Staff Room:Almost Followed by Your Favorite Artist: Maririn Edition

Last Updated on 2026-07-28 by a-indie

Hi there! This is the BELONG Media editorial team.

Have you ever had your heart stop for a second when a notification came in with the name of someone you really love?

This is the third installment of our four-part staff roundtable on the theme “Screenshots and photos we just had to take,” featuring wakiki (moderator), yabori, Takita, and Maririn. This time: unexpected follow notifications — one for Maririn, and then, in perfect timing, one for Takita too.

Maririn’s Surprise New Follower

Can you look at the top of the image I just sent? Elias from Iceage followed me.

Maririn

yabori

Elias from Iceage — that’s the vocalist, Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, right? (Iceage are a Danish post-punk band who have built a strong following in Japan’s indie music scene.)

Yes! This notification came in on June 20th, 2026 — I finished work, checked my phone, and there it was. I panicked and went to check, and it turned out to be a fan account. I was genuinely relieved it wasn’t the real him. Of course, if it had been, I would have followed back immediately — I’ve always said Elias is my absolute favorite, and I have tons of screenshots of his Stories — but if the real him had followed me, I don’t think I’d have been able to post anything ever again. I couldn’t put anything mediocre out there. So I was really glad it wasn’t him. I did follow back the fan account though. My hands were shaking for a while — I was pretty shaken up.

Maririn

Yeah, when a notification comes in with the name of someone you love and it says “followed you,” time really does stop for a moment.

wakiki

And the account is currently called “Elias Bender Rønnenfelt,” but it used to be “E.Rønnenfelt” — I really wish fan accounts would include “fan” somewhere in the username. The profile did say it was a fan account, but still.

Maririn

Is this an overseas fan?

wakiki

Yes, it seems so.

Maririn

It really is lovely how music connects you with people from all around the world on social media.

wakiki

It really is. Apparently people find my account through a shared love of Elias and follow me because of that. Iceage haven’t toured Japan recently, so there aren’t many events for fans to talk about, which might be part of it.

Maririn

yabori

So you’ve been posting Iceage content on your Stories and things like that?

Yes, definitely. They also just had an album release, so there’s been a lot to post about.

Maririn

Takita’s Surprise New Follower Too

This is completely unrelated, but the other day I got followed by the official account of Masato Nakamura from DREAMS COME TRUE. (DREAMS COME TRUE are one of Japan’s most beloved pop acts, active since 1988 — Nakamura is the bassist and co-founder, affectionately known by fans as “Dorikamu.”)

Takita

yabori

Why?! (laughs)

Why?! (laughs)

Maririn

Why?! (laughs)

wakiki

Your guess is as good as mine (laughs). I just took a screenshot and sent it over.

Takita

yabori

Takita, the timing on this is too perfect (laughs).

This wasn’t what I was planning to bring to today’s theme, but when Maririn’s story came up I thought — oh wait, I’ve got something perfectly timed. All I did was post one tweet about DREAMS COME TRUE and I got followed immediately. It honestly felt like too much.

Takita

He’s quite free with his follows, isn’t he!

Maririn

I think he follows fairly broadly — he was following around 4,300 people.

Takita

That’s actually not that many.

Maririn

Making it into those 4,300 is still pretty impressive though!

wakiki

True. I do love their music, but I’d only just been getting back into them recently, so I was worried — what if he thinks I’m a die-hard fan and then sees I barely ever tweet about them? That felt like it would let him down. So I followed back. Happy but also feeling unworthy, all at once. Sorry for going off on a tangent — it just happened to be very timely.

Takita

yabori

No, the timing was perfect. It was a great flow. Still as smooth as ever, Takita!

So, what did you think?

From the fan account follow that sent Maririn’s hands shaking, to the official account follow from DREAMS COME TRUE’s Masato Nakamura that left Takita equally overwhelmed — the “Surprise New Follower” energy came in strong this round.

What stood out: Maririn’s genuine relief at discovering it was a fan account showed us exactly how deep her love for Elias runs — while Takita’s mix of happiness and unease about “not being a worthy enough fan” gave us a glimpse into a very different kind of relationship with an artist’s follow.

Next up: another unexpected encounter from Takita’s past.

BELONG Media Editorial Team
A music media outlet covering indie rock and beyond, from Japan, the West, and Asia. We have published 26 issues of our roots-rock themed print magazine, BELONG Magazine.

In 2021 we appeared as guests on J-WAVE’s SONAR MUSIC. In 2022 we launched our English-language sister site, A-indie.

Our editorial team runs primarily on shoegaze and dream pop.