Anime Magic is a convention that takes place at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont during August. I found myself at Magic with the band Rebel and Cleric as they were getting ready to perform on Saturday night. I have had the pleasure of seeing them perform before at Colossal Con North which takes place in the Wisconsin Dells.
Rebel and Cleric is a two-piece band consisting of members Sai and Kiwi who enjoy performing a variety of music such as punk and emo. They are known for their spunky covers of anime openings, cartoon tunes such as the “Campfire Song Song” from Spongebob, and even their own original works such as “Diet Dr. Kelp.”
Through their artistry, they prove to be a unique addition to the Midwestern alternative music scene while also catering to pop culture conventions. Their fast-paced and melodic thrills ring through everyone’s ears as they launch a full frontal assault on the unsuspecting con-goer. They are a force to be reckoned with and one that has been welcomed into the anime community for their fresh and invigorating style of music. What follows is the pleasant conversation I was privileged to have with both members prior to them setting the stage for the night life at Anime Magic. (Content is cut down from the original interview)
What are some of your musical influences?
Sai: In terms of musical influences I grew up with System Of A Down, Fall Of Troy, basically everything I played on Guitar Hero. Newer influences that I have taken to are Origami Angel, Kaonashi, stuff kind of all over. I tend to revolve more around the emo crowd of bands.
Kiwi: My musical influences drummer-wise would be John Bonham, Steve Gadd, Casiopea, a lot of my earlier drumming and musical influences were a lot of very rhythmic, very polyrhythm heavy like Ginger Baker.
When did you guys start as a band?
Sai: Kiwi started drumming for our band and that’s when it really kicked off. That started about last year when we met during Anime Central, the next Con after that is when we recruited him, so it’s been a little over a year now doing it as a duo.
Have you played in other bands before?
Sai: I’ve been playing tons of basement shows and garage shows and small venue shows in another band called The Tear Garden Collective. When we started playing as Rebel and Cleric it was here at Anime Magic but that was in 2022. That was the first show we played a full set for. Deep lore here, the first show had 5 members in the band. Now it’s a two-piece band.
Kiwi: I’ve been in music and bands a long time, partaking in a certain popular music school. There were a few bands I was in growing up to play at school events, I even put a group together with other students back around 2013. That sort of stopped in 2019 for me, I took a break from music and ventured into other interests, then in 2023 I started to venture off into the music space of Chicago. I went to Anime Central last year and ran into this guy (Sai) and we started talking about music.
Do you guys post your music online anywhere?
Sai: You can catch us pretty much anywhere like Bandcamp, Amazon Music, Spotify, even the ones people probably don’t use anymore, we’re probably on there.
Do you feel like you fit in with the Midwestern alternative music scene?
Kiwi: With our sound and our music, absolutely but personally no, I don’t fit into the scene at all. My technicality, energy and skill fit in, but at least in my personality and the way I present myself, that’s not really my sort of home. But I feel like that sort of music connects to me a lot.
Sai: I’ve been pretty deep in the scene like when I dabbled in the band Mendicant Bias. I got a couple different perspectives and saw a lot of different people who were passionate about their music. I still have a lot of friends in the scene. I’ve also seen some ugliness which is why I wanted to make something from the bottom here such as anime cons. It’s inconspicuous and something you wouldn’t expect.
Do you feel like the anime con scene has been accepting of you?
Kiwi: I love it
Sai: I’ve been loving it too, that’s one thing that we’ve collectively been loving.
What are some of your favorite anime?
Sai: Let me start from the first anime that I watched and the second one which will be a 180 flip. The first anime I fell in love with was Naruto. I was a Naruto kid and that’s easily one of my favorites. Even with the filler I still loved it and grew up with Naruto. We aged together and literally got older together so Naruto holds a special place in my heart. In terms of the second anime I watched, I’d say Elfen Lied. I watched that when I was still in grade school, Netflix back then was crazy and didn’t care what shows they’d let you watch. The story was phenomenal and as a kid I didn’t even register in my head that anime could be for adults. So when I saw a naked girl decapitating a dude’s head I thought to myself, this is very different from Naruto!
Kiwi: Number one would probably have to be Hunter x Hunter along with Erased, Gungrave, Sword Art Online, Gun Gale Online, Fruits Basket, Gabriel Dropout.
Sai: Sword Art Online? I think I’ll have to look for a different drummer.
My Chemical Romance or Panic At The Disco?
Sai: Assuming at their peak for both of them, MCR since they have more than one good album because even Panic at their peak only had two good albums like A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and Pretty. Odd. The moment Ryan Ross left the band there kinda was no point listening to panic. Hopefully that doesn’t get my head on a stick.
Kiwi: I really like Panic’s newer stuff but only in its own thing, it’s not emo.
Sai: One of my favorite live shows I vehemently come back to is Panic’s live performance in Denver with the burlesque show. Ryan Ross on vocals. I’m so pissed he’s not recorded in studio for the album because wow that voice. I love Ryan Ross, the antithesis to Brendon Urie, because I don’t like Urie anymore.
Kiwi: That’s definitely getting your head on a stick with those fiery opinions.
Where’s everyone from?
Sai: Born in Waukegan, grew up right over the border in Camp Lake, Wisconsin. Once I landed my tattoo apprenticeship I moved down to the Antioch/Grayslake area so that’s where I’m currently at.
Kiwi: I was grown in a lab, test tube under the ocean in a vat of toxic waste, upside down. That’s where I’m from, that’s my origin story
Do you play all of the Midwest, more Chicago, more Wisconsin?
Sai: We play pretty much everywhere, farthest down we’ve gone is Peoria, farthest north is Minneapolis. Most of our shows do revolve in the Chicago area but we are open to playing in Wisconsin.
Kiwi: if it’s going to be fun then I’m down to play anywhere.
I saw you play at 2 am last year at Colossal Con North, how did that go?
Sai: It sucked because we were playing outside all day. Funny thing they didn’t expect a full band for that and thought “oh animal crossing it will only be one guy on an acoustic guitar!” Then we have this insane drummer and amped up guitars with scream vocalists, they sort of had to tell us to pipe down but the drums only have one volume. But we did have a lot of people come to the 2 am show and didn’t know how many would get our music but it interested enough people to fill the room much more than I thought at 2 am.
How does that make you feel knowing people picked you over the rave?
Sai: It was an honor, I felt like the live band was lacking and I wanted to be that insane band that had people dancing and moshing. I grew up with hardcore, punk, emo, metal, prog and those areas are filled with people. That’s the kind of “magic” I want to bring. That has been my mission and we have original music. I don’t care if it’s original music or covers of silly songs like from Spongebob, it doesn’t matter to me as long as people love us or hate us. If the people there get it and enjoy it, and bring more people into that tight culture, I feel like I have accomplished something.
What are your future prospects for the band?
Sai: It’s hard to say because my future prospects. I had a lot of before I started the band. Now that I started the band I’m here. I feel like I already accomplished a lot of things that I can’t really think of what to do better. I’m already proud of what I’ve been able to do now. There’s always room for improvement and you can always aim higher. If I’m thinking back to where I was a little over a year ago, everything I thought that I wanted I have now. For future prospects it’s just mainly exposure, more people knowing the culture. Sure people can know our band but it’s mostly the love for the music we play and the culture, people participating in that culture and people listening to music like that at anime conventions. Us becoming more well-known is a facet of that but it’s not my priority.
One Piece or Dragon Ball?
Kiwi: I haven’t seen either. Don’t put my head on a stick. It’s mainly people who grew up with it and caught up with it. Both are very dedicated and not sure if I have a preference.
Sai: I haven’t seen it either but both are long as shit. Both of those shows you have to grow up with, like watching shows before going to school.
Kiwi: I feel like an outcast in that sense because I grew up with pokemon and beyblade.
What was the last concert you went to?
Sai: Last time I went to a concert it was underwhelming because they didn’t play any of the songs I knew. This was Thrice playing with Bayside. They even stated “we hear a lot of people shouting out names for our old songs but you guys kinda have to like our new things for us to play”. I’m not shitting on them, I just feel bad for them. In terms of the last show I watched and loved, it was a year and a half ago when I saw Fall Of Troy headlining with Strawberry Girls and Kaonashi. Now they (Kaonashi) are a big influence on me, they became a huge influence for me as they were very in your face. Kaonashi was a breath of fresh air and that threw me into a music dive where I could capture some of that magic myself if I tried.
What’s the farthest you’ve gone to play?
Sai: AniMinneapolis was the furthest con we played. 5 and half hour drive.
What are your favorite music venues in the midwest?
Sai: The Concord Music Hall holds a very special place in my heart because that’s where I first saw The Fall Of Troy. I love it mainly because it’s a nice stage and setup, the balcony is awesome
Kiwi: I love the Subterranean
Sai: The Concord is awesome it’s just right and that’s why I love sort of smaller venues
How did you start playing at conventions?
Sai: I had an old roommate that sort of introduced me to the owner of Anime Magic for our very first show. He had an opening for us on the idol stage which is a small stage meant for idol dancing and lip syncs. To a guy who’s never played on a stage, I’ll play wherever. I can’t bring myself to delete the footage of the first concert we played even though none of the members playing there are still with the band besides myself. It does hold a very special place in my heart and I might re-list the video.
Kiwi: You can just put the link somewhere and hide it
Sai: So if anyone wants to do a deep dive, don’t be surprised if you listen and you’re like damn this shit’s kind of ass.
Are you into ska?
Sai: We’re about to do a cover of “Take On Me” following the Reel Big Fish version and Cap’n Jazz version. I took what I liked from them and made our own cover of it.
Kiwi: I was introduced to ska by a bassist of a band I had been invited to sub for, I do enjoy it a lot.
Black Flag or Descendents?
Sai: In terms of encapsulating the crazy-in-your-face-I-will-literally-kill-you vibe, definitely Black Flag. Henry Rollins carries that, he was the perfect face for a punk band. Punk consists of outcasts and he was an outcast among outcasts. The band as a whole have so many classics, I even covered “Nervous Breakdown” when I was in Mendicant Bias as a drummer. I even wanted to cover “Rise Above” on my own since I heard it on Tony Hawk’s Underground. That’s another game I credit to my music taste.
Misfits or The Damned?
Sai: Misifts because I love the horror theme like Teenagers From Mars. Astro Zombies is one of my favorites by them. I just really love that he (Danzig) has a tinge of Elvis in him when he sings it. It’s hilarious to me to think there’s an alternate-reality version of Elvis with crazier hair and a six-pack.
What are your dream venues or dream conventions to play?
Kiwi: Madison Square Garden, watching the live video of Vulfpeck, the energy of the crowd of that show, it’s a wide-open area, nice room on stage, it would be really fun to play there. In terms of conventions, Fan Expo or San Diego Comic Con would be crazy.
Sai: Dream convention would be Colossal Con Prime or Colossal Con Cruise because I’d love to play on a cruise ship. Most of the venues I love are small. A good dream venue would be Mall Of America, that would be so cool and dope!
Kiwi: After Minneapolis we went to Mall Of America and saw this big area with a fountain and stage with tons of chairs set up. We thought, dude we could play here that would be sick!
Sai: People moshing each other off the balcony just dropping! In terms of venues totally attainable, I would really like to play this stage at the Gurnee Mills mall which is far in the back next to Staples in a place where you wouldn’t expect anyone to play a punk concert. It’s right next to 95.5 Rock, the radio station with one of their offices in the mall. I already contacted one of the people that run it, we would just need a plan. It’s a mall not an actual venue but it would make me really happy because I remember seeing that stage when I was a toddler and wondered, when is someone going to play there?
Kiwi: What if we tried to revive these dying malls by performing in them?
Sai: It would be hilarious because we would be helping big corporations in the most ironic way possible by inciting punk crowds to throw the cafeteria tables around. It would be poetic in a way which is why it always stuck in my mind. Gurnee isn’t the first place you would think of.
Why Animal Crossing?
Sai: I thought it would be hilarious if i made a cosplay themed punk band have their first cosplay be of a quiet laid-back dog with an acoustic guitar who gives out this music for free. In the original game KK would give you whatever music you requested for free because he didn’t care about the money and I really liked that mentality, but I also really love punk. What if we could take some aspects from this funny dog in my favorite video game, merge it with some pushing and shoving, and let’s figure it out from there. It is a really good cosplay theme that I originally said we would rotate by year but people really loved the animal crossing theme. The band’s first love, Animal Crossing!
Any messages for fans old and new?
Kiwi: Stand up and get in front of the stage, just don’t be afraid.
Sai: Don’t be afraid to scream even if you’re the only one, dancing, spinning, doing flips. If I see you do it, I’m going to get right next to you and do it with you. Above all else, the most important thing to me is to spread the word. There’s people that have never seen it that would love to be a part of it. People have told us we’re their first punk show. Even people that are in the scene already but don’t know us are also welcome. So above all else spread the word, come see us if you can, share us even if by name or video. Not everyone is able to see us live, but we want to be heard and spread our message.
