Sometimes the tables are turned and the idoliser becomes the idolised.

Our reporter Seiji Nakazawa is a man of many talents, and one of those talents is writing and composing songs. It’s more than just a hobby for him, as he’s doing pretty well in the music scene, with underground idol group Ge’lminatii even performing a song written and composed by him.

▼ The members of Ge’lminatii.

While you might think this might make him chummy with the performers, that’s not actually the case, as the business end of things is all taken care of by the group’s management, so performers often have no idea who’s behind the catchy tunes they sing and dance to. So when Seiji  heard that the group would be holding a photo session at a live house called Meguro Rokumeikan in Tokyo, he headed over there to meet them and see how they would react to meeting the man who composed one of their hit songs.

Meguro Rokumeikan

The evening started with the band performing live for their fans, and there were plenty of them in the building.

Seiji wasn’t able to record anything during the performance, but the song he wrote for them has been shared on the band’s official Twitter account, and it’s a pretty catchy tune that gets the crowd going.

▼ The song that Seiji wrote and composed.

The photo session that follows a concert performance is a familiar sight in the underground idol world, and the great thing about it is that you can chat with the members of the group while taking photos. On this particular evening the relaxed conversation started with the group addressing the assembled crowd from the stage, where they shared their personal thoughts and thanked their fans.

Then fans were able to have a short one-on-one with the members, with the photo shoot taking about a minute and costing 1,000 yen (US$6.84) for each idol. As Seiji waited in line he rehearsed what he might say to them.

▼ “Hi there, I’m Seiji, your composer.”

By the time Seiji got to them, he was so excited he’s not sure what exactly came out of his mouth, but he was able to let them know he wrote and composed one of their songs, and their reactions were everything he’d hoped for.

Miona: “Wow! That’s amazing!! It’s amazing that you can write such a cool song!”

RiKO: “Wow, thank you very much! I like that song the most. When I heard it, I definitely wanted to sing it myself at the beginning, and I was really happy that I was assigned to sing it!”

MiU: “OMG!! Thank you for the song, it gets everyone pumped up!”

Ritsuki: “I can’t believe you’re here…and wearing a Metallica T-shirt…!”

▼ Seiji’s smile reveals how happy he was to receive such appreciative comments from the idols.

▼ In return, he could only utter a grateful “Thank you, Ge’lminatii!!”

Seiji’s love for the band grew ten times bigger that night, after meeting them in person and forming that songwriter-performer connection. It gave him the energy he needed to continue songwriting…and channelling the spirit of Yngwie Malmsteen into his own international performances.

All images © SoraNews24
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