She recorded 50,000 downloads with the release of her digital-exclusive debut single “Cosmic Pink EP” in December 2007. In the summer of 2008, her first album Switch was given an advance digital release through iTunes and took #1 on the chart the same day. The woman behind these achievements is electro singer-songwriter immi. She made her major debut with the single “WONDER EP” in July 2009, going on to release her second single “Alice EP” in October of the same year, and now, as of May 19th, she’s released her new single “Sign of Love” which is currently airing as the opening theme song to the Fuji TV “Noitamina” anime House of Five Leaves.

I’ve personally had an interest in you since before your major debut, but when would you say you became your own fully formed person? I don’t think I’ve changed since high school. That’s when I started doing music and holding events with everyone, so I changed since I started appearing in public, but I’ve probably been the same ever since.

Do people often say you have a certain type of personality? A while ago, I met a friend from high school for the first time in probably five years who told me “you haven’t changed.” Like, “You’re going at the same pace you always have.” (laughs) I think it’s probably a pretty relaxed pace.

What sort of person do you think you are? If I analyze myself, I think I’m probably a person without much power (laughs). I’m always keeping my strength in reserve so that I don’t exert too much (laughs). I normally don’t talk very much, so I think I’m as low-key as everyone says, but in exchange, I make an effort to have energy to spare for when I need it (laughs).

So you’re not especially likely to get angry or lose your temper? I do snap and blow my fuse occasionally (laughs).

Do you have something like a switch? Like a particular time when you show your strength? When I’m performing live, or when I have to use it, I suppose.

Then you must have a relatively herbivorous personality in your everyday life? I guess so (laughs).

“Sign of Love” from your latest single “Sign of Love / FIGHT BACK” was chosen as the opening theme for the Noitamina anime series House of Five Leaves. Had you already envisioned the sort of single you wanted it to be prior? Rather than setting out to make a specific type of song for the single, I made about four songs of all different types in the beginning stages of writing for my album and chose the single tracks out of those.

Like to serve as a hint for your upcoming album? I think so. I made it as a double A-side, so if I had to say, “Sign of Love” would be the gateway into the album, like a door, because I think it has a wide range of appeal and could most likely be received well by quite a variety of people. Then you have a track like “FIGHT BACK” further in, and while it’s not the true essence of immi as an artist (laughs), I think it might be like the song that forms the core [of the album].

The single also features contrastive black and white visuals. Is there any part of the single that represents your own duality as a person, like how you are on the surface compared to your inner self? I originally started writing lyrics and music because I wanted to express what I felt internally on the outside, so between the two, I think my songs show my inner self more often. I guess it’s like my biggest goal in doing music is to show who I am on the inside.

Between music and lyrics, which comes first? For the most part, I always start thinking about lyrics and vocal melody once the track is at least some of the way finished.

Is it more like you have the melody to start and you choose words that fit that image rather than matching the melody to something unrelated you want to say? Yes. The overall theme might be one or two words, and I’ll make little notes of stuff I want to write about, but that’s it. The rest is basically all choosing words to fit the image of the song and expanding on the details a little further from there.

Do you struggle with writing songs or lyrics more? Lyrics. That was like an immediate reply (laughs).

Are your real experiences projected onto your lyrics, or do you create a protagonist a little different from yourself to write them more like a story? I guess it’s like my real experiences form the axis and then I flesh them out from there.

“Sign of Love” and “FIGHT BACK” are love songs which represent the two sides of one coin. When you feel an attraction towards another person in real life, do you more often seek something you lack in that person or want for empathy and understanding? A bit of both, maybe. It’s best if we have similar values, of course (laughs), and I am attracted to people who have something in common with me. Like, if I enjoy going to art museums, I’d like to be with someone who has similar interests. Ultimately, maybe I’m more attracted to kind of enigmatic, mysterious people who I won’t have a good understanding of until I try going out with them. But I don’t know (laughs).

Then someone who isn’t too simple on the surface. Sometimes there are people who look simple and straightforward at first glance, but you still get the feeling there might be more to them in reality, right? But because everyone is different, charm or appeal is hard to define. There might be times when you don’t know what you’re being attracted by, too (laughs).

The lyrics to “FIGHT BACK” contain the passage “I’m an individual who doesn’t belong anywhere.” Speaking from a personal standpoint, are you the type to struggle with group behavior? Like when you were in school, for instance? Yes, it’s not easy for me (laughs). It’s not that I want to be a loner, but I’m honestly the type of person who gets more worn out from being in a group (laughs). I prefer having two or three friends at most, too. When I was in college, I was always alone at first (laughs). I was about a week late in going to school and I didn’t understand the curriculum. Because of that, I wasn’t part of any group. I tried for a while to join a group of four or however many, but I just couldn’t fit in. I decided I was better off alone, and after keeping to myself for a while, I found a girl who was all alone like me and got to be friends with her. So basically, I thought kids who give you the same feeling as being by yourself even when you’re friends with them were interesting, and maybe I get along well with those types of people.

I’d like to talk to you separately about the album another time, but after the album you released independently, did you have an image in your mind of what kind of album you wanted to make next? The production process between this album and the one I first released before has been completely different. It feels a lot like the hurdles within us have gotten higher (laughs). It’s hard to express in words, but little by little, I started to see where the artist “immi” was headed, and my team and I worked towards that target. For example, if I came up with one melody, we’d often be like “Don’t you think there might be something better?” and redo it over and over again.

Can you put what you perceive to be the essence of your individuality as an artist into words? I suppose that I aim to interpret electro and dance music broadly and take the concept of what can be considered vocal music to a little more of an extreme from within that genre.

At the present time, what do you consider your personal challenge for yourself or something you’d like to improve upon in the future? Working on my latest album, I learned a lot about how to express myself through singing. I’ll keep progressing in that area, and right now I’m also DJing with my producer JETBIKINI in a unit called “tacomimi” which is more geared towards the dancefloor. On that front, I think we’ll be making songs and stuff even closer to club music than my solo music, so it’s like that kind of binary (laughs). I want to think of them as totally different things and have fun creating.