The Road to Producers: An Interview with Mimi

Chances are if you are not in China or do not follow the Chinese VOCALOIDs much, you most likely won’t be very familiar with songs or producers from there. VNN, however, is and is here to bring you into the world of Chinese producers.

Who Is Mimi?

Mimi is a producer from China who uses English and Chinese VOCALOIDs.

---

The Interview with Mimi

Monds: When did you first become interested in VOCALOID?

Mimi: I think it was around 2008, when I heard Melt featuring Hatsune Miku. It got me interested in Vocaloid music

[nnd src=1715919]

Monds: That is one of the first songs I have heard as well. Is that the song that made you want to become a producer or were you already into music prior to VOCALOID?

Mimi: Oh no, that is the song that got me interested in Vocaloid music, not production yet.

I started making music around 2011, at the time I got my influence from rhythm games such as Taiko, DDR, Pop’n music and IIDX. I started making rhythm game style music.

(Game play by Mimi, music by Kors K)

After that, I heard about Chinese Vocaloids from a magazine. I got kind of interested in making Chinese Vocaloid songs, since it was easier for me to write Chinese lyrics (even though it was pretty bad).

 

Monds: That is an interesting way to get influenced, through rhythm games. Are you one of those who is really good at it ?

Mimi: well…I think I am just a moderate level player in rhythm games, not a hardcore player yet (lol).

 

Monds: As long as you are having fun playing them, that is what counts.

What VOCALOID did you start with? There were not many Chinese VOCALOIDs at the time.

Mimi: At the time there was only Yan He and Luo Tianyi.  I got Luo Tianyi around that time since she was more popular and I made my first Vocaloid song  不死蝶 (Immortal Butterfly) around the end of 2013.

Monds: Luo Tianyi seems to be one of the more popular Chinese VOCALOIDs even till this day.

We’ve noticed you use both English and Chinese VOCALOIDs. Do you have a preference as to which type you use?

Mimi: Personally, I like to use Chinese Vocaloids more, because it is easier for me to find someone to write Chinese lyrics (it is hard to find someone to write good English lyrics).

But in term of character design and voice, I like English Vocaloids more, especially Oliver and YOHIOloid.

 

Monds: Understandable being from that part of the world you must know more people there.

Is there one VOCALOID in particular that is your favorite out of all of them?

Mimi: This is actually really hard to answer….

Monds: With all the VOCALOIDs out there now, it can be difficult to pick one, that is for sure.

Mimi: I think my favorite is Gumi.

 

Monds: It appears you upload to Bilibili, Youtube, NicoNico, and Soundcloud. However, you don’t upload each song to every platform. Do you have any method of choosing where you’re going to upload each song?

Mimi: hum…I guess I am just lazy to upload it to all platforms (lol).

For Vocaloid, I usually upload the WIP (work in progress) on Soundcloud. For the final version, I usually upload it to Bilibili, since there are more people who listen to Chinese Vocaloid music on Bilibili. I don’t usually upload to Niconico because I am not a Platinum member and I can’t upload in high quality. Recently I haven’t update my YouTube due to my laziness (lol).

 

Monds: haha, well nothing wrong with being lazy I guess.

It is true that Bilibili is where the people go for Chinese VOCALOIDs, its a bit a slow on this end of the world however as you probably know yourself.

Your songs often tell very interesting stories. Do you enjoy telling stories through songs?

Mimi: It depends, some of my song are just ridiculous and stupid (like all those perverted songs). But yes, most of the time I really like to make a song that has a story in it, as in 百百目鬼 (Todomeki) and 雪豹悲歌 (Snow Leopard Elegy) which is based on a story/novel.

 

Monds: Gotta have fun when making songs at times, keeps it interesting. I think songs with story makes people more engaged in the song. What novel is 百百目鬼 (Todomeki) based on?

Mimi: Todomeki is based on a folk tale, todomeki means “The Hundreds-of-Eyes Demon”.  You can search it up online if you are interested (warning: it might be kind of creepy)

 

Monds: Are you looking forward to the release of a male Chinese VOCALOID? Such as YueZheng Longya?

Mimi: YES! YES!! YES!!!
I hope Moke will get a release too so I can make a Chinese Vocaloid boy band. Right now I can only use gender bends, which is kind of sad (not many people make gender bends original music).

 

Monds: I cant wait to see your combination of male VOCALOIDs in the future, if Moke gets a release later on.

Nothing wrong with making gender bends, if not many people do it then that just means you are being different. That is never a bad thing.

I also see you really like cats judging your name and such.

Mimi: Ya, cats are my favorite pets. I do have a cat as well, and her name is Mimi too.

 

Monds: that’s awesome. I have cats myself.

Is there anything you would like to add or any song you would like people to hear that you made?

Mimi: hum….I really like Alex’s Red Cross featuring Yan He, there is a secret story in it, which has relationships to 百百目鬼 (Todomeki) / The World is messed up / 雪豹悲歌 (Snow Leopard Elegy) / 狼王夢 (Dream of the king of wolf)

The secret story might be a bit hard to find because there isn’t much hints yet, in the future I think I will add more hints about the story line.

Monds: I am sure some one out there will enjoy trying to find it.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for us, I feel like not many people outside of China know about Chinese VOCALOIDs or their producers.

 

You can find all of Mimi’s channels and social media here.

UPDATE: Mimi has since updated his YouTube channel.