As previously reported, on March 3rd, 2009 Japanese "dramatic speed metal band" MINSTRELIX featuring American female vocalist Lola released their new mini-album, Reflections, in Japan via Black Listed Records. BW&BK; recently spoke with Lola about moving from her home in Topping, VA to Osaka, Japan and her experience fronting the band. An excerpt from the story is available below.

With a huge number of metal bands on the Japanese scene, it’s not unreasonable to believe that Lola’s presence in MinstreliX is viewed as an attempt to cash in on the novelty of having an American fronting a Japanese band. Lola is well aware of what some people are thinking, but she feels she’s proven her worth as a singer.

"The band definitely took into consideration that I was Caucasian and could use English properly. I’m sure they had many reasons for picking me, but they could have chosen someone with more band experience. In Japan people who can really use English properly are few. Even though Leo has an amazing voice he couldn’t do the band justice because of his English. I think they also wanted someone who really stood out so they would be remembered easily. As much as I’d like to be seen as just a good vocalist and not for my mother tongue and my race, in this country it’s a valuable commodity. Now though, I would hope they see me more as a good performer and singer, looking beyond my language abilities and colour."

Additionally, Lola has no illusions about her female-ness playing a role in pushing MinstreliX into to the spotlight.

"I know that I make the band stand out mostly because of my looks. I’m more worried that people from outside of Japan will criticise me, saying something like its not real Japanese metal because I’m not Japanese. But, that would be very silly; there are bands from all over the world that have folks from other countries joining them. Kamelot, for example, they’re American and their vocalist Roy Khan is Norwegian. Why is it so strange for me to do the same? I just happen to live here and wanted to sing. It’s not like they imported me from the States just so I could sing with them nor was my purpose in coming here to join a band. I’m just doing what I love doing. So far, I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from within Japan and abroad, but you never know what people are actually thinking."

Go to this location for the complete story. Click here for Reflections audio samples.