Gathered friends, welcome to yet another post by the Le-Koro Band!

Once again, Kylee Vontella has graciously offered to conduct this next interview.

This week, we follow our intrepid matoran of iron, Kylee, from the last interview. Stumbling on her way back through the undergrowth to Le-Koro, swatting mosquito-rahi, she came upon an individual by a creek. She knew from the person’s inquisitive hat with a distinctive gukko feather in its brim that it was Kirika Aeon!

She had last collaborated with the Le-Koro Band in composing the song “Solace” for Ide’s Journey: Act 2, Disc 2. This song was remastered this year by Lei Hart for the “Le-Koro Band Greatest Hits: Vol. 1” album that was shared on 810NICLE Day 2025:

Kirika seemed to be speaking to a group of dermis turtles about the intricacies of Matoran culture and the Great Takara dance. They were obviously all listening in rapt attention.

Adjusting her tan Ruru, Kylee went closer and used this opportunity to interview her!

So, gathered friends, and honored guest…

What was your introduction to BIONICLE? What was your first set?

Man, I have been a fan of Bionicle for as long as I can remember. It has been something that has been with me since my early childhood, and thus I was invested in the series from pretty much day one, or at least very early on. Due to how young I was I’m not exactly sure who my first set was…one of the Toa Nuva maybe? I have Lewa Nuva, Gali Nuva, and Tahu Nuva. Out of the three, Tahu Nuva is the one I have the most sentimental value toward: I got him as a souvenir when I was at Legoland with my parents – I don’t know if he was my first, because I was literally a 4-5 year old kid back then, but he is the one I have the most sentimental value for out of the three, so I want to highlight him. 

What brought you into the community? What was your first public space? Does the name “Kirika” come from Krika?

Honestly… I have been lurking in this community for years, probably since 2007, I think. I was active on DeviantArt and Tumblr for years, had a YouTube channel when I was a kid where I posted AMVs, used Twitter for so many years (and then migrated to Bluesky like everyone else); I basically have been on all sorts of public spaces for so long. But Bionicle specifically, while I did post about it on Tumblr or Twitter, did like art on DeviantArt, and lurked in the community for years, I think the first time I actually interacted with the community itself was in 2021. I was bored and decided to look at Bionicle content on Tumblr, and to my pleasant surprise, noticed there was a decently active community and decided to interact. Funny how it took me that long to actually interact with the community!

Over the years I have used multiple different online aliases and Kirika is simply the most recent one that I started using in late 2020/early 2021. In late 2020, I had a mental breakdown, which resulted in me wanting to distance myself from my then-current online alias and chose Kirika. And yes, unsurprisingly Kirika comes from Makuta Krika – partially. You see, when I was younger, I thought Krika’s name was “Kirka”, and that just kinda stuck in my mind. That said, it isn’t the only reason: there’s a character from a videogame called Trails in the Sky named Kirika, and in the anime Symphogear, one of the supporting characters is also named Kirika. Plus, it’s just a cool sounding name that appealed to me aesthetically. So, while yes, my online alias partially comes from Krika, it isn’t the full story.

Have you ever been a part of a BIONICLE project before the Le-Koro Band?

Oh yes, I have! The two most notable projects I have been a part of are Myths & Legacy and the Mangai Project. For Myths & Legacy, I have been working on some stories focusing on the larger Matoran Universe, whereas in the Mangai Project, I help with the story team and publisher side of things – and this is excluding some other projects I had a minor part in, or my own solo-projects.

What led you to the Le-Koro Band?

I think I was one of the OGs, wasn’t I? I joined in pretty early on Act 1’s development, back when it was just supposed to be one volume, haha. But honestly, I don’t recall exactly how I found out about the Le-Koro Band. Just that via my connections and networking in the community, I somehow found out about this new musical story project, and as someone who loves creating, playing, and listening to music, I thought it was a really cool idea. The way it was pitched as this sort of musical adventure where the story is told through music as the listener travels with a blind matoran through a changed Spherus Magna was just way too good a premise to pass up. So, I KNEW I had to join the moment I heard of this project and well, here we are.

So then, where did Solace originate from?

So, around the time Act 1 was done, there was this general “loose idea” of Act 2 song pitches Marcus had given, and one of these pitches caught my eye instantly: Solace, a hopeful piano piece sung by Treyla to Ide at their darkest moment. Piano is the main instrument I play, and I generally like slower ballad-like tracks, so I felt this would be perfect for me to compose.

As for how the piano track was born, generally speaking my way to compose tracks is very… spontaneous. I doodle, essentially by playing around with piano, hoping to find notable melodies and motifs that work. That was how Solace was born as a track; I played around with my piano to find this sense of calm hopeful piano ballad that would work. I was so into the track that I had a rough idea for it pretty much after the first session, though it did change its form over time.

Were there any interesting developments over the course of the piece?

Well, there were some quite interesting developments, I’d say. While most of the track stayed relatively the same, structurally and melodically, it did change its shape and form during the two years it was in development. In the very early editions of the piece, the melody of the verse was quite different initially, being far more monotone and less melodious. Likewise, the melody of the chorus was slightly different early on. Both of these were quickly developed into their current forms, though, and stayed relatively untouched for the time it was in development.

A rather drastic difference between the early and current versions was that originally the song was supposed to have a dramatically different bridge segment after the second verse, to the point of having lyrics at one point. Eventually, though, this was set down to be a variation of the pre-chorus that’s seen in the current version. I could go on and talk about how the lyrics changed a fair amount, or the chords in pre-chorus being a late addition, but I think that would end up being listing trivia for trivia’s sake, so I won’t do that. 

Instead, I want to share the most important change to the song itself… not anything concrete, but rather the context. As said, it was created as a comfort song Treyla sings to Ide, and while it certainly is that in the final version, the context was wildly different. Originally, Treyla was meant to play a far more supporting role, less meant to have an arc of her own and instead being a character who contributes to the themes as part of the next generation and serves as one of the allies in Ide’s journey, so I largely wrote the song based on that idea.

As the story was developed further, however, this was changed and she received an arc, so that changes the context drastically to what is the final version. I was a bit doubtful if that would work, but ultimately, I ended up really liking what Lei and the others did with Treyla as a character, and it makes her far more memorable. Heck, it’s a major reason why Solace is as big a gut-punch as it is, haha. So ultimately, I’m really happy about the final context, and feel it was the right direction for the story, character, and song, in spite of my initial doubts. 

That’s really cool! We love to see early/unused content in this community. Have you ever thought about sharing any of those snippets, like the old bridge?

God same here. Early/unused stuff is really cool. It often is an interesting glimpse into the creator’s thought process, revealing how we got into the final product the audience ends up seeing. It makes art feel more human in a way, which is something we really need in the age of AI stuff being really common, haha.

I’d love to share snippets; beta stuff is so fun and just lets me ramble and talk about my thought process for my projects, which is something I really love to do (in case you can’t tell of my lengthy, rambly answers lol). (editor’s note: we love that!)  There’s one problem though… I’m not sure if I have any of them recorded. I basically compose by ear, so I don’t really have any sheets or MIDI files or stuff like that. At most, I have recordings and memories, and that’s it. And as for stuff like the old bridge, I’m not sure if I have it recorded, and I have pretty bad memory so I sadly cannot remember how it was supposed to go. If I’m able to find it (or anything interesting) I’d love to share some snippets, just need to figure out where and when. Maybe the Le-Koro Band could help with that, heh.

Maybe! I wonder if poking around old files posted in the Discord would get you anywhere. The band has always tended to throw files around the server pretty often.

I have actually done that a little, and I have found the earliest sketches, dating as far back as August 21st, 2022. Shows how long this bad boy has been cooking, heh. This was actually how I found out that the melody and chorus were different compared to the current version – I could swear they were more similar before! That’s why early versions are important, especially for people with bad memory like me. That said, while there were some beta versions, there were far less than I expected. It’s basically just the earliest versions from August 2022, and then the next ones are from 2024, far closer to the release of Act 2 Disk 2. It makes me wonder if I never recorded any of the versions in between, or if I recorded them and just forgot to upload – because I knew I did practice and refine the song a lot between its prototype and final release. Or maybe they’re under different names, and I wasn’t able to find them because of that. I still have to look at my phone to see if there are more haha. But as it stands, the Discord server does have some of the earliest takes of Solace. So, if people are curious, I highly recommend checking that out.

(For our readers, the Discord server is public, and we do a lot of our composition in plain sight!) Do you have any plans for getting involved in Act 3? Or anything else you do as well?

I absolutely plan to be involved in Act 3. I have been here since the beginning, and I plan to be here to the end. Ide’s journey has been such an important fun project to me, both creatively and communally, it would be foolish if I didn’t help in Act 3. Besides, I have a lot of ideas for what I want to do with Act 3. Every week, I feel I get a surge of inspiration for a track I could do for Act 3, to the point where it’s kinda annoying. Like I know I can’t do all of these, so can my brain stop giving me ideas? That’s why I’m kinda waiting for the pre-production of story and stuff to get done first before I start seriously working on my Act 3 tracks. It’s best to have a loose idea where the story will go before you go all cylinders. After all, that was how Solace was invented, so if it worked then, it’ll work now. That isn’t to say I am not working on stuff – I already do have prototypes for a few tracks – it’s just we need to wait and see where to go here.

Musically, I have this really cool concept album idea revolving around the Brotherhood of Makuta where each artist would make a track based on one of the Makuta. I also really want to do a nerdcore album at some point; nerdcore (and alt-rock in general) are among my main musical inspirations, so I really want to make a nerdcore alt-rock album in the style of Aviators, Black Gryphon, or our boy Essenger. I know Essenger isn’t strictly nerdcore but still, a major musical inspiration of mine – love his stuff. There are also a few other ideas I have like doing piano stuff, a story-driven concept album centered on an original setting created for that concept album or even lyrical videogame covers a-la Juno Songs or Man On The Internet (some of my other notable musical inspirations). There’s just so little time and so many projects, so I have to pick priorities.

Speaking of projects, I do have non-musical projects as well. There’s my video essay channel The Arcanist where I talk about media I like in an intelligent and analytical way (yes I’m the person who made those Bionicle Movie retrospectives), my fanfics for Myths & Legacy, my other fanfics that aren’t Bionicle related, possibly original stories and verses I have had in my mind for years. Again, there’s so much I want to do, but not enough time.

These all sound really cool, and we’ll be cheering for you no matter which ones you pick! I can’t wait to see what else you come up with. Thanks for chatting!

Thank you so much for the encouragement. I’m someone who lives for my creative projects, so hearing y’all wanting to support me makes me really happy. There are so many different genres, mediums and fields I have dabbled in, yet I’m not excellent at them. It doesn’t help that I use different forms of expression to fulfill different needs. Art is a form of expression, after all. Like, every medium has their strengths and flaws, and are so much fun to make, so it is just “I want to do this,” “I want to do this.” I like drawing, but I also want to write, compose and analyze, so I feel very much a “jack of all trades, master of none” kind of creative, but it doesn’t matter. For me, having fun with the process and getting to say what I want to say are the most important parts, you know? It gives me motivation, you know. But yeah, thank you so much for having me here. It was a blast, and I had a ton of fun, haha!

So did we! And we can’t wait for the next chance to collaborate creatively together!

If you’d like to follow Kirika’s many varied adventures, you can follow them on https://kanohivolitakk.tumblr.com, https://bsky.app/profile/ridillsword.bsky.social, and their YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Arcanist_The, where they publish a whole slew of video essays on many fandoms! 

Until next time: express yourself in every creative way possible!

Interview led and intro/outro written by Kylee Vontella (Waddlez3121). Good times, everyone!

If you’d like to join the band, follow the linktree below (https://linktr.ee/lekoroband), and feel free to reach out to chat in the comments, or wherever you find us!

See you out there!