Getting to Know Malaysia, One Bite at a Time

Before anything else, LiSA made it clear she came prepared to eat. When asked about her experience with local food, she was enthusiastic. “Laksa, and Milo half tea, neslo! And I tried durian for the very first time. Durian ice cream. It’s a little smelly, hahaha, but yes, I liked it!” She also tried ice kachang topped with mango, which she said she absolutely loved, and even posted about it on her social media during her stay.

For LiSA, food is more than just a travel perk. When asked how she stays inspired after all these years as a singer and songwriter, her answer was simple and immediate.

“Food! And yes, Malaysia is absolutely a great place for that. I really want to go everywhere and eat everything here.”

She also shared that beyond food, she constantly draws from music, movies, manga, and everyday life around her, and makes it a habit to write down her thoughts every single day.

The Songs That Changed Everything

It is hard to talk about LiSA without bringing up “Gurenge,” the theme song for the anime Demon Slayer that crossed 440 million views on YouTube and surpassed one million downloads back in 2020. When asked if she had any sense that the song would reach that kind of scale when she first recorded it, her answer was honest.

“I couldn’t imagine it at all. I knew that the anime was incredible and that the song was really cool, but I couldn’t have imagined that it would become this big, from kids to adults, everyone can sing it. I was really surprised to reach this point.”

What made the Malaysian concert particularly meaningful to her was how those songs sounded with the crowd. She shared that when the Malaysian fans sang Gurenge and Homura together with her, “it felt like one of the best singing experiences I’ve ever had. I truly felt like that was one of the greatest sing-alongs with a crowd I’ve ever experienced.”

Her work has also extended beyond anime. She wrote and performed “REALIZE” as the theme song for a Spider-Man film, marking her first time working on a Hollywood production. “First of all, I love Spider-Man!” she said, before drawing a parallel between the two worlds. There are similarities between Japanese anime and Spider-Man, she noted, pointing out that “the way Kirito slashes through enemies is a little like Spider-Man leaping off buildings.” She shared that the entire time she was writing the song, she was picturing Spider-Man swinging between buildings, and that the differences between the two worlds were just as important to consider as the similarities.

The Camera, the Minions, and the Little Things

Away from the stage, LiSA is known among fans for her photography hobby and her love of the Minions franchise. Her current go-to camera is a Sony Alpha 7, and she mentioned that she sometimes uses handmade or custom lenses as well.

On the Minions front, she did not hesitate when asked about her favourite.

“Stuart! Stuart is my favourite. He’s the one-eyed Minion, and he’s also a rocker in the Minions movie. He plays the guitar. That’s him.”

As for how many pieces of Minions merchandise she has collected over the years, that count remains unknown, even to her.

LACE UP: A Title That Ties It All Together

Her latest album, LACE UP, is named after a small but deliberate ritual she follows before every show. “Lace up literally means tying up your shoelaces, but it also carries the meaning of tying up loose ends, of pulling everything together,” she explained.

“This is my 15th anniversary, and I wanted to tie my shoes, so to speak, to gather everything up and step forward into the next chapter of my career. That’s how I arrived at this title.”

The album marks her first release in a few years, arriving right at the 15-year milestone of her career. She described it as an album that connects the past and the future, saying it is “both a new start and a new beginning at the same time” that “carries both of those meanings.” She also noted a shift in how she approaches her music now compared to earlier work.

When she wrote Letters to U, her focus was entirely on expressing her own feelings. With LACE UP, she found herself thinking more broadly. “I also had to consider how people perceive and visualize LiSA as an artist. That was the biggest difference in my approach,” she said.

The following section is drawn from the group press interview.

Why Malaysia Felt Different

LiSA first performed overseas in Singapore, where she was struck by how many people outside Japan knew and loved anime music. “I was very surprised to discover that so many people overseas knew about anime culture and anime music,” she recalled. She has since performed across many countries, but the Malaysian concert carried its own weight. Her previous visit to the country was in 2016 for Penang Anime Matsuri, and this time she returned with a full solo headline show. “The number of people, the size of the venue, everyone, including myself, had powered up and come back at a whole new level. I really felt that. Yesterday was outstanding,” she said.

When asked how it felt when she heard the tickets had sold out, she admitted she could not quite believe it until she was actually standing on stage.

“I couldn’t believe it was real until I walked on stage and saw so many people there waiting for me. The moment I saw that, I decided I was going to give everything I had from the very top of the concert, holding absolutely nothing back.”

The setlist itself was one of the hardest parts of planning the tour. With roughly 100 to 150 songs written over 15 years, narrowing it down was no easy task. “The setlist. Deciding on the setlist was the hardest part,” she said. She also expressed gratitude toward her band and the anime community for helping bring her vision for the show to life.

“I’m truly grateful to my band members for their support and contributions. I really feel that it’s because of the 15 years we’ve all shared together that the community and the band were able to come together and support me the way they did.”

One question raised during the group interview touched on something that goes beyond language. Many Malaysian fans do not speak Japanese in their daily lives, yet they knew every lyric and every movement. Asked what kind of connection she felt with the audience under those circumstances, she called it a difficult question before sharing what stood out most to her. “What I felt most strongly in that venue, the one thing I can say for certain, was love. I felt love from the audience, and from the very floor of the venue.” She went on to describe it as a kind of invisible energy.

“I think everyone came to the show wanting to support me, wanting to listen to my music, and I came on stage wanting to make everyone happy. Those kinds of energy, the kind you can’t see with your eyes, they create a kind of synergy. That’s where the energy comes from, I think. And it made every single moment so precious and wonderful.”

On Beginnings, and Coming Back

LiSA has been singing since she was a child, but she traces the moment it became real for her to a specific role. She voiced Yui in the anime Angel Beats, and performing through that character was when she first understood the full reach of what music could do. “Through Yui, so many people listened to my songs. Knowing that my singing could reach people in that way, through a character, that was the moment I felt it was real. I was so happy. And I thought to myself, if I could keep singing, maybe I could make everyone happy,” she said.

Her musical influences stretch from the Japanese pop group Speed, which she grew up watching perform on TV at around the same age, all the way through punk rock acts like Avril Lavigne, Green Day, and Limp Bizkit, and into harder styles like emo and hardcore. “My sound now is really a mix of all of it, idol, punk rock, emo, hardcore, all of those elements blended together into what shapes my music today,” she said. She also noted that seeing Speed perform on TV was an early spark.

“That made me feel like it was something real and possible, and it was a big inspiration.”

As for whether Malaysia will see her again, she left no room for doubt, both in the one-on-one and when the same question came up in the group session. “I will definitely come back. After receiving the energy I got from yesterday, I simply can’t go back without it. How can I not come back after experiencing that kind of energy? So let’s make a promise, I’ll see you again sometime!” And to her fans directly, she had one final message: “I am so happy that I came to Malaysia. I’m so happy to have seen all of you, and I’m truly happy to know that so many people were looking forward to my concert. See you again!”