Call of the Night and Mashle both being streamed in the US, you now have a huge overseas fandom. How does that feel?

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) We weren’t expecting such a worldwide audience. Yesterday was a complete surprise, to see how much New York was into our music. The audience was singing with us, even in Japanese! Being able to perform live in the US finally made it feel real, because we were able to experience the audience and the music together in New York last night.

ESR Gaming Network: Your hit song “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” topped the Japanese charts for eight consecutive weeks. What was that like for you? Did you become overnight stars?

Creepy Nuts: (R-Shitei) As a musician, I’ve always had the good fortune to create the music that’s been true to me. That hasn’t changed since the mega-hit. What has changed is the ability to have more of a worldwide audience listen to our music. I’m grateful to be here, but I have not changed as a musician.