INDEX
How ’88rising’ and Money Mark Helped Propel Their Global Journey
Looking back over the past decade, the biggest shift seems to be your growing presence overseas. You announced your deal with ’88rising’ in November 2020 and made your worldwide debut as ATARASHII GAKKO! in January 2021. When did that change start to feel real to you?
MIZYU: Even though we called it a global debut, at first it was mostly just online. We noticed English comments, but it didn’t quite feel tangible. Then in March 2021, the four of us and our manager traveled to the U.S. for the first time and lived together for two and a half months. That’s when we met producer Manny Mark and finished an EP. That experience really opened our eyes.
MIZYU: We realized that the value of our music, performance, and spending time as a team had far more limitless freedom and possibility than we had imagined. That might have been our first real step toward feeling the world.
What kind of inspiration did you get from collaborating with Manny Mark?
RIN: It completely changed how we approach music. Until then, we had never created songs from scratch, but he let us be part of the process. When it became a “let’s make this together” situation, we didn’t know right from left, and our English wasn’t very good, but he communicated everything through feeling — asking, “What do you find fun?”
He showed us that music is always close by, and if you enjoy it, anything in everyday life can become music. Living and working with him taught us that. Because of that experience, I think the way we approach music and the energy we put into our choreography changed dramatically.
Meeting Money Mark truly transformed your creative approach, right?
SUZUKA: Even before that, the four of us always saw ourselves as creators and self-producers. We weren’t just choreographing — we were crafting something entirely our own, something built together from the ground up.
After meeting Money Mark, we became eager to explore even more adventurous and liberating forms of expression. Personally, I felt this urge to go crazier, to embrace a more cosmic, out-there vibe. I believe Money Mark helped us discover that.
Your first overseas performance was at the ’Head In the Clouds’ festival hosted by 88rising in Los Angeles in November 2021. How did that feel?
MIZYU: Our first overseas live left a strong impression on us. We performed our new track “NAINAINAI” and brought our signature performances, the ones we had perfected in Japan.
Even though the audience probably didn’t understand the Japanese lyrics, their emotional response was powerful. That experience gave us confidence—it proved we weren’t wrong in what we were doing, and it sparked hope that we could connect with audiences worldwide. It marked the start of an exciting new chapter for us.
