Please note that these artists are ranked by objective global popularity, not my personal opinion. Furthermore, of course as an event organizer and DJ, I have collaborated with many more people than this. The purpose of this list is to show only career highlights. I mean no disrespect to anyone I haven’t listed here. I am grateful to everyone I have worked with and think that everyone’s efforts are important, whether they are globally famous or not.
All streaming/play figures and tour data are current as of December 2024.
Andy Black 🇺🇸 (of Black Veil Brides) – hired by
Andy Black-
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 603,464 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/09NYzWfQlunWS3XBZFaDEC)
Total Youtube plays: 171,749,959 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-f5yQ7FJaylg9gbDHdcMEg)
Current tour status: N/A
Black Veil Brides-
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 2,365,420 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6O7MpKrY91vlCd4Osi6XKs)
Total Youtube plays: 880,412,044 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDdKEz8e7m5g-hXg42-HBQg)
Current tour status: Australia (https://www.instagram.com/p/DCvyy3ERDM1/)
Around 2015, I was casted to appear as a vampire bartender in Andy Black’s “We Don’t Have to Dance” music video, which currently has over 75,000,000 views (https://youtu.be/8fEoWA9Vz3A?si=wA6JY1jAAWxXNQPn). Though it wasn’t a speaking role, it remains the biggest project I have been part of to date. I would also say that meeting Andy was a pretty pivotal moment in my life. He had strong confidence, and when I saw it I thought “I want to be more like that” and I would say I have become much more confident since that day (though people always said I was confident even before that, I wasn’t conscious of it). Anyway, I look pretty scary in this video, but it was fun filming in Hollywood Hills. For those that aren’t already aware, Andy Black is the solo side project of Black Veil Brides singer Andy Biersack. Andy Black’s music has had a long hiatus without any new releases, but it still achieves decent numbers on streaming platforms while his Black Veil Brides band continue to go strong on world tours.
Dani Filth 🇬🇧 (of Cradle of Filth) – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 526,743 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0NTSMFFapnyZfvmCwzcYPd)
Total Youtube plays: 126,121,699 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyAMV63OY0DRbKk6gGv6wJg)
Current tour status: Europe (https://www.instagram.com/p/C-7s0U4NQzs/?img_index=1)
My hero for over 20 years! Around 2021, I was able to hire Dani Filth to record a brief promotional spot for my game. I have been a lifelong fan of his band, Cradle of Filth (I even have lyrics tattoo’d!), and they are still my favourite band of all time, so I am extremely excited that I was able to collaborate with him and the legacy he’s created over 30+ years. Though Cradle of Filth are not well known in Japan and rarely perform here, they have millions of fans in west (over 2 million just on facebook.com/cradleoffilth) and frequently embark on sold-out tours throughout the western world. If I have enough success in Japan, I would love to host a Cradle of Filth concert here.
Sidewalks and Skeletons 🇬🇧 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 2,946,166 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/48nHO1cuTbpx4ELhChsxX1)
Total Youtube plays: 142,975,584 (https://www.youtube.com/@SidewalksandSkeletons)
Current tour status: Europe (https://www.instagram.com/p/DCW-WuLPhBD/)
I booked Sidewalks and Skeletons along with brothel. in 2019 as part of their US tour for an event I named Witch Wave, which is the largest event I’ve ever produced, with 6 artists and over 200 guests. I have some pictures a photographer sent me in an album somewhere.
I often listened to his music since around 2012, so I was very happy I was able to book him even though he lived in England. After this collaboration, he even allowed me to use his infamous album cover as a card in my trading card game. He’s become extremely famous since we last met, with nearly 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify & many tours throughout America and Europe. I hope I can bring him to perform in Japan one day.
Marie Vaunt 🇯🇵/🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 367,947 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/50KydUSYhBFGorhAgUcrL5)
Total Youtube plays: 509,277 (https://www.youtube.com/@marievauntofficial)
Current tour status: Global (https://www.instagram.com/p/DA_Ry3oP7zg/)
My most frequent collaborator & best friend! She was born in Yokohama but moved to America as a teenager. I first met her during her Heavygrinder career about 10 years ago. I started doing shows a few years later & first hired her as Heavygrinder in 2018 (a separate entry below). She mentioned she was interested in getting into techno, so I booked her for her techno debut as Marie Vaunt at an event loosely based on Shin Megami Tensei, that I called Digital Devilry (https://www.facebook.com/events/1624564800970092). Many of the events I hosted after that featured her as the star (https://www.facebook.com/necrolicious/events). I hired her again for the debut of her next single (https://www.facebook.com/events/176751982998692) and again (https://www.facebook.com/events/1146047055554148) and again (https://www.facebook.com/events/478054242716557) and again ( https://www.facebook.com/events/2381642625426581) until I left L.A. and moved to Tokyo but not before licensing her music for my game so everyone could hear it every time they play. Since then, she constantly amazes me with her huge successes, from going on frequent world tours to play at massive stages in front of thousands of fans to repeatedly climbing to the very top of the techno charts with every new track she releases and starting her own techno record label. I am immensely proud of her every time I see all she has accomplished & I am especially glad she’s world-famous because that means we can still meet up in Japan sometimes. Overall, it’s really great to see her getting the global recognition I always knew she deserved from the start.
brothel. 🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 179,813 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/3xYvvJ6tjXyJJdEXBs8qf0)
Total Youtube plays: 16,704 (https://www.youtube.com/@brothel.)
Current tour status: US (https://www.instagram.com/p/DAbTO1DR8Ww/?img_index=1)
I booked brothel. alongside Sidewalks and Skeletons for the Witch Wave event mentioned above. While Sidewalks and Skeletons focuses more on scarier, more witch-y sounds, brothel. is more about emotional but still otherworldly wave music. Both artists are great by themselves, but when they collaborate (as they frequently do!), these 2 make the “music of the spheres.” He, too, frequently tours the world with his unique sound.
椎名ひかり🇯🇵 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 373 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/3nFmsTU2vcvxlN9k3ZG4bL)*
Total Youtube plays: 9,741,038 (https://www.youtube.com/@pikarin_shiina)
Current tour status: N/A
She’s probably the most famous person in Japan on this list. When I find new musicians, it’s usually by luck, chance or suggestion, but I discovered her while conducting research for localizing my game for a Japanese audience. As soon as I saw her, I thought “I MUST hire her!!! She’s such a perfect match for my game, from her look to the atmosphere–it’s all perfect together!” I literally came to Japan with the purpose of hiring her in mind, so I was ecstatic when she accepted my offer. Unfortunately, there are some continued delays in releasing our work, but I still plan to do it as soon as possible, so please continue to be patient, & in the meantime, please support her as much as possible! She has also recently announced that she plans to do more with her solo band next year, so please look forward to that as well!
*: I believe that she’s likely much more famous than her Spotify numbers might lead you to believe. She’s got over 100k followers on each of several social media platforms and frequently sells out shows in Tokyo. I think she only appears small on Spotify as the opposite of what I’m saying throughout this entire thread. These western artists I have worked with are (western) world famous and doing world tours, but Japanese platforms and X don’t reflect that because of their userbase. For example, Cradle of Filth doesn’t even have 100k followers on X (https://x.com/CradleofFilth), but they have 2 million followers on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cradleoffilth) and I don’t even have 500 followers on X, but I have nearly 35,000 followers on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/necrolicious). Pikarin is probably one of the most famous artists on Japanese music platforms that I do not have access to, so please don’t let this small Spotify number reflect poorly on her.
Heavygrinder 🇯🇵/🇵🇹/🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 31,132 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/1caUhCACokl92g5gZpS2ei)
Total Youtube plays: 30,157 (https://www.youtube.com/@heavygrindermusic)
Current tour status: N/A
The metal+electro mashup artist that preceded Marie Vaunt. At first, she was solo, then Katfyr joined her, remaining Heavygrinder after the addition. After reaching 2.5 million following on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/djheavygrinder), I thought there was no way I’d even get a reply when I first wanted to hired her on short notice, but to my shock & joy, I got a reply and was able book her for a Halloween/Valentine event (https://www.facebook.com/events/101312324009122). This is where our many years of collaboration & friendship all started. With the arrival of Marie Vaunt, Heavygrinder has mostly faded away, but they achieved great success from performing at EDC Las Vegas to touring the US, Asia and Europe while they were active. Their more recent collaborations Japanese group GARNiDELiA and there was never a formal retirement announcement, so they may eventually return to bring us more metal/dance tracks!
Katfyr 🇵🇹/🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 144,800 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/3YLkA6vzX3YvFV8qP2olwP)
Total Youtube plays: 4,906,603 (https://www.youtube.com/@KATFYR)
Current tour status: N/A
I have hired him solo (https://www.facebook.com/events/478054242716557) and as part of Heavygrinder (https://www.facebook.com/events/101312324009122) in 2018 and 2019. Don’t let his humble demeanor fool you. Marie Vaunt/Heavygrinder partner Katfyr is a mastermind. A driving force behind the many successes of Marie Vaunt, he’s always working behind the scenes to support her artistry, from filming her footage to managing their record labels. They are a powerful team. He also has many achievements as a solo music producer and even caught the attention of Japan billboard, who featured his work for Japanese group Dapump (https://www.billboard-japan.com/d_news/detail/110218).
Meirlin 🇯🇵/🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 10,783 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2JC3qTHp8oLSTwyV4lkixt)
Total Youtube plays: 111,478 (https://www.youtube.com/@MEIRLIN)
Current tour status: No tour, but upcoming shows in Japan/ US (https://bnds.us/c644xg)
Another promising immigrant artist who moved from Japan to Los Angeles. I frequently attended her shows and eventually hired her to perform alongside Marie Vaunt at 2nd Halloween (https://www.facebook.com/events/478054242716557) and I think maybe 1 or 2 other times. She frequently embarks on world tours, DJing at the world’s most prestigious nightclubs as well as anime events. She was born in Tokyo, so she occasionally comes back here.
Carolina Eyck 🇩🇪 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 7,521 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZrrzzxmMRfGFioCWEfGMI)
Total Youtube plays: 20,935,907 (https://www.youtube.com/@carolinaeyckvideos)
Current tour status: Australia (https://www.instagram.com/p/DCukY0uTL2O/)
I first discovered her when I decided to learn how to play the theremin a few years back. She eventually flew to L.A. from Germany to host a theremin class and later had a concert. Of course I had to go to both events. Thanks to her teachings, when the time came to add some theremin sound effects to my game, I was proficient enough to do it myself, but it occurred to me that I was already the director of the game so instead of doing it myself, I should hire her for her star power. People in Japan may not have heard of her, and even in America she’s relatively unknown since classical music isn’t very popular there, but she’s had the immensely prestigious honour of headlining at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2022 (https://www.carolinaeyck.com/events/2022/08/04/bbc-proms), an achievement which only the most talented artists in world history have reached.
Nyxx 🇺🇸 – hired
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 26,530 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/4oGDcMV2mOoHkfhq4Goanu)
Total Youtube plays: 10,739,543 (https://www.youtube.com/@NyxxNyxxNyxx)
Current tour status: US (https://www.instagram.com/p/DAotTyCvmtE/)
In 2018, I booked Nyxx to perform at an event loosely based around Cthulhu (https://www.facebook.com/events/566948756996687). Similar to Andy Black above, this artist found success by mixing goth and pop elements. Her landmark video, Nightmare (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ber5Dd6KFY), gained immediate attention by hitting 1 million views upon release (nearly 7 million views to date). With the videos for her subsequent singles also exceeding 1 million views each, she showed a lot of promise as an artist…Until corona showed up and largely stopped her career. I haven’t really kept in touch, but in making this list it looks like she just started touring in the U.S. again last month.
Emilie Autumn 🇺🇸 – hired by
Current monthly Spotify listeners: 91,475 (https://open.spotify.com/artist/1K6L6Hw4HibspToNP1FeBC)
Total Youtube plays: 10,496,373 (https://www.youtube.com/@EmilieAutumnOfficial)
Current tour status: N/A
In 2012, I was one of the lucky few people who were casted to appear in Emilie Autumn’s first and only music video, “Fight Like a Girl” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvOXuZwOEvM). She was an artist extremely loved by her fans, so other people who were casted flew thousands of miles across America to also be part of this important moment in her history. I was a huge fan of her previous work, but since I lived in Arizona when I discovered her, a state that many artists skipped due to its smaller size (back then) and desert heat, so I only got to see her perform once or twice live. While I only got a few seconds of screen time, I was extremely happy just to be there. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the artistic direction she had taken here, going from being a very alternative, unique redhead to a more mainstream-friendly blonde Lady Gaga clone. She basically threw away what made her special. Apparently, a lot of people felt the same way because this was the last album she ever did. She slowly faded away from the spotlight after, with promises of big things all the way up until her last trace of existence in 2022. Worryingly, no one has seen or heard of anything from her or her husband since then. Literally no one knows if they are still alive or not. Worried fans still occasionally post videos on social media asking where she is and if she’s ok, but the only responses they get are from other fans saying that no one knows, so most have given up. I really hope she’s ok, but a lot of her lyrics were violent and suicidal so no one would be too shocked if something like that had happened.