Welcome to CBC Spotlight, our monthly blog series where we interview members of the Youtaite community! Sign up for your chance to be interviewed. Today, I’m interviewing T.Rese, the host of Growing to 160cm Radio.
Tell us about yourself!
Hello! My name is T.Rese, also known as Rese. I am a Youtaite that debuted this year based in Canada. I am someone who always looks forward to new challenges so if possible, I try to take them when the opportunity provides. Besides being a Youtaite, I am also known as a podcaster with hosting my own personal live podcast called Growing to 160cm Radio. My goals as a Youtaite are 1) Sing a lot of my favorite Japanese songs 2) Use the experience to help improve my Japanese (whether it be understanding the lyrics, working on pronunciation, etc) 3) Meet + Work w/ a variety of people and 4) Have it as experience and a stepping stone to becoming an established singer.
How'd you first become involved with the Youtaite community?
It all started when I was asked to partake in a group collab. I was making covers but I was involved with a different community at the time. It happened to be that most of the members but myself are active as Youtaites. It was throughout the process of creating that collab that I got the "Youtaite experience" for the first time, if that is how you would explain it. From creating the OC refs, scripting and then just watching the whole process unfold before me, I could not help but be excited. After the collab was posted, I went ahead and asked one of my friends who was in the collab and asked her more about Youtaites. It took me a while to realize but it turned out to be that I had been familiar with utaites and Youtaites growing up such as Hanatan, 96Neko, and JubyPhonic; I just did not know the proper term for it back then. Once she explained it to me, I went "Okay, you know what, I really vibe with this." After that, I went ahead with a rebrand and since then, my love for Japanese music returned. Now, I really enjoy recording and honestly just doing Youtaite stuff in general makes me happy. It can get stressful but once you remember your purpose of why and have fun, the experience becomes enjoyable.
What made you wanna participate in chorus battles?
I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone and take up the challenge. I knew that taking up a chorus battle can be a lot of hard work, stressful, and requires you to meet a whole bunch of new people that you have never met before (if you are making a group from scratch). Despite those challenges, I really wanted to give it a shot and whether the first time went well or not, at least I got the experience.
What was your first CB?
How'd you become interested in being a Vocalist & Animator?
Vocalist - I have always been interested in singing ever since I was young. However, I was never confident enough to be able to sing in front of people or to share my voice with others in general, so I wanted to try and develop that by singing as a Youtaite.
Animator - I studied film back in high school and played around After Effects as part of the course so I know some of the basic tools. After becoming a Youtaite, the animation styles are so unique that I wanted to give it a shot. I may not have the chance to try it out and relearn it again at the moment but when the time is right, I would definitely like to give animating a shot.
Any funny or amusing CB stories?
I was in a voice chat with some of my team members while waiting for the scoresheets for the first round. I had to be AFK for a bit but turns out that during the time when I was AFK, the team scoresheet was released. Since I was AFK and I could not share the scoresheet right after it released, the members decided to cancel me (as a joke) for holding the scoresheet on Twitter. I returned to a bunch of chaos on my timeline and really became a meme for a day. It was really hilarious and even if I was the one being "cancelled," I honestly got a good laugh out of it and the members did too. Now, the whole situation is another addition to the list of inside jokes we have and it made me love the members even more haha.
Any advice for people interested in CBs?
If you want to try it out, go for it. It can be intimidating whether you are forming your team for the first time or auditioning for a team but that intimidation eventually goes away over time. Also, when you are in a team, I learned that team communication is very important. Communicate actively with your team members when possible so that ideas get relayed clearly.
That’s all for today! If anyone wants to support T.Rese, you can follow them via Twitter, watch their Twitch streams, and/or subscribe to their public YouTube channel. Credit goes to Salvazeyn for the picture of T.Rese in the featured image of this blog post.