Information about Band-Maid and its members that shouldn't fit on the primary page but is still fun.
- Black Sheep Hit: Originally a pop-rock band, the harder "Thrill" was a departure from their previous material. Saiki had the choice of picking it or another song to be the first video – everyone else wanted "Thrill". Well, that song turned out to be an unexpected hit in Japan and overseas, saved the band, and convinced them to go full-on hard rock (though they still do lighter songs from time to time).
- Creator Backlash: As far as the Maids are concerned, their songs before "Thrill" don't exist. This is mostly because they had no real input into earlier songs, but also because early Band-Maid is much lighter than where they ended up going musically. Their should-have-been-Budokan Online Okyu-Ji is generally believed to have used a nearly identical setlist to what the live show would have done – it includes a section where a clock spins backwards to the past …where they performed "Thrill". There are exceptions, however. During a video chat among the band members in May 2020, Miku performed a solo acoustic version of "Big Dad," and "FORWARD" was included in the setlist of the 2021 Christmas acoustic show.
- Cute Little Fangs: Saiki has these, a yaeba almost as extreme as Suzuka Nakamoto had prior to 2017. Unlike Su, however, no one is brave enough to tell Saiki she needs braces. Given how rarely Saiki smiles, her misaligned canine teeth are easy to overlook.
- She discussed it herself during a livestream of the Unseen World album. Translated:"Honkai" was unbelievably easy. The recording was done in super quick time. Ah, but I thought that the ending part of the second chorus would take my mouth off. It was such fast singing that I injured myself with my “yaeba”.
- She discussed it herself during a livestream of the Unseen World album. Translated:
- Dye Hard: Miku's hair is a lot longer than it looks because she wears her twintails so high, but this also makes it easier to see her tips are always dyed red or purple or both. She regularly posts photos on her Instagram where she goes to the salon (operated by Misa's childhood friend) to maintain it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Maids were very proud of "Thrill" (Miku's first lyrical contribution although that's not listed in its liner notes), which is why when they got the opportunity to make a music video in late 2014, that's the song they chose. However, Miku said in a later interview that if "Thrill" hadn't done well, she probably would have ended the entire project – MISA was already wavering at the time and management was fixing to fire them for disappointing live-show crowds. As it turned out, "Thrill" did take off and remains the band's most-viewed video to this day (with their second MV "Real Existence" a close second).
- Before "Thrill"'s success, MISA wasn't in a good headspace. She was doing two or three part-time jobs in addition to her Band-Maid work to earn a living, and she wasn't satisfied with the band's direction. So she approached management about possibly quitting. "Thrill" becoming their first hit began to change her mind, but it was the success of their appearance at Seattle's SakuraCon that cemented her will to stay.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The earliest known live performance of Band-Maid, from late 2013 (now seemingly scrubbed from the internet) had no Saiki; she wasn't recruited until a couple months later.
- When Saiki first joined Band-Maid, her look was noticeably different – prior to 2015 she had much shorter hair dyed brown.
- While Miku began learning guitar from Kanami in 2014, by her own admission she mostly used it as a prop just playing the occasional chords if anything. It was only starting in 2016 that she took her training more seriously and genuinely contributed instrumental work at live shows.
- As far back as anyone has been able to discover, Miku's hair is brown. However, that's all it was through 2014, as can be seen on their Engadget acoustic set. Sometime in 2015 she took up her now-trademark dyed ends.
- During that same broadcast, Miku does not end her sentences with 'po'. That's about as early-weird as it gets. Near the end she says that she'd be happy if the small audience would remember her band's name.
- The original matching maid outfits seen in the Thrill music video, which were dropped soon after.
- Paying Their Dues: MISA and Akane were both session musicians before joining BAND-MAID, there's a photo of the two along with Aiko from BAND A when they had done a video for Becky https://photos.app.goo.gl/JJkPYMcybnAY69WUA
. The music video is available on Youtube under "MISA & Akane before BAND-MAID".- Akane also was a waitress at freec (a live-bar/Italian restaurant) and at night was the house band's drummer there. Two videos of this are available if you search "freec" on Youtube.
- Of course, Miku had to start her music career somewhere. Her stint with L'il Cumin resulted in three discs, before the group was disbanded for lack of success. After that she went to Gump Records (which was transitioning into rock and its parent company Platinum Production was doing all-female bands with occupation themes) with a proposal about a band and maid outfits. There's a number of Miku's L'il Cumin videos on Youtube such as "Miku before BAND-MAID" and Miku's victory speech after winning her L'il Cumin spot on Super Idol Audition (video has no English in its title but it's from idolzukan). Miku and Saiki also worked in Platinum Passport's Noodle Cafe up until 2016.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Miku stands a grand total of 155cm (5’1”) tall without her platform shoes – by far the shortest member of Band-Maid (even tiny Kanami is at least an inch taller) – but that girl has some serious guns on her, as Misa discovered when they compared biceps …and Misa's own biceps are nothing to pooh-pooh. The other members, as a result, sometimes call Miku "Muscle Pigeon". Miku also has the widest set of shoulders among the band and in one video she mentioned she's only 155cm but has the shoulders appropriate for a man of 170+ cm and then asks the viewers what size shoulders they have compared to hers.
- Promoted Fangirl: Miku considers it an honour that the band was chosen to perform ED4, "glory", for Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, as someone who personally had been a fan of Shueisha's Jump since her childhood.
- Akane was just as stoked that they were asked to create a theme tune for the third season of Log Horizon, which turned out to be their song "DIFFERENT".
- Special Guest: Besides having the band's single "YOLO" on it, 2016 mobile game Valiant Knights had a fighter-mage maid character based on Miku and she even provided the voice-over for the character.
- Unknown Rival: A Korean female pop-rock band named A-FATI, trying to get attention after post-"Thrill" Band-Maid took off, issued an unflattering comparison video on Youtube in 2015 called A-FATI vs. BAND-MAID that was highly biased and misleading. Band-maid never seemed to have noticed them and while the maids continued to gain popularity and accolades, A-Fati languished in obscurity before disbanding in 2016.
