To me Paranoid Void sounded like a hybrid of MOTFD and tricot which is pretty amazing when you think about it but I wanted a bit more originality.

They released「POP MUSIC」in 2016 which was a 6-song mini-album with three old songs and three new songs. The new songs headed in an even mathier direction. (It was around this time one or two NMFT fans emailed me about potentially bringing Paranoid Void to Canada).

And last year they went beyond tricot and went full-on math rock. Literally. They named their album 「Literary Math」if you don't believe me.

Meguri e-mailed me last year and sent me a digital copy of the album. She asked me to listen to it and if I liked it to come see them perform before years end and consider inviting them to Canada for NMFT 12. I really liked 「Literary Math」. It was much heavier on instrumentals with few vocals but Paranoid Void finally seemed to develop their own identity.

It was perfect timing too because Yubisaki Nohaku never seemed that appreciative of how much work and money I put into bringing bands to Canada. They'd be all "Thank you Steve!" in front of my face but outside they'd pretend as if they had gone to Japan on their own without my help. Not only that, they're never put me on the guest-list despite me notifying them in advance of my plans to come and watch. This includes when I travelled all the way to Nagoya to see if they had improved enough to be on the NMFT tour. I had to stay overnight in a hotel as well since trains returning to Tokyo stopped at 10pm. A band trying to impress me and earn an invitation to Canada isn't off to a good start when they make me spend $$$ and ++time travelling to watch them and don't even have the decency to put me on the guest list. I had second thoughts but I let it slide and invited Yubisaki Nohaku on the NMFT10 tour. Then on my next trip to Japan I had to meet with the NMFT10 bands to prepare them for Canada. I actually treated Yubisaki Nohaku to an awesome dinner at an exclusive restaurant and at that meeting I told them I would be coming to their next show to film footage to create a promo video. AGAIN, they made me pay full price for a show that THEY were curating. Last time in Nagoya it was someone else's event so I gave them the benefit of the doubt but this time there was no excuse. The video footage was for our MUTUAL benefit. So it's cool that I spend about ten thousand dollars bringing them to Canada but they can't even be nice enough to let $30 slide. At that point I regretted inviting Yubisaki Nohaku but I had already bought their airline tickets and it was way too late to switch bands. During the NMFT10 tour we all had a blast. Yubisaki Nohaku thoroughly enjoyed their time in Canada and they put on amazing performances. Finally, Yubisaki Nohaku understand what NMFT is about and they should be a little grateful for the opportunity I gave them, right? WRONG! I went to watch them twice in Tokyo after the tour and both times they chose not to put me on the guest-list. This is after me saying that I wanted to bring them back to Canada again for NMFT12.

"Fuck Yubisaki Nohaku" is how I felt and I really looked forward to replacing them with Paranoid Void. So I emailed Meguri and told her I'd be coming to their show in Osaka on Dec 17. I let her know I'd be travelling all the way from Tokyo to see the show too. I didn't ask her to put me on the guest-list but I wanted to test and see what she did. I knew they would kick ass live having seen them twice already so basically—if Meguri put me on the guest list she had some decency and common sense and I would have no qualms breaking my promise to Yubisaki Nohaku and replacing them with Paranoid Void.