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Upper Left - Yuxuki Waga, Upper Right - Towana, Lower Left - Kevin Mitsunaga, Lover Right - Junichi Sato |
Fhána performed as the last act for Comic Fiesta 2016 Day 1, they brought energy and sure enough the crowd was lit throughout the performance. We hope to see more of Fhána in Malaysia in the coming year! Support Fhána by purchasing their music on official digital music platforms and check out their official YouTube channel as well.
Get
to know Fhána, here’s an introduction from the group itself.
Jun'ichi
Satō who leads the group, and does some of the compositions, and additionally
plays the keyboard in the group. He also takes part in the chorus of the music.
He shares that his also involved with compositions for other music as well. The
vocalist of the group is Towana. Kevin Mitsunaga oversees the sound production
of the group and uses a sampler to coordinate the music for Fhána. Yuxuki Waga
is the guitarist for the group.
(Answers were translated from Japanese to English)
Q : How did the name “Fhána” came about?
(Answers were translated from Japanese to English)
Q : How did the name “Fhána” came about?
Jun'ichi
Satō : Before we were formed, the male members of Fhána were in separate bands
at that time. We got to know each other through a social networking site and
wanted to get to know each other. We liked each other’s music and aside from
music we were fans of anime and games so there were multiple overlapping interests
between us. We all like the anime “Clannad” (Clannad is an anime known to tug
at heartstrings), and thought why not make music that would trigger the same
kind of reaction from the public and decides to make music together.
For
the name of the group, since we were fans of “Clannad” we went and check the
origins of the name. It derives from Irish Gaelic word “Clannad” which means
for family. We thought it was cool and wanted to find a similar word with the
same nuance, that will be a nice name for the band. In the Gaelic dialect, Fhána
means a slope. For us, it has a deep meaning because when you climb up a slope,
it’s always a struggle to climb but you’re constantly heading to the top. Also
in Clannad, the two main characters met at the bottom of a slope. Putting all
of it together, we decided to call the band Fhána.
Q : Last year, Fhána made their first
concert debut in the US at the Anime Weekend Atlanta, what was the most
memorable moment from that event?
Towana
: The event was held in the US, we were surprised that a lot of fans were
speaking Japanese. It was a pleasant surprise.
There
are lots of cosplayers in the US as well. It was funny because there were many
cosplayers at the hotel area and when we look out of our window, we saw about
20 Luffy(s) *character from anime/manga One Piece* walking around. There was
this 70-year old man cosplaying as Hatsune Miku, this particular cosplayer
walked up to us and gave us some illustrations of Hatsune Miku drawn by him. It
was a really cute style of drawing.
When
we performed at Anime Weekend Atlanta, we were in the middle slot. In Japan,
the culture is that if you performed last, you will be called for an encore but
it was surprising because in US even though we performed in the middle, the
crowds wanted an encore. It was again a pleasant surprise.
Q : If you could pick one song that
embodies the group Fhána to new listeners, which would it be?
Towana
: We have a song called “Stardust Interlude” that we would recommend to new
listeners and get a feel of what Fhána is like.
Yuxuki
Waga : I would recommend “ 虹を編めたら”.
Q : What would you like the Malaysian
fans to experience from the upcoming performance at CF2016?
Jun'ichi
Satō : Of course everybody have their own personal preference and free to like
any type of music but it would be great if they would be able to take away
positive energy from Fhána’s music, especially from the upcoming performance.
Kevin
Mitsunaga : We would also like to see if people would be moved by our music and
hopefully that would happened.
Q : How do you feel about performing
in Malaysia for the first time?
Fhána : The food is good! Mee goreng and satay. Comic
Fiesta in Malaysia is one of the biggest and last year there were 45 thousand
attendees and that put a new perspective to things.
Towana
: In Japan right now is very cold, the moment we landed, it was such a warm a
country and saw a Christmas tree.
Q
: When performing aboard, do you prepare differently compared to when you’re in
Japan?Towana : It’s essentially the same thing in
preparation but when performing in different countries, there will be language
barriers. How do I want to express my song? I would have to pour it in to our
performance and put more effort. The fans are also different compared to Japan,
we would have to see the crowed reaction and tweak accordingly. In that sense,
it’s different.