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Sapphire | Interview with a Cover Singing Star

When I am working or browsing the internet I like to listen to music.  Music in itself is lifeblood for me, I absolutely love it and am always on the lookout for more ear-pleasing goodness.  While I am interested in multiple genres, I always find myself coming back to gaming and anime OSTs.

After listening to different versions of music from the Persona series, I happened to stumble upon Sapphire’s channel when letting videos rip on autoplay. I found myself falling in love with her voice and awe struck at her masterful renditions of Persona music.  Soon enough I had become a fan and began to listen to the current catalog of her take on anime and video game songs.

Wanting to know more about the person beneath the mask (ha!), I reached out and thankfully Sapphire has graced me with an interview!

 T5T | Sapphire 
Sapphire was recently the subject of one of my “Top 5 Tuesdays” post where I revealed my five favorite songs she has currently done.  Check it out!
 Cover Singing Star 

01. Tell me, how did you settle on the name “Sapphire” as your moniker? What was it that inspired you to go by this alias?

THIS NAME… is a lie. When I was figuring out an alias to go by on my YouTube channel I wanted to choose my birthstone. I THOUGHT it was Sapphire, but I found out a year or so later that it was actually Opal. There’s no going back now.

02. So, you basically messed up and accidentally chose Sapphire? Lol, I must say, that is interesting. Do you feel that rebranding at this point-and-time would be a lost cause because of that? Are you unsatisfied with the name “Sapphire” because it was not what you believed it to be, or has it grown on you?

The name grew on me and people started calling me that (even close friends) so I didn’t see the need to change it, haha.

03.  What was it that gave you the passion for singing?  When did you begin to perfect your craft and hone it into what it is today?

I was horrible at singing up until maybe 4-5 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t’ consider myself perfect now (I don’t think I ever will be anyway). I know that my technique is probably amateur, but I’ve definitely improved over the years.

Honestly, I decided to give singing a real shot around the time Persona 3 was popular. I was really digging the soundtrack, and being a huge anime nerd I’d barely heard any vocalists singing songs in my range. It bummed me out. Everything was high pitched and cute. Persona opened up my eyes, though. It encouraged me to keep singing, and I dunno, make me feel like I do belong somewhere.

04. Whenever I hear someone who’s voice is as beautiful as yours, it always makes me wonder what you sounded like originally (since I cannot believe you were ever bad).  What did you do in order to improve yourself?  Also, what is your favorite song from Persona 3?

I just kept singing. I listened to my favorite artists alot (Aaliyah, Faith Evans, Lady Gaga, Kelly Price just to name a few) and just analyzed their singing. ‘How did they do this or how were they able to that?’ were questions I would ask myself, and I’d try to mimic them.

4-5 years ago when I was still in college, I took a semester of vocal lessons. It was more classical training than anything. I picked up better singing habits in that short time.

My favorite song from P3 is Mass Destruction! That’s what got me into Persona actually.

05. What was it that got you into gaming and anime?

I grew up playing on Nintendo consoles with my sister up until the PS2’s release, then I got a job and expanded. As for anime, Sailor Moon and everything on the old Toonami block was my life. A old friend of mine in elementary school introduced me to anime, actually. She was always drawing Sailor Moon OCs and I asked her about her drawings, and that’s when I learned about anime.

06. Essentially Sailor Moon was one of your starter anime? Funny enough, that is also one of mine (absolutely love Makoto/Sailor Jupiter!). Mind letting me know who your favorite Sailor Scout is? Hell, what is your favorite anime is overall? Give me a few.

My favorite sailor scout changed over the years, but I’m gonna say Venus cause she’s a badass and a better leader than Usagi. Plus, the eye mask thing she has is awesome.

My favorite anime? Hmm… I recently completed Mob Psycho 100 Season 2, and I may have to put that in my #1 spot. Hunter x Hunter would be my second now. Naoki Ursawa’s Monster is a good one too. I rewatched all 70+ episodes again and the dub is so freakin good.

07.  When you made your YouTube channel, what was going through your mind?  What motivated you to become a content creator?

I originally made my channel to post anime dubs and comic dub clips. I actually had a separate channel for music, but when my dubs of the Hiimdaisy comics blew up, I decided to move my music to my current channel. I wasn’t expecting people to like my music, but the people that liked those amateur dubs enjoyed my singing too. So I decided to stop dubbing comics and anime, and focus on singing songs. The transition went way better than I thought it would! My fans rock. I was never a fan of my voice, in fact even today I sometimes have those days where I despise it. But all the positive comments on my covers encouraged me to keep singing, and they still do.

08. I have not seen anything dubbed from you, in fact, I had no idea you even did that! I think that’s actually amazing. Are some still available on your channel? Have you ever thought about trying to voice act for some company that does English adaptations?

The Hiimdaisy Persona comic dubs are still up on my channel (voiced Chie), as well as other dubs of comics I did of her work.

09.  As someone who is using social media as a platform and using outlets such as a Patreon to fund your freedom to create covers, what has been the biggest challenge?

Hoboy… I have so much trouble being active on all those platforms. It doesn’t help that I have a day job and can’t focus on music 100%. I experience burnout every now and then because of how I try to juggle everything by myself. As much as I’d like to have a team, it’s just not in my budget at the moment. I basically do everything myself, and it’s tough. I’m just glad I have friends that are there to help me when they can.

My biggest challenge, however, is keeping up the motivation to put out content consistently. I don’t like being controlled by algorithms. I don’t like rushing. I like to take my time with each song so I can come out with something that I’m happy with. I’ll believe in quality over quantity, even if YouTube discourages it.

10. That makes sense; YouTube seems like it does care about length and quantity over quality at times. However, I must say the work that you do is fantastic and I am glad you put so much love into every single one. If you are able to make enough money through support mediums, do you think you would be able to do this as a full-time job?

Oh, absolutely. The plan is to bring in enough revenue so I can quit my day job and focus more on music. Not just song covers, but original songs and animated music videos.

11.  Out of all the covers you have done, what would you say are your top 3?

Oooh man. I think my top 3 will have to be Shiki no Uta, Whims of Fate, and Beneath the Mask!

12. Whoo! My favorites of yours happen to also be “Beneath the Mask”, “Affection”, and “When the Moon Reaches Out to the Stars”! Your voice really does fit Persona extremely well, which is great! Tell me, what makes you dictate the songs you will pick? From favorites? What is current? Requests?

Its mostly favorites. It’s hard to keep up with current stuff when there’s so much older material I’d rather be working on. That’s why it takes me a while to put up covers of recently released songs.

13.  Thoughts of the future never seem to escape any of us, what are your ambitions for 2019 and beyond?

I hope to reach out to people on Twitch with live streaming. I’m working on singing live for fans and just chatting. At the moment I’m just using my Twitch channel to play games, but I want to focus more on music. I may not be a great singer, but I don’t think I’m bad either. I’d also like to try performing live at conventions around the end of the year but… we’ll see haha. I’m always so busy.

 14. To be fair, I feel you do not get the recognition you deserve. I think having things like Convention concerts or even Twitch concerts would be great to have! Also, I had no idea you played on Twitch! Tell me, what games are you currently playing and what types of games are you interested in?

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from streaming to play some catch up (and because work stinks), but behind the scenes I’m playing Apex Legends with friends. I thought about streaming that game but honestly I just like jumping into them quickly and then getting out. Its a chill game for me that I play in between singing and editing. When I get back to streaming though, I would like to continue NieR:Automata and start on Super Mario Odyssey.

 Social Media 

Sapphire is constantly creating entertaining content for her fanbase.  The best way to be able listen to her music as soon as it release and show your support is to follow her social media!


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About The Author


RoK the Reaper
A serious gamer & hardcore otaku who loves anything gaming, anime, or manga! I hope to bring you the best content for these subjects I love in the form of news, reviews, interviews, and in-depth editorials! さよなら!

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