2026 is shaping up to be a landmark year for SiM. Following the release of their chaotic (and amusing) single FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet) in April, the band has announced a wave of new projects, including a collaboration track with “HANABIE.” vocalist Yukina, an upcoming album, and a third world tour.

Released on May 22, BLiNDEYES feat. Yukina from HANABIE. arrived alongside a music video and a worldwide digital release. SiM will follow it with their new album, HOOMAN AFTER ALL, due out September 2, before launching the HOOMAN AFTER ALL World Tour. The tour begins in Japan this September, heads to North America in October and November, and continues through the UK and Europe in early 2027.

To mark this new chapter, we caught up with SiM frontman MAH to talk about the band’s latest collaboration, the upcoming album, and what fans can expect on the road ahead.

SiM poses with HANABIE. vocalist, Yukina.SiM on X

Thanks for speaking with JROCK NEWS again! We’re here today to discuss SiM’s single, “BLiNDEYES feat. Yukina from HANABIE.”, set for release on May 22. We were hooked by the first listen; it’s hard, fast, and has this infectious energy. What was your reaction when you first heard the finished version?

I think it turned out way more hard-hitting than we originally imagined. Yukina brought an insane amount of energy to the track, and Jon Lundin on production and Joseph McQueen on the mix all helped make this song something truly special. I’m really grateful to all of them.

SiM collaborated with Yukina from HANABIE. on this track. You’ve performed live with Yukina before, but how did it come about to produce a single together?

At first, there was this whole situation that really pissed me off. Someone treated me with a serious lack of respect, and I ended up writing the song out of pure frustration and disappointment. I wrote most of it in like three hours.

But once the song was halfway done, I realized it’d be boring if it was just straight-up brutal anger. I thought adding a female voice could make it feel even more unhinged and psychotic in a cool way, so I reached out to Yukina. She was down immediately.

How did Yukina influence the songwriting?

Halfway through writing the song, I started imagining Yukina singing on it, so I wrote the second verse with her in mind. The lyrics are so ridiculous that even I crack up listening to them. Even in Japanese, they barely make any sense, because I’m literally just quoting an argument between the Japanese pro wrestlers Riki Choshu and Shinya Hashimoto [laughs].

If this had been a song with only me on vocals, the lyrics probably would’ve been way more serious. I could only come up with something this twisted and stupid because I knew she was gonna be on the track.

Please tell us about Yukina’s strength as an artist; what was something only she could do, that contributed to this track?

Yukina’s anime-style kawaii voice and her screams both sound completely unreal. But she’s a real person, and during the recording she kept throwing out all these crazy ideas. At one point she was like, “Should I sing it more like Riki Choshu?” [laughs].

The moment you hear the song, you can tell it’s on a totally different level from the usual metal songs that just express anger in the most predictable way possible, right? That’s everything.

One of the catchiest parts of the song is the repeated shout of “Sumimasen!”. But also, the lyrics are pretty aggressive, in contrast. Please share a bit about the lyrics or concept behind “BLiNDEYES”.

A certain band hit us up saying they wanted to come to Japan, so we made them an offer. Then they turned it down because they decided to join another tour instead. I thought it was disrespectful, but a few months later they gave me a proper apology, so I forgave them right away.

Then they asked me to give them another chance, so I sent another offer. This time, they kept dragging out negotiations trying to raise the fee higher and higher, only to eventually turn us down again because they chose another tour. Again! It’s almost funny at that point. That whole mess became the inspiration for the song.

Japanese has a lot of words that sound the same but mean completely different things. Even the phrase “sumimasen” can carry two meanings. One is basically “sorry”. The other is more like, “there’s no fixing this now”. I wanted to focus on that weird discomfort and ambiguity inside the language itself.

How did those concepts shape the sound and arrangement of the song?

The Japanese line you hear at the very beginning of the song is a famous quote from the pro wrestler Yuji Nagata. It basically means something like, “I can beat the shit out of him, right?”. That opening creates such an intense image, and it came directly from the very real anger I felt toward that band.

From there, I wanted the song to get swallowed up by the sound of the shamisen, which is one of Japan’s traditional instruments. It turns into this almost theatrical, violent atmosphere. You could call it Japanese vengeance [laughs].

This, and your recent single FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet) seem heavier and more musically aggressive than your 2023 album PLAYDEAD. How has SiM’s sound evolved since PLAYDEAD, which felt more melodic?

I’d been making music completely on my own for almost 15 years, and honestly, I got tired of it. I wanted to try a different approach, so I stayed in Los Angeles for about a month and did a bunch of songwriting sessions.

FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet) was written together with Morgoth Beatz from the metalcore band Seven Hours After Violet. You can really hear his character on that track. He’s like a total metal machine. Then I came in and added the reggae grooves and the catchy elements to finish it off.

In the end, I actually came back to Japan and rewrote most of the other songs myself, but I think the experience I had in LA still shaped the whole album in a big way.

Speaking of FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet), we really enjoyed the single and music video. We have to know; what was the story behind that single?

That story is 100% real. I’m the kind of person who can’t get ready for anything until the actual morning I have to leave. One time, on the morning of yet another overseas tour, I suddenly realized my passport was missing. Total nightmare. I tore my whole room apart and somehow found it just in time to make the flight.

Then, while sitting on the tour bus, I thought, “This should be a song”. That’s where it came from.

And by the way, I really did lose my wallet at the end of last year. It still hasn’t turned up [laughs].

About four years have passed since SiM switched to the major label Pony Canyon, and started a major overseas operation. How have things changed for SiM since then?

Every single one of us definitely got better at English [laughs]. We’ve been active in Japan for almost 20 years, and honestly, we’d spent so much time together that we barely even talked to each other anymore. It also felt like the band was starting to lose its sense of purpose.

Then suddenly, it was like we got a brand new toy. In a foreign environment where nothing feels familiar, you have no choice but to help each other out, and naturally we started communicating way more again.

More than money or popularity, it had a really positive impact on the band in a much deeper and more important way.

As far as SiM’s future live activities, you have three performances in the UK this month. We’ve also heard that a world tour is on the way! What would you like to share with us, regarding these exciting announcements?

This fall, we’re starting our third world tour. The last one was such an incredible experience that I honestly can’t wait to get back out there. People from completely different countries, speaking completely different languages, are waiting for us. And we get to go there and play for them. There’s nothing more rewarding than that as an artist.

I’m confident we’re gonna give people all over the world a live show they’ll never forget.

We have also learned that SiM is releasing a new album, HOOMAN AFTER ALL. In previous questions, we asked about how the heaviness of your recent singles contrast with PLAYDEAD, but what else can you share about the upcoming album?

Honestly, I think we made the best album of our career. And it’s not just me saying that. Everybody who’s heard it before release has been telling us the same thing.

It’s rooted in the late ’90s to early 2000s rock scene, but somehow it’s heavier, darker, catchier, faster, full of reggae, ska, and hip hop influences, mixed with pop-punk and breakdowns… and at some point, we’re even singing about cats. Have you ever heard an album like that before? [Laughs].

Jacket art for SiM’s upcoming album, “HOOMAN AFTER ALL”.SiM

JROCK NEWS thanks MAH from SiM and Project Asteri for this interview! SiM fans, brace yourselves and look forward to all the good stuff on the way. You can pre-save SiM’s upcoming album HOOMAN AFTER ALL, and check out the world tour dates at the bottom of this post. Tickets and VIP packages go on sale Friday, May 22, at 10:00 local time. 

We also spoke with MAH in 2024 during SiM’s PLAYDEAD world tour. For more time with MAH, check out that interview here.

BLiNDEYES feat. Yukina from HANABIE.

BLiNDEYES feat. Yukina from 花冷え。

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1. BLiNDEYES feat. Yukina from HANABIE.

HOOMAN AFTER ALL

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1. FiVE TiMES DEAD (by my wallet)
2. BLiNDEYES ft. Yukina from HANABIE.
3. DALALA
4. HOLD MY BEER
5. The Sniffling Cats Ska feat. HEY-SMITH
6. HOOMAN AFTER ALL
7. GHOST IN TOKYO
8. ZiON feat. Masato from coldrain
9. BLACK SUBMARINE
10. FREEZE ME UP
11. Sailing On