2016 was the year I began making my first ventures into the world of music to make new discoveries. One of the bands I latched onto had caught my attention from the second I heard their name uttered over the radio: ‘Sälen’ (I’ve never tired of seeing the umlaut above the ‘a’).

I’m not sure if it was in a radio or website interview, but I remember them explaining their intentions behind including unapologetically explicit, graphic lyrics was to make listeners pay attention to what they were listening to, hoping that the strike of realisation would play a role in their experience of the music and further encourage mindfulness with their listening in the future. I really dislike vulgarity, but I greatly respected their intentions, and I loved how they played it all off as a prank on unsuspecting listeners.

They quietly disbanded shortly after their final release in 2017, and as much as I enjoyed listening to their work, my exponential search for new music led me to new sounds. Yet even when they left my regular music rotation, I never forgot what they meant to me, nor their musical philosophy that helped me galvanise my steeled belief in mindful listening’s importance.

But I didn’t set out to write this article to focus on their music, however important it still is to me.

Justice for Ellie, Fatima, Sam, and Lottie

In February, I came across this video made by Ellie Kamio, who had been imprisoned for 18 months (significantly longer than the 6-month time limit for a court date to be arranged) alongside other protestors after taking action against Elbit Systems, an israeli weapons company based in the UK that supplies to israel in support of their ongoing genocide and oppression against the Palestinian people.
It was only last week that it clicked in my head that I recognised her name: she was the vocalist of Sälen, whose voice I’d heard for countless, countless hours.

After their long-delayed court trial, Ellie and fellow protestors (commonly referred to as the Filton 24, or Filton 25) were found not guilty of aggravated burglary, and no verdict was reached on the charges of criminal damage and violent disorder. They were released from prison.

After their release from prison, the israeli weapons business pressured the UK state into conducting a retrial. After a procedurally compromised second trial, protestors Fatema Rajwani, Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, and Ellie Kamio were “found guilty of criminal damage”, and imprisoned once again. When the jury made this verdict, they were not made aware of the judge’s plans for these protestors to be sentenced as terrorists.

This secret was brought to light last month, and I only just learned of this new development last week. It is an absolute injustice for these people to be branded as terrorists for damaging weapons and drones intended for the mass slaughter of Palestinians. This would be the first time in British history that the actions of protest were branded as terrorism, and would set an extremely dangerous precedent whereby the British government can fascistically, indiscriminately dismiss protesters and protest as terrorism.

“On 12th June, we could be the first people in the UK to be sentenced as terrorists for direct action. I am facing an indefinite number of years in prison for 20 minutes of ‘criminal’ damage. For smashing computers that were used to program drones that target and kill children in Gaza. Drones that commit war crimes.”

”Direct action is not terrorism.
Saving lives is not terrorism.
Free the Filton 25.”

Their court date is scheduled for June 12th in London, at Woolwich Crown Court. A protest is scheduled for 10am-5pm outside the court on this day, which I urge everyone to attend if able.

It hurts on a personal level to see one of my heroes treated so unfairly by a corrupt system, and it hurts further to see the goodwill of so many people punished by the apathy of those in power.

I know most readers have come to expect music-related articles from me, but I don’t see any use in having a platform to share my voice if I don’t use it for good. The music I cherish, and my love for it all, will never exist in isolation from the wider world, and I refuse to say nothing when our right to protest against evil is threatened.

The UK government is no stranger to fascist behaviour and injustice.

Palestine Action was proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” by the british government in 2025. Because of this, I consider it necessary for my own safety to declare that this article is unrelated to the group, and was written to be about Ellie Kamio, the musician who inspired me so much at a time when I needed support the most, whose words and voice have stuck with me for a decade. Ellie and her fellow protestors took action in 2024, before the ruling against Palestine Action was made.

The Britsh High Court themselves ruled in February 2026 that this proscription of Palestine Action is unlawful.

Palestine’s right to resist occupation is protected and enshrined in International Law.

I denounce israel and the IDF for their war crimes, terrorism, and long-time oppression of the Palestinian people, dating all the way back to 1917.

-Mustafa

Discovering and listening to so many artists through the internet can make their presence feel distant, which in itself makes it so rewarding to heed their art by virtue of bridging such a distance through sound. It’s why the novelty of seeing artists perform in person will never, ever wear off on me.

And so, the seismic surprise of seeing that Necry Talkie would soon make their international debut in the UK on May 14th at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton has really stuck with me! I feel like I’ve known their name for as long as I’ve been listening to Japanese music: a reliable constant shining bright ever since the beginning. But why exactly is their UK debut such an exciting spectacle to look forward to?

Necry Talkie and its 5 members (Guitarist and vocalist Mossa; Guitarist and Main Composer Asahi; Bassist Fujita; Drummer Kazuma Takei, Keyboardist Ayaka Nakamura) have worked together for almost a decade, instilling the world with their unmistakably unpredictable sound of playfulness, franticness, vulnerability, and semi-serious yet wholehearted wittiness. The first song I heard from them (as I’m sure was also the case for thousands of fans around the world), was ‘Oshare Daisakusen’ (‘The Big Stylish Operation’), and I’m still so impressed by how it balances instrumental and lyrical panic with such upbeat harmony (Mossa singing “if you’re older than 25, you have no choice but to die” is as cathartic as it is brilliant!).

Another notable step in my journey with their music was seeing them cover one of my favourite bands of all time, Wienners! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve replayed it, always mesmerised by the personal spin Necry Talkie put on such a legendary song!

The band has released four albums and two mini albums over the years, with their most recent, ‘Torch’, releasing in 2024. They’ve been a comforting presence all throughout my journey in exploring the vast music scene of Japan, and some of my favourite chorus and keyboard performances come from several of the works in their discography (like ‘Houkagono Kioku’!). Guitarists Mossa and Asahi have even been featured on ‘The First Take’ as backing vocals for KANA-BOON’s iconic Naruto opening ‘Silhouette’!!

Amongst their recent releases, however, the song that still blows me away with just its mere existence is ‘bloom’, released as the opening theme for Science Saru’s anime ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’!!! Even typing that still blows my mind as someone who read and watched Scott Pilgrim repeatedly as a kid! It just works, like the collaboration was always fated to happen from the moment Necry Talkie themselves first took off! During my first visit to Tokyo in 2024 I had a quick chat with Mossa at an all-day music event, and the first thing I expressed was gratitude for this song existing!

Ahead of this new chapter in their story, I interviewed Guitarists Mossa and Asahi to learn more about their current mindsets and thoughts regarding Necry Talkie’s venture to the international stage!

An Interview with Asahi and Mossa of Necry Talkie

1.

Mustafa: “Hello Necry Talkie! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, and congratulations on your upcoming international debut!

Your music has a playful sound that never stays confined to a single style or genre: where did this philosophy for Necry Talkie’s music come from? I especially love the style and sound of the keyboard in Necry Talkie songs!!”

Asahi: “Personally, I feel like my roots might go back to the game music from Kirby, which I used to play a lot when I was a kid.
Kirby soundtracks are so much fun and poppy, but if you listen closely, there are actually a lot of progressive music approaches in there.
I remember being especially shocked by the track ‘Sub-Tree Area’ (Chitei no Kigiarea) because it used microtones. For me at that age, it was a huge eye-opener.”

2.

Mustafa: “What are each of the members’ favourite musical artists? I’m so curious to know about where you draw your musical inspiration from!”

Asahi: “Japanese Rock Band ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION was the first band that made me fall in love with the band sound, but the real spark that made me want to start a band myself was hearing ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis.
Since then, I’ve been influenced by British music in more ways than I can count.”

Mossa: “I first got into bands thanks to 2000s Japanese groups like Chatmonchy and andymori. But looking back, I was humming Queen’s “Bicycle Race” when I was only three, and I remember hearing The Beatles’ “Help!” playing at the local supermarket.
It feels like UK music was always there in my daily life in Japan, naturally inspiring me from a very young age.”

3.

Mustafa: “‘Oshare Daisakusen’ and ‘You Should Head North’ are both extremely popular songs abroad amongst international Japanese music fans. When did you first notice this international audience? Can you recall your thoughts and feelings when finding out there are so many fans of Necry Talkie all around the world?”

Asahi: “I only really noticed it when I started seeing so many comments from outside of Japan on our YouTube channel. It made me genuinely happy to see that our music is reaching people across borders.
That said, since we haven’t performed overseas yet, it still hasn’t quite sunk in. I’d love for our first international show to be the moment where I can finally see everyone’s reactions in person.”
Mossa: “It all started around the time we released the music video for “Hokujo no Susume (You Should Head North),” when I noticed the English comments increasing. We weren’t specifically trying to target an international audience, so it was a huge surprise to find that people overseas found our music interesting! And honestly, it just makes me so happy.”

4.

Mustafa: “What are each of your favourite songs to perform live? I would love to hear your thoughts behind your favourite songs!”

Asahi: “Performing our song ‘Kongaragatta!’ (meaning ‘Tangled Up’ in Japanese) is always a blast. Each of us plays these strange, mysterious rhythms and phrases, and I was so happy that we could pull it all together into a song—while staying perfectly ‘tangled up.’
It’s a fun track to listen to, but the lyrics are actually about those small moments of loneliness that suddenly hit you in the middle of everyday life.”

Mossa: “’Tooboe no Sunset’ doesn’t have a music video, but it’s a real staple of our live shows. The tempo changes during the chorus, and I just love that specific sense of speed and the improvisational feel it has.”

The guitar solo and shifting time signatures of ‘Tooboe no Sunset’ make it one of the most memorable Necry Talkie songs to me!!

5.

Mustafa: “I really love the new artist photo for Necry Talkie! It made me so happy when I saw it appear on my SNS newsfeed! What was it like getting the perfect poses to create the dinosaur shadow?”

Asahi: “I couldn’t really see how the shadows were turning out myself, but it was actually pretty tough to hold those specific poses for so long!”

Mossa: “The members were giving each other directions on the spot, like “move your hand here” or “put your leg there,” to create the shapes. But as we got tired, our hands would slightly shift or wobble, and the whole thing would slowly fall apart! In the end, I think what we needed most was just pure patience.”

My newsfeed was flooded with comments from countless fans when Necry Talkie revealed their new artist photo. It still astounds me how much effort and creativity it must’ve taken to actualise such a fun concept!

6.

Mustafa: “Many international fans also discovered Necry Talkie through your song ‘Bloom’ for the Scott Pilgrim anime. I was a really big Scott Pilgrim fan when I was younger, so this song is really special to me! How did this collaboration happen, and how did you all feel when you realised you would be contributing a song for such a widely-loved series?”

Asahi: “I heard the director chose Necry Talkie from several different musicians. To be honest, I didn’t know about the series until I received the offer, but I watched the movie and read the original manga right away and became an instant fan.
The story was so inspiring that I had a blast creating the music. It was truly an amazing experience for me.”

Mossa: “We were actually approached directly by the anime production team (if I recall correctly!). I felt like the pop and rocky worlds of Scott Pilgrim and Necry Talkie’s music were a perfect match, and that we’d fit together really naturally. I was so fired up to make something great for such a wonderful series.”

7.

Mustafa: “Scott Pilgrim’s story is deeply rooted in the Toronto music scene of the 2000’s. What impressions do you all have of the different music scenes from abroad, and have you ever drawn inspiration from them?”

Asahi: “I’ve been incredibly influenced by the international music scene. In my teens, I spent all my time listening to bands like Oasis, The Beatles, The White Stripes, Led Zeppelin, Arctic Monkeys, YES, Sum 41, Jimi Hendrix, and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
To be honest, I’ve even snuck a phrase from Red Hot Chili Peppers into my own song.”

Mossa: “When I watch international artists perform, I feel like their sense of freedom is on a whole different level. Personally, I’m the type of person who prefers things to go exactly as planned, but I try my best to keep an open mind and embrace whatever happens in the moment—even the unexpected hiccups.”

8.

Mustafa: “This is a question I’ve had for a long time, ever since I first heard ‘Bloom’: was the song inspired by the viral ‘Nyan Cat’ video? The keyboard melody sounds so similar to it!“

Asahi: “I wasn’t doing it consciously, but I loved that song so much that it might have influenced me. I’ve always had a soft spot for that ‘video game sound’— those busy, bleepy-bloopy phrases that jump all over the place.”

9.

Mustafa: “Necry Talkie have been active for nearly a decade, and you’ve shared so many albums and performances with the world since then! What are your personal motivations that are pushing you through to continue achieving and performing as Necry Talkie?”

Asahi: “I still feel like I have so much to learn, so I want to keep going at least until I can make an album that I can truly call my ‘masterpiece.’”

Mossa: “I’m just someone who finds being in a band fun, and I’m always the one most looking forward to the music that we create together.”

10.

Mustafa: “How did you all react to finding out you’d be performing in the UK? What thoughts and feelings do you all have about this new step?”

Asahi: “I was incredibly happy, but at the same time, I felt so nervous because the UK is one of those places that literally built the history of rock music. Of course, now the excitement has totally taken over, and I can’t wait to get there!”

Mossa: “I can’t believe our first-ever overseas show is going to be in the UK—the holy land of music! Ever since we started getting comments from abroad, I’ve been dreaming of playing our music for you all in person, so I’m thrilled it’s actually happening.
The only thing is... I can’t speak English, so I’m super nervous about the talking part of the show!”

11.

Mustafa: “Outside of performing at The Great Escape Festival, what else do you look forward to doing in the UK?”

Asahi: “I’m hoping to pop into a few instrument shops while I’m there. Maybe some clothing stores too.”

Mossa: “Everything is so new to me since it’s my first time in the UK, and I’m excited about every single bit of it! It would be amazing if I could even make some local band friends while I’m there.”

12.

Mustafa: “What are your future hopes and dreams for Necry Talkie? Can we expect future international performances from Necry Talkie?”

Asahi: “I plan to just keep chasing my ideal sound, same as always. And if we get invited to play overseas again, I’d love to go as much as I possibly can!”

Mossa: “I want to enjoy Necry Talkie’s music with as many people as possible, way beyond the borders of Japan. Of course, I’m dying to do more overseas shows! But honestly, I think we need to get a lot bigger to make that happen, so I’m gonna give it everything I’ve got!”

13.

Mustafa: “And finally: if you could each share a message with international Necry Talkie fans, what would it be?”

Asahi: “I hope to keep making lots of songs that are fun, a little bit weird, and filled with loud, screaming guitars. If you ever get the chance to see us live, please just let loose and have the time of your life!”

Mossa: “Necry Talkie will keep on making music using all sorts of sounds and words: whatever we find interesting! Since we’re mainly based in Japan, feel free to drop by one of our shows whenever you’re here for a trip or just feel like it!”

My sincere gratitude to Mossa, Asahi, and Daisuke for helping make this interview possible! It means so much to me to speak to them after having listened to them for so many years, and I can’t wait to see how their UK debut goes!

Necry Talkie will perform at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton on Thursday 14th May at the Dust venue at 1:30pm alongside luvis, TAMIW, and The Cabs! They will also be performing at Charles Street Tap on Friday 15th at 10:15!

It means the world to witness this massive new step in bringing Japan’s music scene to the world, and I can’t wait to see what comes for Necry Talkie and other bands in the future!

Huge thanks to my friend Stanley for lending his Necry Talkie expertise to this interview!

-Mustafa

With the ongoing humanitarian crises in Palestine and Sudan, I wish to dedicate this forward to the charities helping support those suffering under such painful oppression. Please consider donating to the UNRWA or WAQFOREVER to help the vital aid for Palestinians continue, as well as to Unicef to support those in Sudan.

Today marks the day of Lyrical School’s disbandment. My listening habits have always leaned closely towards bands, but Lyrical School have occupied a special place in my heart and life in recent years. I’d usually like to be a lot more organised and thorough with my articles, but I wanted to challenge myself by just letting the words flow, all in one sitting, in hopes of best capturing how and why this group means so much to me!

‘OK!’

Most fated musical discoveries are made at the hand of the autoplay function, as it connects and redirects to all artists adjacent to our listening habits. So, it was inevitable that my routine listening of Chelmico in 2022 would lead me to Minan.

Algorithmically, it’s clear that the parallel had been drawn between Minan and my own listening habits due to her recent (at the time) collaboration with Rachel of Chelmico and Valknee for her song ‘All Rounder’. It’s honestly so impressive that such an ensemble was put together for a solo project, and it made for the perfect listening detour after I heard Minan for the first time on ‘Don’t Be Shy’ which, despite not being a recurrent listen in the years since, is still an extremely memorable song. Thinking back to that fateful day in 2022, I think it was Minan’s voice and the production itself that I liked so much about the song, and that’s more than enough reason to want to hear more from a new discovery.

Minan had only ever released a handful of songs as a solo artist, yet there was confidence and identity clearly visible on the covers under her artist profile that left a stark first impression. The fact that it also included a sublime cover of Kaoru Akimoto’s ‘Dress Down’ caught my attention even more strongly!

I later learnt that the EP ‘Talk To You Later’ with the aforementioned Rachel and Valknee feature was released during the hiatus of her idol group, Lyrical School. And so naturally, that’s where my attention was next led.

In October 2022, I took a two-week break from university due to contracting Covid, and memories of listening to Lyrical School are some of the few clear memories I have from this hazy refrain of lethargy and poor sleep. It was so satisfying to uncover the history of a group belonging to an artist whose voice I’d become so familiar with from solo performances, and two particular albums stood out as favourites during this period: ‘Wonderland’ and ‘BE KIND, REWIND’.

The first song from these releases that I found myself hooked on was ‘OK!’. Even as someone not terribly keen on lip syncing, the music video still exuded fun and genuinely talented lyrical prowess. To this day I still have one of its frames stuck in my head as an epitome of effortless cool, when all the members take turns reciting their lines in a cadence midway between speaking and singing whilst keeping eyes locked with the camera.

‘BE KIND REWIND’ is such a unique album to me. I love that it opens with a mise en scene from a fictional American talk show host who introduces the group and album, before the tracklist properly kicks off with the boisterous kicks and acapellas of ‘Over Dubbing’. The entire album is flooded with addictive, endlessly loopable songs: ‘Doowutchyalike’ is dearly special to me because at the forefront of its dancehall piano notes and booming brass in the chorus is timeless, classic romance, embedded in its lyrics about summer sweethearts, and the rousing roar of all members singing along, as if you can practically hear them swaying side to side.

There’s also ‘LOVE TOGETHER RAP’, which I didn’t find out was a cover of the original by NONA REEVES until a full year later. “Why don’t you feel the beat? Why don’t you chant the rhyme?”, the timeless pre-chorus shared between generations, defines this song for me.

From the album, I’ve listened to ‘Young Love’ the most. It has such strong pathos in its instrumentation and lyrics, as it speaks of a bygone love’s ephemerality, and I’ve probably passed hours with it playing as I’ve pensively stared up at the ceiling.

I cycled between these two albums constantly for several months, but the expectation for a return never surmounted within me. I was happy enjoying these works without expectation of anything new, but that all suddenly changed very soon, as if perfectly timed and sending forth a balm I didn’t even know I needed.

New World (2023-2024)

Some months later, Lyrical School’s social media stirred back to life, and news of a return was declared upon my newsfeed. Maybe it was destiny for me to have discovered the group so close to their re-debut. A YouTube listing was made for the premiere of their first song as a new group, and there was a feeling of palpable triumph in the air as the group’s legendary name prepared to present its new form to the world.

While my connection to Lyrical School began with their earlier formation, I wanted to write the article specifically to highlight the final phase and member lineup, because Lyrical School 8 (as the final lineup of 8 members would refer to themselves as) is one of the best musical acts I’ve ever heard.

With New World specifically, I remember being pleasantly surprised to see that Lyrical School had become a mixed gender group compared to its previous all-female iterations. From the get-go, it just felt *right*; the group’s chemistry just felt so natural. I suppose that’s one of the things I’ve always liked most about Lyrical School: they’ve never felt superficial or focused on just aesthetics; there’s an earned prestige to their exhibited chemistry.

The only returning member from the previous lineup was Minan, so I went into ‘New World’ hoping to see all the new members and all their unique attributes. I distinctly remember on my first watch, hearing member Mana’s verse and loving the relaxed tone of her snowballing flow,: “Memories are all that shine, but the story can’t be rewound: That’s obvious and nonsense, so I don’t wanna let myself down” (the inflection of how she says “downnnn” still being one of the coolest utterances of all time). The next line being from Minan (“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Nice to meet you. Let’s head into the future: what will we paint?”) still makes my heart ache every time I hear it. It’s just such a beautiful message to share from the only legacy member to all fans, old and new.

My favourite line from the song, though, has to go to Ryuya: “From the multiverse, it’s just a tiny bit of light, but I wonder if it’ll reach you”. I remember being awestruck at just how cool his voice sounded, and I’ve imitated the way he raises his hand during his line more times than I can even recollect.

There’s just so much to love about this song and video. Amidst a bleak academic year, the promise that New World made was enough to shine a light strong enough on the future to take my attention away from the now. The entire video showing countless different interactions between members makes the new ensemble feel so natural, and the fact that they all look like they genuinely enjoy each other’s company feels like a rare sight. No matter how many times I return to this song, it always makes me teary-eyed because at a time when things felt bleak, the simple words of “I won’t let you down” worked miracles in keeping spirits up and despair at bay. The radiance of this song is so beautiful that I consider it to be one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, no competition.

A few more single releases followed, all bookmarked under the New World EP. Every song on this release is perfect: the head-spinning camera techniques and droning bass of ‘Mada Mada Da!’ leave another stellar impression from the new lineup (written by Rachel of Chelmico too!! I just love how that connection returns again!). Despite that, the sheer excellence of ‘Drive Me Crazy’ is so dizzying that I have no choice but to deem it one of my absolute favourites in L.S’s discography.

Like everyone else who was a teenager in the mid 2010’s, having an obsession with Ryan Gosling’s film ‘Drive’ from 2010 was a rite of passage, as was the synthwave obsession that followed, and ‘Drive Me Crazy’ returns overwhelming reward for that nostalgia (you’ll never see me splitting hairs over genres like this, but so much of the song’s instrumentation reminds me of all the vapourware that was all over the internet around 2016, too). The song favouring imagery over poetic waxing just makes me love it more, too: honing in on that forlorn, nocturnal feeling so precisely with its sounds and lyrics (“Just like that famous scene from the movie; Open the window and let the wind wash over me”). I really feel like this song showcases member Malik’s talents so well, as he not only has some incredibly vulnerable verses on this song, but he also directed the music video and did the screenplay and character design himself!

Their eventual 2024 album, ‘Day 2’, featured all the songs from the ‘New World’ EP, as well as new single ‘Ultimate Anthem’ which I love for its stern dramaticism in its hyper-stylised and glamorous look. It’s such a cool song to see and hear all the members assert louder attitudes than on the earlier sentimental singles. The album also features a re-recording of the previous generation’s ‘OK!’, which I always feel profound gratitude for whenever I get around to it at the end of the album!

It’s a really comprehensive release that showcases so many different moods and sides to the group, stringing together so many different single releases into a listening order that feels cohesive and still shines brightly with ever-renewing fun. I sadly didn’t get around to listening to it much in 2024 due to all the other releases and live shows I was attending, but in the time since then it’s really grown closer and closer to my heart.

Destiny, Divine

In 2025, I was blessed to visit Tokyo for the second time (the first being a year prior in 2024), and there came a day of live show crossroads: RAY were set to perform with Bellring Girl’s Heart on July 22nd, the same day as Lyrical School would be performing their regular C.R.I.B Night at Ebisu BATICA (a venue I love dearly). I’d already planned to see RAY on my visit in 2024; however, due to a typhoon, the show had to be cancelled, and I wasn’t able to fit them into my live schedule afterwards, so I was keen to finally see them this time. As much as I loved both RAY and Lyrical School, I decided to go for the former because of the renown they hold for converging so many different genres, styles, and scenes into one act, and also because I’d be able to attend the show with one of the first friends I made in the online Japanese music space.

Sadly, when the day came, RAY had to withdraw from the event due to illness, so the show went from having three performances down to just a Bellring Girl’s Heart solo performance. I’d never really listened to the group before, so I was less incentivised to attend, but in the end I’d have felt terrible about abandoning plans made with a friend, so I still looked forward to attending.

I had a lot of fun at the show, especially when a moshpit broke out for multiple different songs (which I always love to dive into without a second thought)! However after the performance, I received some really difficult news, and it hung a really upsetting cloud over me for the remaining few days of my holiday. I was sat on the floor in the corner of Shibuya WWWX, in a state between catastrophising and lament, whilst my friend was in the queue for cheki. As much as I enjoyed seeing the performance, especially with them, the bad news of the day makes it hard to appreciate the levity of the show in retrospect.

With Lyrical School announcing their disbandment in January 2026, I realised I’d never have the opportunity to ever see them live. The realisation prompted me to consider: how would things be different if I had attended the Lyrical School show that day? Would that bad news have become a permanent negative connotation associated with L.S’s music, or would the blow have been lessened from the excitement of the performance? I hate dwelling on questions of ‘what if’, and I always believe that everything happens for a reason, but I can’t help but want to know if such an upsetting turn of events and its ramifications could’ve been mitigated had I been at a different show that day.

I prefer to think that, with the way things turned out, Ebisu BATICA remains a cherished venue in my mind, and the work of Lyrical School remains an untouched refuge. Looking back, through this lens, that day was still beautiful in how it unfolded, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

To The Next Stage

With how many live shows I attended in 2025, and all the new music that released, I sadly didn’t get around to listening to Lyrical School’s July-released Ep ‘Life Goes On’ until months later in December, and I regret not getting around to it sooner because it’s an utterly flawless release, from start to finish.

Earlier this year in January, I travelled up to Birmingham at midnight to attend a Pokémon tournament the following morning (as ridiculous as it sounds, I still had so much fun), and during this entire trip I listened to ‘Life Goes On’ on repeat, to the extent that it’s forever coupled with the excitement and tension of the tournament, in my mind. From wandering the streets of Birmingham at night to taking extremely short breaks between matches, this EP was all I would listen to across the two days I spent there.

The relentless pounding of the EP’s intro, ‘Gizmo’, is crafted with utter genius: it’s unlike any other sound in L.S’s discography, almost sounding like a revelation descending from above, making me shake with anticipation and relief simultaneously. The rest of the song is so gentle, which only makes the segway into the following song, ‘To Be Continued’, hit even harder.

’To Be Continued’ may honestly be my favourite Lyrical School song. It barely spares a second on its intro and leads with lyrical aggression, and most importantly, it just overflows with fun! I love how the entire song is a project put together by just four of the Lyrical School members (tmrw, Malik, Sayo, and Mana), and I think this spotlight on just half the group allows for them all to express themselves in ways they haven’t been able to on other tracks, allowing for some of the most insane verses and flows. I love how Mana crashes into the song with the demand “Gimmie the mic, gimmie the mic!”, and the way she effortlessly and exponentially kicks the pace up several gears for the remainder of her lines is awe-inspiring! The music video also excels in innovating simplicity with the back-and-forth movement of the camera’s positioning, rounding off the entire project with memorable impact in every audible and visual regard.

Afterwards comes ‘MOVE ON’ which opens with that familiar sample everyone on Earth would recognise, leaning much more into house music than any release prior (much to the delight of myself who grew up on Daft Punk). It’s positioned back-to-back on the tracklist with ‘Dance’, another song with some insanely measured line delivery (Sayo and Mana’s consecutive verses could be looped for all eternity) .

My favourite memory with this EP, though, has to be after the first day of the aforementioned tournament had finished, and after a gruelling 8 hours of competition had I won my way to participate in day 2 of the tournament. Walking out of the venue to the sound of ‘Dawn’ was ethereal, and even the accumulated tiredness of the past 24 hours felt weightless in the face of the rising light that sounded in my ears and illuminated my heart. The entire EP rang the sound of competition in my heart, yet ‘Dawn’ always reminds me of the triumph that roared in my soul that day (and the much-needed rest that followed).

When Lyrical School announced their disbandment, my immediate feeling was one of mourning. Partly because of missing them live, but also because I never thought this member lineup would disband so soon. To this day, the sound of ‘New World’ ushers that same feeling of promise and hopefulness for the future, and it hasn’t worn of at all since that day of debut 3 years ago. Yet that same feeling is what redirects me to the positive feelings I prefer to focus on when bands or groups I love disband: the joy, honour, and appreciation forged from countless hours of listening, serving as a monument to all those memories in the past.

I’ve never really gelled with many idol groups, partly because I’ve found it difficult to actively support them from abroad, and also because I find it much more intuitive to listen to bands and interact with their fanbases. That being said, Lyrical School still carved out a special place in my heart through virtue of simply being their authentic selves. Whether it be the 5-member formation, of the formation or the 8-member lineup that I’ll cherish forever, the difficult lows were softened and the euphoric heights were propelled by their audible presence in my life, and this entire article was written in hopes of documenting and expressing those feelings. Looking back at it all, I think it’s astounding how those solo songs by Minan set so much into motion, and as much as I love all the work from the members of Lyrical School, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to her specifically for keeping the group alive, and colouring multiple chapters of my life with music she’d helped share with the world. It’s a marvel what kind of impact they were able to have on me, even if I never interacted with them or their fanbase in person. It was all by virtue of their music, and that simple fact is what earns my entire, earnest, most sincere respect.

Even now, the words of ‘New World’ still ring in my head, and they’ll continue to do so for a long time. This era of Lyrical School will never truly end, in my heart, and with all the fun I’ve had with their music, I can say with certainty that they followed through with their promise of “I won’t let you down”.

“Again, good days, goodbye. Truly, good days, goodbye.”
-Mustafa

Summer 2017: the dawn of lofty academic decisions that’d determine the course of my future. Stressful prospects coinciding with seeking acoustic refuges at a time when I needed them most, and the artists that accompanied me the most through these months were Alvvays and Yumi Zouma. When it feels like your back’s against the wall as you’re facing insurmountable challenges, a few resonant chords and lyrics can go a long, long way, as was the case with these two bands, and I quickly found myself enraptured with the comfort they evoked. The closer the new academic year drew, the more vigorous my pursuit of refrain became, so when I found out Alvvays were performing a UK tour within a few weeks, I told myself I had to go.

(Important disclaimer: as much as I loved Alvvays back then, I’ve since ceased supporting them because of an insensitive tweet they made back in 2015 in response to the 2015 Paris Bataclan terrorist attack, where they equated Islam with terrorism. As a Muslim, it really hurt to see a band I really looked up to voice words so insensitive towards my faith).

And so, I went. Heart full from the promise of seeing a band I’d developed such strong attachment to, exponentially magnifying the event’s importance with every passing day: The first live performance I attend. For the first time ever, it felt like I’d finally step out and see what awaited me on the other side of the microphone: actually seeing the people I held in such high regard, on stage, manifest the sounds I’d heard them play over and over on the studio recordings.

I can’t blame myself for getting so carried away, but the actual show itself didn’t live up to what I’d hoped to see and hear. In my boundless enthusiasm, I secured a spot right at the front of the crowd, in the centre, but I could barely hear a thing over the deafening drums. I knew the lyrics to the songs I’d heard before, but I was completely clueless as to what was going on in the unreleased new songs. So much for standing right at the front.

Most stupidly, I didn’t wear any hearing protection at this show. I’d considered it, but vastly underestimated the importance of protecting myself from dangerously loud noise levels, instead opting to wear nothing so that I’d “hear all the sounds without any filter or obscurity”.

I’ve replayed this day in my mind over and over again in the 8 years that have passed, wishing I’d chosen differently: wishing I’d asked staff at the venue for a pair of foam earplugs, or buying a pair beforehand, because the turbulence and arduous torment I faced in the aftermath of this live show changed my relationship with sound and music forever.

The tinnitus was deafening, and it continued to deafen for months after the show. I simply wasn’t able to enjoy music in the same way anymore: whether from earphones or speakers, the high-pitched ringing was relentless and omnipresent, noticeably louder in my left ear. It didn’t just overpower external sounds, but it also dulled their impact: the same strums and thuds I loved to replay would barely resonate as strongly anymore. Everything sounded uneven, and I began to despair: I couldn’t forgive myself for making a mistake that cost me my hearing.

The prospect of losing access to seemingly infinite different worlds through the bridge of my hearing would upset and terrify me so much, to the point of complete exhaustion whenever I’d notice the drone in my ear droning over speech and music. Thank God, I’ve since recovered from that year-long scare, but the memory of that night flashes in my mind and rings in my ears every time I walk into a venue; every time I pick up a phone call; every time I hear a song through a head/earphone.

It took just one live music performance without hearing protection to instil this fear in me, but with that fear comes a lesson I won’t ever forget, so as tumultuous as all that difficulty was, I’m glad it happened sooner rather than later in my life.

Whenever I speak to other people at shows, I’m often asked about my earplugs or ear defenders, and I always use the opportunity to ask others about their own use of hearing protection. One memory that really stands out to me was two years ago, after having just seen Layla perform for the first time, when a group of fans struck up conversation with me (after asking to take photos together because they were overjoyed to see a foreign fan supporting their favourite band. I love Layla, and I love their fanbase!).

When I asked them if they wear earplugs at shows, one of them responded, “No, but don’t worry, my ears are strong! STRONG!”. I once thought that about my own hearing too, and in that moment I felt a pang of worry that they might eventually face a similar struggle to what I once had, so I did my best to inform them: “Always protect your ears! I’m a medical student, so my best advice is to be careful!” to which they responded with semi-serious nods and salutes. Even if they don’t remember this exchange, I hope I was able to prompt them by even a tiny amount about the dangers of loud volumes. The live houses in Tokyo are some of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited, and I know I’m not alone in wanting to visit them as often as possible, but sadly, the greater the love for music, the greater the likelihood of it hurting us back, potentially irrevocably. It’s an element of live music culture I really wish would change.

Most venues offer foam earplugs, which are definitely better than nothing, but they’re not enough to help ears withstand frequent exposure to live show volume levels. Once human ears have suffered acoustic trauma, it’s impossible for them to recover, so isn’t it worth taking appropriate precautions to keep them safe? My choice of earplugs for live shows is Earpeace (genuine personal recommendation, although I’m not against being sponsored by them because of my unshakeable faith in their product), and I couldn’t recommend them enough for anyone who enjoys live music, regardless of how frequently or infrequently you attend.

That being said, even personal listening through headphones carries dangers, but this matter is more easily addressed since most phones these days give warnings of dangerous volume exposure. As tempting as it is to ignore those notifications, heeding them is enough to be saved from a lifetime of distress.

This article initially started out as a wish to celebrate my early moments of musical discovery that helped me appreciate the simple miracle of hearing songs in stereo, but it didn’t feel right to discuss this topic without first covering exactly why I covet the simple, blessed opportunity to hear music through my own two ears.

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Route 225

I didn’t grow up around music. There were never any CDs or music players to be found in the house when I went poking my nose around the place as a small child. It wasn’t really something that my parents thought much of, which I understand and respect because their own upbringings meant they never had the luxury of enjoying hobbies. If anything, discovering my love for music felt much more important because of this, as it was something I came across on my own without any external influence or help.

When I was 10, my family moved to the US due to my father’s work, and at the time, we believed this was where we’d be living from now on. That was way too much for my young mind to imagine: all my friends and familiar surroundings now forever gone. I held steadfast to the belief that we’d move back, more out of desperation than an outlook of sensibility, and I resorted to escaping into the screen of my DS to cope with the scary, strange new part of the world that I simply couldn’t muster the strength to brave; acknowledging my new reality was painful enough, let alone engaging with it.

One month into our stay in the US, my father purchased my first ever mainline Pokémon entry: Pokémon Platinum. I lived vicariously through this game, oftentimes shunning the outside world completely to seek refuge in the role of the game’s protagonist. I’d ordinarily never advocate for forsaking reality in favour of fiction, but feeling trapped in another part of the world as a 10-year-old, biding my time in hopes of eventually returning home, made me take the path I judged to be easiest. Looking back at it all now, I’m grateful to my parents for never getting annoyed at me whenever I avoided doing homework or lacked the energy to head to school in the morning.

Around a month later, having already accumulated a significant number of hours in the game, I came across a pair of earphones in one of our boxes of luggage. Looking back, it’s funny how strange the piece of equipment seemed, as the simple concept of inserting the headphone jack into my DS just felt so novel, especially as I’d finally figured out the function of the strange port in the corner of my console that I’d largely overlooked ever since getting the system.

It’s funny to reminisce on how this was the first time I ever used a pair of earphones, an occasion not often discussed or recollected.

There was a clarity to the system’s sound that I’d never heard before or even imagined as being possible: I remember exactly where I was on the game’s map when I’d made the new connection, and I couldn’t believe that there had been *direction* to the music this entire time, that I’d never noticed over the system’s built-in speakers. This experience left me bewildered at what I’d been missing out on all this time, as even a hundred hours of playing the game hadn’t exposed me to this obvious detail that’d been right in front of me the entire time. I think this is where my fascination with sound, and the desire to uncover its every hidden facet, first began.

I sought refuge in Pokémon Platinum when I wasn’t strong enough to acknowledge California as my new home (shoutout to Fresno), and its sounds were the main cause for this found comfort. While I wouldn’t always encourage escapism amidst difficulty, it undeniably still has its place in helping us navigate our lives, even if just for a moment’s rest.

In the years since then, my fascination with audio has grown exponentially: moving from earphones to my first pair of headphones at 14, then noise-cancelling headphones at 18, and then open-back headphones and in-ear monitors at 21. But even now, after I’ve settled down with the listening equipment I’ll comfortably stick with for the rest of my life (Etymotic ER2SE and Sennheiser HD660S2 with the Sony NW-A55L Walkman, for those curious), that simple joy of asymmetrical sound presentation through the left and right audio channels has never, and will never, wear off.

It needn’t even require expensive products to access that joy; all it takes is the intention of mindfulness when listening. Feeling the music from around you, instead of from afar. I’ve spoken about it before, but the first song to push me towards hearing music differently was Tricot’s ‘Namu’. It features a bubbling guitar garbled through an effect pedal in the left audio channel, which decides to leap out halfway through the song and oscillate between the left and right with exponential acceleration. It’s dizzying, disorienting, and it makes me feel like I’m caught right in the middle of the song’s chaos as my head begins to spin. Being caught in its off-balance is a long-cherished comfort, and was the song to renew my vested interest in uncovering everything that the sensation of sound had to offer.

Music doesn’t really have much of a presence in Islamic culture, with references to it in religious texts indicating a need for wariness and caution due to its ability to influence the heart. I don’t deny this aspect of its nature, and it’s for this reason that I’m always careful about the content of what I listen to. I don’t make any sweeping statements or declarations of “No, all music is actually 100% fine, Islamically”, but all my experiences with listening have been supportive and consoling in nature, always feeling like listening to the words of a friend. Through this lens, when I look at the music that’s impacted and continues to impact me, it all makes sense.

With that context in mind, I feel like my appreciation for, and curiosity in, music was always inevitably going to reach these heights. The novelty of hearing sounds so vividly that they feel like they’re materialising in my head has never worn off on me, but it has been tested to great, great lengths.

The beauty of us all having our own personal connection to sound makes it all the more tragic when that tether is damaged or lost. It’s a personal prayer of mine that, through celebrating and sharing these stories more, we encourage mindfulness and caution to keep our hearing safe.

To protect our ears is to protect our hearts.

-Mustafa

A full year late, I know. I thought it’d be a quick summary like 2023’s article, but there were just too many new discoveries in 2024 to write about in a manageable timeframe (especially with ongoing hospital placements), and eventually it felt impossible to talk about some songs without sharing my experiences hearing them live, and so the article continued to grow in length.

I visited Tokyo for the first time in 2024, hence so many of my discoveries and musical stories are tied to the near-daily visits I made to the live houses there.

I’ll be compiling my 2025 list soon (of course, the aim is to complete it by the end of December. We’ll see how that goes?). But until then, I hope my year-long written meditation on 2024 can share its music’s lasting lustre:

My Favourite Music in 2024

Discoveries Released Before 2024:

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Burnable/Unburnable- ‘Mayday’

Out of all of the pre-2024 releases I discovered this year, re:caco’s project ‘Burnable/Unburnable’ stands out the most.

Had ‘Mayday’ been released this year, it’d easily be a contender for first place: the synth of this song has helped alleviate the stress of even my most hectic experiences this year. I’m captivated by the way she switches ever so briefly to Korean before the start of the second verse, questioning “deullinayo?” (“Can you hear me?”) and then starts the second verse with “kimi no”, mirroring the inflection of the first line of the first verse (“nagai me ni”). It’s such a small detail, but by virtue of its own presence does it testify to re:caco’s awareness of even the subtlest of opportunities to express herself, and I believe that’s a trait of the best of artists. It’s obvious through this song alone that she thrives as a songwriter and singer, simultaneously showcasing exactly why she joined new band The Floatings as their vocalist this year.

The confidence of her vocal and lyrical prowess really makes the entire album (beautifully titled ‘The Sky Scary’) such an enjoyable experience because it never relents in keeping my attention; there are so many different techniques used to create different sullen and forlorn soundscapes (I especially love the oscillation between urgency and contemplation in the chorus of ‘S.O.S’).

‘The Sky Scary’ accompanied me through the latter half of 2024 through all the moments of unrest, turning them more joyful, healing, and hopeful. (Also: it’s so refreshing to see the music video for Mayday play out without any lip-syncing: the sequenced photos stuttering to form snapshots of memories suits the song’s pacing and theme so perfectly.)

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EOW- ‘LYFE’

EOW released a new EP this year (which is full of special songs, particularly ‘Mirror, Mirror’ which was one of many contenders for my list of favourite 2024 releases), but since I discovered them in 2024, I found myself enthralled by the energy of their live performances as seen on their YouTube uploads, and ‘Lyfe’ quickly became a song and video I returned to over and over because their chemistry and joy on stage were the perfect marvel to pick me up at the end of a tiring day, always bringing a smile to my face. Plus, any song that features the band members side-stepping to the beat during the chorus is impossible not to love. Their vocalist, Laco, also has one of the most staggeringly soulful voices I’ve ever heard!

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Pool and Muzzle- ‘Summer Kills Me’

Uchudan’s bassist, Takanoshima, shared a performance of ‘Summer Kills Me’ on Instagram which immediately caught my attention, prompting me to message her at 3am in the morning to ask what the song’s name was. She told me about Pool and Muzzle, a band started by Jin, whom she’s supported for live shows more and more frequently as of late. It turned out that I’d already saved multiple of his songs to my library, but ‘Summer Kills Me’ is my favourite for its uninhibited carefree singing and guitars that slide-tackle every chorus with wild abandon.

I bumped into them both at a very special live show after I spotted Jin and immediately hurried over to him asking “Pool and Muzzle right??” in a starstruck daze. It’s no secret how much I love Uchudan, but Pool and Muzzle are a new discovery from 2024 that I think so highly of, and I absolutely cannot wait to hear what’s next from Pool and Muzzle (which, according to Jin, will be an album featuring a new recording of ‘Summer Kills Me’!!!!!!!!).

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Situasion- ‘Punkdoll’

The sound of procrastination this year was Punkdoll playing on repeat as I played battle royale matches with uni friends way, way, way too late into the night, with lectures always starting at 9 am a few hours later. I’m not the best at shooters, but this song always throws me into a trance that at least makes me feel like I’m playing well. I love the sheer character all the members sing with, creating a really fun dissonance whenever one member’s upbeat voice would be followed by another’s moodier recitation, and vice versa.

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Airattic- ‘Lightning’

“Showtime”

I’ll continue to proclaim “I’m not really an idol guy” despite having somehow memorised the choreography to this song after rewatching its live performance so many times (and finally getting to see it performed in person, too).

I attended an Airattic oneman live with Azusa, who’s written multiple songs for Airattic, and it was profoundly special to watch the group perform ‘Ghost Girl Generation’ and ‘Film Reel of Our Youth’ next to him. (“You did an interlude for ‘Ghost Girl Generation’ as well??” “Haha, yeah!!”). I was right at the front of the crowd for the first few songs, but then moved some rows back shortly after because I was severely underprepared for what front row at such a packed idol show was like. However, as soon as I heard that unforgettable “…Odore…!” from the start of ‘Lightning, I immediately alerted Azusa “I’ve got to get to the front for this one, this is my favourite!!”.

Above all other Airattic songs (with ‘Appetizer’ and ‘Invisible’ following closely behind), ‘Lightning’ is my favourite because it accentuates the elements of idol groups that I love most: unrelenting power over the stage and uninhibited pride of spirit.

I look to idol groups as representing a chance for the different members to overlap their identities on stage through performance, in the same way bands do, and I think this inspiring strength is always so rewarding to pay attention to. I understand that it’s easy to get lost in the loudness of performances, but at the centre of Lightning’s coursing electric buzz is a bold, effortless cool that’s undeniable testament to the members becoming the embodiment of the song itself in that moment. Not every group may perform songs with such volume and speed, but ‘Lightning’ is a personal flashpoint that I love for cementing my appreciation for the willpower of idols.

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For Tracy Hyde- ‘Halation’ (2013)

In the lead-up to my interview with Azusa Suga, I made sure to go through all the relevant albums to be as prepared as possible. The music of For Tracy Hyde and AprilBlue were mainstays throughout the entire year, but I haven’t been able to satiate my curiosity in the original recording of ‘Halation’, which preceded its For Tracy Hyde recording by four years. The song’s core and arrangement remain largely unchanged between the two versions, which only makes it more interesting to hear how clear the vision and perfect the execution were of the 2013 release. My favourite element is hearing Azusa himself sing the lyrics, and all the differences in his vocal delivery compared to FTH vocalist Eureka’s later performance.

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Yubiori- ‘Guitar’

Discovering a band through their live performance is so distinct compared to their studio releases, and nothing makes you appreciate the moment more than realising you’re living through the memory you’ll always recollect as you listen to the band’s music in the future. With Yubiori, the song that immediately convinced me I had to buy their album as soon as I could was ‘Guitar’. The entire set shimmered with soul-baring declarations shouted into the mic, and ‘Guitar’ amplified this sentiment with its uplifting chorus always shouted in unison, followed by the most heartrending guitar solo imaginable that you can’t help but feel profound gratitude to hear. Their debut album is full of beautiful songs of similar power, but ‘Guitar’ defined their set for me and became one of my favourite songs to witness during my holiday.

“Here’s to life…. drown it out with your Guitar.”

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Sickufo- ‘happy tokato sadness’

Exhaustion, funnily enough, elevated my experience of this song far beyond what I could have appreciated had I been well-rested.

On the second floor of Ebisa BATICA, at an event hosted by Yukiguni, basking in orange luminescence: the room was set to draw in tired listeners with the promise of rest and renewal. Sickufo’s set was a moment to lull back, relinquish alertness, and resign myself to the static behind my tired eyelids; the ache in my heels and ankles; the stiffness in my shoulders underneath the straps of my backpack. ‘happy tokato sadness’ was my favourite song of theris fromt the performance, largely thanks to the left channel’s guitar and bass, riffing in synchronicity for perpetuity.

From just that one performance, Sickufo gave new meaning to what it meant to be laid back, and I recall their ethos whenever I find myself in a similar tired state to what I was in when I first saw them preach their gospel from atop their stage, to a crowd huddled in what may be the narrowest venue I’ve ever been in (which only made me love Batica even more).

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Su-Xing-Cyu- ‘Mr Cosmo’

Mr Cosmo must be an enduringly popular and celebrated song for it to have undergone two reinventions since its original recording, which I can personally attest to after participating in a live performance of the song in August.

I say ‘participating’ because, after my first visit to Tokyo, I realised that attending a live show isn’t about watching the song from the audience, but rather tangibly interacting with the music, and vice versa. This held true for all live shows I attended, but especially for the most energetic of them, like the Wienners/Su-Xing-Cyu two-man live performance at Yokohama F.A.D on August 29.

I was deadset on attending the show to see Wienners for the first time, and after surviving the front row of their show for almost a full hour, I planned to recoup my energy by hanging towards the back of the audience for Su-Xing-Cyu who were playing next, but thanks to the wonder of both the audience and band, I still ended up drawing the attention of the lead singer when he noticed “there’s a foreigner in the crowd!!”.

As per the live performance custom of ‘Mr Cosmo’, a queue formed in the centre of the audience that ran around in a large circle, and just as I joined the line, the singer requested to climb onto my shoulders for the duration of the chorus. The result is depicted in the following video, and lasted for what felt like an eternity as I ran with all my energy in that circle again, and again, and again, to the life-changing chant of “UFO, UFO, UFO come back down”:

@suxingcyu_official#四星球 #ライブ #バンド #fyp #オリジナル曲 #

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It was by virtue of multiple different factors that this night had such a significant bearing on my life, but this performance of ‘Mr Cosmo’ was the most spontaneous of them all: since this was my introduction to the song, how could the memory of being surrounded by so much smiling and laughter not dwell heavily upon my mind every time I hear it?

2024 Releases

Like A Dragon Gaiden- ‘Good Taste’

The Yakuza/Like a Dragon series has been an anchor for me amidst even the harshest of life’s storms, but most of the time, it’s the boss-battle set pieces and soundtracks that replay in my head the most. This year, however, a moment that stuck with me was coming across the customisation menu where, for the first time in HISTORY, we’ve been able to change Kiryu’s outfit to whatever we like, and they couldn’t have made a better theme to accompany this series-defining moment (in my opinion).

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Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance- ‘Battle (Qaditsu)’

I loved the original Shin Megami Tensei V when I played it upon release in 2021, but I never got my hopes up for a rerelease, despite ATLUS consistently demonstrating they have zero restraint when it comes to releasing new versions of their games.

With the original encapsulating so many positive memories within its playthrough, returning to the game to recall them all has been entirely worth it in itself, but the added content has kept it consistently engaging by always maintaining an element of surprise to see what else has been changed in this version. My favourite addition so far has been this particular battle theme which accentuates one of SMTV’s key concepts of reality warping beyond familiarity: my favourite element being the barely-audible human speech in the background that I always feel like I’m *almost* in enough proximity to understand, yet its spoken-word cadence remains blurred behind all the distortion, unintended to be comprehended by human ears.

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Wagamama- ‘Mo Man Tai’

The regret of not fitting this song into my top 10 of 2024 will haunt me forever, because Wagamama deserves infinite recognition for making such a cheerful, tongue-in-cheek celebration of one’s own happiness. The song’s message really stuck with me upon hearing it for the first time during their live performance, so much so that I asked them at their merch booth: “Which album has the second-last song you performed???”.

“The word '“wagamama” means “selfish” in Japanese. We don't care how other people think of our music. We're just creating WAGAMAMA MUSIC which we love!”

The song’s optimism has really stuck with me ever since I first heard it, with its message always echoing in my head on the busy and tiring days. I think its power is shown by how it was able to convince me that I don’t need a specific reason to feel happy or proud without complicated reasoning or prose, instead striking true at the heart by making me truly feel its message through its sound. I believe that was their exact intention for this song, given the detail of an audible heartbeat when Ryoko sings “My heart is still beating, working for a better future”.

Ichiro of Tokyo Karan Karon helped form Wagamama after he left his previous band, but earlier this year there was the announcement that he and their drummer will be leaving the band. It seems like Wagamama will thankfully still continue with vocalist Ryoko and bassist Shizupi, but this original lineup has an undeniable ability to create uplifting, roaring choruses, which I’m grateful to have been introduced to in person.

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Dempagumi.inc- ‘Shoubai Hanjou! Ganso Dempa-ya!’

Dempagumi.inc’s disbandment announcement hit everyone hard, but I’m always a believer in cherishing the goodness in goodbyes more than the laments.

And of course, like with any song he features on, my love for the final Dempagumi.inc work produced by Tamaya2060% is boundless, and a perfect tribute to the bond and legacy these musicians have shared. And just like so many of their prior collaborations, their final song together has Tamaya2060%’s sugar rush production sensibilities evoke elation beyond material measure.

By celebrating the legacy of Dempagumi.inc through likening to merchants who have perfected their craft to an inimitable level, it cements this reflection of their work as a group over the years as an irrefutable claim to a status that belongs only to them, one that warrants respect as much as it invites joy to have been a patron of theirs.

And my favourite part, of course, is the most beautiful of tributes in the form of paying respect to Tamaya2060%’s role in their history:

“Entrusting our thoughts and wishes to the harmony of the 2060th note

Pride born from repeated evolution, degradation, and revival.”

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T.M.P- ‘Virtual Air Rider’

‘Virtual Air Rider’ backoned to me as I was in a dazed state, recovering from seeing downt perform for the first time, at around 2AM(?). It speaks to that inner self that longs for digitalism of days gone by; memories of hallowed cyberspaces and endlessly basking in the glow of LCD light. I knew it was a special song when I found myself pulled into the moshing crowd (the first I’d ever been a part of). I didn’t understand exactly what it was that compelled me to jump in, but the feelings of nostalgia and joy it incited were all the justification I needed to celebrate.

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Cosame Chan- ‘Scorn’

‘Scorn’ was a jagged and unflinchingly direct introduction to Cosame Chan. I especially love how her words become increasingly hard to hold onto as she speaks through a telephone filter, harnessing the crashes around her to her every whim. The album cover itself is also one of the best I’ve ever seen: it’s the kind of opaque, unsettling familiarity found in between exhaustion and sleep, hallucination and dream.

The u-turn in tone when the next song ‘Incense’ plays makes ‘Scorn’ stick in my head even more: “Did I *really* just hear that?”.

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Layla- ‘Kono Mama’

What else could one expect from one of the strongest, most triumphant forces of the live house except yet another stroke of genius that demonstrates Layla’s ever-reliable talent at reconstructing themselves and their sound on a whim for every new song they release, sounding ever more victorious with every new page of history they pen with the beautiful words shared from their beautiful world?

Layla released 5 new songs this year, all of which have a plethora of reasons to all be considered perfect songs in their own right, but ‘Kono Mama’ is my favourite because they took a minimalist approach towards achieving their signature sonic feeling of loudness. They absolutely excel at controlling vast volumes, especially on the stage, and this song showcases another side to their prowess that speaks to me personally, given the focus of its lyrical content on accepting the ordinary as something special in its own right. I wrote about the song as a recommendation for This Side of Japan, which you can read here!

That being said, ‘Hit Song’ has a chorus that’s lingered in my mind for weeks now; Layla are masters of the studio just as much as they are legends on the stage.

(Unrelated to their 2024 releases, but here’s ‘Seaside’ and ‘Emma’ performed back to back, because there’s never a wrong moment to marvel at the power of these two songs.)

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Sun Soo Girl- ‘Tanoshii Sun Soo’

Imagine the coldest underground venue, dimly lit by suspended lights in the shape of orbs. I found myself there because Layla were performing, but I was completely unfamiliar with the night’s final act, who had organised the event. It was there and then that I had the pleasure of meeting Sun Soo Girl.

The song they walked onto stage to was Yasuyuki Okamura’s ‘Super Girl’, an extremely nostalgic sound to me that burned first impression into my memory forever. My favourite from the set was ‘Daijoubu’, but when their debut album released, I couldn’t get ‘Tanoshii Sansu’ out of my head. And true to its name: it’s a trilingual wonder that fully embodies fun.

They’re also one of the best-dressed bands out there! Shoutout to Tami, their former guitarist, who sadly left the band last year!

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NANAOAKARI featuring Tamaya2060%- ‘Nobody Knows Party’

It’s no surprise to see Tamaya2060%’s name appear on this list, but this feature introduced me to NanoAkarai, and their lyrical chemistry really surprised me after the song naturally integrated into my heavy rotation whilst studying: the rhythm and cadence of the lyrics exchanged back and forth between Tamaya and NanoAkari makes listening to the song feel like you’re caught in the middle of a conversation between the two as they muse over the moral and emotional facets of the human condition, and what better sound to theorise over than a sugar rush of synths?

Hyperactive songs with such emotion-driven contemplations have a special place in my heart because they’re the kind of topics I love to see represented with such vigour, and this demonstration of poetic achievement really makes me appreciate Nanaokari as an artist, whilst also renewing and reminding me of why Tamaya2060% is so inspiring to me.

“Who are you?”

“Who am I?? What’s the truth??”

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Pop Art Town- ‘Groovy Night’

Glittery synths and starry guitar ticks are always a nostalgic comfort for me. Never needlessly complicated, and a booming brass backing that kicks in at just the right moments to make the drop of the chorus all the more dramatic: this song stands out as an essential source of support all throughout the year, soundtracking countless nocturnal study sessions and daydream refrains. I haven’t been the most punctual in keeping up to date with Pop Art Town’s releases over the past few years, but I know I can always rely on their consistent, meticulous artistic presence.

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Yukiguni- ‘Jukai’

Yukiguni have rightfully taken the scene by storm ever since their debut, with the cover for their album ‘Pothos’ practically being omnipresent on Twitter in 2024. Even now, I still can’t believe that I saw them perform in a space as small and intimate as Ebisu Batica, given the way they’re always performing in giant venues to massive crowds.

Vocalist Kyo is so softly-spoken throughout the album, which is why ‘Jukai’ is my favourite song of theirs: its latter half explodes with instrumental turmoil, yet even as Kyo raises his voice to match in volume, his gentle effect shines ever brighter amidst such energy. This was the final song of their set that day, and I’ve been shellshocked from the ending’s silence ever since.

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Before getting to the final set of songs, I just want to give particular mentions to Kudaranai IchiNichi (My apologies to Kawai for neglecting his insane bass performances outside of downt) and Cephalo, as I enjoyed their music this year but just sadly didn’t get around to listening to them enough, which is something I thankfully corrected a little in 2025).

10.

The Floatings- ‘The Girl and The Heron/Natsu Sairai’

After forming earlier this year, The Floatings caught my attention after I saw one of their posts on social media. There’s an air of sincerity and ambition about the words they share and their operation as a band. After forming at the start of 2024, they later shared an announcement of their new lead singer, re:caco, and subsequently released their first two songs with their full member lineup.

It was through this release that I felt the united vision of the members: a personal, proud tribute to the music that shaped them, as well as their own front-facing aspirations and ideals. There’s so much heart in just these two songs already that it’s not enough to just say I enjoy their debut: I *believe* in it.

It was through these songs that I discovered re:caco’s work as Burnable/Unburnable, too, and her solo music made me appreciate The Floatings even more after seeing how adeptly she thrives in two very different styles of music. Guitarist Naoki Dendo also has such a vibrant fire behind his playing across the thunderous drops of ‘Natsu Sairai’ and the gentle hummings of ‘The Girl and The Heron’. It’s incredible to think that these musicians have only just started as a band, because this is the kind of chemistry that usually seems to take years to build.

It may seem simple, but their collective efforts in recording material and sharing their activities with fans online just feels like a breath of fresh. Something I’ve personally appreciated is how all of their Bandcamp email announcements, and many of their Twitter posts, have been written in English. I know for certain that The Floatings can reach far across the globe with their efforts and sound, and I’ll always be listening every step along that journey. (2025 edit: with the release of their debut album ‘Flowering’, The Floatings are continuing to flourish. They’re my personal pick as one of the most exciting new bands right now!).

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9.

ChoQMay- ‘Sister’

A dearly special new band to me, in part due to ChoQMay’s vocalist, Ulara Ultra, being the first musician I saw perform in person in Tokyo. After her performance, I voiced my immediate thoughts upon hearing her music: that her voice sounds like a whisper carried on ancient winds, sharing wisdom and stories from the distant past (which she found so interesting to hear when I spoke to her after the show).

The main song that gave me this impression was the chorus of ‘More Than Beauty’, but ‘Sister’ became my favourite song from their new album because the band’s performance showcases all of the members’ talents and exactly what makes them such a perfect group of musicians. They shine with confidence and charisma, with my favourite aspect of the song being keyboardist Renpi’s discordant keys that play all throughout the song, making the chorus’ serenity all the more impactful when all momentum is halted and only released at Ulara’s utterance of “Hey Sister”.

It’s also thanks to them that ‘ginghamcheck’ has become one of my new favourite words.

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8.

Dansa Med Dig- ‘Eyes Bright’

A new discovery made this year: Dansa Med Dig operate in Sendai, which in itself is so interesting as their sound is unlike anything heard in Tokyo, right now. Their approach to songwriting brings me back to memories of piecing together lyrics, arranging and rearranging them in my head, late into the night. Not only are their narratives so engaging, but every single one of their songs sound so different to eachother, which I absolutely love for creating such a refreshing listening experience. From all their gems (‘Startrail’, ‘The Last Light’, ‘Selfless Love’), my favourite has to be ‘Eyes Bright’ for its hazy soundscape reminiscent of a cloudy sunrise, the moment that burnt orange emerges from amidst the deep blue above: the exact same imagery depicted by its beautiful album cover.

As a band from Sendai, their role is so interesting to me given their distance from the scene in Tokyo. To me, their different approach is audible in the way they construct songs that sound specifically meant to envelop the senses and sink oneself deep into the homogeneity of their own personal world and that of the music, in a manner that only a pair of headphones and a nocturnal setting can afford.

And who knows, I might be delving into their music further in another future article.

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7.

Ponderosa May Bloom- ‘Lovesick’

Ponderosa May Bloom is a hugely interesting group thanks to their immense potential: of course, it’s worth noting that the group is produced by Haruki, and managed by Azusa, of AprilBlue, but the talent of the group’s members is blindingly dazzling, both to hear on their songs and witness on stage. The members were all selected from auditions last year, which makes their performances all the more impressive as they’re all still in their first year as Ponderosa May Bloom.

I’m far from well-versed in idol groups, but the group bridges the worlds of idols and bands in a really unique way thanks to their place in the landscape of Tokyo’s music (managed by the same agency as RAY and Airattic??!), and I think they absolutely thrive in this role. Their first EP, ‘Play of Colour’, released towards the end of 2024, but my favourite song from them was confirmed when I saw them live at Nishieifuku Jam, as the neon lighting drenching the stage is burnt into my memory as firmly as the synth melody that beckoned from the speakers above; ‘Lovesick’ showcases all the members’ singing abilities and chemistry through its unyieldingly sincere lyrics (written by Haruki, who deserves so much credit for writing such a heartfelt song), with my favourite part being Sayu’s verse after the first chorus, and as a result it easily wins out as my favourite from the new EP. The group is only just getting started, and I wholeheartedly believe their renown will grow to staggering heights with the momentum they’ve built already.

Sadly, Ponderosa May Bloom announced a temporary hiatus this year, with only Misa and Kaname remaining as members whilst auditions were held ahead of their re-debut in the summer. Even if the road has been rocky so far, the music they’ve released so far is still important: complementary to Airattic’s electric strength and RAY’s eclectic curiosity, Ponderosa May Bloom’s vulnerability stands towering, still.

https://x.com/pmbtokyo/status/1827344515306549468/video/1

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6.

Kuni- ‘Huge Moon’

My first memory of interacting with Kuni was seeing photos of Penguin no Yuuutsu’s second EP release party where Arisa, Kuni’s singer, joined them on stage for the performances of ‘Reason’ and ‘Taidaimu’. The parallels and intersections of artists’ paths are so interesting to me because they map the grander scale and state of the current music scene, and this performance has stuck with me ever since that day, because it reminds me of the spirit of collaboration that I have so much faith in. This introduction spurred me to listen to her band, which in turn instilled a vested interest in Kuni’s music as a result.

Their next single release after this performance was ‘Huge Moon’ in 2024, and it left a stark impression on me from the way they harness the feeling of vastness, particularly with Arisa’s voice soaring with the rising instrumental force bellowing as a wind at her back. Kuni announced a cassette pressing of the song, which I just knew I had to get sometime during my holiday!

I was so lucky to see Kuni perform on the 1^st of September last year, however it was the only live show that I arrived late to, and I’d sadly just missed their performance of Huge Moon by the time I’d made it up the stairs to the venue. As excited as I was to hear this song in particular, their entire set was a sight and sound for sore senses (and limbs, given all the walking I’d been doing in Tokyo).

Even if I didn’t hear it that day, the rest of their performance made it easy to forget my lateness, and my love for this song is so great that I have no qualms counting the days until I next have a chance to hear it, because it’s one of the songs that makes my heart the heaviest. (2025 edit: my prayers were answered, and I was blessed to finally hear ‘Huge Moon’ live when I visited Tokyo again this year).

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5.

Kohaku- ‘Hajiketa’

Kohaku’s first EP, ‘In My Room’, radiated a refined lustre during my first listen: its sound so expansive that I love to completely immerse myself in it, yet the vocals are always so, so close by: I love how they were recorded to contrast with the frigid instrumental vastness.

It’s a presentation of the permeance of thoughts and ambience: where they intersect, reflect, mirror, and intertwine. It makes for such a potent experience, still clear in my mind even without having been included in the setlist of the 8/18 performance I saw.

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4.

Cat Meows- ‘Midori’

When I think about how my path crossed with Cat Meows’, there’s no plausible explanation for it other than fate. I had multiple interactions and conversations with guitarist Koma in early 2024, only learning after our first conversation that he played for a seemingly new band called ‘Cat Meows’. Months later, in June, Tana of Penguin no Yuuutsu and Ogushi of Catt worked together to organise a live show to coincide with my first visit to Tokyo (which in itself is one of the kindest gifts I have ever received), and Cat Meows had responded to their invitation to perform, alongside Aprilblue!

Even though my visit to Tokyo had been delayed by 2 weeks due to falling ill, and I was thus unable to attend the performance, I still hold the show dearly close to my heart because of the effort and intention behind Tana and Ogushi’s organisation of the event (I was able to catch most of the sets on the online livestream; a few streaming hiccups interrupted the recording!).

It feels strange to type out, but throughout it all, I feel like I’ve grown alongside Cat Meows: hearing their name in conversation, to then greeting them in person just a handful of months later, and then being spurred by the support of their music in the pursuit of my own goals. My favourite song from their 2024-released EP ‘Living’ is ‘Midori’: Yoshida narrates her tale of rescinding hopefulness for lethargy with tone-perfect cadence that makes it so easy to get lost in repeat listenings, the guitars striking like never-ending thunder between my ears.

In 2025, Cat Meows had a short hiatus after three of the four members left the band. Guitarist and vocalist Yoshida confirmed that she’d still be a part of Cat Meows, and the future looks far from uncertain for the band as Cat Meows has now established a new member lineup! I have every reason to believe this is only just the beginning of Cat Meows’ journey, and I know Yoshida has more than what it takes to carry the name onwards to, and beyond, infinity.

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3.

Tiny Yawn- ‘Yellow Parrot’

‘Yellow Parrot’ has become so special to me because upon the hallowed stage of Shimokitazawa Era, where some of my favourite artists had just performed in succession, this song reminded me of the simple wonder of being present and able to witness this event. Even though I’d been listening to this song through my headphones repeatedly over the few weeks prior, suddenly having the opportunity to hear it live was an undeniable marvel: my personal journey with the song over a few short summer weeks culminated in watching its performance from an attentive audience, hyper-localising the song to my summer of 2024: I quickly grew to hold Tiny Yawn in such high regard in the span of just a few weeks.

My favourite song from the EP (previously released as a single in 2021), however, is ‘Somewhere’. Sadly not performed in their live set, but still present in my heart that day nonetheless. It’s just so jubilant and busy, with tangential, meandering scales and chords popping up all throughout the ever-marching song’s playback.

Another favourite from their album ‘Tiny Raft’ is ‘Yoake no Hoshi’. It walks such a fine line between gentle and tumultuous, always catching me between two states of being and feeling.

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2.

Ivy- ‘Yuriko ha Jukai’

iVy are a necessary existence; they’re irreplaceable and inimitable in the current landscape of music.

With their first-ever release being of such quality, it’s a given that it’s their talent and drive as musicians which have propelled them to such heights already.

Hearing their music in person was like entering hallowed ground, existing in limbo between my own memories and the present I was living in, yet all tinged with the same hyper-specific feeling of longing. ‘Hello Phia!” channel that emotion with fondness, but ‘Yuriko ha Jukai’ is my favourite song because its sound is akin to drowning oneself with a forlorn lament and torturous regret: the intro notes akin to witnessing the moon fall from its place in the sky, astral calamity raining upon anguished souls crying out for refrain. It’s so overwhelming, and I struggle to think of any other work of art that’s made me feel that exact way before.

Yet even when oscillating between phases and forms, it incites a hyper-specific feeling of nostalgic longing for the time and space their music lives in, materialising the recollection of childhood memory snapshots: catching glimpses of the full moon as its light painted the walls of dark hallways at midnight, or the midday sun’s promise of a vast outside world on the other side of my bedroom’s window, now forever out of reach as it only exists in the past.

And yet, the song feeling like a lonely light in the dark only makes it more of a comfort to hear. iVy’s music invites to a world where there’s no distinction between good and bad memories, or maybe it’s a mirror that reflects our sentiments in a way we hadn’t ever considered before.

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1. Catt- ‘Town of Silver’

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to Catt’s latest album ‘At The End of Corridor’ from start to finish. It’s the first time I’ve been able to form a connection with an album so far ahead of its release, as I’d hear anecdotes and ideas for the project in my conversations with lead guitar and vocalist Ogushi, many of which took place after we’d finished interviewing another artist. It’s a special work to me, because so many of its lyrics remind me of various different thoughts and ideas he and I have exchanged over the past two years. I see it as a truly transparent and authentic album.

My favourite song from the album has to be ‘Town of Silver’ because of the quiet vulnerability it contains amidst the loudness and assertiveness of the preceding tracks. And as the last song on the album, I couldn’t think of a more perfect note to finish on.

It was impossible for me to decide on a single, absolute favourite song of the year, and so I found it easiest to attribute the title to three different works that defined my year the most.

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1.

Downt- Underdrive’

Lured in with hazy ambience, pushed down a path of no return as momentum immediately starts to build the very second Yui’s guitar manifests. The sheer number of twists and turns in the song feels like trying to find my way in the dark, guided by whispered contemplations, singling out their words amidst the building urgency of the sound around.

Yui’s vocalising is also a force to be reckoned with, as she builds up with just as much fierce intensity as Kawai and Robert with their respective instruments, up until the moment where my mind feels like it’s being throttled by their rapid strums, oscillating back and forth relentlessly for what always feels like an eternity of duress, ending only with a bite that sinks deeper and deeper with every tick of Yui’s guitar, impulse of Kawai’s bass, and spike of Robert’s drum.

The entirety of ‘Underlight and Aftertime’ inspires exponentially-increasing awe as it plays, something you can only understand through listening, but ‘Underdrive’ is the most remarkable to me for being such a powerful album-opener, and the song that was most special to witness live: an unforgettable ambience was invited into the venue by the song’s performance, one unlike any other I’ve ever felt, and I’m honoured I was able to feel that power at two different shows performed on the same day.

That being said, I also have immense fondness for Ex-Rengoku, and ‘Prank’ is a beast of a song that’s truly incomparable to anything I’ve ever heard before. There’s so much to cherish within this album that a small segment in one article could never cover all that I love about it.

But an interview might help.

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The Slow Films- ‘Pool’

My favourite EP of 2024, funnily enough, was released in the last few days of 2023.

‘Pool’ is a perfect song: it builds such a monument of longing upon a foundation of vulnerability, fashioned with steadfast mourning, and then buried beneath opaque depths. I can’t think of many other songs that lead so bravely, strongly, and confidently with *that* mournful feeling and sound, and that’s what makes me cherish it so much. Perfectly in-character for a song of its name: I love how the song not only invited me in to feel, but also reflect: a kind of psychological homogeny where my own memories shone back at me in congruence with the mental image of the shimmering world shared with me. The synchronicity between Shota’s bass and Asami’s strums in the final stretch of the song is tear-inducing to behold, and with the incomparable, powerful vulnerability of Miku’s guiding voice, there simply isn’t another song out there to evoke emotional earthquakes quite so revelatory.

I knew I couldn’t compromise when it came to the opportunity to hear this song in person: it was a no-brainer to attend their live show, even if it meant missing the first few acts of the all-day party I also planned to attend afterwards (I had to forgo a set from Necry Talkie in order to stick around long enough for The Slow Films’ performance; sorry Mossa!). It was every bit as fulfilling as I’d imagine it to be, and the perfect way to spend my penultimate day in Tokyo.

Even though it took me much, much longer to publish this article than it should have, I’m still happy to finally put it out there. There’s no time limit on the relevance and importance of music, after all. I hope there’ve been some new discoveries here, or alternative perspectives on already familiar songs!

Now on to writing the 2025 roundup.

-Mustafa

I rarely find myself using the word ‘rockstar’ to describe musicians, but Manatsu Nagahara is an artist whose presence is so much larger than life that I can’t think of a more befitting title.

Discographies, to me, are tapestries woven by musicians, and my focus is always on the work they share with the world: the gently-woven threads comprising the most colourful of works. I covet the transparency of her identity in her art: I can’t pinpoint a single other voice like hers that can make hearts tremble in awe just from the volume and radiance of happiness it shouts into the world. Like so many other important moments in my life, a fateful encounter with just one song, ‘Yeah!’ by her band Sebastian X, shook its words, singing, and sounds into my perception of those summer days, to ring in my memory forevermore.

The legacy of her work casts a shadow as grand as that of her identity: encompassing different eras and cultural cosms, sheltering innumerable listeners with every step she’s made along her journey, with myself as one of them, hence my joy and honour to have had the opportunity to speak to her for this interview!

An Interview with Manatsu Nagahara

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1.

Mustafa: “Hello Ms Nagahara!! How’s your day been, how’ve you been in general?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “It’s been raining a lot in Tokyo lately, but today it’s finally cleared up, so my emotions and feelings are really great!”

Mustafa: “I’m happy to hear that! I imagine it’s really early for you over there in the afternoon. It’s 5am here, so I’ve been awake all night preparing for this interview!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “*laughs* Oh thank you!!”

Mustafa: “Congratulations on your recent release of ‘Musicalium’ from Otosata! I really like how different the album is from the music you’ve released before. What has it been like since the album released? How have your fans responded to the music, and what’s it been like going on the tour for the album?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “The tour started last year after the album’s release in September, so it’s been a 4-5 month long tour which ended last month. We’re taking a little break, a short breathing moment for us.

One of the themes of ‘Musicalium’ is the therapy and healing power of music. We wanted it to be therapeutic to hear. We chose this theme because I was visiting the hospital (for some issues) last year, so we wished for this album to be listened to whenever you feel sick or unwell: a therapy for everyone, including the female audience whenever they experience hormone imbalances, so that the music can help them through this time. After the tour we even heard from some fans who had mental health difficulties or chronic health difficulties, about how they felt really happy with the album and that it’s worked as a therapy for them, which we were really honoured to hear!”

Mustafa: “I’m sorry to hear of the challenges you were facing last year with your health! I think it’s really amazing how you were able to transform that experience into inspiration for wanting to make music that’s therapy for your listeners. I haven’t often heard of music being made as medicinal therapy, so I’m interested in your perspective on music being used therapeutically: have you encountered this idea before, or do you feel like you’ve tapped into something quite new?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “When creating ‘Musicalium’, we were doing a lot of trail and error in our recording sessions with the arrangements of the songs. We listen to the arrangement and judge if it’s relaxing or too intense. During this process we were measuring the music through our bodies: how our bodies reacted to the sounds, which is how the album was constructed for the purpose of being therapeutic. I’d been listening to therapeutic music myself as well, one of which was ‘Mother Earth’s Plantasia’ by Mort Garson. One of the key phrases for this album is that it’s “music for plants to listen to”. Though it’s electronic music, it’s really soothing and the opposite of intense feeling. I listened to this album a lot and found it to be really therapeutic for myself!”

Mustafa: “That reminds me of the name ’Musicalium’. When I first saw it, it made me think of music in its most base form, it sounds like the name of an element, but now after hearing your story, am I right to think ‘Musicalium’ is named as what you would consider to be the medical nature of music?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “It actually relates more to the ideas of ‘Aquarium’, or ‘Planetarium’, like a box or safe place for the audience to be in and something that protects them, so that the listener can feel free within that protected place of music. That’s what we want for the album to be!”

Mustafa: “Oh I see!!

The healing side of the album also reminds me of the music video you made for ‘Beautiful Forest’, where in the video you have a friendly monster who’s been injured who you end up taking care of and healing. Not only do I find the song really sweet, but it made me very emotional watching it as well. It’s very different from the music videos of the earlier music you’ve made, and I wanted to express appreciation for that song and video in particular!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Thank you very much!! The director of the music video was inspired by the song itself, and made the whole story of the music video, so I myself really liked seeing the story too!”

Mustafa: “I noticed that the last performance you did for the ‘Musicalium’ tour was held in a church, and I found that really really interesting because I haven’t really heard of musicians performing in churches in Japan before. I see that place as linking in strongly to the album’s healing nature through the spiritual aspect of a church. What does spirituality mean to you, and is it related to you decision to perform the final show at the church?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Churches in Japan, though it is rare, are sometimes used as music venues, and the church is likely to be designed with good acoustics in mind. A church is a place where people gather, as well as the wishes they all have, and their emotions and feelings, they all gather in that one place, which is why we wanted to perform there on the tour.

I’m really drawn to the spiritual side of everyday prayer, life, and habits. Even though Japanese people aren’t said to have a specific religion to believe in, there are some daily prayers like wishing for peoples health, or when we visit a shrine we’d perform a prayer, to me those acts are really strongly tied to our daily lives, and it has a connection with our physical and mental states, so it’s one of the important pieces of the music that I make!”

Mustafa: “Would you say from the start, when you first formed SEBASTIAN X in 2008, that spirituality had a big role in your music? The kind of music SEBASTIAN X was making was very different to what Otosata makes, so I’m curious if there is a distinction between the two groups in that regard!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Yes, it’s been part of myself and my music since the beginning!”

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2.

Mustafa: “Otosata is formed of you and your bandmate Ari. I’m very interested in your connection to Ari, because she was there when SEBASTIAN X first formed, and even with your solo music she’s helped with performances, so it seems clear that you’re both really really close! What story do you both share, and what is it like working together?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “We met when I was in my first year of high school, when I was 16! In the beginning, I wanted to form a band so I was looking for a classmate who likes music to work with. At first we were together for the music, but now it feels much more like family! I believe that the relationship with people you’re in a band with ends up showing in the music made and performed together. When performing live, we do shopping or have some tea beforehand, and even when we’re not making music we spend a lot of time together, and we travel together too! It feels like we’re family now!”

Mustafa: “I’ve noticed that the connection you share with Ari must be special as seen in your music, and with how

I remember when I first noticed her present in both SEBASTIAN X and then your solo performances afterwards, and it must be amazing to have a connection that’s lasted for so long!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Thank you!!”

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3.

Mustafa: “SEBASTIAN X has been a very big part of your life and career, and musically the group was really big and influential. How did SEBASTIAN X end up coming together with Yutaka and Ryota? From what I’ve read in interviews, and from what I’ve seen and heard of the group, you all share a very special connection, so how did it form in the first place?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I might be missing some details, it was many years ago, but it was formed from a community of music fans in the local town. Myself and Ari were part of the community, and many bands were formed from within there. SEBASTIAN X was formed when I was 20 as a guitar-less band, but around 3 years prior we’d formed a traditional group with drums, bass, keyboard, and guitar. However when the guitarist left the band, we decided to form a guitar-less trio/band, which became known as SEBASTIAN X. At this point, we all already knew eachother, we’d been making music together for 3 or 4 years, even as a cover band at one point.”

Mustafa: “The absence of a guitar really stood out to me when I discovered SEBASTIAN X, particularly how this absence was specifically mentioned in the band’s biography. With the guitar being such a staple for bands everywhere, what was the specific intention behind the conscious decision to keep the guitar out of SEBASTIAN X when your guitarist left?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “One of the reasons we stayed guitar-less was because we couldn’t exactly pinpoint what kind of guitarist we wanted in the band. Thinking of rock bands, it might be a very unusual thing to have absent, but thinking of jazz bands or other genres, a guitar-less formation isn’t really uncommon, so we thought we could learn from these other kinds of bands. We didn’t really think about it too hard, we just went along with it!”

Mustafa: “With that array of inspirations, after all these years of SEBASTIAN X, how do you define the group? Is there a specific group it can belong to, or does it not really belong to any one label?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Though we were in scene with bands of the same age as us, we were musically distinct from the others. One of the reasons I think this is, while we’d formed as a pop band, the first style of music we were drawn to was punk, so in the spirit of punk we’ve done many things, like plugging the bass into both bass and guitar amps, or having our keyboard run into overdrive effect. We were creating our own kind of sound, in the spirit of punk rather than creating for the sake of being experimental. Even now in retrospect, we still believe SEBASTIAN X is a completely unique band in this regard.”

Mustafa: “When I first heard SEBASTIAN X, it was the song ‘Yeah!’, I was really really blown away by that sound as I’d not heard something exactly like it, and to this day ‘Yeah!’ is one of my absolute songs from SEBASTIAN X, and the cover for its EP is one of my favourites for any music release, I truly love it so much!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “*Gasps at mention of ‘Yeah!’* Thank you!!”

On a sullen summer night in 2021, in between the rejoicing of lengthy Sonic Heroes marathons, did I come across SEBASTIAN X’s ‘Yeah!’. Its defiant playfulness lit my room up, and I found myself replaying the song over and over, mesmerised by the sequence of the music video’s title card drop being followed by the segment of Mantasu Nagahara eating spaghetti to the backing of the bass and keys’ roars.

Mustafa: “In the past you’ve described SEBASTIAN X as a group that operated through its members often disagreeing. I’m interested in that model of creating music, building upon disagreements with compromises, and how the result would be something special due to being made from the overlaps where disagreeing members could decide on something together. How do you feel about that as a model for making music, and do you feel like it was a sustainable way of making music?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “When creating music in this way, our personal philosophies and aesthetics would be tested a lot of the time because when members disagreed, we’d ask ourselves why we like/prefer things so specifically, what can be changed, what cannot be changed, and our personal preferences would be sharpened and strengthened by this process. In this aspect, those interactions were really creative and productive. Also, we were young during the start of SEBASTIAN X, we didn’t really know how the world or society worked, so during that time we had a lot of deep and interesting interactions through music that made us grow, not only musically but also as people. As teenagers and in our early 20s, we really didn’t know many things like how to work as a group, but having those interactions with eachother really made us learn a lot about ourselves. Even though I think that there were some disagreements that could have been avoided if we had more knowledge and maturity, at the same time those relationships really helped us grow, and I think that in itself is creative and productive.”

Mustafa: “I think that really shines through in the music of SEBASTIAN X, and I’m really grateful that SEBASTIAN X was able to exist in a way that made music in such a unique and inspiring way!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Thank you!!”

Mustafa: “Has that dynamic continued with your ongoing partnership with Ari, or is it different when it’s just you two working together?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “It changed gradually! When doing SEBASTIAN X, the only form of communication we were familiar with was how the band members spoke to eachother: we had to supplement our musical expressions with our own words. But now having worked with many other musicians, it feels like I can communicate with other musicians despite any differences in life paths we’ve taken or music genres we have as backgrounds. It feels like now we can communicate with eachother within the music, and understand how eachother is feeling and why. Now it feels like we can have all of those interactions of communication in the music itself.”

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4.

Mustafa: “Obviously SEBASTIAN X ended up becoming really really big, and the band went on hiatus at one point as well. How do you perceive the legacy of SEBASTIAN X, what it’s come to represent, and its status in the music scene?”

MN: “SEBASTIAN X was our seishun (youth), and we were the generation that was in the transition between the analog and internet generations. The YouTube/SNS were available at the time, but at the same time we were taught a lot of the culture and traditions from the analog, offline era. It feels like the band has a lot of fun elements from that specific, inbetween, transitional generation.”

Mustafa: “Your answer is really enlightening because I hadn’t really considered it in that way before, but it reminds me of when I first saw the music video for ‘GO BACK TO MONSTER’, which is one of my favourite SEBASTIAN X songs, it did feel like a time-capsule that captured the style and the mannerisms of songs and music videos from earlier generations, it didn’t feel like it was from a fully, newer Digital era. I was really surprised because the recording quality of the music video was really really high, much higher than what would be expected from a video released during that time, but I thought that the way it was put together was so unique and it felt like looking into the past in a way. I just love that song so, so much!

There’s one lyric in the song which has really really stuck with me and inspired me so much, “Kimi no me ni utsuru no wa kagayaku sekaidesu kaaa?” (“Is it a sparkling world that’s reflected in your eyes?”), I love it so much, it’s such a beautiful, beautiful lyric! Ever since I heard it, not only did it make me fall in love with SEBASTIAN X, but also the imagery of a shining world seen through your eyes really gave me an insight into your imagination and artistic vision, and ever since then I’ve been completely fascinated by your music!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I’m so so happy to hear that, thank you so much, truly!”

Mustafa: “Before changing topic: can you remember much of the actual recording of the video for Go Back to Monster?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Yes, I remember, the polka dots everywhere!”

Mustafa: “Yeah! Something I’ve always thought about when watching that video is when you’re seen with the band, and you’re wearing one type of outfit, and then in certain parts of the song you appear on your own in a dark room and you’re wearing horns. I always interpreted that as representing ‘the monster inside’, so I wanted to ask what the intention was behind that video, because I’ve seen it so many times and that’s been my interpretation of the work!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Yes, it means exactly what you feel! The video represents the inner and outer selves!”

Mustafa: “I’m happy I was able to pick up on its meaning even without immediately understanding all the lyrics! I wanted to say that the song is absolutely genius, and I wanted to express my gratitude because it’s been one of the songs I listen to the most, even if it came out over a decade ago!”

‘Go Back to Monster’ is hallowed ground to me. It’s definitely the music video I’ve rewatched the most. I love how much fun everyone is having, especially bassist Ryota’s expressions as he leaps about whilst playing, and when Yutaka strikes the camera with pie. There are so many fun techniques and tricks used in the video that make it feel like a never-ending rollercoaster, yet I could tell the part that kept drawing me in to experience it all again and again was when Manatsu Nagahara stares right into the camera as her surroundings are darkened, with that faint glint of light reflected in her eyes as she holds her unflinching stare and asks: “Is it a sparkling world that’s reflected in your eyes?”

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5.

Mustafa: “The previous Otosata album before Musicalium was a cover album, I think it only featured one original song, so I’m very interested in why you wanted to release an album dedicated to covers. I know as part of SEBASTIAN X you covered ‘Suu Da Ra Bushi’, and the act of covering a song is really special in itself, so I wanted to know the specific intention behind releasing this cover album.”

Manatsu Nagahara: “It’s actually really simple: I want to sing the songs that I like! *laughs*.”

Mustafa: “*laughs* The first song I heard from Otosata was from that album, your cover of ‘64’ by SuiseiNoboAz. I found it really funny to hear you sing “I miss you mother fucker” *everyone laughs*, it was really suprising and funny to me!

I know you’ve worked with some of SuiseiNoboAz’s members in the past, and have toured together as well, so I wanted to ask about your connection to them!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “SuiseiNoboAz were already around when I started SEBASTIAN X, so they could be considered SEBASTIAN X’s senpai! They’ve been really close with us ever since we started. Their guitar player, Takano, has played with me on my solo work too! We are really close, and the reason why I covered ‘64’ was because I really liked its lyrics in particular!”

I could never tire of comparing the two versions of ‘64’ and marvelling at how whimsically Manatsu Nagahra captured the sentiments of such a brash, thrashy song with such an elegant cover.

Mustafa: “When I first discovered SEBASTIAN X and came across the video for ‘Suu Da Ra Bushi’, which was filmed somewhere in America, I noticed in the video that you’re wearing a hoodie with ‘MUSASHINO CITY written on it *Matasu Nagahara laughs*, which I recognised as merchandise from the band Wienners!

Immediately I knew “Manatsu Nagahara must be a fan of Wienners!”, and then I came across the remix that Tamaya2060% did for ‘Yeah!”, and learnt that you’ve both performed with each other many times in the past. On Otosata’s cover album too, you covered Wienners’ song ‘Rescue Ranger’, so I’m very very interested to hear about your history with them, since they’re one of my other favourite bands!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “It was purely coincidental that I was wearing my ‘MUSASHINO CITY’ hoodie in the video, it was just the hoodie I was wearing that day! *laughs*

Wienners used the same rehearsing studio as us, so we would bump into eachother 2 or 3 times a week! We became close friends as a result. We also had the same home venue, Kichijoji WARP, and I also still play music together with Wienners’ first keyboard player, Machiko!”

Mustafa: “I was so excited to ask about that, since Wienners are so special to me, and I feel like I’ve uncovered treasure through your answer!

Alongside Rescue Ranger, which other Wienners songs are your favourite?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “’6.A.M’ and ‘Love Me Tender’ come to mind! I love their album ‘Diamond’ a lot! We toured together a lot around the time of that album’s release, and I watched them perform that album’s songs a lot; I couldn’t stop crying during those performances!”

*I sing the first line of ‘6.A.M’ upon hearing it mentioned, which Ms Nagahara responds to with applause*

Mustafa: “Given his remix of ‘Yeah!’ and his appearances as a support act at one of your solo shows as well: what has your working relationship been like with Tamaya2060%? I really wanted to ask because you and Tamaya2060% have been two of the most impactful and inspiring musicians to me!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Like you, I also feel that his musical talent is so unique: I have a lot of respect for him, and that’s always been present when we’ve worked together!”

It’s no surprise to the people who know me that I’d mention Wienners in some capacity wherever relevant, but here especially it feels incredibly appropriate because of the history shared between these two special groups and the impacts they’ve had on eachother; I can’t help but feel grateful for how fate led me down a path of discovering these ties between different artists I liked.

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6.

Mustafa: “SEBASTIAN X went on hiatus in 2015, and I read about how shortly afterwards you visited the US, which you described as being a really enlightening visit. You’d visited the country before for the ‘Suu Da Ra Bushi’ music video.

What value has America had for you specifically across your different visits to the country, and what does travel mean to you?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “After that last live performance before the hiatus, I was on the plane the very next day to visit the US. I visited New York, Philadelphia, LA, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and San Fransico. I can’t really remember the order!

I like travelling not only to the US, but also within Japan. For me, it puts the issues and challenges of my life into perspective when I witness the scale of the world around me, making them feel like small matters.

The last live performance before the hiatus was really exciting for me and I was really hyped up, but 24 hours later I was already on the plane to fly abroad. When I arrived in Manhatten I rented a bicycle and rode around: even after that really exciting live performance, even though I was so hyped up, the world had kept moving: it was just a normal day in New York when I got there. That perspective it grants me is really soothing to me.

From what I can remember, the first experience I had like that was when I visited Paris. After that experience, I realised how small the issues in my life are, and it gave me the courage to live freely in the world. My visit to the US brought that perspective back to me, so now even small trips in Japan are so important to me.”

Mustafa: “One of the first time I noticed your affinity for travel was through the video for your song ‘Asonnde Ikkiyou’, which was filmed in Taiwan during your tour. I noticed in the video how you were able to get along with the locals there really easily, like you were in your element! That’s another song I have a deep appreciation for, too!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Thank you for watching so attentively!”

Mustafa: “The song features the English lyrics ‘Do the eat, do the work, do the sleep, what is the music?’ which I thought was a really fun rhetorical question. I feel like so many people worry too much about artistic inspiration, or trying to define the meaning of music, while this lyric outlines how the reality of our lives is the essence of the music we hear and create! It’s so inspiring for me to think about!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Yes! The question of ‘what is the music?’, I feel, is something unique to every single person that hears it: someone’s passion in life is what would be their own definition of music. It’s a really big and important question even for myself!”

Mustafa: “I hope we’re all able to get closer to answering that particular question!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I really hope so, too!”

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7.

Mustafa: “I saw photos and videos of the 2015 live performance, seeing how much of an emotional moment it was. After the hiatus started, you began releasing music as ‘Manatsu Nagahara and Super Good Band’. It feels like going from one band to another. During this time period, what was your motivation to create music in this way, as opposed to going fully solo?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I perceived myself as more of a band person rather than a solo musician, so for me it felt really natural to form the band for my next work, as opposed to operating as a solo musician.”

Mustafa: “How would you describe the difference between the recent music you’ve released solo as Manatsu Nagahara, compared to the music as ‘Manatsu Nagahara and Super Good Band’? They’re both solo work in the way that they exist outside of SEBASTIAN X, but they’re distinguished in who the music is by.”

Manatsu Nagahara: “In retrospect, I feel like ‘Manatsu Nagahara and Super Good Band’ was a band in the end, rather than a solo endeavour. The members of Super Good Band had a lot of influence on the music, after all.

The music I’ve released under my own name is more flexible, choosing the musicians to work with on a song-to-song basis. I really want to focus on the essence of myself when releasing music under my own name!”

Mustafa: “SEBASTIAN X’s hiatus eventually ended, but they haven’t released any music in the past few years. Manatsu Nagahara and Super Good Band haven’t done much in recent years either, while Otosata and your solo music have been the main focuses in recent years, so I’m wondering what the status of those two bands are!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Super Good Band was officially disbanded in 2019, which is when I formally transition to operating as a solo musician. As for SEBASTIAN X, even though we restarted the band, it’s now in a kind of state of hiatus again. We’ve been hanging out and talking to eachother, so we’re all getting along, but it’s not like we’ve actively planned any activities yet.”

Mustafa: “I look forward to the day that SEBASTIAN X returns again, but as of late I just been enjoying your solo music so much, particularly how different it is to your earlier music! I hope that regardless of what form it takes, you’re able to continue making music that you’re happy with and passionate about expressing!”

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8.

Mustafa: “With SEBASTIAN X’s hiatus in 2015, it must’ve been a really big deal for fans and the band at the time. Do you have any specific memories that you can recall from that last live show at the time?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I cried a lot! In a lot of my live performances I often cry, but for that live show I didn’t find myself crying until the encore. In the last moment, I finally broke into tears, and there were so many words and emotions that I previously couldn’t express which all came out at once. I still remember the words that I said: ‘Let’s do the band when we all grow up, together, again!’. The words came out so naturally in the moment. Even though we’re kind of on hiatus again, those words still feel true, and that promise has still stuck with me!”

Since the interview took place, Sebastian X thankfully returned once again for a live show this year in February! Even if for just one performance this year, it’s breathtaking to witness that promise be remembered, kept, and upheld for a decade.

Mustafa: “That especially resonates with me a lot based on my perception of your music. In your recent solo album, when I first heard the song ‘One Eyed Rockstar’, I noticed that your voice was different, it sounded so mature, and the song was being sung from a very different perspective to the songs you sang in SEBASTIAN X. I’m interested in your idea of growing up, because I read in an interview that you said ‘I want to grow up slowly, because I want to grow up with my listeners’. I’m interested in that balance you want to strike between that innocence that I detect strongly in your music, as well as the maturity from growing up.”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Growing up and maturing is really important, and I feel like everyone should have their own pace. It’s okay if sometimes you mature a lot in one year, or sometimes stay the same for four years. Everyone has their own timing for growing up in some aspects. It doesn’t have to be done by a strict time.

In music I always try to present the truest, exact reflection of myself, so it doesn’t make sense to lie in music. So wherever I’m mature or immature, it’ll be in the music; wherever I’ve matured, I’d have enjoyed that process of growing up, and that’ll also be reflected in the music. Even if I’ve become more immature, I still want that all to be reflected in the music.”

Mustafa: “You describe yourself as the ‘Rock Star of the Fancy World’ in your Twitter biography, and of course the song ‘One-Eyed Rockstar’ conveys a lot about your perspective on yourself in relation to the outer world. What does the word ‘rockstar’ mean to you?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I don’t have a specific answer, but something that I really look up to and admire is an icon who clings to people’s hearts. That’s something I really aspire to be, it’s a certain and ideal aesthetic to me.”

Mustafa: “Given that aesthetic, how do you feel about all the different people throughout the years who have interpreted your music? How do you feel knowing that there are so many people who are big fans of yours, and spend a lot of time contemplating your words and music, and being perceived as a musican through your art?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I’m happy that others listen and engage with my music, but a lot of the time I don’t make music because I expect people to understand or know how I feel, rather it’s kind of the opposite: I often start off making music based on the feelings I have that I think may not be conveyable or understandable. I don’t think about whether it can be conveyed through music or not, I write music simply because those unconveyable feelings that I have are there.

Despite those feelings seeming unconveyable, that same music still reaches out to people and connects me to them. That kind of process happens a lot, not only in music but in ordinary life, like how something negative could somehow bring positivity into your life. I feel like that happens to all of us constantly throughout life, and while I can’t really explain how, music is full of that same transformation process. So creating music to be heard by others is not only a source of happiness for me, but it’s also brings me hope. I’m really grateful for it, and it’s become an important part of me.”

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9.

Mustafa: “Something I’ve noticed ever since I discovered SEBASTIAN X is that your voice is always so full of character and energy, and I feel like the way you perform can be very theatrical. A performance of ‘One Eyed Rockstar’ comes to mind, it feels like you embody the song in such a tangible way on stage, it feels like watching an actor at times. You describe yourself as a poet, musician, and rockstar, so I wonder what the word ‘actor’ means to you.”

Manatsu Nagahara: “I wouldn’t use the word to describe myself, but there are definitely aspects to music, like the lyrics, rhythm, the presence of the sounds, it all brings out the image of the main character of the song’s words. The music enables me to ‘act’ as that main character of the song, but outside of music, I don’t feel like acting is for me.

I’ve done work as a model before, but I felt really awkward doing it, and it didn’t really fit me, so I wouldn’t consider myself an actor, but I feel like a kind of acting comes out through the music.”

Mustafa: “How do you feel like your life as a musician and the music you’ve made has changed you as a person, and what hopes do you have for your future?”

Manatsu Nagahara: “When you’re young, you’re basically ‘just’ living, but growing up you start to form a desire to have a reason to life, and begin seeking it. In my case, all of my happy moments came from the music.

I have a lot of things that I love, like travelling and clothing, but everything is led by the music, it all comes from that, so it feels like the music will continue being the reason of my life. That’s something to be cherished, and I feel like I can continue to polish it and cling to it. I would love to grow older in age and still have that reason within me. I hope to be someone whose core of their life continues to be music.”

Mustafa: “I look forward to having that same music be a source of inspiration for the rest of my life, and I’m really happy to hear how content you are with your music. I’m excited for what the future holds; thank you for all of your music!”

Manatsu Nagahara: “Thank you!!!”

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Paradise Forever

A few months after the interview took place, I found out that Manatsu Nagahara would be performing during my first visit to Tokyo. This was simply unmissable for me: an acoustic performance in front of a small, personal audience. My imagination had always run wild with thoughts of loud, energetic venues whenever thinking of Manatsu Nagahara’s live shows, so I had even more excitement to enjoy her work in such a vastly different environment.

Casa Zizo was the name of the venue: a small, bright-lit space, with a max capacity of about 40 people. Attendees were lined up outside the venue before the show, the sun just starting to set as a dark blue permeated the cloudy sky above. I wasn’t expecting the show to be so laidback and casual, and almost mistook myself as being in the wrong area. It was only after I followed the elevator up to the right floor that I realised I was in the right place when I spoke to the register attendant.

Upon walking inside, I saw Ari standing with other attendees in the corner of the venue, and here was the first (and only) time on my trip that I felt shy about starting a conversation with others. The high regard in which I held SEBASTIAN X in my heart felt best expressed by being mindful of the moment, and absorbing the tranquillity of the event. This was the second of two acoustic lives I attended, and on both occasions the spaces’ serenity made it feel like the noisy outside world had paused completely.

Ms Nagahara eventually made her appearance through the side of the room from the bar to the cheering and applause of the crowd. The performance opened with ‘Spring Fanfare’, a vividly memorable song from her most recent solo album ‘Imagination’ (which I feel so blessed to have been able to purchase after the show). Later on, I was caught off-guard by the words of ‘Moon River’, a song I’d heard so often in my childhood, which amplified the mysticism of the night’s crossroads of personal memories.

This room was another corner of memories of my summer holiday, and its cosiness radiated out from beyond this day thanks to her performance of her newest single ‘Paradise Forever’: the song’s ukulele always reminds me of the promise that every horizon held during this summer’s holiday, and it being followed by ‘Imagination’s magestic ‘Beautiful Me’ cemented these few minutes as a central memory of 2024.

After the performance, during the small gathering, it was heartwarming to be introduced by Ms Nagahara to the other attendees as “a fan from the UK who loves Wienners!”. We all quickly said the names of our favourite Wienners songs, with Ms Nagahara declaring triumphantly: “RESCUEEEE RANGERRR!”.

It’s difficult to predict how conversations will go when you meet your heroes, but as we took a photo together, the topic shifted to Evangelion when Ari noticed my Evangelion t-shirt, and Ms Nagahara immediately identified the character upon closer inspection:

”Shinji?”

”No, no, that’s Kaworu!”

“He’s my favourite character!”

I didn’t anticipate talking about Evangelion and my favourite characters during this evening, yet it felt so perfectly in-character for an event hosted by Ms Nagahara to be full of so much boundless spontaneity and enthusiasm.

Another special exchange of words was when we spoke of visits to the UK, which she had mentioned hoping to make in the future:
”One day!” I said affirmingly, voicing my hope that it’d happen someday soon.
”One day? Hmmm… nono, two or three days!” she responded immediately, and I realised how my use of the expression had been interpreted literally as a duration of time. Even now, it makes me smile so much.

This interview’s publishing coincides with the release of Manatsu Nagahara’s second instalment of her four-part 10th solo anniversary compilation, and this instalment specifically contains ‘Go Back to Monster’, which, to me, is a perfect coalescence I couldn’t feel more blessed to witness.

SEBASTIAN X and Manatsu Nagahara’s music means so much to me because of how much I see and hear myself in the palpable joy they embody. They’ve directed my journey with music as much as they’ve affirmed my being and reality, and I have the utmost of gratitude to Ms Nagahara for the light she continues to shine all throughout the world with her music.

-Mustafa

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The music of Manatsu Nagahara, SEBASTIAN X, and Otosata are all available on streaming. 2 of the 4 anniversary albums have been released, and can be found here.

Thank you so much to Ms Nagahara and Ari for their kindness and hospitality during my trip to Tokyo!

Thank you once again to Ryushiro Ogushi for translating and interpreting this interview!

Upcoming live:

downt imparted an impressive first impression when I first discovered them through their first EP cassette release via Gerpfast Records in January 2022. Following up a highly anticipated cassette release of MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREG’s ‘No New World’ with a band I didn’t yet recognise made me realise I must be missing out on something. This realisation was only reiterated when I noticed that the limited edition of downt’s cassette had sold out mere moments after pre-orders went up.

In what felt like a flash, their second EP ‘Sakana’ released later in 2022, and both EPs were even released internationally in vinyl format with a rearranged tracklist. On first listen, I was so captivated by the gentle pairing of, and transition between, ‘-.5.-‘ and ‘I couldn’t have done this without you’, that I now cite this as the moment when I began to feel there were immediate, great things to come.

Even throughout 2023, their name still stuck in my mind as a band to watch with anticipation. I remember seeing the thumbnail for their single ‘Jyusan Gatsu’ (‘13^th Month’) in my Twitter newsfeed again and again throughout summer, which I found so much happiness in because the colours and setting of the video were a bold highlight and expansion of downt’s image, with it being their first specially made music video for a song.

Funnily enough, plans for this interview were underway even before ‘Underlight and Aftertime’ had been announced. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as I suddenly had a wealth of new material to listen to and ask about, alongside the accumulated impressions and contemplations I’d accrued since first hearing their first release. It’s been some time since it took place (due to a whole host of time-occupying factors, including university and my visit to Tokyo) but, as a result, it’s all the more meaningful and rewarding to finally be able to share this dialogue with paragons of Tokyo’s current, and future, music landscapes.

An Interview with downt

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1.

Mustafa: “Hello downt! It’s really really awesome to meet you! How are you all doing? I know you played at Synchronicity yesterday, so I was excited to hear how it went!”

Togashi: “It was really fun! There was a huge number of people that wanted to see us perform yesterday, so we sadly had to put a restriction on the admission numbers! We hope that the people couldn’t attend yesterday will be able to see us perform in the future! Yesterday, we spoke about enjoying the moment and enjoying the sound we create, not just focusing on making everything perfect. We’re still trying to figure things out, but we feel like we’ve settled on a good balance of strictness and enjoyment with our live shows!”

Mustafa: “I saw some clips that Robert had uploaded, and I noticed that the audience was quite still and didn’t move around much, which I didn’t expect from the kind of audiences at Synchronicity! Are those the audiences that you’re used to, ones that are still and pay lots of close attention?”

Togashi: “Yeah, our audiences tend to be really still and focus on listening attentively to our music. Actually yesterday, as you saw, there was some stillness in the audience, but we also got some cheering between songs, like someone in the audience went….*Togashi mimics a loud whistle and laughs*! We don’t get that often, usually our audience listens and remains quiet, focusing fully on the music, so that was surprising! But yes, our audience tends to be somewhat still!”

Robert: “As Togashi mentioned, I was really familiar with the audiences being still and not responding much, but yesterday we got some cheering and applause, so the audience was still quite reactive and enthusiastic!

As for the live performance itself: it was our second time playing at Synchronicity. This time we were on a new stage we’ve never performed on before. There were some intense moments during the performance, and there’s still room for improvement, but it was still fun!”

Robert is one of the drummers who have completely changed the way I view the drums as an instrument and form of expression. There’s always an uninhibited, unrelenting, and uncompromising rigour that’s visible, clear as day, on his face whenever he plays, and even the band themselves are aware of this, given their decision to semi-seriously, semi-jokingly feature his expression as the thumbnail for their following performance:

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2.

Mustafa: “Congratulations on your recent release of Underlight and Aftertime! I found it to be a really, really interesting album, especially compared to your previous works, and I’ve listened to it *so* many times to experience the many layers to the work, which I’ve really enjoyed! What has the reception been like to the album?”

Togashi: “From the reactions of the people around me, some people said it’s really different from our earlier work! I try not to think too much about how people will react to our work, but at the same time I was curious about what people would think! I’ve had positive reviews from people around me, so that feels really good!”

Robert: “It’s really hard to get the precise views/reactions from the people around us, but seeing people’s reactions on SNS makes us feel like we’ve reached out to new people, as we’re seeing impressions on the album from accounts we’ve never seen on our SNS before.”

Mustafa: “Going into the background of the album’s creation: this is the first full album you’ve released, and the first album released under P-Vine. Were there any specific challenges you faced when you set out to record this album, and were there any experiences you encountered for the first time compared to your previous two releases?”

Togashi: “We’ve faced a lot of difficulties with this one! The production of this album: we’ve been writing and working on music since right after the release of ‘3’, our last single, but at one point all the songs that I was writing would get rejected. One of the reasons is that the song melodies didn’t match up with the sound of the band.

In my background: I’m a really song-oriented writer. I really like singing songs, so I tend to write really melodic songs, but the sound of the band overall is an alternative-rock style, so they didn’t really match up. In order to overcome that, I listened to a lot of music and really changed up the way I wrote songs for this album!”

Mustafa: “I remember reading in another interview from a while ago, where you described your philosophy on creating music for downt: you like the space that’s created between the instruments, and how you allow one to play while another goes quieter, so I appreciate knowing that you were able to adjust your approach to stick to that philosophy, because I really believe that vision for downt is one of the things that makes the band’s music so amazing!”

Togashi: “*laughs* thank you so much!”

Mustafa: “I also just realised: ‘3’ was released in June last year, and you said you’d been writing songs for the album since then. That’s a really short amount of time, so was there a time pressure present when writing and then recording the album?”

Togashi: “As a band, we really want to take time with finishing each song, but if we have no deadline we’ll take as long as we can and it’ll take way too long for us to finish even just finish writing one song *laughs*! That’s the nature of our band, we take a lot into consideration and sometimes take detours, but this time we had a deadline for the album so we were feeling a lot of pressure and we had to work on the music every single day right from the start; by the end we were really stressed and tired, both physically and mentally. We don’t have any compromises in our music, but at the same time we had to finish writing the songs by a certain deadline, so working with that caused a lot of pressure!”

Robert: “As Togashi said, it was really tough writing the music. We were in the studio for a long time and really frequently rehearsing and arranging the songs, and the production stage was a challenge in itself too. At the same time, though, I tried lots of new things that I haven’t tried before, and found things that I can improve, so this creation process helped improve my drumming and thus the music we make and perform. It was a really insightful process that we used for the production of the album!”

Mustafa: “Hearing about your experiences making the album makes me wonder: do you think in this day and age, with the lifestyles of musicians and band members and how they work, do you think they’re compatible with their dreams of how they want to create and operate as a band? What are your experiences working as modern-day musicians and trying to pursue your artistic dreams?”

Togashi: “It works for me! My goal as a musician is being able to write and create music forever, as long as I can, so this definitively allows me to do that!”

*Kawai joins the group call*

Robert: “My goal is similar to Togashi’s: I want to continue playing drums and writing music as a band for as long as I can, and I think the lifestyle and processes allow for me to do that. At the same time, we really want to make this work in pursuing that goal!”

Kawai: “In the current music scene, I don’t really have the image of exactly what musician I want to be, so I’ve been feeling like I, myself, have to be that role model as a musician for other people, and this album really allows me to think about what I personally want to be, and how to become that. Creating this new album really sums up what we’ve done and what we can be, so it’s still really in the early stages of becoming that ideal musician for myself, but I’ve started to get the hang of envisioning what I want to be and embodying that.”

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3.

Mustafa: “As I’ve been listening to the album, one of the songs that’s stuck out to me specifically was ‘Prank’, mainly because of its lack of lyrics and its intense atmosphere. As I’ve listened to it, I thought to myself that I really wanted to ask you why you made that song, but then I realised that a song like this is perhaps meant to be more open to interpretation, so then I thought that I shouldn’t ask that question because ‘maybe my own interpretation of the song is what matters most’!

So, as a result: how do you feel about the listener’s interpretation of your music, compared to the artistic intention? Do you feel there’s a balance between the two, or is one more important than the other?”

Togashi: “I think of the artist’s intention and the listener’s interpretation as being two completely separate things. When I listen to music as a listener, I can’t really know its exact, actual meaning to its writer, so as a result, when I listen to music, I don’t really think of the artist’s intention. From that perspective, I really don’t mind people listening to our music in their own way, and I don’t expect our audience to figure out and know exactly what it means, or our exact intentions for the music.”

Mustafa: “Thank you Togashi!

As I’ve been reading your previous interviews, I’ve really enjoyed finding out specific bits of information about specific songs. In the recent interview with Musit you mentioned how the song ‘Prank’ was inspired by the game Twilight Syndrome, so I wanted to voice my appreciation for that particular influence and ‘Prank’ as a song in general, it’s one of my favourites from the album!”

Kawai: “Something similar to the song ‘Prank’ happens in the game Twilight Syndrome: it features 10 chapters, and after you clear all of the chapters, it’ll start a bonus chapter called ‘Prank’. The chapter has a lot of seemingly profound and meaningful music and messages, and it looks like a teaser for something more, but it’s all just an isolated bonus segment at the end of the game, so it doesn’t really have a huge or deep meaning in the grand scheme of things, yet it’s still made to seem meaningful on the surface.

With that in mind, I was really reminded of how in that era of games and anime, people tried to be profound, they tried to have authenticity in their art forms, Evangelion being an example, but nowadays it feels like trying to prove that your art is authentic is somehow lame. What’s posted on SNS, stuff like that, it really creates this atmosphere of how not trying is cooler than trying to prove one’s art is authentic. I wondered: ‘that desire to prove authenticity, where did it go?’, so ‘Prank’ was put there with some mischievous intent as a result!

I asked Togashi to write a song like what’s seen in Twilight Syndrome, and she wrote the exact thing that I asked for so I asked for it to be on the record. I think it ties up the album itself very well, because on our previous works we tried to expand the existing genres of emo and hardcore, but for this album we tried to expand ourselves and our sound as a band: we have a lot of music in different styles on this album, so I thought ‘Prank’ would tie up the entire album and give it a strong hook!”

Mustafa: “Thank you Kawai, that’s really inspiring to hear! Hearing of the importance of ‘Prank’ on the album, it makes me appreciate it a lot more!

You described wanting to expand on the emo genre with your earlier works, and when I listen to your music I understand why people describe downt as emo, but at the same time I feel like trying to put a word or label on downt’s music is quite limiting, so I wanted to ask about your perspective on when people try to describe your music with a single word or genre, do you feel like it benefits your music or do you feel like it holds it back?”

Kawai: “I’ve never really felt that it benefits, but a lot of musicians, especially emo and hardcore musicians, they tend to hate being labelled. Being labelled with genres sometimes makes it so that it’s no longer (just) about the music, but instead about the attitude the band has, the focus shifting to how well you can do hardcore/emo, as if it’s some sort of sport or game. That doesn’t really help or have any actual meaning.

Labelling downt as emo or hardcore, for us it tends to be someone on SNS describing us that way, but the people around us never use those descriptions when speaking to us, so it doesn’t really matter to us as a result.”

Mustafa: “downt’s status is as a three member band, and Togashi mentioned before that three member bands can have some limitations to their sound as a result. How do you work around those restrictions that Togashi mentioned before?”

Togashi: “When writing music for downt, there have been many times when I’ve thought ‘Ah, what if we had one more guitar?’. Maybe if I was really good at guitar and could play really technical material, it would have been different, but we have to organise ourselves and really focus on what we’re able to actually achieve and play. Eventually it became what we are right now, so we still feel the restrictions of playing with three members, it’s still difficult!”

Mustafa: “I feel like even with the restrictions of a three member band, downt still does so much with that, and part of what makes downt’s music so unique is that it really pushes to the absolute limit what they can achieve, and that’s something I really admire about you and your music!”

Every member exhibited a unique focus during the interview, and Kawai’s presence was quietly powerful from the moment he joined: he carried himself with deep contemplation, always deliberating before each sentence he shared. His demeanour and words reflected an iron will reinforced by sound wisdom, and I think this same demeanour, as well as their collective focus, is visible clear as day in the way they perform on stage. Witnessing his chemistry with Robert and Togashi in how they’d construct grander answers from each of their unique perspectives was proof of how their teamwork is the very foundation of downt itself, and I can’t help but have utmost respect for them as a result.

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4.

Mustafa: “One song I really wanted to ask about specifically was ‘Rengoku EX”, which is my joint favourite downt song alongside ‘Prank’ and ‘I couldn’t have done this without you’! One of my favourite elements of the song is Robert’s drums, the way they crash in at the start of the song, so I wanted to ask if there’s any particular story behind how the song came together; I’d really really love to hear it!”

Kawai: “We’ve been wanting to make a song like this one for a while, even when writing songs for the SAKANA EP we had the idea of this song, but we couldn’t really figure it out at the time, so this form is when we finally figured out how to do it, hence we added it to the tracklist. It’s been in our plans for 2 years now, so I actually forgot the background behind wanting to make it in the first place!”

Mustafa: “I appreciate knowing the story nonetheless, because it’s a really special song to me, so thank you all for including it on the album!”

Robert: “Thank you!!”

Mustafa: “Tying into the other song I mentioned: I read how Togashi wrote ‘I couldn’t have done this without you’ in address to Kawai and Robert, because of how you all came together to form downt, so I was really interested in the collective unit of downt! I know that Togashi had put out an advert online for band members, which was how everyone ended up coming together. Robert and Kawai, you both have other bands as well, so I’m interested in what you hope to achieve with your contributions to downt through following Togashi’s vision!”

Robert: “When joining downt, at the time I was joining a lot of different projects so I could practice drums more. I’d met Kawai before forming downt, and he asked me “how about playing drums for downt?”. I can’t remember exactly why, but for some reason I thought that this would be something really exciting, and it definitiely still feels that way! I don’t really have a particular goal, but I’ve said this to Togashi and Kawai in the past: I want to do this for as long as possible! Working on the next album, and the next, and the one after that, I want to keep doing that! Those exciting moments are what I’m here for, and I hope to keep having those moments with Togashi and Kawai!”

Kawai: “I have a lot of ideas that I want to do with this band. I don’t particularly think of staying in the band longer than necessary, but I really want to realise all the ideas I have, and in the future I’ll probably be having more ideas and inspirations from Togashi and Robert’s sounds and songs. When all those new ideas are gone, I wouldn’t think of continuing at that point, but as of right now I don’t see that point ever coming. Fortunately for me, I still have a head full of ideas and a lot of ambitions, so for now I really want to focus on that with this band!”

Mustafa: “I feel that, in the way you all work together and formed the band in the first place, downt represents a very special kind of creative unity. Not only do I think that it’s really special to witness a band where each member inspires everyone else to be better and each member’s presence elevates another, I think that’s a really amazing thing to witness in this current music scene!”

‘I couldn’t have done this without you’ strikes a heartfelt and genius chord as Togashi’s ’s guitar cries out right as the song starts, having already been built up from the delicate teardrop notes in the prelude ‘-.5.-’. The song landmarks a special moment for me, when I first heard the beats of the vulnerable heart of downt’s identity: Togashi’s.

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5.

Mustafa: “Togashi, you moved to Tokyo specifically to form a band, so I was curious about what led you to hold life as a musician in a band to such a high regard? Do you feel like you’ve reached the level and dream that you hoped to achieve when you set out to move to Tokyo?”

Togashi: “Music is the only hobby that’s ever stuck with me, ever since I got my first guitar. I’ve tried multiple hobbies, and nothing ever really stuck. When I started working after graduating school, there were some times when I was away from the guitar, but I’ve always been drawn to music so that’s why it became important to me. One of the reasons I moved to Tokyo was to write songs, record, and release them, and that came true pretty quickly after forming downt! I’m still working through that and chasing that goal to completion. Maybe the form of that goal will be different in the future, but that’s my personal motivation!”

Mustafa: “Thank you Togashi! I wish you every success in achieving your goal, and I look forward to hearing all the music you work on in future!

There are two songs on the new album which have spoken word poetry: the first being ‘Underdrive’, and ‘Yda027’ being the second. You said before that you doesn’t really like performing the spoken word songs at lives, so I wanted to say that those are two of my favourite vocal performances on the album, so I hope to see poetry-style songs in the future! ”

Togashi: “Thank you so much!”

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6.

Mustafa: “With a lot of your album covers, there’s an almost-eerie stillness to them. I find that feeling they evoke to be so mesmerising and unique! With these covers, and your visual style, are they reflections of how you perceive the world, or are they images you’ve conjured in your head that you want to project through your work?”

Togashi: “It’s what I see, actually! The album covers tend to be photos I’ve taken. I don’t really intend them to be reflections of what I see, rather they’re literally the sights that I’ve seen. I like taking photos, and I tend to take photos of things I think are cute, so my intention is not to reflect what I see, but in some ways they’re still a reflection of my own perspective.”

Mustafa: “Thank you! I think you have an incredible visual sense with your photography!”

Togashi: “*laughs* Thank you!”

Mustafa: “You’ve done one music video for the new album so far for ‘Jyusan Gatsu’, a really long song and video. What were your experiences like putting that music video together? The only other downt music video was for ‘minamisenju’, which was made of recorded live performance footage, so what was it like to construct a video in this manner for the first time?”

Togashi: “We asked my favourite music video producer to help us, but I had the idea for how I wanted this music video to turn out beforehand, so the production went really smoothly, and I’m really happy with how it turned out!”

The single that the song belongs to, ‘3’, had a really beautiful vinyl release with artwork by Togashi etched into one side of the record: it always felt like a really special release that amplified the song’s status and role within downt’s discography. I love the fact that this vinyl release was even conceptualised, let alone fully released, because its shows an underlying love and appreciation for how the physicality of music formats can form part of the process of appreciating and cherishing the sound itself.

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7.

Mustafa: “It’s more of an abstract question, but: over the time you’ve all been playing as downt, do you feel like your perception of the meaning of art and music has changed or been influenced by your time in the band, or has it remained the same since the band started?”

Togashi: “The way I listen to music has changed drastically, especially after the production of this new album. Music has always been a huge part of my life, but the range of music I enjoy, and the enjoyment itself, have both changed. I’ve been listening to music for a long time, but it feels like a lot of closed doors have been opened over the course of playing in downt and producing this album.”

Robert: “For me, the way I listen to music has changed too, but it’s been changed quite recently! I’ve been listening to music in light, relaxed ways like listening to cheer myself up when I’m down, but now I’m listening to music searching for a hint or insight into what we ourselves can do as a band: what we can do better, how other people are doing things, how people from different eras were doing things, learning from older records, I feel like I’ve started listening to music in a way to learn from other artists, and that’s really new to me!”

Kawai: “I think the way music sounds to people, and how their own music sounds, is hugely influenced by the way they spend their time, the way they live their life. I’ve been spending a lot of time with downt, so how I hear music is inevitably influenced by that. At the same time, it also comes down to personality, but regardless I feel like even if I hadn’t joined downt, I’d still hear and make music in my own way. I don’t really try to consciously change or adjust to being in downt, because it’s inevitable I’ll be influenced by the time I’ve spent in the band.”

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8.

Mustafa: “It’s been around two and a half years since your self-titled release, and from my perspective, it looked like you guys had a lot of popularity right from the start when that released. Has that popularity been noticeable all throughout your time as downt? I find that so interesting because it’s quite rare and special for a band to get that big and that popular so soon after their first release.”

Kawai: “We had a lot of reaction to the first release, and we had a lot of offers for live performances too: we were getting more than 50 offers a month at one point! But our live performances at that time were in no way good, so it feels like those offers and reactions were based on popularity rather than our actual live performances. We weren’t really satisfied with our live performances at the time; for each of our releases we’ve tried to redefine something, like redefine our music scene or redefine ourselves, or redefine the genre. In a sense, I feel like the timing was right during the Coronavirus pandemic, and people were supportive of our redefinition, which is probably why we got such a reaction from that first self-titled album.”

Mustafa: “Do you have an idea of what you want to redefine with your next release, or is that something you haven’t gotten around to thinking about yet?”

Kawai: “It might not even be a redefinition of something from a worldwide perspective, but in the music scene that we can reach and interact with: people are really focusing on songs or singing or their instruments, they’re trying to have a really ‘band’ sound. I really want to try and explore other sounds and have something that can expand the band sound itself. Then again, it’s just an idea, so it might not even be realised.”

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9.

Mustafa: “Togashi’s cited MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS as a really big influence for her particular when it comes to the sound of a three-piece band. Last month they toured the UK, and at the performance I attended I noticed there was someone in the crowd who had a downt t-shirt on, which I was very surprised to see! I knew that you guys had an international audience through your international cassette and vinyl releases, but I thought it was really interesting to see someone at a UK MOTFD live show wearing a downt t-shirt! Are you often reminded of the international fanbase you have outside of Japan? Does it come up much in your day-to-day lives?”

Kawai: “We get a lot more reaction from international audiences, actually. Our infleunces are mainly from overseas music, and we get direct reaction and feedback from audiences outside of Japan from other Asian countries and the US. For some reason in Japan, the reactions we get are in third person perspective, so we get the impression that we have more reactive audiences overseas.”

Mustafa: “To quickly mention on the topic: what are everyone’s favourite MOTFD songs?”

Togashi: “’She is Inside, He is Outside’!”

Robert: “’Asahinagu’!”

Kawai: “I don’t really have particular songs that I like. It’s not specific to MOTFD: all my favourite bands, I like them because of the style of their music, the style of their approach or arrangement as a band, not as a song. As for MOTFD, I really like the approach and arrangement of their drums and bass!”

That short interaction amidst a most hectic day, seeing downt’s name in the middle of that MOTFD performance, reminded me of how brightly the spark of downt’s debut shone internationally: a feat not easily achieved due to the fickle nature of algorithm-influenced listening habits, but all the more awe-inspiring to witness when unbridled passion makes its mark.

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10.

Mustafa: “Something I’ve noticed across all of downt’s social media is that they’re written with a very particular persona. I guess it’s in the way certain phrases are used, and the use of specific emojis too! Where did that persona come from? Is it from one particular member, or is that another extension of downt as a band?”

Kawai: “That is actually a character called angry downt-kun! We post on SNS as angry downt kun, and the reason we chose to do that is because a lot of official band accounts on SNS just become something like work, and I tend to mute those accounts; it doesn’t feel like something fun or exciting is going to come from those accounts! angry downt-kun is based on that strong statement of what we want our SNS to be: he really likes hardcore, his favourite band is Fugazi, we’ve created a whole persona around him!

At first we were writing as angry downt-kun, but I think it was Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball who said that at some point, the character begins to move by themselves. At this point, angry downt-kun is moving by himself and writing his own posts… at least it feels like that! He himself is the profile picture of our SNS accounts!”

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8/17-18(Mda10)

Of course, managing my writing with my studies is an ongoing act of fine balance, so my first visit to Japan in August ended up predating the publishing of this interview. It’s the first time I’ve been able to see a band perform live whilst working on an article about them, and the experience itself led me to appreciate the interview in a new light as Togashi, Robert, and Kawai’s answers all took on entirely new dimensions of meaning; no amount of preparation could equal the actual experience of witnessing a band’s presence in-person, let alone twice in one day, and downt are incomparable in how they command the stage. While the crowds were distinct in how they both reacted to the music, there were still so many overlaps in how the same elements of the performance invoked responses from the audience.

The first was at a midnight party that went on until 6am. I’d arrived 15 minutes or so before entry was admitted, taking in the ambience of the Shimokitazawa street whilst standing in a queue that descended down two flights of stairs to the basement live house. The band arrived a few minutes later, and it’s thanks to a kind co-attendee who graciously saved my space in the queue that I was able to quickly speak to the band before they began unloading their equipment. Even though it was the first time we spoke in person, it felt like a happy reunion and cause to catch-up as soon as we saw each other, with jubilation and words of gratitude shared all around as we quickly reminisced on the interview from earlier in the year.

It’s easy to daydream about what it’s like to be in a band’s audience, but nothing can ever really prepare you for the feeling of being in front of those livehouse speakers. downt played an hour into the event; the quickfire notes played over the speakers during the sound test all resembled the sounds of different songs from their discography, causing me to jump whenever I recognised them.

‘Rengoku-EX’ was the second song they played, which was the one I had been most excited to witness, and its dauntless display coming so soon into the set, just after Yda027, was a decision that radiated sheer confidence. The satisfaction of hearing my favourite song this early left me excited to see how they’d follow it up, and after a transition into the soft-spoken ‘Whale’ and then two brand new songs did they unleash ‘Underdrive’.

I’d always felt strongly about how it opens the album by oscillating between cautious hazes and adrenaline rushes, but to hear it in person is another experience entirely. Togashi’s recital of the spoken-word lyrics was just above a whisper, and I’d almost mistaken them as being a new set of lyrics she’d written for the live performance, but she uttered the penultimate line “it’s blindingly repetitive” as a warning to immediately heed, because the following minute-long instrumental segment was an unstoppable force to be reckoned with, unlike anything I’ve ever felt: to be seized and thrashed by the unrelenting beating waves of their precisely synchronised crashes, left to reconcile in the song’s wake upon every subsequent relisten.

Something I recall so vividly was the loud rejoicing cheer everyone let out when the first notes of ‘111511’ played. Its melody harkens back to the very early months of 2022 when I heard downt for the first time, instilling that familiar feeling which always manifests when hearing music live: that the moment of the present links right back to the moment I first heard that song in the past, connected through the viscerality of emotions.

After the performance, I was able to catch up with Robert and downt’s manager Atsushi, who’s always been incredibly kind and gracious every time I’ve spoken to him. At the merch stall, I was mindblown to find out that they were still selling t-shirts featuring a piece by artist Mera, which they drew in direct inspiration from downt’s music. I love that they worked together to make merch of the item; when I first saw it announced, I just assumed it would’ve sold out far before I ever had a chance to buy it. We stood there for ages as I couldn’t stop talking about how much I loved the t-shirt and the new artwork made for the cassette release of ‘Underlight and Aftertime’.

Sadly the footage I captured from this performance was far too shaky to use in the article, but thankfully I was able to get a steady recording of downt’s second show on the following day (where all of the article’s footage is from), which was a collaborative show presented by Tengoku Kunyang, also featuring Cwondo from No Buses. This event was much less hectic compared to the overcrowded party it was preceded by, but downt’s performance still dawned the same mood and awe by exacting every ricochet, rumble, and exclamation as precisely as before. Despite this being my fourth live show within 24 hours (preceded by a stellar 4-artist live featuring Penguin no Yuuutsu, Kohaku, Butohes, and Tiny Yawn, and also hanging out with Ogushi for the first time in person), the sheer personal importance of the songs being played kept my spirits and energy high, and as the dust settled at the end of the set, I found myself already looking forward to the next time I could witness a live set from them.

At the end of the show, there was that same warm jubilation that was present just before the previous day’s show. Even when collectively rejoicing in the thrash of volume during their performances, there was always genuine, all-encompassing sincerity and warmth that was present whenever interacting with the band. I remember our conversations as fondly as I remember the music: that, to me, is the defining aspect of what makes downt such a valuable, irreplaceable band.

I believe every artist is a once-in-a-lifetime innovator of their own artistic world, but I have particular vested faith and trust in downt to innovate and grow their artistic realm further, pushing to greater heights and farther boundaries. What they’ve accomplished in just 3 years has reverberated all throughout my life and being, ever since that fateful day in January 2022, alongside supporting and shaping music scenes and the lives of their listeners from all around the world. I’m comforted by the reassurance that I’ll hear their wisdom far, far into my future, spoken in a language only they can speak, but we all understand.

-Mustafa

downt’s music is available on all streaming services

My sincere, utmost thanks to Robert, Togashi, Kawai, and their manager Atushi for helping make this interview possible, as well as their unforgettable kindness and hospitality when I visited Tokyo.

My continued heartfelt gratitude goes out to Ryushiro Ogushi for his continued support in translating for my interviews!

Upcoming live information:
downt solo concert ‘LIVE’ (TOKYO)
Date: 26 April 2025
Venue: Shibuya WWW

This interview is dedicated to all the kind and friendly fellow live attendees I had the honour of sharing so many performances with. I hope to see everyone again soon!

Suichu Spica’s name feels like it’s always been familiar in my mind, as their name has always felt ubiquitous when engaging with Japanese music. I know I’m not the only person who feels this way, because it’s always been clear that other people from around the world feel the same way about them and their music. Suichu Spica are synonymous with uniting people who are all drawn to their inimitable, immediately impressionable work, in a manner that reserves them a place in their very own echelon of artistry.

I’m happy to be able to share the words I exchanged with the band last month, in the two weeks that led to the release of their latest album. The interview took place with guitarist and vocalist Miyako, guitarist Noguchi, bassist Jun, and also their manager Shirley, who kindly helped with translation for the interview. This article coincides with the start of their first-ever world tour today, and I’m deeply grateful to be able to contribute to this monumental landmark in this way.

(Note: answers that were given by all members and then paraphrased in translation are listed as being said by Suichi Spica).

An Interview with Suichu Spica

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1.

Mustafa: “Hello Suichu Spica! I was so excited to hear about your upcoming world tour; what are your current expectations for performing in these countries for the first time?”

Chiaki: “This is our first major challenge as a band, and I hope many people will enjoy our music around the world. We hope for our music to reach out from Japan to listeners everywhere! We’ll face the tour with no fear!”

Noguchi: “I’m so excited about performing around the world, but also worried because this is the first time we’ll be reaching out in person to so many listeners in countries I’ve never been to before!”

Jun: “We know we have fans overseas, but so far they’ve only heard our digitally-released songs. Live performances are a really important part of Suichu Spica, so we hope to convey the live performance experience to everyone to deepen their understanding of Suichu Spica!”

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2.

Mustafa: “Ever since I first listened to Suchu Spica, that international appreciation for your music has always been very noticeable. Can you recall the first time you realised you had so many international fans?”

Jun: “The first time, I was so surprised. I think it was when we looked at our YouTube comments and saw so many English comments. I think this was after our song ‘Triage’ had been shared on Reddit! I was surprised, but really happy, which is why I’m so happy about the opportunities of this world tour!”

Chiaki: “When I started Suichu Spica, I didn’t consider ever having fans outside of Japan, I only focused on the audience we’d have in our own country, hence I chose a Japanese name for the band.”

Suichu Spica: “On Chinese social media, there’s someone who’s an expert in Math Rock history and developments, and he started a topic about Suichu Spica, analysing the band’s chords, bass techniques, and more and more people joined the discussion and expressed interest in seeing Suichu Spica live. That topic encouraged us to do a China tour last year. Going forward to this year, I know we have fans in Korea but not as many. We hope this tour will bring Suichu Spica’s music to new people unfamiliar with our band, and even people unfamiliar with Math Rock.”

This nuanced thought processing for the decision of their China tour made me appreciate the way they’ve calculated their stages of growth, seeking them out almost as a self-imposed challenge to boldly outshine their selves of yesterday.

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3.

Mustafa: “From what I’ve seen, Math Rock is the genre that seems to have an incredible amount of reach out from Japan, as seen with Tricot, Paranoid Void, Toe, and Jyocho. There’s something about the genre that draws in so many people. What are all of your perspectives on the genre’s status and power?”

Chiaki: “The instrumental sound of Suichu Spica is definitely math rock, but the singing and melodies are very pop: we fused the math rock instrumental sound with that style of singing, and I think that combination defines Suichu Spica and highlights our individuality really well.”

Mustafa: “And how did you find yourself expressing yourselves through that specific style?”

Chiaki: “When I started Suichu Spica, I didn’t know anything about Math Rock at all, we just considered ourselves a J-Rock band initially. I don’t know what happened for us to eventually become Math Rock *laughs*!”

Noguchi: “It wasn’t a conscious decision at the start, we just did whatever we felt like doing and landed on this style. We realised that Chiaki’s guitar playing style and technique had a flow that sounded like Math Rock, so we looked into the genre and then decided to use Math Rock as a base.”

Mustafa: “Do you find the label of Math Rock useful to you? Given your choice to incorporate other styles into your work, does the label help or do you feel being put into the category can be limiting?”

Suichu Spica: “Almost every band here has a kind of fusion. Since we’ve only been active for 4 years, we want to continue building and incorporate various different styles and elements, so because we can’t anticipate how we’ll develop, we (Chiaki and Noguchi) don’t want to be labelled as *just* a Math Rock band.”

Jun: “I’m pretty satisfied with the Math Rock tag, though!”

Shirley: “Eh, that doesn’t matter. *everyone laughs*”

Jun: “For example: for people who’ve never heard your music, when you introduce yourself to them, it’s easier for them to understand you when you have that tag of Math Rock, in the way that they’ll know to expect that one element. ‘Indie Rock’ as a label encompasses so many genres, and you can’t always expect every listener to spend lots of time exploring your sound to define it exactly, so having that tag makes it easier for new listeners.”

Mustafa: “I definitely agree with you Jun, because in my experience interacting with music fans online, so many people always want to label a band with a genre, and that’s how music is often widely shared and recommended to others. I imagine that when going on your international tour, you’re going to bump into a lot of people who will only be aware of your Math Rock elements, so I think that outlook is very pragmatic and realistic.”

Noguchi: “Definitely. That’s the reason why our artist biography introduces us as a Math Rock band. That’s for now, but in the future we need to change our biography! *everyone laughs*.

A main reason why we want to do the world tour is because lots of our experiences collaborating have mainly been with just Math Rock and Post Rock bands, so by travelling abroad we want to learn from these physical new experiences as well as interactions with other genres. We have plans for future collaborations that will be outside of the current expectations of fans.

Since we’ve always been in Japan, we want these experiences to learn about new cultures and music, and how other musicians think. It’s not just a world tour, but also a culture exchange.”

Mustafa: “Do you think that’s something more bands in Japan should do?”

Suichu Spica: “It depends on the band. Not many bands have that motivation of going overseas. For us, we have that intention, but also enough flexibility to make it happen. Many musicians have their jobs outside of music so it’s not as easy for them.

The kind of music we make, math rock with indie elements, on paper doesn’t seem like something that’d be super popular in Japan as other music, so it’s worthwhile for us to reach out to the origins of Math Rock, like the US, as well as other countries with developing independent scenes, like South-East Asia: Subsonic Eye and SOBS from Singapore, and Galdive from Indonesia.”

Mustafa: “How have your previous learning experiences been? I know you played with Covet last month, as well as last year, who are one of the biggest Math Rock bands currently, and are also really well known in the local scene too. Has there been anything specific you’ve learnt from them? I know Yvette Young has so much experience with all kinds of music!”

Noguchi: “We didn’t actually speak much about music with Covet! When we’d hang out, we’d just talk about food and cute animals, specifically capybaras….”

Chiaki: “We went out for dinner many times, and visited animal shops too!”

Shirley: “You guys are just like kids!”

Noguchi: “We did learn some things from seeing their performances, though! Like how Yvette arranges and uses her pedalboard and specifically her combination of effect pedals, as well as how to make the live sound clearer and load them with more effects.”

We were surprised with how she went about using her effect pedals. Usually, when we used them, we’d use them specifically to put the effect into the sound, but Yvette Young considers more about how to use them, like how they can influence the way riffs are played.”

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4.

Mustafa: “Following on from what you’ve learned as musicians: which bands have influenced you music taste the most across your time creating music?”

Chiaki: “Dabda, definitiely! They’re the band I love most.... wait, we’re going to be doing a show with them next month!”

Jun: “Dabda for me as well! For me, their influential power lies not only in how their perform and create their music, but also in how their band formation and song arrangements, their basslines specifically too. They’re a very important band to Suichu Spica! For me personally, the band LITE is also important: their bass is what makes them such a distinguished band.”

Mustafa: “Is the answer Dabda for you as well, Noguchi?”

Shirley: “It’s probably going to be Never Young Beach…..!”

Noguchi: “*laughs* Hmmmmm, I think I’d have to say Petrolz, because their approach to music is that too many sounds won’t sound good, they believe in simplifying sounding better. Their guitarist, Ryosuke, is a particularly important inspiration to me because no matter what he plays, he always creates feelings of peace and comfort.”

Chiaki: “There’s a guitarist called Ichika Nito, whose style of playing is very similar to mine. He has such amazing techniques and is very well known for his style, and my personal goal is to develop techniques as good as his!”

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5.

Mustafa: “You’ve been a band for about 7 years, but have you thought much about the impression that you’ve left upon other bands, including newer artists? You’ve built a strong reputation and audience in those 7 years already, and this international tour is only going to spread your name to even more people and musicians. Have you thought about the example that you’re setting for other musicians?”

Chiaki: “I hope the impression we’ve left on others, above all else, is that we’re an independent band, with worldwide connections and roots. I want to say to other musicians that even if a label or management don’t support you, please don’t give up! Those are my feelings!”

Noguchi: “We consider ourselves to be a DIY band. We don’t want to be signed to any of the major record labels. We don’t want to be making money, rather we want to be contributing to the culture. We hope that, when introduced to more people, the impression we leave isn’t “oh, they’re a math rock band”, rather, we want to be our own kind of symbol.”

Chiaki: “It’s like with Sunny Day Service. When we speak about the band, it’s very hard to specify what genre they are. They represent that essence of Shimokitazawa, and I think Suichi Spica are aiming to be a band like that.”

Noguchi: “I want to be like Susumu Hirasawa, he’s a notable figure I aspire to be like: Susumu Hirasawa *is* Susumu Hirasawa, there’s no other way to define him.”

Jun: “At the same time, at the very least, we need to earn money to support the band! But even if the funds aren’t sufficient and the situation is tough, I believe that bands can continue their activities through their friendship, and maintaining a good relationship with all the members is important for that: doing everything in a ‘happy mode’! Whether it’s going for barbeque or ramen after performing together, everyone needs to be sharing that positivity.”

Mustafa: “I really appreciate hearing your answers because they resonate very strongly with my own belief in how music shouldn’t be about trying to make the most money, or trying to be the most popular. Establishing an identity and culture can be one of the most meaningful things about sharing art with others, as well as connecting with them through that act, and it’s clear you do that so well with how you reach so many people.

From my personal perspective, you’re already creating that culture and identity of ‘only this is Suichi Spica’ and using that as a name in itself.”

Their honest intentions have stuck with me over the past month as I’m reminded of them whenever I listen to their music, because I wholeheartedly believe that’s what the world needs more of.

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6.

Mustafa: “The opinions that you have are very much shaped by your perceptions of the music industry. Can you remember the first time you realised that the music industry is not completely pure when it comes to creating art?”

Noguchi: “Whilst we formed in 2018, we started official activities in 2021, so it was from 2021 onwards that we started to be in touch with the industry. We’ve seen good things and bad things, but so far the biggest struggle has been buying instruments, effect pedals, and finding the money to buy all the equipment! Scheduling is also not very flexible when you’re working a job and also playing in a band.”

Mustafa: “Since forming, what has been the single moment that’s stood out to you the most?”

Chiaki: “…Fuji Rock?”

Noguchi: “Fuji Rock?”

Jun: “It’s definitely Fuji Rock.”

Noguchi: “I guess it’s Fuji Rock!”

*everyone laughs*

Mustafa: “I watched your Fuji Rock performance yesterday!”

Noguchi: “When I got the call confirming that we’ll be playing at Fuji Rock, I thought to myself ‘NOW my life’s started properly!’!”

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7.

Mustafa: “You very recently got a new drummer when Shio joined. What was that process like?”

Chiaki: “When our ex-drummer left the band, we were left feeling really confused and concerned about our future when we realised we had to seek a new drummer.

We were then reminded of Shio, someone we’ve collaborated with in the past, who is a very technical and passionate drummer, so we contacted her by mail.

Shio was really happy to join, because Suichi Spica were already a band she looked up to, so we booked an appointment in a studio to play together, and everything fell into place!”

Shirley: “Shio’s pretty young compared to the rest of the band, and her passionate for music shines through her appreciation for Math Rock, and other genres too like Midwest Emo. It’s clear she gives her all when practising!”

Noguchi: “In Japan, there aren’t many drummers that specialise in playing Math Rock or Post Rock, since those genres don’t have much business compared to other genres in the country. Because of this, we consider her to be our treasure! *everyone laughs*. She’s shared so many videos on SNS of her playing music from Toe and Mouse on The Keys, so many bands in those genres, and it’s all so beautiful! She has such love for these genres that she’s actually listened to even more music than we have, so when making music she contributes such fresh and brand-new ideas to the process.

Suichi Spica was formed between Chiaki and Ohashi, our ex-drummer, so he is a ‘departing point’ of Suichi Spica. He’s really different from Shio, in the way that his drums have lots of power and volume, whilst Shio’s drums are more technical and capricious.”

I’ve always wondered about the process of changing members, as it’s impossible to not be aware of how bands change over time, but the way the band speaks so fondly about Shio is so heartwarming as it affirms my faith in the new opportunities to connect and create that come about from change. Whilst there aren’t any UK performances for this first world tour, the day Suichu Spica eventually tour nearby will be when I can witness their own faith in their bonds forged through music, right there on stage.

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8.

Mustafa: “I’m incredibly excited to see how people react to the new album Lux! With it being your third album, whilst listening to it I felt that its atmosphere is distinct from the previous two albums. What led to you wanting to make this album different, in this way?”

Chiaki: “On this album, it reaches higher emotional and powerful heights. In order to express those feelings, we used more effect pedals to create other styles of melodies. On ‘Both Dinosaurs and Humans Drink Water’, we tried to challenge ourselves to express a new kind of song. The singing leans more into shouting, like at the part where I even do a dinosaur roar *mimics the roar*!”

Mustafa: “Yes! I specifically love that moment the most on that song!”

Chiaki: “I challenged myself to try it out! In the past I was obsessed with Math Rock, and that obsession led to our music becoming more complicated and, I think, sometimes difficult to listen to, so on this album I want to make the listening experience easier, I didn’t want to make things difficult for listeners, both old and new. This is why I composed simpler music, like ‘Dinosaurs’ and ‘Pulsation’!”

Shirley: “From my perspective, the album was conceptualised naturally through discussions and rehearsals!”

Noguchi: “The songs were made spontaneously, they weren’t planned or discussed too much in advance. It was largely played by ear, with us trying out different things until we all agreed ‘oh, it sounds good!’”.

Mustafa: “I really love ‘Dinosaurs’ in particular, and another thing it prompted me to think about was the style of lyrics it has. Chiaki, you’re often credited as the songwriter for Suichu Spica songs, and I really love the storytelling that you write, it feels really poetic, and especially on the new album with ‘Spica’, it feels very classical, so I’m interested in what ideas you wanted to write into this particular album.”

Chiaki: “It’s not that complicated. When I was really little, I was really inspired by short poems, and I wanted to write them myself.

However when I began writing lyrics when I got older, I didn’t consciously decide on a style, it’s more my childhood writing habits that surface which I developed from writing short poems. The lyrics themselves don’t usually have a specific inspiration, they just come out naturally.”

Mustafa: “I think it’s incredible how that leads to the music you make now, because so many of the lyrics from Suichu Spica have a level of detail I rarely find even with English music, and I think they’re one of the highlights of Suichu Spica’s music as well.”

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9.

Mustafa: “The sound of the new album feels so strongly rooted in nature, which I felt even more strongly when I saw the video for ‘Beyond Me’. ‘Spica’ as well evokes so much natural imagery in my mind, and all of your album covers tie in to nature in different ways. Is that an association that you all feel with your music; where does this natural feeling come from?”

Chiaki: “It’s really hard to make videos for our kind of music, so we rely a lot on our video director for this. We ourselves don’t even know where that connection to nature in our videos specifically comes from *laughs*.

It’s after our director has read our lyrics and heard the song that he develops the image in his head, and his decisions lead to how the particular visuals are pursued.”

Noguchi: “In our previous music videos for ‘Oshiroi’ and ‘Reverb’, that was when we started to appreciate the value of music videos. Back then the music video ideas came from us, but since we’re not professionals when it comes to making videos, for this album we asked for others for help with creating them, and our director took the lead with deciding upon the imagery they featured.”

Mustafa: “I still feel that the earlier music videos were really really well done, the video for ‘Reverb’ is a favourite of mine, particularly with how many different cars are featured.”

Chiaki: “’Reverb’ is a story about memories I have of my father, and we borrowed all those cars from my dad!”

Noguchi: “Maybe it’s a little hard to understand that connection from the video that focuses so much on cars *laughs*”

Chiaki: “In the video, I wanted to compare the past and the future, using old and new cars as symbolism of that comparison.”

Mustafa: “When I listen to that song and watch its video, the focus on cars makes me think much more on machination and engineering, and it gave it a very unique feeling to me compared to your other songs. Given how much I love that video, I think future videos where the band takes the lead with composing the visuals would still be so good!”

Noguchi: “Ah, thank you!!”

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10.

Mustafa: “The moment I pressed play on the album, I was hit by that really, really powerful guitar at the start of ‘Iki’, and I feel like the song transitions into ‘Pulsation’ really naturally. How did you choose to put the songs’ arrangements together?”

Chiaki: “When we did the arrangement for the album, we’d discussed a general outline all of the song structures. When we did the arrangement for ‘Pulsation’, we wanted the song to be really simple and easy to understand. However for ‘Spica’, we wanted to do a more complex arrangement; after the discussion of the general outline, everyone contributed their own ideas on the individual instrumental components”

Mustafa: “’Fathom’ is a particular song I’m interested in, because it’s a lot shorter than the other songs and it’s purely instrumental. It’s the third song on the album so I’m interested in why it was decided to be placed there.”

Chiaki: “Fathom” was inspired by an effect pedal I have from Walrus Audio, which itself is called ‘Fathom’. I made a small song built around that pedal.

‘Fathom’ is a break between ‘Pulsation’ and ‘Spica’, bridging their two stories to become one, because those two songs were released in advance as singles last year, and there isn’t a noticeable connection between the two singles, so I made ‘Fathom’ as a bridge to reframe ‘Pulsation’ and ‘Spica’ into different contexts and forms in the album.

Like with Post-Rock albums, which are released to have a story told through their song order, we wanted to make an album as a whole, complete story in itself, instead of being comprised of just different singles.”

Shirley: “In the current age, a lot of people seem to have forgotten the concept of what an album is meant to be. Oftentimes they just put singles together, which isn’t really an album, that’s more of a compilation. The album is meant to tell a complete story from start to finish, right?”

Chiaki: “If you check the song titles of the song, you’ll see that the meaning of ‘Fathom’ iiiiis……”

Noguchi: “’Fathom’ refers to the deep sea, it’s a unit of measuring water depth.”

Chiaki: “….. and the next song is ‘Spica’, then ‘Beyond Me’, ‘Baton’, ‘Miyako’, and ‘Dinosaurs’, everything is connected to that water.

As part of the album concept, we wanted to say that even when under deep water, in a dark situation, you can still see the light shining from above.”

Mustafa: “I find that so interesting, especially because water comes up in my mind so often when I listen to your music. So many of the guitar melodies sound like flowing streams, or Chiaki’s tapping sounding like rain. Obviously it’s even present in the band’s name (‘Underwater Spica’), so where did the water theme originate from when the band was started? How far back does the water theme go?”

Chiaki: “When I started composing songs for the band, many years ago before even the band’s name had been decided, I wanted to create music that can support others, giving them hope and clarity. That’s the music I want to make, and it prompted me to think of an underwater world.

Underwater, there can be darkness and distortion, but ‘Spica’ is one of the brightest stars in the night sky: I wanted to convey that even when underwater surrounded by darkness, our music can still support and guide others as a bright light, just like Spica.”

Mustafa: “I’ve definitely felt that through the bright hope in the music, so I definitively believe you’ve succeeded in achieving that!”

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11.

Mustafa: “What is everyone’s favourite song from the album, the song you enjoyed creating the most?”

Noguchi, Chiaki, and Jun: “Noooooooooooo!!”

Noguchi: “That’s too difficult! Ahh, wait a minute!”

*the band recites all of the album’s songs*

Chiaki: “We’ll say it at the same time……”

*simultaneously*

Chiaki: “Miyako!”

Jun: “Miyako!”

Noguchi: “SPICA!”

Chiaki: “’Miayko’ is very important for me because I moved from Kyoto to Tokyo one year ago, and after this I began to feel very worried about whether I’d be able to get used to the big city feeling of Tokyo. When I wrote ‘Miyako’ as I would reminisce on Kyoto, hence why it’s so important for me!”

Jun: “I became most emotional when playing the bass for ‘Miayko’; it’s so good to perform as part of shows, because it’s a more aggressive song with a more emotional sound, and that emotional expression comes very easily to me.”

Noguchi: “I love instrumental Post-Rock songs, like Caspian, and film soundtracks too. ‘Spica’, in my mind, is like a movie in how its story is told, and I love performing its soundtrack.”

Mustafa: “I think Chiaki has a very natural talent for writing songs and telling stories, and there’s a strong wonderful innocence all throughout, which I deeply appreciate about the new album, hence why I love ‘Dinosaurs’ so much, it just feels so carefree, so I’d say it’s my favourite from the album, alongside ‘Iki’ because…… that intro is just staggeringly impactful!”

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12.

Mustafa: “How have your feelings about performing your music changed since your first live show?”

Chiaki: “In the past, I only thought about playing correctly, but now my enthusiasm is solely to just play the guitar, and the emotion is more important, so mistakes aren’t really a concern for me anymore, it’s more about the feelings and enjoyment of being on stage.”

Noguchi: “I feel the same; for our first ever show, I was so worried about my playing, but now the most important thing for me is how my emotions are expressed.”

Jun: “Our focus now is on expressing our emotions to be understood by our listeners: we want to unify our hearts with our audiences, but in Japan that can be so difficult because Japanese people are so shy!”

Mustafa: “Because you share that vision now, do you feel like you’ve been able to unify yourself as a band through performing as well?”

Chiaki: “Yeah, we’re close friends!”

Jun: “Yeah, friends!”

Noguchi: “Nono, we’re family!”

Chiaki: “Ahh yeah, a whole family!”

Noguchi: “And she (Shirley) is our mum!”

Shirley: “Noo, no no no!”

Chiaki: “Yes, Shirley is our mum!!!”

*we couldn’t stop laughing for a full minute after this*

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13.

Mustafa: “Since we’re now at the end: what last words would you like to share with everyone reading?”

Chiaki: “We want to convey to everyone reading and listening that we hope our music becomes a source of relief, transparency, and beauty! We hope that those feelings from the music can interest you in attending our shows! And of course, we promise we’ll come to play in the UK and Europe, so we hope everyone will join us when we visit, both on this world tour and in the future!

The whole essence of Suichi Spica is presented from our stage, so we want everyone to feel that one day!”

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This interview is a fruit borne directly from the new connections I was blessed to make during my visit to Tokyo last year. Thank you to Chiaki, Noguchi, Jun, and Shirley for this opportunity and their continued efforts in shining the light of Suichu Spica.

-Mustafa

Suichu Spica’s new album, ‘Lux’ is out now on all streaming platforms, and Bandcamp

Today marks the start of Suichu Spica’s world tour. The performance dates are as follows:

Every second of a song stands for something. Most of my experiences with music have totalled up these seconds to vast and lengthy audial journeys, but last year I encountered a discography that opted for breakneck speed above all else, capturing my interest as fast as the music played.

With how much they achieve in a runtime of just 9 minutes and 43 seconds, I couldn’t help but have my interest piqued to such a degree that I knew I had to reach out to them! The interview itself was true to their nature as a band: whiplash manifest. I really enjoyed doing a faster-paced interview for a change, and along the way I saw the chemistry between Yohji, Raita, and Hagikana that fuels their unmatched speed and drive!

An Interview with CHINESE HOODIE

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1.

Mustafa: “Hello CHINESE HOODIE! How are you all doing?”

Yohji: “I’m fine! The problem I had earlier was that I lost my housekey…. so I’m still not fully settled down from that *laugh*!”

Hagikana: “I’m feeling good too! I just ate Osashimi!”

Raita: “I’m full of energy!!”

Mustafa: “When planning this interview, the first thing that came to mind was the band’s name! ‘CHINESE HOODIE’ struck me as a very unique name for a Japanese band, so I wanted to know what led to settling on that name!”

Yohji: “There isn’t really a deep reason for it: we had some idea that we wanted to have something clothing related to be in the name, and after that we chose ‘CHINESE HOODIE’ just because it sounded good!”

Mustafa: “It really stood out to me, so I think you did a good job in choosing the name!”

Yohji: “*laughs* Thanks so much!”

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2.

Mustafa: “I’m interested in how you all met! Your first EP released in 2018, so I want to know the story behind what led to the first release!”

Yohji: “Hagikana and I attended the same college, as well as the first bass player of CHINESE HOODIE, so it ended up that we formed a band consisting of friends from college!”

Mustafa: “What were the prospects for the band at the time? Was it meant ot just be a short-term arrangement or did you have longterm plans?”

Yohji: “When we started the band we were really laidback with light motivation. We were really inspired by the band SCHOOL YOUTH….”

Mustafa: “Yeah!!”

Yohji: ”We heard them and thought “it feels like we can do that! I think we can do this!” Which is why we formed the band with that kind of mindset.”

Mustafa: “This is a question for Hagikana and Yohji: what were you both like in college? Do you think the other has changed much as you’ve gotten to know eachother better over the years?”

Hagikana: “He was scary at first, but he’s kinder now! *laughs””

Yohji: “I can say in some ways Hagikana’s changed, but in other ways she hasn’t. If I had to say how she’s changed, it’s that she graduated and is now working, so it feels like she’s become more of an adult!”

Mustafa: “And how you guys meet Raita? What led to him joining CHINESE HOODIE after the first bass player left?”

Raita: “Hagikana and I were from the same town, and we knew eachother from way back. Right around the time when my band broke up, Hagikana and I met up which is also when I first met Yohji! They spoke about rebooting CHINESE HOODIE and I was eager to help out!”

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3.

Mustafa: “Yohji mentioned School Youth, which connects to a question I’d already prepared! One of the members of SCHOOL YOUTH, Tamaya2060%…..

*Yohji laughs as he likely anticipated the question I was leading up to*

he formed a band called Wienners later on, and I’m a really big fan of them! When I first listened to CHINESE HOODIE I noticed your sound felt very inspired by them, so I really want to know about the connection between Wienners and CHINESE HOODIE in terms of inspiration!”

Yohji: “We’re really really inspired by them, to the extent that we’ve basically ripped them off!”

*everyone laughs*

Mustafa: “I don’t think more music sounding similar to Wienners is a bad thing, so I’m happy you’re so strongly inspired by them!”

*everyone laughs*

Mustafa: “The recently released music video for the song ‘Thunder Girl’, it reminds me a lot of the music video Wienners did for ‘Idol’….”

*everyone laughs*

“So I feel like there might be a connection between the two videos!”

Yohji: “When we discussed ideas after the music video director asked us what kind of music video we wanted, we said ‘Let’s just give him ‘Idol’ as a reference! Make it like this!’!”

Mustafa: “The influence of ‘Idol’ feels really clear to me! I really like the style and message of ‘Idol’ so I think it works very well in the context of Thunder Girl as well, which is a song I really really like!”

Everyone: Thank you!!”

Mustafa: “As it’s the first music video CHINESE HOODIE has released, what was each of your experiences like making a music video for the first time?”

Yohji: “I think it didn’t quite make me look good! *Laughs*, I’d just got a perm and curled my hair around that time, and I wasn’t really used to it yet, I didn’t know how to set my hair in that style, so that is one of my regrets regarding the video….”

Mustafa: “I personally think you look awesome in the video Yohji, so I don’t think you need to worry about it looking bad!”

Hagikana: “I had to play drums really quietly during the recording, but at the same time I had to make it look like I was playing really loud, which was a big challenge!

Like in the music video for ‘Idol’, I ‘transform’ into Thunder Girl. I think girls do ‘transformations’, like playing as a Power Ranger, a lot when we were younger, and doing the makeup and choosing the outfit for Thunder Girl felt like doing that, but seriously! It was fun!”

Mustafa: “It did seem like Hagikana had a lot more work to do in that video, as she had to record both her ‘normal’ appearance and her ‘Thunder Girl’ appearance, but I think it paid off! The Thunder Girl persona is really striking and memorable!!!!”

Hagikana: “We’re really glad we did it!”

Raita: “I was the one who did the hair and makeup for Yohji…… I think I could’ve done better! I’ll work on it!”

Mustafa: “I think you did a good job!!”

Raita: “Thanks!!”

Last year, I listed ‘Thunder Girl’ in my list of 10 favourite songs from the year. This interview had already been conducted by then, but I knew from the first moment I heard the song that it was a special discovery because of its perfectly calculated dose of sheer amusement and adrenaline.

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4.

Mustafa: “You described CHINESE HOODIE as being ‘rebooted’ when Raita joined. I saw that your first EP was released in 2018, and your second was released in 2023, so I was wondering what the story was behind band activities being paused for five years!”

Yohji: “The first EP we recorded half a year after forming the band, and after that we were doing shows for about a year, so we were active as a band in our ‘first era’ for a year and a half.

Around that time, a lot of things happened and Hagikana and I fell out, so everyone left the band except for me. That stopped CHINESE HOODIE at the time, but after some time passed Hagikana and I started hanging out again, and we thought “if we’re hanging out again, we should do the band again!”. This was in the beginning of this year (2023), and Raita joined when we were looking for a bass player, and the rest is history!

In that time gap, I think I and Hagikana had matured a lot, in a good way! I think that helped CHINESE HOODIE’s continuation become possible, which I’m really happy about!”

Mustafa: “In those 5 years, what did everyone get up to? Was it mainly work, or was there other music anyone was working on?”

Yohji: “Around the time when CHINESE HOODIE was formed, I was working part-time at a records store, but when we disbanded a lot of things had happened like Covid, which all led to me getting a full-time day job. I was also playing with some other bands, but…. they were quite boring!”

Hagikana: “When CHINESE HOODIE disbanded I was a college student, and then Covid happened so I was just chilling in the house, cooking and stuff. After college I got a job as an office lady, but I was still supporting my friends’ bands every once in a while, but across that entire time Yohji was contacting me and saying stuff like ‘I can only think about *your* drums for CHINESE HOODIE!!’ *laughs*”.

Mustafa: “That’s quite sweet, actually!”

Raita: “I was in a Metal band first, and after that I quit and started another pop-punk band. Around that time was when I met with Hagikana and Yohji and we started hanging out together Right around the time my pop-punk band went on hiatus was when Yohji and Hagikana spoke to me about CHINESE HOODIE, and here we are!”

Mustafa: “What’s the chemistry like now that you all hang out and record together as a group of friends?”

Yohji: “It’s fun hanging out as we’re now all really close friends! We practice once every one or two weeks, but usually after that we grab drinks together. It feels like we hang out a lot more outside of practice or doing live shows!”

-

5.

Mustafa: “Alongside college and working day jobs, what interested you in all wanting to become musicians in the first place?”

Yohji: “First it was the influence from my family and the music they listened to, like Spitz! After that, I was at Junior High and my friends from the next city gave me a copy of Green Day’s ‘Dookie’ and told me “Listen to this!!!!!”. When I listened to the album, like with School Youth, I felt “I can do this!! I can play guitar and form a band!”, so those were my first inspirations to wanting to do music!”

Hagikana: “I used to play piano, so I was recruited by the brass band. At first I was learning trumpet, but I wasn’t really good at it, so I went on to play percussion because nobody wanted to play that part in the brass band. This got me interested in drums, so I continued to play percussion for the brass band club in junior high. When I went to high school, the brass band was really formal and uptight, so I didn’t really feel like joining, and instead joined the keionbu (band music club)! My senpai at the club handed me an album by Hi-Standard, which led to me playing drums in that style, which is how I play now!”

Mustafa: “Would you ever consider playing piano and trumpet for CHINESE HOODIE?”

Hagikana: “I really suck at them!”

Mustafa: “You’re really awesome at the drums, so I’m glad you’re where you are in CHINESE HOODIE!”

Hagikana: “Thank you!! *laughs*”

Raita: “I also started out learning piano…. Back when I was in, like, preschool *laughs*, but that’s kinda irrelevant!

A friend of my mother was in a band. When I was in elementary school we went to see them live and I was really shocked! The guitar looked so cool to me, and I really wanted to play guitar so I begged my parents to get me one!

How I ended up playing bass was that I just wanted to join CHINESE HOODIE, so I just got a bass and practiced! It’s quite a hard instrument, so I’m doing my best!!”

Mustafa: “I really appreciate the effort you put into the band!! What was the name of the band your mother’s friend was in?”

Raita: “The band was called Xie, but I don’t know if they’re active anymore!”

-

6.

Mustafa: “The two EPs you’ve released so far are really short and all the songs are really fast. What’s your philosophy behind making your songs so fast with such high energy?”

Yohji: “It’s mainly because of the influence from School Youth and a lot of the other bands I like, which all tend to make their songs short with high energy!”

Mustafa: “Some of your songs are purely instrumental, like ‘Katase Beach’, which I particularly really like! How do you feel about the opportunities that instrumental and vocal tracks each offer? Do you prefer one over the other?”

Yohji: “For me personally, I like songs with singing on them, because I don’t think we’ll really be able to perform instrumental tracks at our live shows!”

Hagikana: “We never really play instrumental songs at lives. I felt like nobody would ever really listen to them *laughs*! But I’m really glad you like them! For me personally, after the reboot of CHINESE HOODIE, I started singing on our songs, and it’s really fun to play drums and sing at the same time!!”

Raita: “This is the first time I’ve played this kind of music, so for me everything feels really fresh and fun. I would say I definitely like the songs with vocals more because instrumental songs are more complicated and difficult to replicate live! At the same time, I still really like the instrumental tracks!”

Mustafa: “I really like how everyone has an active role with singing on the recent EP, so I would love to continue seeing that be a feature of CHINESE HOODIEs music in future!”

Raita: “Thank you!!”

-

7.

Mustafa: “Yohji, you’re also active in a band called Nenne, who also only became active recently, in 2022! How do you go about balancing those two bands? From my listening, I’ve found Nenne to have a much softer sound, so I’m curious about how you feel about your two bands in comparison to eachother!”

Yohji: “For CHINESE HOODIE I write songs and choose what sounds we use, but for Nenne I don’t really write much, and sound-wise I just play what I’m given! I don’t have much to say about my role in Nenne!”

Mustafa: “Going forward, do you anticipate you’ll spend equal time with both bands, or is CHINESE HOODIE your main focus?”

Yohji: “I’ve invested a lot in CHINESE HOODIE both in the past and present, so it’ll continue being my main project! At the same time, Nenne is what I’m playing with my friends which is also really fun in its own way, so I think they’ll both continue being part of my activities!”

Mustafa: “What creative approach do you have to writing the lyrics for CHINESE HOODIE? When recording, do Hagikana and Raita have input regarding the song creation, or is there one person who directs the song creations?”

Yohji: “The song’s composition comes before the lyrics. I bring a really really rough demo and we play it out, figuring how the drums, bass and guitar should go. It takes time during this point. While I’m the one who brings the demo to the group, we all collectively piece the song together. For lyrics, I basically just write them before the recording session becuase I need that rush to actually write them down!”

Mustafa: “I think that’s a really fitting way to write the lyrics for such fast-paced songs! It’s a really cool method!”

-

8.

Mustafa: “You’ve spent a lot more time performing live shows compared to recording music during your time as a band, so I’m interested in what live performances have been like for you!”

Yohji: “Exciting! It feels like it took some time for us to get used to live shows, though! Hagikana, what do you think?”

Hagikana: “I’ve been performing music live ever since I was in high school, so when I first performed with CHINESE HOODIE, around the time when I was 18, I wasn’t really that nervous!”

Yohji: “Hagikana and Raita had experience with their own bands prior to CHINESE HOODIE, so I think they were more used to it! For me, I hadn’t really performed live so I was the one who would get nervous before a show *laughs*!”

Mustafa: “Something I’ve found really interesting is in lots of live videos on Youtube, you often perform in really packed rooms, instead of music venues! What’s the story behind those shows; what are they like?”

Yohji: “We definitely prefer playing in bigger places than those packed rooms *laughs*. I think you’re talking about studio lives, and one of the reasons why we do those is because of the band FRUITY, who did a lot of studio lives themselves!”

I hadn’t seen much footage of studio lives before, but they’re a facet of live music that have such a distinct DIY feel that sets them apart from the appearance of most live houses that makes me want to immerse myself in the environment that can only be created in that small space of high energy.

Mustafa: “Through your live shows and performances in general, have there been any other artists/bands who you’ve gotten close to, within the same ‘music scene’?”

Yohji: “Ever since CHINESE HOODIE was first formed, we were really close with the bands Either and NINJA BOYZ, but it feels like now we’re getting booked with more melodic punk kind of bands Hagikana, Raita, what do you think?”

Hagikana: “For the first era of CHINESE HOODIE, the bands we were close with were all around 6 years older than me, and now we’re around bands closer to my age, which is fun! The bands I’m personally close with are Carabina. We often go to the beach together, and hang out a lot outside of band activities! We’ve also been discussing starting a podcast with them and other bands like Copes and Pinglate!!, who I’m also really close to! They’re really cool and I want to be like them!”

Raita: “NINJA BOYZ and Carabina too! I went on that beach trip with Carabina too! Copes are really great too. Other than those, I’ve been close with a band called SEE YOU SMILE ever since my old band from before CHINESE HOODIE!”

Mustafa: “Are there any bands who you’d want to collaborate with?”

Yohji: “Definitely the bands mentioned before, especially Wienners! For Hagikana it’s probably Hi Standard! It would be awesome to share the stage with them!”

*Hagikana laughs*

Mustafa: “If CHINESE HOODIE and Wienners ever collaborated, I would immediately travel over to Japan to see that live!!”

*everyone laughs*

Mustafa: “With how influential they are, I really want to know everyone’s favourite Wienners songs!”

Yohji: “‘Idol’! I also really love their first album ‘Cult Pop Japan’ as a complete work!”

Hagikana: “I remember singing ‘Soten Delight’ with Yohji at karaoke! That was so fun!”

Mustafa: “‘Soten Delight’ is one of my favourite songs ever, so I’m really really happy to hear it has a special place in CHINESE HOODIE’s history!”

Raita: “I just recently discovered Wienners not too long ago, so I’m still digging into their discography! ‘Far East Disco’ really hooked me with how catchy it is when I first heard it!”

Mustafa: “That’s my second favourite Wienners song!”

Raita: “*laughs* It’s the best!!”

*I sing the first line of Far East Disco’s chorus, everyone responds with cheering*

Mustafa: “Which other artists are you all listening to currently?”

Yohji: “Alongside the bands I’ve already mentioned, I’ve gotten back into listening to ska-punk, I’m listening to bands like Choking Victim and Leftover Crack!”

Hagikana: “Whenever I get asked that question, I always answer with the boys band group ARASHI!”

Raita: “I listen to metal music from overseas a lot, like ERA! I also listen to Japanese metalcore a lot, like Knosis and Paledusk!”

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9.

Mustafa: “How do you all go about balancing your working lives with your musical commitments? Is it difficult, or has it become intuitive after getting used to it?”

Yohji: “When we’re performing live, like 5 or 6 gigs a month, it feels like a lot! Of course, we’re doing it for fun, both in a good sense and bad sense. Keeping that balance can be difficult, but we have fun figuring out how to balance it out!”

Mustafa: “What’s to come for CHINESE HOODIE in the future? Are there any current plans or goals?”

Yohji: “The gigs that we play are usually from the underground scene, so I really aim to broaden our audience! That’s one reason why I’d like for us to play in a bigger venue! At the same time, I just want to make any crowd, even in a small venue, really go crazy! I know there’s some discussion regarding the risks of mosh pits, crowd surfing and diving, but at the same time if it’s happening and there’s really good energy in the venue, that’s my main goal for now! Making everyone go crazy!”

Hagikana: “I feel like CHINESE HOODIE is a really really great band, so I hope more people notice us and listen to us! I’m really grateful for the opportunity to play in this band! Thank you!!”

Raita: “As Yohji said, I want to continue having fun with the band, but at the same time I want to do my best with the band and make the most of our time in it!”

Mustafa: “I hope you all continue having fun playing together, because I personally can’t wait to hear more from CHINESE HOODIE! Even with only two EPs released so far, I’m excited to hear more music released in the future!

I wanted to quickly mention: in the most recent photoshoot that the band did, it really makes me smile to see everyone so happy together! It’s really wholesome!!”

*everyone laughs*

Yohji, Hagikana, and Raita: “Thank you!!!”

-

CHINESE HOODIE have been performing live show after live show since this interview took place, and their momentum shows no signs of stopping. Their operation as a band is so different to what I've seen from most other bands, but I believe they’re just as important through how they enrich their local music scene and present themselves in their own fun-loving way. I really believe in the wonder and importance of bands that lean more into live performances than releasing studio-recorded music, and I hope this interview was able to shine the spotlight on what makes their incomparable uniqueness so endearing!

-Mustafa

CHINESE HOODIE’s music is available on all streaming services.

Thank you to Yohji, Raita, and Hagikana for making the time to talk!

Sincere thanks to my friend Ryushiro Ogushi for interpreting and translating for this interview!

I love following the works and careers of creative minds who’ve made huge impacts on my life, and Shinichiro Watanabe’s hand has sculpted a staggering percentage of my experiences with, and outlook on, storytelling. I’m not alone in singing Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo’s praises, but they’re far from being the only stars in his sky of works, and I wanted to just let my own journey with these stories be uttered aloud here. I think I’ll do more in-depth pieces on each series in the future, as I tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible with this article! Regardless: I had fun recounting this journey as I typed this article, and I hope it’ll be fun to follow!

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop was the first anime I watched to completion. Prior to that I’d read Death Note when I was 12, but didn’t bother with watching its adaption as a result. For the longest time, it all just seemed like too much for me to dive into, so I never thought much about making a start with the medium.

It all changed on a really late night/early morning in the summer of 2017. I’d been up all night preparing for an upcoming aptitude test as part of university admissions (the UCAT is not fun. At all.), and my brain was way too tired to make another attempt at identifying patterns between randomly placed shapes. I recalled seeing a thumbnail advertisement for the anime on my PlayStation’s streaming section a few weeks earlier, its sullen mood embedding itself in my memory right from that very moment, and curiosity led me to look it up in hopes of escaping boredom.

I don’t know exactly what it was that made me suspend my initial wariness of anime, but in that moment it felt like the natural next step was to watch an episode.

Looking back, I think what gripped me from the first second was the distinct Western influence Cowboy Bebop had. After all those years I’d spent thinking that anime would be a mostly inaccessible world that I wouldn’t understand well due to not being the target audience (which was very much a naive opinion held solely by my teenage self), I was pleasantly surprised and interested to find a story that had immediately recognisable overtones in its presentation. Everyone remembers the first time they heard ‘Tank!’, and for me it was an enjoyably jarring contrast to hear in the opening compared to the in-your-face, sorrow-soaked introduction scene that preceded it.

Something that deeply spoke to me about the world and characters was how jaded everyone, and everything, was. At a time in my life when I began to feel exhausted with the acceleration everything was hurtling towards the future at, it was cathartic to see those feelings reflected back to me, suddenly making Cowboy Bebop a personal refuge and reflection.  

I loved the pacing and story beats, specifically how most episodes had their own standalone stories with definitive conclusions at the end. I was never one for stretched-out story arcs, and Cowboy Bebop demonstrated a story-telling efficiency so robust that most people end up dismissing it as “mostly filler”, which is grossly inaccurate to the extent of being incomprehensible. Being introduced to new characters uninvolved with a series’ overarching plot does not make them unimportant to the story in the slightest: ‘Ganymede Elegy’ and ‘Waltz For Venus’ focus entirely on events that have no bearing on the series’ finale, yet they are beating hearts of both the narrative and the main characters themselves. There is beauty in ephemerality, both narratively and literally in this case, and I love Cowboy Bebop for helping me understand exactly why. I wouldn’t ever trade the experience of watching ‘Waltz for Venus’ for the first time, not even for a thousand more episodes of Cowboy Bebop, because no amount of dopamine could come close to my memory of the characters introduced in that episode. Those 22 minutes have stuck with me longer and stronger than even the lengthiest of action pieces.

In the span of the remaining few weeks of summer, I shot through 13 episodes of Cowboy Bebop, and then…… an entire year went by before I returned to the story. My final year of secondary school (UK equivalent of high school) brought me so much busyness that I never got around to ever continuing onto the 14^th episode, because it never felt like the ‘right moment’ when assignments and revision material were constantly raining down upon me. By the time the next summer rolled around, too much time had passed for me to comfortably resume from where I left off, so I started right back again from the beginning. I didn’t find this tedious in the slightest thanks to interpreting it as a means of extending my stay with the cast I’d cherished for an entire year already. Throughout all that time, Cowboy Bebop remained vivid in my mind, particularly thanks to the outro theme and credits sequence that brought a close to every episode. It only took 13 episodes for it to dwell upon my mind all throughout the academic year.

There’s a comfort I find in stories with a set length. Cowboy Bebop’s story concluding at the end of its 26 episode run firmly brings about an incontestable finality, an artistic decision that still nourishes my love of storytelling to this day. I finished the series in the summer of 2018, but it was a few months later in December when I finally watched the Cowboy Bebop film. Released 3 years after the anime and subtitled “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” in Japan (I never tire of saying that name out loud), the film takes place chronologically sometime between the 22^nd and 23^rd episodes of the anime. Of course, its events have no bearing on the overarching narrative’s conclusion, but being invited back to spend just a little more time with the Bebop cast was like getting to spend just a little longer in a warm dream, away from reality (ironic, given the themes of the film itself).

SPACE DANDY

2018-2021 were three years of refrain from academia that oftentimes felt like an insurmountable block in my life that I struggled to see past, let alone push out the way. Amidst all the difficult challenges the time period posed, moments of escapism helped me take a break from it all, either allowing me to lighten my spirits or make a little more sense of my circumstances and environment. A huge factor that helped me during this time was the enduring memory of finishing Cowboy Bebop’s series in the summer of 2018, just before ‘it’ all started, and the eventual watching of Shinichiro Watanabe’s other works in the summer of 2020. While Cowboy Bebop acted mainly as a comfortably secluded mental space that pushed my less-than-happy sentiments as far as they could go until they were expended, Space Dandy became an optimistic ray of hyperactivity and awe that led me to a brighter headspace.

Every element of Space Dandy’s production, release, and existence is special. It’s well documented how its English dub aired simultaneously in the West as it did in Japan (with the Western release on Toonami often even preceding the Japanese air date by an entire day), requiring the translation of the script and recording of English lines to be conducted at impressively blistering speed. It was part of an effort to capitalise on Western interest in anime which was starting to be noticed during this timeframe, which I think definitely deserves commendation in its own right, but there’s so much more to what makes Space Dandy so special.

Dandy, on paper, seems like a character I’d never have found myself loving. He’s introduced as a vain buffoon whose main obsession is visiting the intergalactic equivalent of Hooters, and one of his first lines in the show is of him discussing, in great detail, the body of his ideal woman. It’s crude, childish, and I was never one to really enjoy comedy in that vein. But I still appreciate how he’s introduced in this way because the entire first episode is essentially there to establish a funny sense of ‘normality’ which exists only to be broken by every one of the subsequent 25 episodes. You’re always led to *think* you know what kind of person Dandy is, only for the next episode to show a new side to his character you didn’t even consider the existence of. The slow unravelling of Dandy is never contradictory to what we’ve been show prior, and that’s what makes me love him as a character so much. Does he have stupid priorities? Yes. Does he have a strong moral compass and sense of responsibility? Of course. Does he demonstrate intelligence and maturity? Definitely. Is he an idiot? Absolutely.

Showcasing the many dimensions of Dandy is achieved through the creative construction of each episode; the anime is a towering visual and audial collaborative achievement. Across 26 episodes, various powerhouses of animation are brought on to direct, produce, and write, with the final result being a myriad of ideas that truly does justice to Space Dandy’s theme of never-ending possibility. One of my favourite episodes, number 9, is directed by Eunyoung Choi: the current head of Science Saru. Masaaki Yuasa himself also wrote and directed episode 16, with even the episode’s animation style itself changing to something unmistakably synonymous with his artistic personality.

And yet: as much joy as it brings me to bask in the diverse visual and narrative glow of the series, my favourite component of Space Dandy, and of my entire experience with the animation medium in general, is its soundtrack.

Space Dandy is a one-of-a-kind musical wonder. Across its two soundtrack albums, a medley of musicians are gathered whose collective talents are staggering even to list, let alone hear.

The anime’s introduction sequence is set to ‘Viva Namida’, by Yasuyuki Okamura. A beloved one-man show whose name has endured since the 80’s, and his opening song for the anime constituted as a comeback of sorts, as it was his first single in six years. His staggering name wasn’t the only factor that defined Space Dandy for me two years before I even watched the anime: the song really is just that perfect in dramatically presenting a hyper-detailed glimpse into the story’s world, as well as Dandy’s core traits of naively defiant, and defiantly naive, optimism.

I’ve yet to mention it on my blog so far because I’ve been hoping to discuss it in an extensive post (which has been underway for a few months now), but for the purpose of this article it’s necessary to mention: Soutaiseiriron are one of my favourite bands ever, arguably *the* most important band to me when I look at my life events in the past decade. So: imagine my happiness when I find out that the soundtrack features two of the band’s members on multiple different songs!

As stellar as Yasuyuki Okamura’s introduction is, it can’t top just how special the ending sequence is to me. ‘Welcome to Dimension X’, written and performed by Etsuko Yakushimaru of Soutaiseiriron and arranged by Yoko Kanno, is more than just a song: it’s a phenomenon I cannot believe came to fruition in the first place. Etsuko Yakushimaru is *the* most inspiring musician and visionary I’ve ever come across in my entire life, and it feels like fate that she became a voice I associate so strongly with Space Dandy. Hearing her collaboration with the composer of Cowboy Bebop is such an elegant way to end each episode, especially when it always follows the most bizarre, heart-wrenching, or joy-affirming story conclusions imaginable. What blows my mind the most, however, is the fact that the entire ending is drawn in her incomparable, iconic art style. I’ve loved her innocent, carefree depictions of characters and animals ever since I first laid eyes upon them, and to see that same art style animated with such a high budget for such an important body of work makes me grateful that something so personally profound was brought into existence in the first place.

Of the 26 episodes, 3 focus specifically on music. The first story’s clearly meant to be a parody of High School Musical, eventually culminating in the breakout of a song that celebrates the irreplaceability of life and everything it contains. It’s simple, yet charmingly to the point.

The second music episode revolves around Dandy engaging in a dance-off with a mythical disco legend named ‘Ton Jravolta’, It features one of the songs contributed to the anime by Taku Takahashi, which is incredibly nostalgic for me because of how clearly I remember the downtrodden tone of the heavily filtered vocals, which contrasts with the hyper-nonsensical nature of the episode it belongs to. This episode is also one of few that has its own end credits animation, featuring a track by ZEN-LA-ROCK that captures the essence of this disco driven episode’s escapades to a T.

Episode 20, the third music-themed episode which is my favourite episode of the entire series, sees Dandy striking up a friendship with a newly introduced character (voiced by Jonny Yong Bosch in the English dub, whose performances I always really enjoy) and form a band together. The main song from the episode, ‘Lonely Nights’, was written by SHUTOKU MUKAI FROM NUMBER GIRL, and he even performs his own version of the song on a separate single release!!

Episode 23 features the track ‘Seaside Driving’ by Seichii Nagai, the guitarist of Soutaiseiriron, which I’ve replayed countless times over the reminiscence of, and longing for, summer skies beyond the timeframe of lockdown. The episode itself has a really cute romantic plot featuring Dandy and Scarlet, one of the recurring members throughout the series. There’s an emotional gut punch of a sequence towards the end set to sound of ‘I’m Losing You’ by BTB, and I love this scene and song for the way they leave a bittersweet taste at the end of such a cute episode.

Tragic romance comes up more than once in the story, with one of my other favourite episodes featuring Dandy’s robotic vacuum cleaner companion fall in love with a coffee maker and eventually ending with one of the saddest themes I’ve heard from an anime: ‘The Real Folk Blues’ from Cowboy Bebop makes embracing sorrow sound so easy in comparison. It’s funny to me how regarding Space Dandy as the ‘happier’ story led me to enjoying even the deepest of reflective thought marathons whilst listening to this track. Listening back to it right now, I think it’s because it has a shimmer of hope right at the end, and it stuck with me long after I finished the series because listening to it always creates a space for me to come to terms with the fallout of sorrow.

Two other episodes I remember fondly are episode 5 and 9. Episode 5 features a song by Izumi Makura (whose work I fell in love with after first hearing her in Space Dandy) in a really sweet montage segment. The entire episode highlights Dandy’s considerate and conscientious nature in a really unique way, which is reinforced further in the final action sequence of the episode set to the sound of my most-played song from the entire soundtrack: ‘Word Pack’. Its baseline oozes effortless cool whilst the synths speak of tales of heroism, and I can’t help but get pumped up with motivation every time I reminisce on its sound'; I’ve lost count of the number of times I’d have this song loop as I just stared up at the ceiling in the early AM.

Episode 9 is memorable for its story above all else. It takes a break from the usual wacky shenanigans to instead deliver a profound commentary on what it means to be sentient. It features one of my favourite characters of the series, Dr H, and I think it’s thanks to Eunyong Choi that the episode’s story hit as hard as it did, thanks to her direction with animation making it one of the most visually stunning parts of the entire series.

On the anime’s 9th anniversary last year, information was shared by the co-creator of Toonami that Shinichiro Watanabe often mentions that he considers Space Dandy to be “a failure”. He’s not wrong, from a commercial perspective, given how Space Dandy barely has a fraction of the popularity that Cowboy Bebop enjoys. All that effort made to push its international popularity may not have reaped the recognition intended for it, and it’s unlikely it ever will, but on a personal level it outshines so many works purely by the merit of its creative sincerity.

I watched Space Dandy in the summer of 2020, right in the middle of the Covid pandemic lockdown. With the TV in the living room pretty much in use every single day, the only time I was ever able to watch an episode was in the dead of night. Because of the scarcity of the opportunity to watch, I never tired from watching as many episodes as possible, regardless of how long I sat in the same spot for. I remember one day being extremely happy that I was able to watch S I X episodes the night prior without waking anyone in the house up (my parents somehow have supersonic hearing that lets them pick up even the whirring of a PlayStation disk drive). It’s partly because of my innate compulsion to refuse sleeping at normal times that I enjoy watching at night instead of the day, and darkened rooms illuminated by screens are, to me, a simple, perfect haven that I find even on the most meandering, uphill paths of life. The insidious loom of uncertainty amidst a worldwide lockdown was, oftentimes, enough to completely discourage me from looking to the future but, in hindsight, finding joy in bizarrely unpredictable escapades is a blessing in itself: as funny as it is to say, Space Dandy was a blessing at the time, as is its memory and continued presence in my life.

Samurai Champloo

If any of Shinichiro Watanabe’s works have come close to surpassing Cowboy Bebop in popularity, it’s definitely Samurai Champloo. I had a faint recognition of it before I’d even heard of Cowboy Bebop, so I had a moment of dumbfounded surprise when I found out the two works were connected in such a way. I think I watched Samurai Champloo third, instead of second as per release order, because my excitement to explore another corner of the Bebop galaxy to the backing of Etsuko Yakushimaru’s voice overrode my affinity for sequential order.

It felt natural to go back to a grounded story after the dizzying heights of Space Dandy. Samurai Champloo works with a much smaller core cast compared to Space Dandy, yet it treats its core cast as three equal protagonists similar to what Cowboy Bebop does. Fuu, Mugen, and Jin are all protagonists who embody their philosophies of life through their actions and individual subplots, and the interactions between all three establish a constant contrast that elevates them all in memorability.

I love the way new plot points are presented through each character’s personal history continuing to have bearing on their present, with us oftentimes only learning something new about Fuu, Mugen, or Jin when their past comes back to haunt them. It makes it so much easier to empathise and sympathise with them when we get to know them better through moments of adversity, and this style of character development is upheld strongly all the way to the story’s final moments. There’s so much focus on conflict between people and parties in the story, both physical and ideological: it’s beautiful how the story utilises this friction as a propellant of the characters towards their goals as they help shape the world around them, and are shaped themselves in turn. At the same time, ‘Longing’ is one of the first words I’d use to describe the message of Samurai Champloo. There’s a serenity, oftentimes tragic yet sometimes joyous, that’s formulated by the end of most episodes after witnessing where the personal struggles of the main cast lead them, and it’s in that consistent struggle throughout the story that presents the main cast more as dreamers than fighters.

There’s a pattern amongst Watanabe’s works of implementing a single, unpredictable horror-themed episode into the story. Cowboy Bebop had ‘Toys in the Attic’ which borrowed heavy inspiration from Alien, Space Dandy had ‘There’s Music in the Darkness, Baby’, but the horror episode which scared me the most belongs to Samurai Champloo, which fully unnerved me by the time the episode’s credits had finished rolling. Many consider it to be a weak episode that doesn’t fit into the overarching narrative, but it’s a worthwhile momentary detour that’s true to the spirit of the horror episode trend: it needn’t have a grand message, it only needs to surprise.

I don’t think it’s unknown to anyone just how important Nujabe’s work on Samurai Champloo is. As somehow who’s main exposure to his work is through this anime, his work *is* the identity of Samurai Champloo through how it defines the spaces between the dialogue and story beats. Mystery is a big part of Samurai Champloo’s presentation to me, with many episode endings offering glimpses at future stories beyond what the viewer gets to see, and I love how the soundtrack adds so much to this aura as opposed to giving away answers. It emphasises the importance of ‘feeling’ what’s just beyond the screen, oftentimes helping imagination conclude one’s own outcome of events with the help of what the screen hints at. The ending theme, ‘Shiki no Uta’ performed by Minmi and produced by Nujabes, demonstrates this perfectly as it always brings attention to the same snapshots Fuu’s memories that, while initially cryptic, are the driving force of her motivations in the story, letting on much more about her personality than what the early episodes show. Minmi’s performance also galvanises the song with a palpable pathos that permeated out of the screen and into my life, serving as a reminder of how even the feeling of being lost can be its own kind of solace.

As much as I love the fights in this story, and the way Mugen and Jin have their personalities shine through their differing technique and styles, my favourite episodes are the ones that depict solutions to conflict that doesn’t involve swords. ‘War of the Words’ features Mugen being berated for his illiteracy, so he resolves to learn how to read and write Hiragana, and eventually uses this new skill to end hostilities between two warring gangs. It’s one of the funniest and most endearing episodes in the series!

Samurai Champloo has a clear sense of direction established from the start, which makes it feel much more like an adventure with a clear goal, compared to Bebop or Dandy which prefer to showcase their worlds at their own pace. By the time it came to the final episode, it felt like I’d witnessed an epic that brought my attention to my own personal journey, and while it was still difficult to engage with reality, I’d found strength in learning to embrace adversity and dictate how I’d fight for myself, instead of just doing what I can to get by.

After finishing Samurai Champloo, I entered the final year of this awkward three-year period of my life, and these three works came together to form a spring of reassurance when I reflected on the past, came to terms with the present, and started to dream again for the future. In a weird way, these stories make me look back upon this tumultuous time of adversity with fond nostalgia: even though it felt like the sky was falling on most days, those lows made the sporadic moments of joy soar even higher, and I saw depths of my self I'd have otherwise never realised.

Kids on the Slope

During my gap years, I’d managed to find s Blu-Ray copy of Kids on the Slope on eBay for a mostly reasonable price (£40 for a series, at the time, was justified by the fact that it’d been long out of print). A year after the summer I watched Space Dandy/Samurai Champloo, in the first semester of my first year at uni. I finally got around to watching this series that seemed so different to the Watanabe works I’d already seen. I knew to expect something different, as the setting of Nagasaki in the 1960s was much more ordinary compared to the settings of space or a fictionalised Japan in the Edo period, and the original story was written by Yuki Kodama in manga format instead of being written specifically for the anime presentation.

I love how faith is portrayed in Kids on the Slope. Two of the main supporting cast members are Catholic, and the role their faith plays in their lives is depicted consistently throughout the story in such a meaningful way. As a Muslim, I know not to expect Islam to appear in an anime anytime soon, yet Christianity’s presence in this story still really spoke to me because of the similarities I perceive between the two religions, and it made me relate to Sentarou (the drummer) even more as a result.

The cast of Kids on the Slope radiates warmth, and the bonds they forge through the music they play together are the beating heart of the story. Even characters uninvolved with the musical performances are woven so naturally into the plot and they all play hugely important roles in not only pushing the story forward, but also with the development of Kaoru, Sentarō, and Ritsuko. A romantic slice-of-life story will of course have love within the locus of the main cast, and Kids on the Slope accentuates character development through the way these feelings develop between the characters in question, and also how others react to these changes as a result. Witnessing people grow individually and together so organically felt like being in close proximity to a group of friends growing closer in real-time, and growing alongside them as a result.

Another testament to the strength of Kids on the Slope’s narrative is how a particular character in the story (who I’ll avoid mentioning to prevent spoilers) went from being someone I perceived as selfish and stubborn at the start, to one of my favourite characters by the end. All it took was a single scene, right at the end of her story, for me to realise I’d judged them far too soon, and I don’t think it was an accident that Yuki Kodama wrote her in this way.

These characters exist at the heart of Kids on the Slope, right next to an uncompromising love for jazz and a will to represent it wholeheartedly. Real-life performances of every song in the story were recorded, and subsequently drawn over during the animation phase to ensure every note of music was shown accurately, the painstaking efforts of which make every musical performance in the anime carry that much more artistic weight as they were spectacles for the eyes as much as they were for the ears and the heart.

Kids on the Slope was amongst two other anime I watched for the first time in my first year of university, (the others being Carole and Tuesday, and FLCL). Moving to a new city is usually jarring, and that was definitely one of the impressions I had moving to a much quieter part of the country, but Kids on the Slope greatly mitigated any difficulty I encountered adjusting to this new chapter of life. When I think back to that first semester, I recall that familiar nocturnal screen glow, this time drawing my attention away from the perceived awkwardness of my unfamiliar surroundings, helping me establish roots of comfort in the time and place I found myself calling my new home for the year.

“This melody sounds like love”

Carole and Tuesday

The most recently released work directed by Shinichiro Watanabe is an outlier in that there’s barely anything that I like about it. On paper it seems like a story tailor-made to cater towards me: two friends decide to form a band together shortly after meeting for the first time. Carole and Tuesday was marketed, and is still described, as a story about music, but I think this demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of what music is.

I describe Carole and Tuesday as a story about chasing fame through the music industry. The priority, established from the first episode, is to ‘make it big’, but the story’s definition of musical success ends up being: winning talent shows, signing legendary record deals, winning Grammys, and becoming recognised by as many people as possible. These goals pertain to a career journey that represents only a sliver of all the kinds of musicians in the world, and it’s easily the image of music that I hate the most. I understand that these metrics of success are easy to grasp by almost everyone, but they’re the reality of only the biggest stars/celebrities, and their experience with music is fundamentally completely different to the other 99.9% of musicians in the world. Carole and Tuesday defines music as being a stepping stone to fame, and I believe this completely disrespects what music truly stands for. There’s so much more to creating and listening to music than just a connection between the listener and a famous pop star, yet the story hardly depicts any interpersonal relationships with realistic depth at all, let alone a genuine appreciation for the power of music.

On paper, the protagonists themselves have so much they could bring to the story through the reasons they have to create together, yet their characters don’t manifest in their music or journeys at all. Tuesday, a girl from a rich family who runs away from home, rarely says or does anything outside of making obvious observations about the situation at hand, and her personality is nothing more than a softly-spoken girl whose only role in scenes is to make the most inoffensive, mild-mannered statements possible. Carole has a more interesting background as someone who’s been living on her own for most of her life and surviving as a street performer, but even this attribute doesn’t show at all in the music they make or the ambitions they have. There’s so much room for there to be dialogue and development between two protagonists with completely different backgrounds, yet their dynamic remains as “we’re friends who want to become famous” throughout the entire story.

Every musician depicted in the story is either someone also chasing that fame who comes into competition with C+T as a result, or they’re a famous star who C+T see as someone to aspire to. Even with this idea of aspiring to be like other famous musicians, there’s room to include interactions like musical influence or even taking on some advice from them, but things just slump at “Wow, that’s *famous musician*???!”. For a story that aims to highlight the bonds made through music, it does an incredibly poor job and can only muster depicting the blandest of connections between all the members of the cast. In this regard, Kids on the Slope achieves everything that C+T fails to even get close to.

There are so many subplots dotted around the place which never amount to anything. An entire episode is dedicated to Tuesday having a crush on another character, only for it to have zero bearing on either of their development and never be acknowledged again. The second half of the story integrates commentary on topics such as prejudice against immigrants and government bodies swaying public opinion ahead of elections, but they’re handled in such a way that they pop up out of nowhere and feel strangely out of place compared to the other events of the story. A story about music could work so well alongside plots revolving around such themes, but Carole and Tuesday’s execution feels like there was a distinct lack of care to tie these ideas into the main story, so there ends up being scene changes that feel like you’ve switched to a completely different anime.

Shinichiro Watanabe worked as a music producer before becoming a director, and this shows so clearly in how he demonstrates understanding and respect for music’s powerful role in his works, yet C+T is completely devoid of that same respect. Multiple different musicians from around the world were brought on to work on Carole and Tuesday, with many being of diverse musical styles and career journeys, yet none of that manifests in the final presentation.

Different performers were hired for the dialogue and singing voices of both Carole and Tuesday. Nai Br.XX and Celine Ann, the singers who perform as Carole and Tuesday respectively, are unquestionably incredibly talented and I like some of the songs they perform for their characters in the story, but they’re few and far between across the entire story, and many of the other musical performances by other characters just completely lack the charm to be entertaining or memorable. The story would’ve benefited so much by focusing more on the chemistry between Nai Br.XX and Celine Ann, but this essence is diluted when so many other characters and performances are thrown into the mix.

I really wanted to like C+T, but the moment that confirmed to me without shadow of doubt that it was a work I actively *disliked* was towards the end when there’s an entire segment dedicated to Carole and Tuesday being invited to the Grammys. This is the penultimate end goal at the end of the story: receiving acknowledgement from an awarding body that only ever serves to recognise the most popular musical releases of the year.

Some may consider my perception of the Grammys to be reductive, but the truth is that I genuinely have no respect for a ceremony that’s upheld the distorted view of musical success in the public eye for so long. Music is to move and be moved, to share part of oneself even if nobody’s listening, to honour and respect the ties that manifest and bind us through listening to each other, to actualise the poetry of life from both the musician and listener through the audio channel between them, and to be washed over by the never-ending waves of intention and emotion that each and every single song has the capacity to convey. I will never believe that music is anything less, after I’ve spent hours across days across months across years feeling the weight of all it carries. Hence, I honestly don’t believe that fame has any place in the journey of an artist. It may be something musicians can achieve which in turn has ramifications on their circumstances, but I see it as being a possible by-product of the artistic journey, instead of an integral stepping stone. So in my eyes, Carole and Tuesday is about chasing a husk of a dream without regard, care, or even acknowledgement of the actual beauty of music, and I don’t believe that a story about wanting to get closer to fame can even be defined as a story about music in the first place.

I don’t know exactly what led to Carole and Tuesday taking on this form upon release, but the intention behind the project is commendable even if the final form left a lot to be desired. I like the idea of bringing various different artists together for this project, even if many in the end seemed to mainly have been invited due to their star power (I mean, why on Earth is Steve Aoki on this list??), and each of their contributions were usually limited to only a single song.

Something I think is really special about this list, however, is the inclusion of Maisa Tsuno from Akai Ko-en, for who and whose work I have immeasurable respect.

Maisa sadly passed away in 2020, leaving behind a breathtaking musical legacy tragically cut short, and one piece of the titan that is her discography is the song she wrote, composed, and arranged for Carole and Tuesday: ‘Round and Laundry’. Even if the song’s implementation into the story isn’t the most interesting or inspired, I still consider it to be of importance because of how different it sounds to the rest of Maisa’s works. While I overall dislike the anime, I’m still glad I watched it for this one small piece that, in the end, means so much more than what the production itself gives it credit for.

And even with my many problems with the series, I can’t deny that I really like the outro theme and sequence. It’s catchy and animated really well, so there was still something in every episode that I was able to enjoy!

There are still works of Watanabe’s that I haven’t gotten around to watching yet, the main one being Terror in Resonance alongside Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game which Watanabe worked as music producer on. Even though I really didn’t enjoy his latest work, I’m still incredibly excited for his upcoming series, Lazarus, because its presentation looks to lean much more into his strengths as seen in his previous works!

If it weren’t for that first episode of Cowboy Bebop on that one forlorn night in 2017, I have no idea what my life would look like right now. Of course, there’s a whole host of creative minds who helped make all these projects as special as they are, but throughout all that time I looked to Watanabe’s name for the promise of exploring exciting new worlds, with each domain eventually becoming a cornerstone of my own, and now felt as right a time as any to express my gratitude for that in the form of this article.

-Mustafa

Over the past year, For Tracy Hyde’s presence in my life has only grown and grown. I feel like it was a shame to only delve into their discography around the time they disbanded, but listening to the band’s music has felt so distinct from all of my other listening experiences as a result. The livestream of their final ever performance marked a beginning for me as it led to me discovering the other projects of the band’s members, particularly the work of Azusa Suga: the driving force behind For Tracy Hyde since the very beginning.

As a result, when preparing for this interview, I thought it’d be an injustice to limit discussion to just For Tracy Hyde, so I endeavoured to make it as holistic of Azusa’s entire musical journey as possible. Of course it was an inevitable, and firmly integral, topic to cover, but even beyond that I learnt so much through preparing for the interview and then speaking to Azusa: about himself, his music, his world, and the world we share. This led to a truly unique interview experience, and a first for me to share given that it was conducted in English!

An Interview with Azusa Suga

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1.

Mustafa: “Hey Azusa! You had a live show yesterday, right? How’d it go?”

Azusa: “Oh yeah! It went decently, I guess! I mean, I fucked up with the setlist three times! I kept on forgetting what the next song was, it would be like “Are we playing this song?” And the rest of the band would be going into a different song, like “woah, woah, woah, wait, I’m not ready for that one!” *laughs*”

The opportunity for this interview presented itself in December after speaking to Azusa for the first time (and finding out that he’d read my blog before!!), and was scheduled for February, the day after he’d hosted a set of live shows as part of his project Pacific Ocean Park!

Mustafa: “I always wondered if that happens often! Every time I watch recordings of live shows, it feels like everyone’s in so much sync that they just know which songs are coming next!”

Azusa: “Yeah! I mean, it doesn’t really happen that much with me, but I guess last night was an exception *laughs*”

Mustafa: “I saw literally a few minutes ago that you were hanging out with U-1 today!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “I thought it was pretty cool to see just before doing an interview where I’d be talking about For Tracy Hyde!”

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2.

Mustafa: “Alongside AprilBlue, you’ve been working with multiple different groups over the past year since For Tracy Hyde’s disbandment: RAY, airattic, and recently ponderosa may bloom with the lead singer of AprilBlue, too! What ethos and mindset have you had across all these different projects?”

Azusa: “Well, to be honest, nothing much has really changed! For example, when I first started working with RAY, I consulted with their producer on how much I should adjust what I’m doing for the idol scene. For example: ‘Should I change my style of song writing to fit the idol crowd more, or should I just do what I’ve always been doing?’ He said ‘No, you don’t really need to change anything, just be who you are!’, so that’s kind of been in my mindset when I’ve been working with other projects the past few years. Nothing’s really changed, I’m just doing what I’ve always been doing!”

Mustafa: “With RAY specifically, I was really surprised when I first found out you’d worked with them! I always had this image of the band scene and the idol scene being quite separate, so your collaboration seemed like a really unique coalescence! Of course there’s the shoegaze overlap, and Mav from For Tracy Hyde has also written for them. How did you first start out working with idol groups?”

Azusa: “As you mentioned, I think traditionally the idol scene and band scene have really been two separate entities. I think it was 2015 or 16 when RAY’s producer….. he used to produce for another group called DotsTokyo, who were the precursor to RAY. At that time, DotsTokyo was still starting up and the producer was looking for songwriters who could contribute material to them. He actually has a background playing in a band himself, an amateur emo punk band from ages ago before subscription services, I can’t really remember the name! Having a background in the band scene, he wanted to bridge the gap between the idol scene and band scene, so he was looking for songwriters active as musicians in bands. We had a mutual friend who introduced me to him, because he thought I’d be a perfect fit for them! That’s about it, I guess!”

I smiled and nodded when Azusa mentioned DotsTokyo, as I’d discovered their music half a year prior and become really fond of them! Azusa is the lyricist, composer, and arranger of ‘Soda Float Kibun’, which is my favourite song by the group!!

Mustafa: “That’s so awesome!!!! So that was around 2016 when you were also in For Tracy Hyde. You started AprilBlue whilst you were in For Tracy Hyde too, so with these projects at the time were you considering your options for where you wanted your career to go in the future?”

Azusa: “I don’t really think too much about things, I was just doing whatever I wanted to do and it ended up this way! For better or for worse!”

Mustafa: “I only discovered airattic a few weeks ago when I was preparing for the interview, and I’m honestly really blown away by their sound! I really like their approach to instrumentation! You’d worked on ‘Ghost Girls Generation’, the first song from their most recent EP, and their earlier song ‘Film Reel Of Our Youth’, so what’s your relationship with all these different idol groups right now? Is it a contract thing, or are you close with them in a similar way to how you were close to your bandmates in For Tracy Hyde?”

Azusa: “Yeah it’s the former! In both cases of RAY and airattic, their management office approached me saying they were looking for songwriters. RAY and airattic belong to the same label, so there’s an interchange between those two regarding songwriter recommendations!”

airattic’s franticness comes to fruition spectacularly thanks to the importance they place on live instrumentation for their recordings and live performances!! They’re, aptly, electricity manifest.

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3.

Mustafa: “I was really blown away by your solo work with Letters to Annika, I really love the sound and personal element to it! I’m terrible at ascribing sounds to genres, but it has a heavy Surf-Pop sound usually associated with the US! I know you’ve got a lot of history with inspiration from the West, so I was wondering how you perceive Letters to Annika as a project alongside the rest of your works? Will we see a return to it?”

Azusa: “Well, there’s not really much context to it in my body of work! It was just a spontaneous idea that I had. I’ve always been really into bands like DIIV and Beach Fossils, American bands who are really inspired by the Surf-Rock sound. Both bands have recently been taking different directions with their sound, so they’ve been diving into other genres and they’ve pretty much left their former Surf-Rock sound, so I thought that I might as well fill up the gap by making my own Surf-Rock songs. After seven songs or so, I just got bored of it!”

Mustafa: “Really???!”

Azusa: “*Laughs* yeah! I mean there’s only so much that you can do within one specific niche of sound! Surf-Rock is a pretty narrow niche in that sense, as there’s only so much you can do.”

Mustafa: “So do you see Letters to Annika as solely a Surf-Rock project, and not a solo Azusa Suga venture?”

Azusa: “Not, not at all, not at all! It’s not really a statement of who I am and what I wanna do!”

Mustafa: “In that case: which project of yours so far, or any still to come in the future, do you think is something you can call a personal statement? A true embodiment of your philosophy on art?”

Azusa: “To be honest, that was For Tracy Hyde! I’ve always had total control of the overall aesthetic of the group, the artwork, the lyrics, the song writing, the concepts of each album, their structures. Yeah, I guess all the For Tracy Hyde albums are pretty much that: statements of who I am, what I think art should be, how I want to portray the world, and how I want my listeners to perceive the world!”

Mustafa: “That really resonates a lot with me, and I happy to hear that’s how you perceive the band!

Something I’ve noticed with it….. for context: I was quite late to listening to For Tracy Hyde, while you guys were active I was familiar with your name and music but I didn’t get around to diving into your sound properly. Of course when the breakup was announced, that was when I started to dig in a lot more. I think it’s a shame that I got into you guys so late, that it took a disbandment for me to properly get into your discography.”

Azusa: “Well, better late than never, you know! *laughs*”

Mustafa: “True!

Something that I’ve felt with your discography is that the sounds and the purpose you give the music resonate with me so much! Obviously shoegaze is synonymous with nostalgia, but the way that you do it is multifaceted! On your later two albums, Ethernity and Hotel Insomnia, you moved away from the idyllic, dreamy, ‘suspended from reality’ feel of the previous albums, and began to really hone in on awareness of what’s going on around us. I really appreciate the outlook that those two albums had!

You mentioned before in an interview that the songs of For Tracy Hyde are all kind of like a tribute to/personification of your dream girl. Eureka also mentioned that for each song in Hotel Insomnia she would personify them as a girl and draw them! I’m really interested in that idea of personifying your music! How did that come about, and how does it tie into your artistic ethos?”

Azusa: “*laughs* The dream girl thing only applies to the first three albums! Back then, those albums were more informed by my personal background and what kind of situation my life was in back then. I’m not really outspoken, I don’t really socialise with people. Establishing relationships with people, finding love and attachment, that sort of emotion, has always been pretty tough for me, especially when I was making the first three albums. I was feeling really alone, didn’t have much to hold on to, feeling really emotionally insecure. But then, you know, one day I just…. got a girlfriend *laughs*, and you know, the thing is when your emotional needs are satisfied, pursuing love doesn’t really matter that much anymore, and then all of a sudden you’re a lot more conscious towards society and the world in general, and how things are going, especially with the Covid pandemic, Trump, the Russian war, what’s happening right now. Society has been a huge deal for, not only me, but everybody. It’s a shared experience across the world.

At the start, I just was just sorta turning my eyes away from what’s going on, and was just making this idyllic, nostalgic music as a means of escapism. That doesn’t really resonate with me that much anymore, and especially since shoegaze and dream pop tend to be associated with escapism, and not facing the world as it is. I guess I wanted to change that, and challenge the status quo of shoegaze, if you will. I guess that’s what really drove me to create the last two For Tracy Hyde albums.”

Mustafa: “The way you described it as being detached from reality, I feel like it did fit in with the purpose For Tracy Hyde had when it started. Obviously youth and nostalgia are really important to the band, so I think it’s fitting that the first few albums leaned heavily into them. Of course, inevitably, as all things do, youth ends and in that transition to adulthood you experience that wakeup to reality. I guess in a way, the last two albums are still quite cohesive with the narrative set up by the first three!

Specifically with Ethernity, I was first properly exposed to that album through the album cover of the digital version of Hotel Insomnia, which features a short biography on the side. It speaks about how Ethernity was meant to contemplate America’s nature as a superpower. Back then, it felt like a really vast topic to tackle, but in the past year I’ve started to look at the world a lot more, with open eyes. When I look at America, I’m very jaded by it, the government specifically, and I really like how that’s portrayed on the album. A moment that’s really stuck with me is Interdependance Day Part II!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “When it plays that speech by Barack Obama on Independence Day Part II……. I’m not a fan of his at all, I don’t think he’s a good person with a lot of the things he’s done, so It was very surprising for me to hear his voice as I was listening to the album, and it made me wonder ‘how am I supposed to feel?’, it was very difficult for me to identify in that immediate moment how to feel in response to hearing him. Then, in the middle of the song, there’s a piano that kicks in, and it feels really tumultuous, there’s so much tragedy and sorrow imbued in it, and that’s the feeling that I’ve latched onto through which I interpret that track. I wouldn’t say it’s a conventionally ‘enjoyable’ experience, because it makes me reflect on very negative things, but it’s such a powerful work of art in the way it invokes those feelings, and I think that power in itself is beautiful.

When I saw the music video for Interdependence Day part I, I was really struck by the moment when Eureka’s covering all these objects and symbols of innocence with blood. I know you lived in the US when you were younger, so I want to know specifically how that bloody and political side to America came up and why you wanted to depict it on the album.”

Azusa: “I guess, likewise to what you said, I’ve become really jaded by what’s been happening in America over the past few years, like with Trump and Black Lives Matter. I really wanted to portray both the good and the bad. I did live in the States when I was little but that was a long time ago and to be honest, I don’t really remember anything about it. What I do remember is mostly the good stuff, like playing computer games, going to see baseball, watching movies, that sort of stuff. But obviously there’s a bad side to everything, and that side was getting more and more apparent year by year. I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that broadening gap between this sort of idealised image of the States, and how the States are currently. This was a big deal because I’ve always been sort of stuck between identifying myself as American and Japanese. I came back to Japan when I was 7 years old, and I dabbled in childhood developmental psychology a bit when I was in college, and apparently 7 is a pretty important age in terms of determining one’s own national identity: you identify yourself with the country you live in, at that time, and I was sort of halfway through the age of 7 when I came back to Japan, and back then I was totally unable to communicate in Japanese! I mean I could sort of understand what people were saying, but I couldn’t speak a word of Japanese myself.

I always sorta stood out as an outsider in Japanese society. Still, to this day, there are some aspects of my mannerisms which I think are really American, like the way I tend to speak louder when I’m speaking English! I tend to have stronger opinions towards things than most Japanese people do, like politics and stuff. In that sense I still feel like I don’t really fit in to Japanese society, and a part of me has always wanted to, I don’t know, not really return full-time to the States, but I’ve always imagined what it would’ve been like if I stayed in America and grew up as an adult there. I’ve always wanted to revisit my American roots, but year by year things seem to be getting worse and worse there, and I’ve become less and less interested in returning there. At the same time, however, I do have this emotional attachment to the States, so it really hurts part of me to see how things are going there recently. Yeah, I guess, part of the album was dealing with this grief, getting over this loss of what I thought could have been a better life, letting go of it….. it’s so hard to put this into words, you know!”

Mustafa: “I really relate to what you described, as even though I’ve lived in the UK almost my entire life, I did live in the US for a little bit as a kid as well! I found it really jarring living in a different place at the time, and of course we ended up moving back to the UK, but I do have good memories of the people I met! I think it can be strange: culturally in the US there’s so much going on there, especially artistically, and even when growing up in the UK, so much of what we’re exposed to is all from the US, so it becomes an integral inevitability, realising how that tether is connected to the grander state of the US, and how that entity isn’t as beautiful or as perfect as we imagined growing up. Especially on a personal level, I really appreciate how you expressed that on Ethernity particularly, and I think the album is one of the most important albums I’ve listened to in recent times!”

Azusa: “Oh really?”

Mustafa: “Yeah! Honestly, even when I first came across it I couldn’t anticipate how I’d be able to relate to it, but after listening to it I realised that it’s a really important statement! So yeah, thank you for creating and expressing it! I really love it!”

Azusa: “No, thank you! Do you know the website Rate Your Music?”

Mustafa: “Oh yeah, I’m on there!”

Azusa: “If you go and see For Tracy Hyde’s discography, Ethernity is by far our least popular album, so yeah *laughs*. I’ve sort of always perceived it as a bit of a flunk I guess, so it’s really good to know there are people out there who actually appreciate it *laughs*!”

Mustafa: “It can be jarring! Even when I first came across it, I knew the sound and style that For Tracy Hyde had, the dreaminess of it all, so the album does throw you off and catch you off-guard a little bit! At first I was intrigued by it, but I can see how some people might be put off by it because they might see it as ‘out of character’, which I don’t really think is an appropriate way to describe or perceive art, especially as the album is very much in-character given your past experiences and how they’re connected to all of your music.

On the topic of the US: when For Tracy Hyde disbanded you hadn’t gone on an international tour, and that was something you described as being quite important to you and something you wanted to do, it being a dream of yours. Now, obviously with your desire to returning to the US having faded a little bit, do you still want to do that tour in the US as much as you did before?”

Azusa: “Well, to be honest, I still want to do a US tour because, obviously it still has a very strong place in culture around the world, it’s so hugely influential, and a lot of my favourite US bands come from the states. For example, I’ve always been a huge fan of The Beach Boys, and I’d been to California when I was a kid, but I don’t remember anything about it, so I do want to revisit California especially! Yeah, I guess as a musician, going back to the States is still one of my personal dreams! I do have friends who have toured the States, the Singaporean band Sobs, for example, and they did seem to enjoy the tour, but at the same time Raph from Sobs mentioned he couldn’t imagine himself living in the States, and he didn’t really care about going back *laughs*. I guess it’s going to be a mixed experience!”

Mustafa: “*laughs* You mentioned wanting to go back to California. If I may ask, where specifically in California did you go? I ask because I lived in Fresno during my time in the States!”

Azusa: “I think I’ve been to both Los Angeles and San Francisco!”

Mustafa: “I remember passing through San Francisco from and to the airport, driving over the Golden Gate Bridge! That’s all the exposure I’ve had to the city *laughs*.

On the topic of international tours too: obviously with America the juggernaut it is, it’s kind of a priority, but please do keep the UK in mind as well *laughs*!”

Azusa: “Yeah! Totally! If I had to choose between the US and the UK, I think I’m inclined towards touring the UK more because obviously shoegaze is from the UK, the Beatles are from the UK. Pretty much about 70% of the music I’m into is from the UK! The UK is obviously a big deal in music!”

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4.

Mustafa: “With the history and years of experience you’ve had, I’m interested in your perspective of the landscape, and industry in general, of Japanese music currently. You were releasing For Tracy Hyde’s music on Bandcamp when you started off, before moving to P-Vine for Film Bleau. How do you feel the Japanese music industry is right now? I can be wary of music labels because I dislike the way some can constrict and limit artists, and redirect the focus away from artistic intention towards marketability. Based on your experiences, and your own contemplations, how do you feel about the state of it all right now?”

Azusa: “Jeeeeez, that’s a huge one…… I mean, most of my musical experience has been limited to the indie scene so I don’t really have any experience in the major label scene, so I can’t really say anything about it. I think things are getting a bit better because artists in the mainstream are sort of diversifying a bit more.

For a long time, being this isolated island nation, Japan has always been doing its own thing regardless of what’s going on outside of the country, but I think that more and more both music listeners and musicians are paying more attention to the current trends of the US and UK scenes for example, and trying to take and learn whatever they can and incorporate it into their own music. In that sense, the mainstream is definitely getting healthier I think, but on the other hand what’s always been the case with the Japanese music scene in general is that people tend to really care about how bands look. How they dress, how they act in public, that sort of thing. One big part of For Tracy Hyde has always been disregarding fashion, I guess. All those superficial values that people in the major scene tend to really care about, which is why I think the major labels hated us *laughs*! I mean, that sort of worries me because there’re so many talented musicians out there who, for lack of a better word, aren’t ‘dressed well’, and those bands tend to end up not getting any attention at all compared to bands and acts who are musically lesser but look better. I don’t really know how it is in the US or the UK, but my personal perception is that that sort of ‘lookism’ to music isn’t really as prevalent there as it is in Japan. Bands can be dressed like ordinary Joes and just succeed on the strength of what they’re doing rather than how they look, which really isn’t the case in Japan, so I guess that’s one thing I’m concerned about.”

Mustafa: “With that kind of ethos in the mainstream, where all the money is, do you feel like that creates a partition/separation between independent music and the more mainstream music? Or do you see some ways that musicians can kind of slip from one to the other?”

Azusa: “Well, yeah I do think that it creates a sort of partition because… it’s kinda hard to say….. on one hand I think the major label scene is opening up towards more indie sounds. You can be playing music that’s really informed by alternative rock/indie rock/indie pop, and still get signed to a major label. At the same time, you’’ll be constantly demanded to be dressed well in a marketable manner, look good, wear makeup whenever necessary, and most indie bands just don’t do that and don’t care about that sort of shit. It is a partition that’s actually enhanced by the fact that it’s less about what you’re playing and more about your looks.”

Mustafa: “I always had a hunch that that was the way things worked, so I’m really glad to hear your insight because I feel like you’ve got really nuanced perceptions based on all the time you’ve spent working with music and being in the live scene spotlight.

That leads me to the live show you did yesterday that’s part of your Pacific Ocean Park project, which is a project I’m really grateful for! I really love how that’s cultivating and nurturing the shoegaze live scene there. What led to you wanting to set that up, and what does the project mean to you?”

Azusa: “I’ve always been sort of doing similar things. Even before adopting the ‘Pacific Ocean Park’ title, I’ve always been hosting gigs and parties at least once a year for the past decade or so. It’s always sort of been what I’m doing.

When I was starting up as a musician, there were always musicians a decade older than me who always giving me advice on how I could do things: how to make friends, how to score slots for gigs. They’ve always been really helpful for me, they’ve been fostering figures for me as a musician who was starting out. I’ve always been grateful for their presence, so I wanted to return the favour by doing the same for musicians who are younger than me and securing places where they can enjoy playing, especially with the…. have you heard of the ticket quota system?”

Mustafa: “Mhm, yeah! I first heard about it in the interview I conducted with Tana from Penguin no Yuuutsu.”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “I learnt about it from her, and it’s come up in other reading I’ve done since then, and I really…. don’t like it! I don’t think it fosters or encourages musicians!”

Azusa: “It’s getting less of a problem year by year, but back in the early 2010’s, when I was starting up, it was still very much a prevalent system in the live scene in Japan. What really helped me was that my seniors in the band scene taught me how to work around the system by hosting my own gigs, or getting friends to invite you to their parties instead of securing regular live bookings on a weekday night, which practically don’t pay at all. That was really what helped me get going as a musician, so I wanted to make sure that my counterparts in the shoegaze scene could just have fun and play music that they feel is dearest to their heart without worrying about finances.”

Mustafa: “As of right now, now that you’re helping other musicians, and given the history and the status of For Tracy Hyde, what is your perspective on your role in Japan’s music scene?

Azusa: “Jeez, that’s kinda hard to answer without self-grandeur!

I think it’s fairly objective to say that For Tracy Hyde has pretty much been the only sort of commercially-viable shoegaze band. I actually earn quite a bit of money through my royalties thanks to my career with For Tracy Hyde. Back when I was starting up as a shoegaze musician in the 2000-2010’s, all the things my mentors would tell me was that “shoegaze does not sell, practically nobody cares about shoegaze”. Actually, one specific detail that a friend of mine told me back then was: when you send out press releases to the media when you release records, if you mention the word ‘shoegaze’ in those press release, record stores will be carrying less copies of your record!”

Mustafa: “Really?????!”

Azusa: “Yeah! At least a hundred or so copies less. I mean, shoegaze was really unpopular back then. I’ve always been passionate about shoegaze, and I really wanted to change that perception of shoegaze. I wanted to prove that shoegaze can actually make a decent amount of money and be decently popular, and you don’t have to betray who you are and what you want to do to achieve as a band. I guess we sort of managed to do that. Every now and then, younger kids come up to me saying that For Tracy Hyde has been a huge inspiration for them, and they actually started playing music and established their own bands because of us, things like that. That’s always been a huge encouragement for what I’m doing. I guess, with Pacific Ocean Park and whatever else I’m doing, I really want to push that further and serve as encouragement and inspiration to others.”

Mustafa: “That’s really awesome to hear, thank you for sharing that!

The basis upon which For Tracy Hyde disbanded, it was linked to you wanting to pursue music as a career while other members didn’t want to. I found that really interesting, obviously because with For Tracy Hyde being so popular, and you mentioned the royalties, I imagined it would be a band that was very financially sustainable, so I initially assumed the reasons for disbanding were instead more regarding the creative side of the band.

On the idea of pursuing music as a career, do you feel like that would provide you with creative opportunities, or do you think that would impose limits on creativity? Do you feel like a balance between the two is possible?”

Azusa: “Yeah, I think I’d actually be able to balance it a decent bit. I mean, a few years ago idols doing shoegaze was totally unimaginable, now fast forward a few years and I’m actually writing a couple songs a year for idol groups and other artists who want to try their hands with the shoegaze sound. I’m sort of becoming the go-to person when someone wants to sound shoegaze. I guess nobody could have imagined that happening a few years ago when shoegaze was still unpopular so I think that there’s a timing for everything. When the timing’s right, if you stick long enough doing your own thing for a couple of years, the time will come when you can actually shine through I guess doing what you want. Thankfully I’ve never really felt the urge to change what I’m doing or who I am, because of the support I’ve found over the years. I haven’t really been feeling creatively restrained by all this commission work and outside work I’ve been doing.

Actually, yeah, I don’t really think that I’d need to compromise on my creative vision to make a living out of music, and if I could pursue a career in music full-time, that would actually just open up more opportunities because I’d have that much more time to dedicate to my craft and learn new things, and find new clients who’d want to work with me.”

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5.

Mustafa: “I wanted to ask specifically about your really early days. You had your own netlabel called Catana Records, through which you released the first ever For Tracy Hyde album onto Bandcamp which never released on streaming! What was it like releasing music in this way?”

Azusa: “The thing was that Bandcamp wasn’t really a thing in Japan back then because they didn’t have a Japanese page at the time, it was all in English, so if you didn’t have a decent command of English then you couldn’t easily navigate through it or upload music yourself. At that time, to be honest, I wasn’t really interested in the Japanese music scene in general. I mean, I didn’t care about the major label scene, and I didn’t really know what was going on underground either, I was sticking to shoegaze and older music from the 90’s like Shibuya-Kei. But then a friend of mine, Yoshiki from this band called Boyish- about half of For Tracy Hyde’s member were from Boyish-...”

Mustafa: “U-1 as well!”

Azusa: “Yeah! Actually this was before Boyish started, but Yoshiki pointed out that there were some cool bands in the Tokyo indie scene who were actually taking cues from the American indie scene and making it their own. Bands like Mitsume, Teen Runnings, Super VHS, those sorts of bands who are really inspired by the US Lo-Fi/Surf Rock sort of scene. I didn’t really know that bands were taking note of what was going on in the US, so I was really excited and I went to see gigs of those bands with Yoshiki and U1 and those guys back then. That really stimulated me! I wasn’t really making music at the time. I used to be in a band before that called Daydrop, which just broke up after a gig or so. I was totally depressed because being in a band meant so much to me, especially as it was the first band I ever started, so I wasn’t really motivated to make rock music back then, but this newfound source of inspiration in the Tokyo-indie scene made me want to make my own music again and find likeminded artists who took inspiration from what was going on in America and the UK. I wanted to form a community of those like-minded artists: releasing music through a common faucet in the form of a netlabel, and organise gigs. That was the main ideal behind the netlabel Catana Records.”

Mustafa: “I feel like that’s a little similar to what you’re doing right now with Pacific Ocean Park, just translated to a more in-person thing!

The netlabel hasn’t been active for a while now, over a decade now. So many people are a lot more active on Bandcamp now, Japanese artists included, and pretty much all of the international audiences access Japanese music through the internet. Do you think netlabels could still have a relevant role in this current climate, or do you think they’re a relic of the past? Do you think they could be versatile in some form?”

Azusa: “I don’t know…. To be honest I haven’t really been following the internet label scene for the past few years. It does seem to be shrinking I guess: I don’t really see people mentioning them that much anymore. There were a few huge internet labels like Maltine Records, but there’s been a huge gap between acts who become successful and move onto bigger things, and acts who just stop activities and disappear from the scene. Especially when the big acts move on to bigger labels and the internet label scene just becomes that much less active as a result. They do seem to be a relic of the past with not much stronghold on the scene anymore.”

Mustafa: “It’s a shame, with how it’s all become so ephemeral!”

Azusa: “It’s sad because it’s really cool to have DIY communities with total creative and artistic freedom!”

Mustafa: “Those values are really important to me when it comes to art in general, so when I came across your netlabel I was really fascinated by it, and it felt like discovering a treasure trove of music!”

‘Halation’, one of my favourite songs from He(r)art, originally released on Azusa’s net label, sung entirely by himself! It feels distinct from Eureka’s performance yet shares that same palpable nocturnal feeling! Their first ever Bandcamp release also includes the first version of ‘Shady Sherbert Lane’, which is another of my favourites!

Mustafa: “I also came across your SoundCloud, where you’d also been releasing music under Shortcake Collage Tape. I find it so interesting how you were making all those sample-heavy tracks alongside For Tracy Hyde. I’m interested in why you wanted to do this sample work alongside the band: was it something you were considering moving into, becoming your forte in the future, or was it just a side-thing the same way Letters For Annika is?”

Azusa: “Yeah, I guess it was a side thing. Back then, chillwave was a huge thing: acts like Washed Out, Neon Indian, and I was really into the chillwave scene. I wanted to make music in that style, and at the same time, back then, there was a lot of sample-heavy music going on in the indie scene. Acts like The Avalanches and The Go Team, and I was really into that as well, so I thought it would be cool to combine the two and make this easy-going, relaxing music. To be honest, my memory’s sort of fuzzy about it so I don’t really remember what I was thinking back then!

Not many people in Japan were really taking notice of chill wave in general, and also the vaporwave scene was sort of budding in the States, but nobody in Japan had heard of vaporwave back then so I thought it’d be interesting if I could be the first vaporwave artist in Japan, but it didn’t really work well because people just don’t care about anything that they haven’t heard of before, so in the end it didn’t really garner the attention that I was hoping it would. The thing is, after about three years, the vaporware aesthetic just blew up in Japan because Japanese people have always sort of been fascinated with how Westerners perceive Japanese culture: the exoticism and sort of distorted, exaggerated, image of Japan, so vaporwave ended up becoming a huge thing in Japan and that really irritated me because…. ‘If I was three years later, I would have totally blown up!!!’ *laughs*. So the lesson I learned was that if you’re too early to the party, nobody would really care about it! *laughs*.

Back then, one thing I was really passionate about was catching up with trends in the US and UK scenes in realtime: doing whatever’s going on at that time as soon possible. However after I did Shortcake Collage Tape, I then started to wait about three years or so for Japan to catch up, and then start imitating what’s going on overseas.”

Mustafa: “Do you think there could be a return to Shortcake Collage Tape?”

Azusa “Nahhh, I mean, it’s too time-consuming! Finding the right sources to sample from, assembling them in a meaningful way!”

Mustafa: “Speaking specifically about sourcing samples: the main song that I’ve listened to from Shortcake Collage Tape, and it really grabbed my attention when I heard it, is the song ‘Del Mar’, on which you sampled ‘Tama Tama Newtown’ by Soutaiseiriron!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!! You caught it, yeah!”

Mustafa: “That sample….. Soutaiseiriron is one of my favourite bands ever, so when I heard that, it felt like worlds had collided between the realm of For Tracy Hyde, a band I really really look up to, and Soutaiseiriron who are one of the first Japanese bands I ever got into. I mean the song’s just on Soundcloud, it didn’t get a proper release or anything, it felt like I’d found literal gold! I really wanted to ask, if you can remember, why you specifically wanted to use that sample from that song, and what’s your history with Soutaiseirion? ‘Tama Tama Newtown’ is one of my favourite songs by them, and that *hums melody from the song*, that melody is the most memorable part!”

Azusa: “Ah jeez, I don’t know… I think the logic was that the *hums melody* sounded like what the hook of an indie rock anthem would be. I could totally imagine people singing along to the melody, so I thought it would be interesting to incorporate it into a totally different song that sounds nothing like the original Soutaiseiriron song. My memory’s sorta fuzzy about it!

But yeah! I was really into Soutaiseiriron, especially Hi-Fi Shinsho, and…. what was the record after that?”

Mustafa: “Synchroniciteen!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah! I was really into those albums, especially the former! But yeah, as much as I enjoyed listening to them, I don’t think they really inspired me or influenced me in terms of songwriting. I don’t know, maybe there might be some similarities between us if you dig into it, but I don’t really know.”

Mustafa: “I think, maybe in terms of musical style there isn’t much of an overlap, but I think the approach that you both had to band image is really similar. I mean they never do interviews, they do their own thing with their image, so there’s a kind of overlap there!”

Their last release was in 2019, which feels really recent to me as they haven’t released music that often over the past decade! But with For Tracy Hyde, since 2019 you guys released New Young City, Ethernity, Hotel Insomnia and then your disbandment, all in the time since the most recent Soutaiseirrion release. So much has happened, yet even now when I look at the release date for New Young City my brain registers it as “this is a new album”, so it’s a little jarring how quickly everything’s happened over the past few years!”

It’s an understatement to say I love Soutaiseiriron.

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6.

Mustafa: “A common theme that comes up in your music, and when you discuss it in interviews, is the idea of beauty. I really like how you mention that specifically by word because oftentimes when I listen to music and hear something that really moves me, I’ll describe it as beautiful but I don’t often see the artists themselves use that word. What is beauty to you? What does it mean to you, and how did it end up having that importance in your artistic expression?”

Azusa: “Jeeeeeeeez..... Things are getting pretty philosophical! Damn…. ‘the definition of beauty’, jeez, I haven’t really thought about it……. I don’t know, I mean, jeez I don’t really know where to start.

The thing is that my entire life has been one huge existential crisis because ever since childhood I’ve always been afraid of death. I still am: I think about death everyday *laughs*. I’m still afraid of death to the point of that I find myself totally crippled at times, unable to do anything, because I’m so scared of death. This fear of death, I guess, has really made me appreciate these fleeting moments in life. Moments of joy, moments of sorrow, intense emotions I guess. Scenes and things that evoke that sort of strong emotion. I guess that’s what I think is the most beautiful thing on Earth: being able to evoke emotions within other people, or having other people inspire emotions in you, emotions that you didn’t know you had within, or were there all along. That’s what I’ve always aimed to do, because people don’t forget what caused those emotions within. The people or moments that made those emotions manifest within you. I guess I just want people to remember who I was and what I did whilst I was alive. That’s always been a major motive for me making music. Jeez, I can’t really find the right conclusion to this! I guess that’s what I think beauty is!”

Mustafa: “The way you describe beauty speaks so much to me! Things coming to an end is something I’m always mindful of. Whether it’s death, or even when bands disband. I wrote a post about it on my blog a while ago, about how it feels so sad when bands end but at the same time it’s just so beautiful to witness. The same way with watching For Tracy Hyde’s last performance, there were a lot of songs that I was hearing for the first time in that live show, and when it comes to the ephemeral nature of things, it reminds me of a quote from the band before: ‘lending a sense of eternity to fleeting moments has always been the main concept of our music’.”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “That’s perfect!! Even with my own experience of your music, it summarises it perfectly. Even though For Tracy Hyde has come to an end, there is still a boundless world within that music which I’m still exploring one year on from that final live show, which in itself is so beautiful.

If I had to summarise For Tracy Hyde’s music, I would describe it as ‘beautifully ephemeral’. When you described the etymology of the album name ‘Ethernity’, being a portmanteau of ‘ethereal’ and ‘eternity’, I found myself perceiving For Tracy Hyde as both ethereal and ephemeral, and I think it’s special how both those words sound so similar to eachother because of how I feel they naturally summarise the band’s music so perfectly. I guess this is just me voicing my appreciation for the beauty of that one moment, amongst many, of For Tracy Hyde!”

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7.

Mustafa: “When preparing for this interview I deliberately didn’t want to rewatch the final live show’s recording, because I wanted to rely on my memories of that moment. I remember thinking it was quite funny when, just before ‘Leave The Planet’, you said “This is our last song for the night”, but then played ‘Can Little Birds Remember?’ after, and then finished with ‘Her Sarah Records Collection’ after saying ‘this is really, really the last song!’! *Azusa laughs*

That penultimate song you performed, ‘Can Little Birds Remember?’, I remember when I first heard it in that live show that I could immediately tell how special the song was because it’s sung in English. As I was digging through your older interviews, I noticed how you wrote that song because you were a little annoyed at how some Japanese bands would sing in English but it wasn’t that great, so you thought ‘we want to do it better than them’! *laughs*. I really admired that statement and ambition, and I was listening to the studio version recently, I was thinking ‘you literally hit the nail on the head, you perfectly did it!’ Because the lyrics for that song, I’ve spent so much time thinking about them, even more than I do with songs from English artists; it’s on another level, and my favourite lyric has to be “can’t justify the pain of my longing for belonging to you”!

The song’s from New Young City, the title in question being taken from the Supercar song, and you chose that name in particular because you wanted to contrast it with the whole City Pop phenomenon. I wanted to ask about your perspective on that phenomenon in more detail, because in the same way that vaporwave kinda took off in America, City Pop absolutely blew up like crazy. How did you feel about the craze when it started to seep back to Japan, and even now in general?”

Azusa: “City Pop, yeesh…. I don’t really hate it musically, but I guess what sort of annoyed me was how the City Pop culture felt so superficial. It’s all about glorifying the past economical prosperity of Japan, something that we pretty much likely won’t be able to experience in our lifetimes: that short timeframe when Japan was at the centre of global attention, I think will never be the case again in our lifetimes. I think what’s the point in glorifying the past so much rather than solving the problems we have infront of our eyes? That aspect has always bugged me.

Another reason is the City Pop fanbase’s approach towards music in Japan: one moment that really stood out for me was in 2015 or 2016 when I went to see a band called JIV, a really great power pop/pop punk band who have really great songs and a great amount of energy. They were a total blast to see live, but at the show people were just sort of standing politely and clapping with absolutely no sense of excitement or appreciation towards the set. And then right after that, the DJ at the venue started playing a Never Young Beach record and the crowd just went crazy with dancing. I thought: ‘What the FUCK?? You’re just listening to a record, you can do that at home!’. I mean, how can you see a band play with such energy and be indifferent about it, and then go crazy about some random guy just playing a record? That really bugged me, and after that I became more and more dubious about the purpose of the current City Pop revival; it seems so pointless. And so, since then, City Pop has pretty much been my virtual enemy, I guess! I don’t think it’s bad musically in itself, I’m just annoyed by the culture that surrounds it.”

Mustafa: “I feel similarly! When I was 15/16 when City Pop really started to take off, that was one of my earlier exposures to Japanese music, and I did enjoy a lot of the music, but slowly I started to see how it was a very strange and weird case because of the way people would react to it. I feel like people were caught up in this image in their head of what nostalgia should be, something heavily glamourised that focuses a lot on hedonistic city life as you described before, and I think pushing nostalgia to that extent can be a betrayal of authenticity. And then I started to see the whole Future Funk genre that spun out from that.”

Azusa: “Oh yeah, yeah.”

Mustafa: “There are some musicians who make original future funk style music, but there are a lot of people on YouTube who’ll take these old Japanese songs and just speed them up 30%-50%, rearrange it a little, then give it a completely different title and reupload it. So there’ll be people who are enjoying these songs in these really weird Frankenstein forms without knowing the original artist’s name, so I’ve always been really jaded by that as well. I’m not usually this cynical! *laughs*, but these things I notice do bug me a bit, because if we’re going to end up leaning so much into the pasts of these musicians, we should at least give them the respect of acknowledging their contributions and achievements. But yeah, that’s City Pop!”

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8.

Mustafa: “You used to go by the name Natsubot, as stated in your Twitter bio. How did you come up with that name, why did you want to use it, and why do you no longer go by the name? I noticed on the album cover for ‘He(r)art’, where you’re credited as the guitar player by ‘Natsubot’, whilst in the same list of credits it states ‘Written by Azusa Suga’. I’m interested in that distinction which really stood out to me, and what that name means to you.”

Azusa: “Well, I came up with the name quite a long time ago so I don’t really remember what I was thinking and what the logic was behind the name. To be honest, using it in For Tracy Hyde wasn’t a choice I deliberately made. I was sort of forced to do it because everybody else didn’t want to be credited with their real names, they wanted to go with monikers, so I thought it would be weird if I was the only guy in the band going by my real name, so I just had to follow suite and come up with something else I guess. I used the name throughout For Tracy Hyde, whilst I used my real name when credited as songwriter because I thought it would be more helpful if people recognised my real name as I’m building up a career as a musician. That’s the logic behind going by Natsubot as the guitarist while using my real name as the songwriter.”

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9.

Mustafa: “There’s a strong reflective nature in the early For Tracy Hyde works, so I get the impression that you’ve got a bit of a complex relationship with nostalgia as a concept. What do you feel are the blinding aspects of nostalgia, compared to the strengths that the emotion has?”

Azusa: “The strength of nostalgia…. People obviously rely on memories. What they remember, what happened in their lives, it’s always a huge deal because having positive memories that you can look back on is something reinvigorating that keeps you going in your life, especially when things are tough. In that sense, nostalgia is a huge part of human life, and a very important aspect of culture.

At the same time, relying too much on it can distract you from what you should be dealing with, how you should be improving your current state if things aren’t looking great, especially in times like we’re in right now, with all the conflicts going on around the world, and the shortcomings of democracy and modernity as a whole. the faults in the current system that weren’t really apparent in the past decade but are really rapidly getting exposed recently. I mean, I’m not an expert on anything, and I by no means have any ideas on how to solve anything, but I really think that it’s important to take things as they are and think and really openly discuss, or at least express how you’re thinking. It’s becoming more and more valuable, especially as Japanese people tend to shy away from politics and social affairs, so it’s sort of really bugs me that, especially since Japan has been declining in terms of global status, economy, political significance and everything. I wouldn’t say that Japan is becoming less significant culturally- I’m still kind of worried that’s going to happen if things stay like this for longer. I really think it’s an urgent issue for us people involved in the cultural scene to tackle: to bridge the gap between what Japanese people think.

There’s this sort of divide between Japanese people who are active politically and Japanese people who just don’t want to think about anything, especially since in Japan people really dislike artists and musicians and cultural figures who think politically and express their political views because they sort of think that it ruins their appreciation and enjoyment of their work, which has really been annoying. I think it’s our responsibility to change that, and bridge the gap between culture and politics. In tackling that issue we shouldn’t be glorifying what we once were, the economic powerhouse and cultural stronghold that we used to be, we need to be dealing more with the ‘now’ rather than the ‘then’, and in that sense I think the current wave of nostalgia in Japanese culture is serving more as a distraction rather than a positive thing I guess.”

Mustafa: “I appreciate you sharing that, as it’s really meaningful for me on a personal level! With the ongoing genocide that Palestine’s been facing, it’s something that I’ve written about and am mentioning it in the posts I make. I’ve discussed it a little bit with some of the musicians I’ve spoken to in the past, and thankfully they’ve all been really receptive to what I’ve been saying about the matter.

It’s a shame to hear about the divide that you described. Something that’s been so apparent is the disparity between the newer generations and the old way of doing things, so I do hope when they gain more of a foothold in the culture and way of things that we begin to see a lot of change. Thank you so much for sharing that, I know it’s a more serious topic to touch upon, but I really do believe it’s important!”

Azusa: “Yeah, it really is!”

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10.

Mustafa: “You were signed to P-Vine for when Film Bleu released in 2016, so I’m very interested in how you went from being unsigned and working independently to working with P-Vine, who are really big! I know downt signed to them recently as well, who I really love!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah yeah, they did!”

Mustafa: “So I’m really interested in how that came about, how you were noticed by them! What was it like going from being independent to working with a big label. I really want to know about that process!”

Azusa: “Well there isn’t really much behind it: back in 2015 I went to some random show, I don’t remember what the show was, and a friend of mine was there and was talking to some guy I didn’t know. I just sort of jumped into the conversation and it turned out that the random guy that my friend was talking to was working for P-Vine. I mentioned to him that I was in a band called For Tracy Hyde, and he said that he knew us….. and that’s pretty much it! I said I would be really interested in releasing music through a label, and he said that he was interested in us, so it just happened that way! The thing that’s interesting is that my friend who was there was in his own different band, so I was sort of expecting his band to release music through P-Vine too, but that didn’t happen *laughs*! I released through P-Vine but not him, that’s sorta interesting!”

Mustafa: “Can you remember what band he was in?”

Azusa: “He was in a band called Youth Memory, they’re a really great band!”

Mustafa: “I recognise the name from some of your past interviews!

It sounds so spontaneous, and almost like destiny! I mean if you hadn’t been there at that show, then where would For Tracy Hyde be right now? It’s really cool to think about!

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11.

Mustafa: “I feel like I keep circling back to the topic of For Tracy Hyde’s disbandment with my questions, it feels kind of impossible to avoid!

When For Tracy Hyde disbanded, you all released a statement on you website, and you listed some rules that you’ve had throughout the entire time the band’s been active: you never wanted to make the band permanent, so you wanted to bring the curtains down at some point; you didn’t want to describe it as a ‘hiatus’ and wanted to declare it as a permanent thing, and you wanted it to be a positive ending instead of a negative one. I’m really interested in how you came up with those intentions at the start because oftentimes, the impression I’ve had, is that as bands are active they don’t often think much about bringing things to a close!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “What led to you having those thoughts in your mind? I mean in the middle of the band’s career you guys must’ve been doing really well, so what prompted you to have those thoughts even when being in one of the most important Japanese bands of the past decade?”

Azusa: “Well, I mean, the thing is that….. obviously all bands eventually come to an end. It’s just so untrue to assume that you’ll be in a band forever and that people will be listening to your music forever so I just wanted to make it clear that bands will end, especially given how shoegaze is associated with the fleeting nature of things, and capturing the fleeting essence of things. I thought that it would have been more befitting to have a proper ending as a band.

I also really wanted my band to have its roots in youth culture. I mean, you’re not young forever obviously. People really hate grownups who infiltrate into youth culture pretending to be young. ‘What, you’re in your 40’s and you’re still acting like you’re in your 20’s?? That’s sorta gross!’ you know! So yeah, I thought that it would be totally phoney to not have an ending.

The other thing was that it’s pretty common, especially in the Japanese indie scenes, for bands to just end without announcing that they’re ending. It’d be like: ‘Oh gee, I haven’t heard from those guys for a few years, I wonder what they’re up to….’ and it just turns out that their last Twitter post was from 5 years ago and they’re not doing anything! Like ‘Whaaat the fuuck??’ *laughs*. That’s so insincere and untrue to your fans! I’ve always been annoyed by that. Even when they do announce it, they just sorta release a statement saying ‘We’re going on indefinite hiatus’ or ‘This isn’t the end of our band! We’ll be coming back when we think the time is right!’ and they never come back! That’s so annoying; I’ve seen so many bands do that, and I just didn’t think that was the right move to make as humans, you know: you should be true to whoever loves and supports you and what you’re doing, so I guess that’s the logic behind those rules.”

Mustafa: “Thank you for sharing that! Literally just before you said the words, I was thinking ‘Yeah, it’s quite insincere to end things abruptly like that’!

I think that’s really important: I really appreciate how you have that focus on the relationship between the art and the people who receive it. I feel like oftentimes it can get lost when people are caught up in the logistics of running a band. For me, the main message of artistry and music at the end of the day is expressing something and having that communicated to another person who you may not have otherwise spoken to, so I think it’s really special and admirable to have had those things in mind! It’s artful in itself, I guess, to have thought of those things. It makes the disbandment itself a work of art!”

Azusa: “Yeah, yeah!”

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12.

Mustafa: “I haven’t been able to find any interviews with AprilBlue online!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah, we haven’t done any!”

Mustafa: “I was wondering about the ethos of AprilBlue and what you’re trying to achieve with the band, similar to how For Tracy Hyde wanted to capture the romanticism of nostalgia and youth. What’s AprilBlue’s agenda?”

Azusa: “Well, there’s not really much of an ethos like what For Tracy Hyde had because it was just sorta spontaneous. The reason why the band started in the first place was me and our singer Haruki had been friends for quite a long time- I think it was 2014 when we first met. In 2018 we went to karaoke together for the first time. I’d never heard her sing before but I found out that she had a really good singing voice and she could sing well, and she’d never done music properly in her life: she’d never been in a band, she doesn’t play instruments or anything, and I thought that was a shame so I just wanted to start a band with her so that she can express herself and show her singing abilities to the world!

Other than that, there hasn’t really been a proper concept or ethos behind the work of AprilBlue. If there ever was any semblance of a concept, I guess when we were recording our first album the idea was to record the perfect debut album and then just break up, because we thought that’d have a huge impact on the music scene! We thought that it’d be cool to do that, but it turned out that, by the time we finished recording our first album, we realised that we enjoy being in this band too much to split up! Since then, yeah, it’s just been writing and recording stuff whenever we feel like it without any thoughts about what direction we take as a band, or any concepts, that sort of thing. It’s been really spontaneous, to be honest!”

Mustafa: “I’m really happy AprilBlue didn’t disband because I’ve found the band so interesting, especially more now after hearing such a meaningful story behind how it started, so if you ever get the urge to break up again….. please don’t!!!!”

Azusa: “*laughs* We’re currently recording our second album so it’s not gonna happen for a couple of years at least!”

Mustafa: “I’m happy to hear!! Over the past year I’ve been listening a lot to Blue Peter (the first album released by AprilBlue) as it pops up as recommended whenever I listen to For Tracy Hyde, so I’d already listened to the band quite a lot! Recently I went through the singles released prior to the album, and I love the single ‘Yellow’ so, so much! The way that AprilBlue’s been releasing music over the past few years, I get the impression that you guys are creating and releasing at a comfortable pace, which I’m glad is the case!”

I love the way AprilBlue formed as a result of Azusa wanting to help Haruki share her voice with the world. It’s such a beautiful act of friendship and imbues their work with a teamwork that shimmers in every note they play and sing together.

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13.

Mustafa: “In the past you’ve likened photographs and videos to music, how they all can “contain the atmosphere of a certain era, or could be connected to an individual’s memory”. It might be a bit of a big one to ask, but are there any specific memories that you’re comfortable sharing which influenced big decisions you made with your music. Are there any that stuck out so much that you wanted to capture them in the music you were making at the time?”

Azusa: “Ah geeeeez….. the thing is that, the years we made our first three albums in were pretty much the most troublesome and stressful times in my life so I tend to try and sort of forget everything about that stuff! I can’t really come up with any specific moments. I mean, yeah, that’s sorta tough I guess!”

Mustafa: “I apologise if that was a difficult one to answer!”

Azusa: “Oh nonono!”

Mustafa: “In all the music you’ve made, I really love the sincerity that shines though and the sentiments that they have. It always feels like, whether it’s Letters To Annika or your work with RAY, I always get the feeling that the music you’re making is a celebration of life in general through embracing all of it. That multifaceted approach to it, I think is really important in this day and age in the way that it’s all-encompassing of every facet of existence. I’m grateful for the way I’ve found a sort of compass in your music over the past few months: it’s given me a lot more grounding and really highlighted to me what my beliefs in music are. When I was younger I was very focused on dreaming and being detached, focusing solely on ideals, but as you mentioned with Ethernity and Hotel Insomnia, through them I’ve really started to appreciate being grounded!”

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14.

Mustafa: “You met a lot of For Tracy Hyde’s members through Twitter back when the site wasn’t very big in Japan! *Azusa laughs* So I’m interested in what your relationship with social media is like in general! Something I noticed was that you tend back everyone who follows you, which I think is so cool in itself as I remember getting the notification of you following me back a while ago! *Azusa laughs*

A lot of international fans discover new music through YouTube or SNS, so I’m interested in your perspective of how it’s been. Obviously it must’ve been really big for your to basically form For Tracy Hyde through Twitter, but in other ways are there any noticeable thoughts you’ve had?”

Azusa: “While I do have accounts on Facebook and Instagram as well, I don’t really use them as I’m pretty much predominantly a Twitter guy, so Twitter is pretty much the only social media that I can actually talk about!

I mean, Twitter has been huge: it’s pretty much been my entire life post-college, because what really frustrated me about my life until I was 18 or 19 or 20 or so when I started Twitter was that I was never able to find anybody who shared musical interests with me because…. I mean, there’s only so many people who actually care about overseas music, Western music, especially music from the past. I mean shoegaze is obviously 20-30 years ago, and what Twitter did for me was help me find friends who I can actually talk with and a lot of these friends ended up being lifetime friends, the people that I still hang out with, and the people I started bands with, and I also met a lot of the mentors in the band scene who helped me when I started making music. Pretty much all of them I met through Twitter because I got connected to them via shared interests, especially when Twitter was really small in Japan and the shoe gaze community on Twitter was so small that people just naturally got connected to eachother, and all of the girlfriends that I had in my life *laughs* I met them through Twitter as well, so that obviously has been life-changing as well. I don’t know, come to think of it, so much of my life has actually, at least partially, been rooted in Twitter so, I don’t know.... life without Twitter is just unimaginable *laughs*! It sounds so weird, but it’s actually true! *laughs*”

Mustafa: I really do sympathise with the way it helps you meet people with similar interests! For me, I’ve never really met anyone in person who likes similar music to me, whereas online when I started my blog I was able to meet other people through mutual interests! Obviously social media has two sides to it, it can be detrimental in some cases, but so far it’s been helpful for me and I’m glad it’s been positive for you, thank you for sharing that!”

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15.

Mustafa: “Your first few albums were very inspired by films, and they have similar structures to films as well. You’ve said before that it doesn’t make sense to watch a film halfway through, or just a few isolated minutes, so when you make an album you want it to be an experience from start to finish. That really resonated with me because I’ve always been the same with music: oftentimes when I want to listen to a particular song I’ll listen to the entire album to get to that song! I feel like it grants me a holistic appreciation, and I find it confusing how lots of people tend to focus mainly on singles. Of course they’re easily marketable and music videos are made for them, but I’ve always really enjoyed the journey of going through an album! I’m curious then: out of all the albums you’ve made, what is your favourite full album experience?”

Azusa: “In terms of cohesiveness and flow of the entire album, I think Her(a)rt would be the one. I think that worked out pretty well, I mean it sounds weird to say that myself as the creator, but I think it really succeeds in establishing this nocturnal mood and romanticising urban life, the upsides and downsides of it. I think the other albums didn’t really work that well in terms of capturing a certain theme or evoking a certain mood consistently throughout their entire duration. I think that’s the only one where we actually succeeded in that goal I guess!”

Mustafa: “I’m happy to hear you say He(r)art, because even though it’s always in limbo, He(r)art is my favourite For Tracy Hyde album. One of my favourite songs from the album is ‘Floor’: there’s that bridge just before the end when the saxophone kicks in and Eureka sings the lyric about repetitive dance music…. it gives me goosebumps every single time! I love that bit so much! One of my other favourite For Tracy Hyde songs is ‘Halation’, which is right at the end of the album, which I think is a perfect note to finish the album on! I just really wanted to voice particular appreciation for He(r)art and those songs!”

Azusa: “*laughs* Awesome!!”

Mustafa: “To quickly link back to For Tracy Hyde’s romanticism: I remember it contributing to my impression of the band, I think it was a year and a half ago, even before I’d heard most of your discography. It was when I saw on your merch store that the band did a collaboration with WEAREALLANIMALS and released a t-shirt with Eureka on the front, and on the back was the text ‘THE SOUNDTRACK FOR HELPLESSLY ROMANTIC YOUNGSTERS’. I think that is such an amazing way to describe the band and it really stuck with me even before I dived into the band’s music, plus it’s easily THE coolest t-shirt I’ve seen in my entire life *Azusa laughs*, so I’m really upset I never got one! *laughs*”

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16.

Mustafa: “When I watched the final live show last year, one of my favourite songs from that performance was ‘House of Mirrors’! I love the English rap performed towards the end of the song! As you mentioned, with ‘Can Little Birds Remember Every Song?’ you had a specific reason for writing that song in English. There have been a few other For Tracy Hyde songs with English lyrics since them, like ‘The First Time (Is The Last Time)’ as well. Are there any particular reasons for writing those lyrics in English, the way ‘Can Little Birds Remember?’ was specifically written in English?”

Azusa: “Well…… because Japanese bands still suck at English *laughs*! No, no, no, just joking.

Well, there’s not really much particular logic behind it. The thing is that before New Young City happened, I was staunchly against using English in my music because it sort of felt like an easy way to cop out with working Western influences into your music because, I mean, it’s so easy to sound inspired by Western music if you sing in English because people will obviously take that as a cue that you listen to music from overseas. Especially since, in the Japanese indie scene, people seem to think that bands who sing in English are more ‘authentic’ as indie acts rather than bands who try to incorporate Western sounds in Japanese music because that doesn’t sound as ‘cool’ to them, or it comes across as a sellout attempt, and I really wanted to fight against that trend because it just seemed like a thoughtless and easy way to express yourself.

And then, New Young City happened because we actually discovered that quite a decent amount of people outside of Japan seemed to like our music as well, and I wanted to communicate with them and our music to resonate with them more personally in a way that they can easily understand rather than use translation machines, which are often glitchy and faulty *laughs*. So yeah, writing our first English song (‘Can Little Birds Remember?’) was a big deal to us, and then once we had that done, English wasn’t out of bounds to us anymore, so I realised that whenever I feel that using English is more natural or more appropriate artistically as a means to express whatever I want to do within a certain song, then why not just do it? That’s pretty much the idea behind everything that happened post-New Young City.”

Mustafa: “Do you feel that you were successful in reaching out to fans outside of Japan, both with ‘Can Little Birds Remember?’ and your later music?”

Azusa: “Well, yeah I guess so, to a certain degree because the thing is that, to be honest we’ve sort of always seemed more popular outside of Japan than inside; we don’t have that much of a domestic following. I guess singing at least a couple of songs in English has actually helped that to a certain degree. I mean, whenever I talk to our overseas fans, ‘Can Little Birds Remember?’ often gets mentioned as one of their favourite songs of ours, so in that sense: yeah, pretty much!”

Mustafa: “I remember just before the final live show was about to start, you posted a tweet with a screenshot of the livestream’s chat that had a lot of English comments, and you said ‘No Japanese comments-”

In unison: “-business as usual I guess.’ *both laugh *”

Mustafa: “I think you were mainly joking, but it struck me as quite sad with the legacy you have, especially as how you’re one of the few shoegaze bands in Japan to have gotten big, and that you felt not many Japanese fans would be tuning in. But later on, I started to think that maybe it’s because Japanese fans would’ve gone to the live shows in person instead of watching the live stream!”

Azusa: “Oh yeah!”

Mustafa: “The sentiment of your tweet, was that mainly jokey or was that something you were actively thinking about at the time?”

Azusa: “It’s a bit of both I guess! I do recognise that we have not that big, but a very dedicated following in Japan as well, but at the same time I’ve always noticed that whenever we post videos on YouTube, or our level posts music videos on their channel, most of the comments tend to be in English. Actually on many videos I think at least the first 5 comments are always in English! I think it’s not just a matter of sheer popularity but also various reasons contribute to it. What I’ve noticed is that while our fanbase is really dedicated and loyal to what we’re doing, at the same time the tend to be less vocal about it online or they seem to have less of an online presence. They rarely show up on social media, I guess. So they’re sort of being the silent majority there. I guess part of it is because of that, but I’ve always felt that our Western fans seem to have more of a presence!”

Mustafa: “That reception from international audiences, I’m very interested in that because, as you mentioned with Rate Your Music earlier, there’s an entire side to music listeners online that I don’t really engage much with, but it seems very particular and peculiar to me. On Rate Your Music, if you go to the really popular albums, or the kind of stuff that Anthony Fantano would give a 9 or a 10 to, everyone will rave about it and most won’t accept criticism of it, but if it’s something that people aren’t talking about as much then they tend to just go ‘yeah, I rate it 2.75/5’ and I think that’s such a shame. I don’t know, it makes me feel like there’s some weird underlying bias? I was interested in your perspective on that. Obviously there are a few Japanese artists who have become really big internationally, like Haru Nemuri, Tricot, Otoboke Beaver, even Wednesday Campanella who hasn’t even toured much abroad. I’m interested in what you think about that particular side to music listeners/online music discourse. Do you interact with it that much, is it something that interests you?”

Azusa: “Well, I don’t really know, I’ve never really paid attention to Anthony Fantano to begin with. I do notice that Japanese acts who are introduced by him tend to blow up online, but I don’t know…… there’s not really much I can say about it!

Slightly off-topic but we obviously got a Pitchfork review and for a month or two after that review, our Spotify listener count just blew up to quite a staggering number. I think it was slightly short of 100,000 at its peak, and then it just died out after that, it just dropped! That was sort of annoying because it just made me wonder how difficult it is to sustain people’s interest in what you’re doing, and in that sense I’m really sceptical about online influencer sort of culture I guess. It might help in the short term, but it doesn’t really last that long, you’re just mentioned once or twice casually I guess. It’s also unhealthy in the sense that in some cases, people would be so reliant on influencers as sources of information that they wouldn’t even know you exist if you don’t get introduced by one.”

Mustafa: “I think it’s a losing game trying to chase success in that department. I really don’t get how some people can attribute quality, meaning, and value of music to scores.

With Pitchfork as well, obviously it was really great that it brought fans in but to me it was annoying how they gave Hotel Insomnia a review right at the band’s end, but they hadn’t really bothered to write about your other works. I just can’t really gel with music ‘reviews’. I feel like, as a result, I only perceive the goodness of music as being worth writing about. I don’t like getting caught up in the commercial side either, I feel like music is best when it’s made for the purpose of expressing something: I don’t think music exists to have sales and chart positions compared. I think it’s a shame how For Tracy Hyde got exposed to that, and I think it really highlights how unfair that whole system is. I mean, given my personal feelings on Hotel Insomnia, if I had to give it a score I would not give it something like 7.6  *laughs*”

Azusa: “*laughs* It’s standard for Pitchfork, so I’m totally fine with it!”

Mustafa: “I get you! And then when they do scores like ‘seven-point-something’. I mean, is their metric so nuanced that they’re able to discern between 7.6 and 7.5? This coming from the people who haven’t written about your other music? Can I really trust them to give an authentic review of For Tracy Hyde?”

Azusa: “*laughs* Just give it an 8!”

Mustafa: “*laughs* Sorry to rant, but yeah, some music journalism….. not a fan!”

Azusa: “Yeah, when you’re dealing with something so abstract it’s hard to be objective and have a cohesive standard throughout with so many people dealing in the world of music criticism! You can’t really expect that much. *laughs*”

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17.

Mustafa: “Which bands active currently have caught your eye?”

Azusa: “There’s a lot of them! I don’t know if mentioning any one in particular would be fair! The Pacific Ocean Park show I hosted last night was pretty much centred on this band called dansa med dig who are from Sendai. They’re just amazing, I mean if you listen to their music they don’t sound Japanese at all: if you told me that they’re one of the best dream pop acts from Sweden or somewhere, I’d totally believe it! But because they’re from Sendai, which is in the countryside of Japan, they’re pretty far from any major city like Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya. Practically, no one seems to have heard of them and that bugged me, so I wanted to organise a show for them in Tokyo so that they can at least get a slither of the attention they deserve! So they’re definitely one band I would definitely recommend to anybody who would hit me up for Japanese indie band recommendations! And other than them, there’s a band in Tokyo called butohes!”

Mustafa: “Ah yeah!! I know them!!”

Azusa: “Yeah! They’re really cool, I mean I don’t really know how to describe them: they’re sort of vaguely shoegazey, vaguely emo, vaguely post-rock-ish, vaguely ambient, but not really any of them! I don’t really know how to describe them, but they’re just a really good band, insanely tight live too, just amazing on all fronts! I really like them!”

It only takes a few seconds of listening to confirm, without a doubt, why Azusa has so much faith in dansa med dig and butohes. I discovered dansa med dig through Azusa’s answer, and the below video was the first I’d heard of them and the first of many moments they’d left me in awe of their vision.

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18.

Mustafa: “There’s a lot of emphasis on the cinematic nature of For Tracy Hyde’s music, and the band’s music videos themselves are all really unique and particular. I was really surprised as a result to see that you’d cited anime as a big personal influence for you! I think that influence is a lot easier to spot with your early Bandcamp net label work, but I was very surprised to see it mentioned in regard to For Tracy Hyde because with a cinematic band, I assumed the visual influences would mainly be from films! It got me thinking: what is it about anime in particular that inspires you in a different way to films?”

Azusa: “Well, that’s sort of a tough question because to be honest: I haven’t watched any anime in, like, I don’t know….. maybe 15 years or so?”

Mustafa: “Really??”

Azusa: “Yeah! I don’t watch anime anymore at all, so it’s been present in my life and music less and less. I can’t really say, but the thing about anime is that…… I know there are exceptions, but practically there aren’t many anime that have bad endings, I guess. They tend to present a really idealistic view of the world and life in general: they all pretty much end happily, even the bad guys in anime tend to reform themselves after recognising what they’ve done is wrong, and they just sort of live happily ever after *laughs*. I guess it’s that sort of optimism that really attracted me to anime in the first place, especially since I’ve always been pretty much unhappy with my life during my younger years. Since I haven’t been watching any anime in quite a long time, my memory’s really really hazy and there’s not much that I can really discuss about that, I guess!”

Mustafa: “I get you! I’m curious if you’ve heard of…. I know you haven’t seen it, but there’s an anime which came out recently called ‘Bocchi the Rock!’?”

Azusa: *groans* “Ohhhh yeaaaaaah!”

Mustafa: “I figured I’d get that kind of response from you! It’s blown up and there’s a lot of people everywhere watching it, but I find it strange how the story’s about music and the setting leans into the Shimokitozawa scene, yet I feel like people are taking the wrong thing away from it: they’re focused on the socially anxious protagonist instead of the real life scene that the series is paying homage to. I think it’s a shame how people are taking away a very diluted image of what the scene is. I kind of got an idea based on your reaction, but how do you feel about how many people are getting this certain image of this particular music scene in Japan, whilst the real-life scene is kind of being overlooked?”

Azusa: “To be honest, I haven’t really been following ‘Bocchi The Rock!’ either, so I can’t really say anything about it.

I mean, rock IS for the angst-ridden youth after all, so I guess that can’t be helped! I know this is slightly off the topic of your question, but to be honest it’s sort of been helpful for the music scene over here! I mean instruments are selling better! Also, the Tokyo indie scene is centred in Shimokitazawa, which plays a big role in ‘Bocchi The Rock!’. I mean there’s the venue Shimokitazawa Shelter which plays a big role in the anime. The thing is that whenever I go to a show taking place in Shimokitazawa Shelter, you’d always see a handful of Westerners there and you strike up a conversation with them and ask what brought them here, and they say “I’m here because this place showed up in ‘Bocchi The Rock!’! I don’t really know any of the bands playing tonight, but I just wanted to be here!”. The thing is, they actually seem to enjoy the experience of being there! They buy merch from the bands playing there; I once went to a RAY show that took place there, and the thing with Japanese idols is that at the show you get to take photos with them!”

Mustafa: “Ah the chekis!”

Azusa: “Yeah, chekis, yeah yeah yeah! These Westerners would just be taking chekis with them; I mean when RAY are on stage they just seem to be bewildered by what’s happening because the Westerners don’t come to Shelter expecting to see an idol show, and they don’t have any knowledge of idol culture whatsoever, but they just end up taking pictures anyways *laughs*. So yeah, I mean it’s actually been helping attract attention to Japanese music culture, and it’s generating a decent amount of cash I think, so that’s good *laughs*!”

Mustafa: “That’s awesome!! The perspective I looked at it was online, when I saw people talk about it they’d focus on the easily-marketable image of the anime as opposed to great amount of substance behind it!”

Azusa: Ah yeah, yeah!”

Mustafa: “But I’m glad to hear it’s been helpful as opposed to presenting a false kind of image, because I saw recently a tweet from Patrick St.Michael, who interviewed you guys last year…..”

Azusa: “Oh yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!! He’s a longtime friend of ours!”

Mustafa: “Yeah!! He made a post on Twitter recently of a sign up in Shimitozakawa that’s like ‘You’ve seen us in ‘Bocchi The Rock!’!’ and I thought how it was a bit funny how they put that there to stand out to tourists! But yeah, I wanted to give a quick shout out to Patrick because he did such an amazing final interview!”

Azusa: “Yeah he did!”

Mustafa: “I remember the moment he released the interview, I was in Leeds and I was just stood there in one spot on the street because I was so excited to read through it!”

-

19.

For the next section, if you haven’t seen the video for ‘Subway Station Revelation’, I highly recommend giving it a watch before proceeding as I think watching it for the first time is an experience that’s impossible to replicate and really important to what the work stands for!

Mustafa: “Moving onto the visual side of your work: you’ve said before that with your music videos, you tend to give control to the directors and leave them to work with their own interpretation of the song, and allowing things to fall in place from there. A video I really want to know about particularly is ‘Subway Station Revelation’ because I love that song and video so much! The story within the music video isn’t set in the exact same structure as the lyrics, so I wanted to know how that ended up happening and what your thoughts are on that particular ending from ‘Subway Station Revelation’!”

Azusa: “At the start we were consulting with our label about which songs we should make a music video for, and we had to choose between ‘Milkshake’ and ‘Subway Station Revelation’. We consulted the director of the music video: “which song would you want to make a video for?” And he said “it’s a tough pick, so why not just do both of them?”.

I was always interested in the idea of linking two different music videos, so I pitched that idea. The thing is: ‘Milkshake’ and ‘Subway Station Revelation’ have very very different tones and themes. I mean they sound different too. The concept behind Hotel Insomnia was to capture all these troublesome aspects of modern-day life and what’s going on in the world: ‘Milkshake’ is about empowering women and freeing women from sexual exploitation in terms of objectification, while ‘Subway Station Revelation’ is more of an optimistic song that’s an innocent ode to love and its power. I mean the lyrics can pretty much be summarised into ‘It’s the fucking end of the world but who cares because we’re in love and nothing else matters!’, that sort of innocence was the driving force behind the song! I thought it would be interesting to juxtapose two very different videos that contrast each other in tone and theme, and the end result was that!”

Mustafa: “I’m really fascinated by that, especially concerning the lyrics of ‘Milkshake’ as well. I was interested in the way the two tie together because ‘Subway Station Revelation’ is shot very much like how a film/tv show episode would be, and I remember on my first time watching it I got so caught up in the story of this couple, and then at the end it glitches out and we see a guy in a dilapidated building obsessing over this same story. I was literally on the edge of my seat to see how that couple’s story would end, and then when I got hit with the video’s ending I started to laugh because I realised ‘This is basically what I’ve been doing with this story for the past three minutes!’ *Azusa laughs*. I love the way the video’s cynical in the way it criticises seeking escapism and projecting our own ideas and ambitions for life and love onto what we see on a screen, and how that ends up becoming part of the norm for us. I think it was done in a very contemporary way, especially with the video’s use of the VR headset! I just thought it was executed with absolute genius when I first watched the video!

It ties in to ‘Milkshake’ at the end when Eureka smashes the TV, and the song itself is about breaking down objectification and sexual exploitation of women. That TV she smashes is the same TV that was showing that fictional romantic story moments earlier, so is that meant to be a link between the two? Like a statement of how getting caught up in idealised, fantasy love could lead to becoming distorted into objectification?”

Azusa: “That wasn’t what I personally had in mind, it was entirely the director’s idea, but in that sense I think it’s really up to you to interpret! The way I see it, it’s not really a matter of tying the two songs together, it’s about enhancing the contrast between the two I guess! I think it’s the total, complete different nature of the two songs which makes it work!”

Mustafa: “I tend to overthink things sometimes, so my thoughts end up becoming kinda abstract when I voice them!

You’ve done a fair few videos for AprilBlue yourself as well, and Letters For Annika too. Going forward with your work, do you anticipate having more of an active role with visual art, or do you think you’ll be sticking to the music side of things for now?”

Azusa: “Well, to be honest I do actually enjoy video editing quite a bit! I mean there’s an AprilBlue video that I actually shot and directed myself for one of the singles we released in 2022. I’ve always enjoyed making these DIY music videos, so I do have an interest in going down that path further and improving my skills but I guess I’m just a bit *too* busy at the moment to actually do that so maybe in the next few years or so I might do it again, but not for now!”

-

20.

Mustafa: “You mentioned a new album in the works from AprilBlue is on the horizon. Is there anything else you’re able to discuss at this moment in time that you’ll be releasing in the future?”

Azusa: “Well our work has pretty much been spontaneous and random so we don’t really have any specific plans for the future! We are working on that second album right now so that should be coming out this year! The thing is that our feeling over the past few years has been that we took things way too slow during Covid; pretty much the entire world stopped doing business at the time, at least for the first two years, so it couldn’t really have been helped, but we’ve been inactive for too long and we really need to catch up with things because I think over the past four years there are people who’ve actually forgotten about us and forgot that we’re still up and running! I really hope that after we get our second album out, it won’t be too long before our next body of work is out. I guess I just shouldn’t be that lazy and just get down to writing songs, I guess!”

Mustafa: “So will AprilBlue be the main vehicle for your artistic expression and ambition?”

Azusa: “Yeah, for the time being at least! And hopefully I’ll get to start working on solo side projects. I mean I’d been meaning to do that last year but then this Ponderosa May Bloom business sprung out, so I haven’t really been able to do anything about it yet, but hopefully this year!”

Mustafa: “I listened to the Ponderosa May Bloom demo literally three hours ago and it’s so interesting to me, especially as Haruki from AprilBlue’s involved with the project!”

Azusa: “She’s the producer of the group! During the auditions for the group, the idea is that we thought it would be interesting for us to actually present one of the songs that the group would be singing, in full form, so she did the vocals for the demo and we released it as an example of what we would be doing in the group!”

Mustafa: “That sounds like a really new undertaking: to be doing auditions for an idol group! What was that like??”

Azusa: “It definitely was fun, I enjoyed talking with these people who are from a totally different background from us in that they’re not really familiar with indie music or alternative music, but at the same time they have this strong passion for singing and dancing which we don’t really have. It was really interesting to meet all these people, but the tough part was letting people know that they’re not gonna make it!”

Mustafa: “Oh maaaan, I can imagine!”

Azusa: “That’s been really heartbreaking for me! I mean I’ve been having a bit of an anxiety disorder over the past few months, to be honest, and I think a small part of it, at least, is because of the whole process of auditioning people and then telling them that we’re not gonna let them in. I struggled a lot with job hunting when I was graduating school so I can really relate to the pain that these people must be feeling when they’re getting rejected so in that sense, yeah it’s been fun but also stressful at the same time! Thankfully I’m feeling really grateful that the whole auditioning part is over and I’m hoping that I’ll never have to do it again in that sense! But yeah, other than that: the idol business in general has been really really fun so far, and I have really high expectations for the group as a whole!”

Mustafa: “I’m sorry to hear about the anxiety it’s been causing you, but I’m really excited to hear about the opportunities the group is going to afford you, and especially excited to hear what Ponderosa May Bloom’s going to end up being because this is going to be an idol group that you’ve had a lot of influence over! How far into the group’s future have you planned? Have things only just settled down or are you getting to work making music for them straight away?”

Azusa: “Actually we already have enough songs for us to do shows, and our first show is happening next month! I think we’ll have an album out this year too, if things go well enough!”

Mustafa: “Do you think that’d be cataclysmic with its impact when it releases?”

Azusa: “I have noooooo ideaaaa! I have no idea how things are turning out, I mean it’s my first time committing myself full-time to the idol industry, so I have no idea how things are going to pan out! At least, in theory, the idea of having this Pitchfork-approved indie musician writing all the songs for an idol group, on paper it sounds interesting so I hope that people will show some interest in it! Hopefully!”

Mustafa: “To me, that just seems really really big, so I’m personally really excited! Whether it be seeing which artists/group they collaborate with for live shows, how their discography comes together, I’m just excited to see it al!”

Ponderosa May Bloom recently released the official recording of the previously released demo, as well as a live performance video!

-

This interview experience was a really big step for me, not only because of its length and density, but working with the vast status of Azusa’s works was a worthwhile challenge that was really fulfilling for me as someone who has such respect for what he and his music stands for, which towers high and continues to guide countless.

Even now, Azusa’s art is constantly in motion with how much he’s working on, to the extent that even the past barely feels static with how much has been built upon For Tracy Hyde and the history it’s preceded by. Living through, and witnessing the bloom of, such passion-driven work is a spectacle to cherish, and it feels like I’ve only just seen a fraction of what Azusa wishes to share with the world. Whether it be through band, solo, or idol work: I know my life with music is enriched through his art and I’ll be carrying the impact thereof with every step I take into the future.

-Mustafa

The music of For Tracy Hyde, AprilBlue, DotsTokyo, RAY, airattic, and ponderosa may bloom are all available on streaming.

For Tracy Hyde’s HP: http://fortracyhyde.com/

AprilBlue’s HP: https://april.blue/

My sincere thanks go to Azusa for taking out the time to speak to me, as well as my friend Ryushiro Ogushi for his continued help and support with my interviews!!

Thank you to the members of For Tracy Hyde, AprilBlue, DotsTokyo, RAY, airattic, and ponderosa may bloom for all the music they’ve expressed to the world!

This interview is dedicated to the continued support of Palestine during this dire time of need.

Over the past few months I’ve written about each of the new Catt singles in the run-up to the release of their upcoming album ‘At The End of Corridor’, and now Catt have released their latest single ‘Town of Silver’, which is also accompanied by a music video! 

Streaming: https://linkco.re/2PFeZZ8Q

I really love seeing how each new song links to the overarching album statement! Compared to the previous singles, ‘Town of Silver’ takes a different approach to the album’s theme of "someone or something waiting at the end of each one's own long corridor”. Where ‘your song’ channelled lament and Landslide’ conveyed anxiety, their newest song portrays loneliness from a gentle, yet jaded perspective that’s learned to live with the feeling’s growing presence within, and outside, their life. 

There’s a strong focus on one’s living environment within the song, and how that environment’s tangible presence is affected by the feeling of loneliness, leading to feeling like an outlier in familiar setting. This is such a relatable perspective to me, as I’ve always found it so interesting to focus on how feelings and experiences shape the way we perceive the world!

The music video emphasises this concept amazingly well too, with the majority of the scenes filmed in that outstretched grassy plain set upon the faint backdrop of the city in the background. Visualising the disconnect of personality from reality through this use of landscape. The various shots of looking out from train carriages and the upward-facing camera angles within cityscapes would be familiar to anyone used to averting their eyes from the ground and gazing up at distant scenery. When contrasted with the idyllic hope of finding refuge in the sky amongst the stars that’s mentioned in the lyrics, the abundance of familiar suburban sights conveys tragedy simply through their blunt presentation in the video. 

The disconnect of Ogsuhi being the only one playing his instrument whilst the other members remain static, and repeatedly vanish between shots, is my favourite detail of the video because of how crystal clear a visual metaphor it is! 

The song even opens with cosmic white noise which continues to play in the background all throughout the song, which sounds like its own undecipherable message from a distant entity that hopes for its message to be heard by someone, anyone. Overlapping the lyrics and instrumentals with this white noise beautifies the loneliness through its universal nature, and I think that’s a solace to be found at the end of the corridor of loneliness. This is easily my favourite element of the song, alongside the amazing guitar melodies that Catt delivers with their every work. 

I have so much fun being able to mark the release of each new song with a written piece dedicated to each one! It’s a new experience for me to have this kind of connection with a musical work as it’s released song by song over time, and I’m hoping for this series of written projects to culminate in a really special way when Catt’s album ‘At The End of Corridor’ releases! Working with Ogushi on my interviews has given me the opportunity to have such a unique insight into his and the band’s creative processes, which I hope to continue to reflect as I write about their upcoming music! Please continue to enjoy Catt’s releases, and look forward to what they’ll be releasing in the future! 

-Mustafa 

Thank you to Ogushi for the opportunity to write this piece to coincide with the song’s release!

It was announced in February 2020 that MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS would be making their UK live performance debut at ARCTANGENT Festival. The mere thought of such a special band playing in the UK was so exciting, even if I already knew I wouldn’t be able to attend due to the distance and cost, and my imagination began to wander as I listened to their music and reflected on the news: 

“It would be so fun to speak to the band about their art!”

And thus my dream to interview musicians formed. 

Sadly the announcement came just a few weeks before the pandemic hit, so the festival was postponed by two years until 2022. Even then, the wait made it even more special to watch the official livestream of the performance on YouTube. At this point I’d already conducted the first interview for my blog earlier that year, but MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS remained a kind of ‘end goal’ who I hoped to strive towards interviewing one day. Much to my surprise and gratitude, both of which endure to this day, I was able to speak to them just a few months later in early 2023, and I learnt that they were planning to return to the UK as part of a full tour! 

I’ve always really valued the role that live music plays, both in the lives of musicians and also their fans. Of course, there’s a magic to hearing a studio recording of a painstakingly arranged song that will never wear off on me, but to witness those same songs performed in person feels like a one-of-a-kind phenomenon where the absolute synchronicity of the members’ performances is melded with the spontaneity of the moment. It makes the slightest of changes in live performances of songs feel deliberate and purposeful, thus the entire set becomes a layered mosaic of gracefully-balanced artistic intention. It’s impossible to not get swept up in the energy of live performances, but I think this graceful balance is my favourite aspect of live music to witness, and that quality was palpable all throughout the live show that evening. 

I haven’t attended many live shows before, so it was always admittedly a little daunting to think about attending such a loud and intense experience, but I knew I couldn’t let myself miss out on an experience I’d been dreaming about for years. I found out on the morning of the live show that I’d been invited to attend the rehearsal before the show, which I was overjoyed to hear as I thought it’d be so interesting to see this side to live performances! 

I arrived early that day and was greeted by Natsuko, Naoya, Isao, and their tour managers Yuji and Thomas, as they were setting up in the venue. After reminiscing on the interview we conducted a year prior and discussing how the tour was going so far, they diligently returned to arranging the stage and conducting the sound check. It’s a given that such testing is needed everytime a performance is held at a venue, but I’d never stopped to think about how much effort it takes, as the band and their manager Yuji painstakingly adjusted the volume levels of every instrument and vocal microphone to achieve the balance they wanted. Hearing the rehearsal in an empty venue felt otherworldly, as I’d never expected my first time seeing MOTFD live to play out in such a special manner! I was so interested in watching every element of the stage come together, and I cherished every moment of seeing how the spectacle of live shows is prepared.

After the rehearsal, In the wait before the evening’s show, I was able to speak to various different fans in the entry and merch queues at the venue. I realised how I’d never actually been in a place full of so many Japanese music fans at once, and it made every interaction feel like a special part of the evening as I was able to exchange stories with others about how excited we’d been for this tour, and how we’d all discovered MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS! I’d been fasting the entire day, so I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to have a balcony seat during the actual live show! 

I got to hear many of my favourite Masudore songs that evening!! The set opened with ‘Sugar’, which I thought was a perfect way to start the set, gently easing into the louder later songs. I especially really loved the fact that ‘1960’ was in the middle of the setlist, and it gave me a chance to sing along with the unforgettable “Oo-aaaaaaaaa” vocalisation that I’m so fond of! 

I’d been paying attention to setlists from their previous live shows, and I noticed that ‘Birds and Rhythm’ was very rarely included. I wasn’t expecting it to be played on the night, hence my immediate shout of “YES!!!!” when I heard the song’s opening guitar play after ‘1960’ ended! I’m so used to hearing the song play after its prelude ‘After The Rain’, so diving headfirst into the song in that kind of environment caught me off guard in the best possible way. My favourite moment of the entire show was being able to hear the guitar solo that follows the song’s beautiful chorus. I’d let myself be carried away by its emotional intensity an immeasurable number of times before, and this occasion was no different as I held on to every guitar note Naoya strummed.  I knew it was impossible for them to hear me amidst the noise, but the song’s vulnerability spoke to me the same way it’d always done on my previous listens, and I couldn’t help but want to reach back out and respond with my own cheer of support for Naoya. 

The end of the solo sounds like the scattering of cosmic dust in a trail following a shooting star, and it left me as starstruck on that evening as it does every time I hear it. 

“My body still remembers that day.”

The moments in between songs when the band would interact with fans were also integral to the evening’s memory. ‘Asahinagu’ is the song that sticks out most in my memory, as the song opened with Natsuko encouraging everyone: “let’s daaaaance!”, which I think will echo in my head everytime I listen to the song from now on! 

After the show I was able to quickly catch up with Natsuko and Naoya before they left the venue. I’d brought the covers and inserts from my collection of MOTFD CDs/cassettes, which they kindly signed just before they began to pack up for their following day of travel!  I thanked them profusely for playing ‘Birds and Rhythm’, to which Natsuko responded: “we played it for you!”. I was stunned silent for a moment as I realised they’d remembered when I mentioned ‘Birds and Rhythm’ was one of my absolute favourite MOTFD songs during our interview last year! 

This moment, in particular, has stuck with me since that weekend: just as the kindness in their words and actions were clear as day in our interview last year, this gesture highlights further just how considerate the band is. They’re a one-of-a-kind band for many reasons, but the reason that stands out to me most is their sincerity that’s reflected in their music.

MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS have been tied to, and represented, my personal dreams for many years now, and Saturday’s live was another dream fulfilment on my lifelong journey with music. Last year I described their music as representing “beautiful freedom” to me, and on that evening I was able to witness a grace to their art that shimmers even throughout their most intense songs: the grace of that same enduring spirit which inspired me years ago, and continues to do so to this very day. 

-Mustafa

A sincere thank you to Natsuko, Naoya, Isao, and their managers Yuji and Thomas for the wonderful evening, as well as the incredibly kind invitation to the rehearsal! 

Thank you to the staff of Gorilla Manchester for helping make the event a reality!

My interview with MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS can be read here! My gratitude goes to Ogushi for helping with interpretation and translation!

Today the newest song from the upcoming album, ‘landslide’, was released, and I wanted to document my impressions upon my first few listens!

The band described the new release as follows: 

“Four years after the release of their first album "Catt", which was co-produced by Masaki Maenosono (8otto/Muddy Apes), their new album named "At the End of Corridor" will be released in the spring of 2024. Sometimes running away, sometimes hiding, and their members fluctuating, Catt has continued to accomplish this album about "someone or something waiting at the end of each one's own long corridor." This album will bring strength to those for whom fear waits, courage to those for whom doors wait, and relief to those who are alone at the end of their corridor.

Continuing from their previous single "your song", "landslide" is also one from their new album "At the End of Corridor". Unlike "your song", "landslide" features helpless crying in fear of the brutal anxiety.”

Compared to the previous single (‘Your Song’), ‘landslide’ is maximally amplified in precocity. Ogushi’s singing constantly rocks back and forth in cadence and tone which conveys a narrative of desperately attempting to maintain balance whilst navigating between the intentionally asymmetrical guitars in the left and right audio channels. This synergy makes my head feel as if it’s slipping off the unsteady wire connecting the two sides, and the drums sound from far below as if echoing from a deep chasm. I love how vividly the song brings this imagery to life!!

The alternation of guitar riffs halfway through the song feels as if they’re being shot between ear to ear, and their subsequent momentary mirroring of melody feels like a discovery of dwindling balance as the lyrics shift to a vulnerable admission of perceived futility, as though that’s the only constant amidst a myriad of loneliness. 

“All I’m hearing has nothing to do with me, is there anyone that’s trying to reach me?” 

Even with the song being just over two minutes in duration, it feels so much longer thanks to how tightly it’s packed with such incredibly versatile instrumental arrangement. I especially love the way Ogushi uses his voice to convey the song’s narrative in conjunction with the mesmerising guitar performances, and it makes me so excited to hear the vocal performances on the rest of the album! I intend to write more about the upcoming work closer to its release date, so please look forward to more insight and exploration into the world of Catt!! 

28/04 update: Catt just released a music video for ‘landslide’, which I wanted to add to this written piece!

Two weeks ago, Ogushi and I spoke about Catt and what he hopes to achieve with his music. It was a really insightful conversation, the details of which I hope to include in a future post that can do justice to documenting his art and vision, and I feel like the video for ‘landslide’ translates the views he shared with me, alongside the sound of the song itself.

When priority is often put on complex visuals and interpretations for music videos, I feel that simple approaches can often best accompany a song and amplify its message. I really love the approach taken with this video: how it’s a glimpse into a fast-forwarded moment in time which does its job in representing the song’s lyrics without any unneeded excess.

With Catt’s new album officially set to release on May 1st, I’m interested to see the role ‘landslide’ plays given that it’s the second song on the tracklist. Whilst it’s a more pessimistic approach to what’s “at the end of the corridor”, it makes me wonder how the rest of the album sounds, especially the unreleased songs in the latter half!

-Mustafa

streaming URL (TuneCore): https://linkco.re/zGtNB2tq?lang=en
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/catt_the_band 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/catt.the.band 

Previous releases:

Catt- https://linkco.re/Dn1MSdug

‘middle of nowhere’- https://linkco.re/ny6Tm8rc 

‘body’- https://linkco.re/ucCUNzdH

‘your song’- https://linkco.re/GvnXgEtY 

In March last year, amidst the gloomy weather of Winter’s overstayed presence, I came across a link to a music video by a band I hadn’t seen the name of before. Usually I bookmark songs I find on Twitter to listen to later, but the song’s title and video’s thumbnail seized my interest and attention: ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’… what did it mean? I wanted to find out immediately, and thus this one evening in March became marked with the memory of meeting Uchudan (Space Group) for the first time.

The opening segment seemed like a mise en scène for a light-hearted and laidback song, but the song’s commencement gave my expectations immediate whiplash as the synth, drums, and bass toppled in with a controlled crash. Every moment of discovering a new song is distinct, and this memory felt like ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ had fallen from the sky into my life with the same crash that the song starts with. It’s dramatic and comedic in equal measure: watching it from start to finish feels like witnessing space distorting and warping at the band’s amused command, and after watching it for the first time I knew I’d discovered a musical powerhouse of a group.

Transfixed by the song’s otherworldly feel, I replayed it over and over before I finally listened to the album it belonged to, ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, which became a mainstay of my listening all throughout the year alongside the rest of the band’s discography. It’s no surprise that ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ easily became my absolute favourite song from 2023 (the list for which can be read here!), so I was overjoyed in the summer when I had the opportunity to speak to Mochizuki (Vo/Gt) and Tsuchimaru (Dr); it was so much fun discussing their music and learning more about the universe of Uchudan!

An Interview With Mochizuki and Tsuchimaru Of Uchudan

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1

Mustafa: “Hello Uchudan!! Congratulations on your recent release of ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’! I’ve really loved listening to it, and so the first thing I wanted to ask about the album was how things have been since it released! How has it been playing live shows, and what has the reception been like from your audience?”

Mochizuki: “First of all: it has been five years since our last album release, and the most common reaction we’ve had is “your sound has really changed from the previous album!”! Also, some of the members changed which thus caused the live performances to change, and we feel like we’ve stepped up in that regard!”

Mustafa: “Some of the songs on the album were released earlier, like ‘Sutte Haite’ and ‘Itsukaha’ in 2021. In those five years since the second album released in 2018, were there any specific challenges you encountered along the way during that time?”

Mochizuki: “Because the band increased in size -originally there were four members and now there are five- we now have more variety in our music and sound, and as a band we get to create more kinds of music. We really wanted to focus on the sound that we weren’t able to get in the past, and by adding another member we can now achieve that kind of sound, and we wish to really focus on that new sound we get to play now!”

Tsuchimaru: “Konno is the new vocalist and guitarist who joined the band, so we’ve been able to try songs with twin-vocals, and also the structure of songs and the way we practice and play in the studio has changed because we now have two guitar players! It has really changed the way we work, and this album has become something really special after being made across multiple years!”

I was sadly unable to speak to Konno for this interview, but his contributions to the band’s discography since joining have been particularly special to me as I love how his voice naturally fits the tone of each song he sings on. His duet with Mochizuki on ‘Kasumi’ is so graceful, whilst his frantic stream of thought on ‘Itsukaha’ emphasises the natural strength of his voice. His guitar solo on ‘Sutte Haite’ is also one of my favourite moments from ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, too!

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2

Mustafa: “I personally really appreciate the addition of Konno to the band, as I really enjoy the duet of both his and Mochizuki’s voices on the song ‘Itsuka-ha’, as well as ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’!

’FU-RE-FU-RE’ is the lead single from ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’. What I really love about the music video is that it has a very distinct sci-fi look and sound to it, in a way that hasn’t been seen on your previous songs and music videos. I’m interested in the inspirations behind that, like any films that influenced the song’s visuals! The song feels very unique and distinct in how it ties into the space theme of Uchudan, and it has a lot of visual humour in it too, so I’m interested in how the video was put together!”

Tsuchimaru: “It was the idea of the music video’s director, Yoshida Harerama! We didn’t really give them the order of what needs to be in the video, but since the album title is ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, and the band name is Uchudan (Space Group), I guess the director was inspired to make it in that particular way! The director also did a music video for Haru Nemuri a few years ago!”

Mochizuki: “Uchudan has always been really close with Haru Nemuri. When we released ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, Haru Nemuri actually retweeted the album’s announcement with her own comment!

I’m always surprised to discover connections between bands and musicians I love! I knew Uchudan had performed with Haru Nemuri a few times in the past, so I think it’s so cool how even before I had discovered Uchudan, I had a connection to their music through Haru Nemuri!

Mustafa: “The discovery of ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ blew my mind because of how interesting its form is! I listened to it a lot before I even moved onto your other songs, because I was so captivated by it!

On the song’s sound itself: the first thing that stood out to me when I first heard it was the unique spoken word singing style of both Mochizuki and Konno, and then when I looked into the lyrics I noticed they have a very unique writing style, even when compared to other songs on the album. Since you (Mochizuki) write the lyrics for Uchudan, I’m curious about the approach you took to writing this song in particular!”

Mochizuki: “The words ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ are used when cheering someone on, but in the song it’s not used for cheering other people, it’s used more in a sense of cheering yourself up! It’s for when you’re not feeling very positive or great, so the energy of ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ in the song is comparatively lower and more towards yourself, compared to the high energy of the phrase’s conventional use. I thought that fundamental difference would be really interesting, which influenced how the lyrics ended up being written!”

Mustafa: “I find that really interesting as it ties in really strongly with how I perceived the song upon discovery! One of the things that stood out to me on first listen was the lyric “Chotto mattekure” (“wait a minute!”) at the start of the second verse, which is repeated again but louder as Konno’s spoken-word singing elevates to shouting, highlighting the presence of some frustration which lurks in the background as the verse continues! One of my favourite parts of the video is also towards the end of the video when Mochizuki turns to face the camera when making a hand gesture: that transition really makes me smile! *everyone laughs as I mimic the hand gesture*.

There are two instances of English lyrics being sung on the song, with “Communication, communication” in the first verse, and then “Imagination, imagination”. You (Mochizuki) also use some English lyrics on your Solo EP ‘Goaikyou” too, so I’m interested in this specific inclusion!”

Mochizuki: “I really wanted to focus on how they sounded as words, so for this particular song the rhyming of those two words with their “-tion” endings was really impactful for how I wanted the song to sound, which is why I decided to feature those particular English words.”

The conversational sway to the song’s cadence, immediately noticeable when Konno recites the first verse, forms the core of what I love most about ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’. It makes the irregular lyrical flow of the song feel as if it’s a spontaneous monologue that occasionally directly addresses the listener: “Commuuuunication, Communication…. Huh?”

Another of my favourite parts from the song is the bass and backing vocal performance from Takanoshima, who sings one of the catchiest lines from the song: “bye-byeeeeee!”.

Mustafa: “On how the song sounds, I really really love the way keyboard player Sekiguchi created the space feeling of ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’, and it contrasts somewhat with ‘Itsuka-ha’ as that feels like it has a more traditional band sound, so I’m curious in why the intention for ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ is so unique compared to the other songs!”

Mochizuki: “The sound of the keyboard was decided by Sekiguchi, so they may give a different answer to the question, but from my perspective I really love the K-pop singer PSY who did ‘Gangnam Style’ so we tried to somewhat parody that sound: “How can we do that in an Uchudan way?”, which is how I wrote the song, which may be what gave inspiration to the keyboard player to create those particular sounds that had space and club vibes to them!

“I’d never have anticipated that there’d be a mentioning of ‘Gangnam Style’ in this interview!”

Tsuchimaru: “For the way that we do production, Mochizuki creates a demo and shares it with the band. Each member comes up with their part, and that’s how the song comes together. If there is anything that needs to be referenced to, Mochizuki will mention it when she shares the demo, but most of the time she has a very clear image of what kind of sounds should be used, and I think the keyboard player sensed that and that’s how she ended up with the final keyboard performance for the song!”

Mustafa: “I’m so happy to know the band has such strong cooperation where they can all sense each other’s intentions., thank you Tsuchimaru!”

Sekiguchi’s opening synth line for ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ is, to me, absolute genius. It cleverly manifests and hides many times throughout the song, instilling daunting, uncertain urgency with its presence whenever it surfaces, particularly just before and after Konno’s guitar solo at 2:05, and at the end when it sounds like the curtains fall upon a cosmic stage to signal the end of the song’s long voyage.

“I’ll give a cheer for myself….!”

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3

Mustafa: “Two other songs on ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’ which I find really interesting, and are a little similar to ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ in the way they communicate the ‘feeling of ‘space’, are ‘Disco 5’ and ‘IQ 3000’. What I really like about both of them is that they have very simple lyrics, yet leave a really lasting impression and have very grand presences within the album, particularly because of the repetition of “Disco 5” and the repeated shouting of “IQ SAN ZEN”. Is there a reason why the album starts off with ‘Disco 5’ specifically?”

Mochizuki: “‘Disco 5’ starts the album because it feels like the opening theme of ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, in a theatrical way! It has the wide image that lets you imagine how this album could be, so it felt like a perfect starting point and opening theme for the album! That’s the reason for me, but it might be different for Tsuchimaru!”

Tsuchimaru: “I agree! We think of the song order after all the songs are complete, and I think even the title of the album was created before the song order was decided. With the title in mind, we settled on ‘Disco 5’ being the starting song!”

Mustafa: “I’m interested in how far ahead you planned! I really love how there was a clear, unified vision for the album that follows through from when you first decided on the album title! What was the thought process behind arranging the songs in the order they are? When I listen to the album, I perceive the start of the album as having a strong space feeling, but the latter half has a more grounded emphasis, like with ‘Itsukaha’ having a more traditional band sound, and both ‘Kasumi’ and ‘Below the Starry Sky, We Are’ being quieter songs!”

Mochizuki: “Uchudan is a band that plays a diverse array of music, so it wasn’t easy for us to decide on the song order! In the end, this song order felt ideal for collating such diverse songs onto one album.”

Tsuchimaru: “Until the fifth song ‘IQ 3000’, the songs are more spacey, but from the sixth song onwards it becomes more traditional, creating an A-side and B-side to the album!”

Mustafa: “There were two songs, ‘Endroll’ and ‘Utopia’, with music videos which released as singles after your second album yet aren’t featured on ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’. I’m especially fond of ‘Utopia’ because of its delicate loudness, so I’m interested in their significance!”

Mochizuki: “Those two songs were recorded before Konno and Takanoshima joined Uchudan! They were omitted from ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’ because we wanted the album to feature songs created with the five-member lineup of Uchudan!”

‘Utopia’ is dear to me because of the glow its vocals and arrangement have, set upon its nocturnal backdrop. The synth in the introduction has a specific downward momentum that feels like tumbling headfirst out of a dream, and there’s a twinkle in Mochizuki’s voice that’s reminiscent of lone stars in the night sky. Even without a place on an album, I see it as integral to Uchudan’s story, especially as one of the last two songs featuring the former band member arrangement.

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4

Mustafa: “Chiaki Kainuma drew the album cover; it has a strong 80’s American Sci-Fi look to it, and I’m interested in the album cover’s creation process! Was there much conversation between the band and the artist, or was it mainly left up to her to make it how she wanted to?”

Mochizuki: “80’s Sci-Fi films were actually direct inspirations for the cover! We watched some of those films with Chiaki and discussed how it should be. We went through a lot of film posters from the 80’s! They have such unique designs and characteristics to them, and have the vibe that not a lot of film posters these days have, so in our discussions we thought it would be cool to bring that vibe back to today! She’s a really good listener so when we exchanged ideas and she was really receptive to what we wanted for the album cover, so we trusted her to take the cover in the direction she wanted to, which is how we ended up with final design!”

As we discussed Sci-Fi films from this era, The anime Space Dandy came to my mind as something that brings the characteristics of 20^th century Sci-Fi to the present, and from my eyes it seemed connected to the ethos of Hitchhiking by U.F.O. through this mutual vision (even if its mentioning is seemingly random on the surface).

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5

Mustafa: “How did you both start as musicians? What led to you wanting to create music and what led to the creation of Uchudan?”

Mochizuki: “I started playing the piano from when I was in elementary school, and by the end of my time there I had started creating music on the piano for fun. After I went to junior high, I heard band music and wanted to pursue that sound! I then met our keyboard player Sekiguchi, who was better at keyboard than I was, so I started learning the guitar from that point! From that moment we knew we wanted to make music and we wanted to form a band. From high school we began using the name ‘Uchudan’!

Tsuchimaru: “My parents were big Beatles fans, so I was familiar with the sound of band music from a young age. In junior high I came across GING NANG BOYZ which made me want to pursue music on my own! I would say I’m more into punk style music; I started playing drums in high school, and around the time I started college I ended up going to a live house venue where I met Mochizuki! She told me that she had her own band and had lost contact with their drummer, so she asked me to join Uchudan! I think that was around 2014!

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6

Mustafa: “I’m interested in the music that you listened to most and were inspired by during this time when the band was a formed. Tsuchimaru mentioned GING NANG BOYZ, so I’m interested in what music Mochizuki was listening to at that time, as well as other artists Tsuchimaru was listening to as well!”

Mochizuki: “When I formed the band I was really into, and I still really look up to, Fujifabric! At the time, Fujifabric was a five member band, and the configuration of Fujifabric is the exact same as Uchudan right now, so one of the reasons we became a 5 member band was so that we could play music a little more like Fujifabric!

Tsuchimaru: “Other than GING NANG BOYZ, I was listening to Shinsei Kamattechan, Chatmonchy, Negoto, and Akaiko-en!”

Mustafa: “I listen to many of those bands a lot right now! I think it’s really cool how our music taste is so similar!
The second Uchudan album was produced by Ichiro from Tokyo Karan Karon, who are another band I really love!! I’m very interested in how that collaboration ended up coming together! Uchudan wasn’t signed to a label when your first and second albums released, so I’m interested in how the collaboration came about and what it was like working with Ichiro!”

Tsuchimaru: “After we released the first album, Ichiro had his mail public, so we messaged him there showing him our first album, and he responded with a very long and very sincere message, describing his reaction to the album, and in the end he mentioned “if you are interested in being produced by me, please contact me!”. Hence, we planned for him to be the producer for our second album. As you said, we were unsigned for both the first two albums we our third album was released unsigned too, we are publishing them all by ourselves.”

The music that means the most to me is that which is made for the sake of creating and expressing art, and I really get that impression from Uchudan through hearing their stories! It reminds me of the reasons why I love music so much!

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7

Mustafa: “Mochizuki has been the songwriter for the band ever since the beginning. How do you go about writing your lyrics, and has it changed at all since the first album?”

Mochizuki: “For the second album, as it was produced by Ichiro, we discussed the album’s lyrics with him, and he was more focused on the inner emotion of myself. For the first album and most recent album, they have more of a fictional and fantasy aspect to them. The second album could be described more like a non-fiction or documentary.”

Mustafa: “I really love the personal element of your song writing, the way it can be very light-hearted and comedic, whilst also really down to earth. The way you write about everyday things through your own uniquely imaginative perspective makes the music really memorable! I was struck by the memorable lyrics of ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ when I first heard it, but when listening to Uchudan’s entire discography, the song that made me realise “Mochizuki is a song writing genius!!” was ‘Lovely Tune xx’! Not only do I love the lyrics, but the style in which they’re sung is so unique, so I really love that song in particular! I think the way that Mochizuki writes songs is absolutely masterful: she’s a genius in that regard!”

Mochizuki: “Thank you so much!”

The chorus of ‘Lovely Tune xx’ is delivered in such a way that it sounds timeless, as if the song itself is a lyrical fundamental that’s always existed and I’ve felt its message far, far in the past.

 “Nostalgic…..Fantastic…. Lovely Tune!”

Mustafa: “When I watch the band’s music videos and live performances, it feels like watching a really close-knit group of friends! Since you’ve both been in the band since the beginning: what have your experiences been like working with each other in the band, and being friends with each other over the years?”

Mochizuki: “Since we’ve been here since the start of the band, I’d say we’re really close friends! When the members changed and we became a 5-member band, almost half of the members changed, so we refreshed things and it worked out well in the end. It made us feel like we’re doing a new band from scratch, and the mood is really great!”

Mustafa: “With how the band feels like a new band now, what is your vision for the future and your music going forward? Are there any specific hopes or general ideas for the future?”

Mochizuki: “We’re really eager to make more music, and for live performances we feel like we can always do more! We always have and always will try to make our live shows more fun, and we want to entertain everyone more! Of course, for the music, with this experience of creating ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, we feel like we can do more and create better songs and have wider spectrums of sounds. It feels like we can do more in that sense, so we really want to explore that and continue endeavouring to bring out the best of Uchudan!”

Tsuchimaru: “As Mochizuki said, we’re really trying to do something new, but at the same time we want to continue making our works so that you can instantly tell from the first listen that it’s been made by Uchudan! I really agree with you on how meaningful music can be, so we really want to continue making meaningful music whilst trying new things. Those are our goals for the future!”

Mustafa: “I’m really happy you feel similarly, and I really look forward to hearing all the music Uchudan will make in future!!”

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8.

Mustafa: “In the past you’ve performed with Haru Nemuri; Pop Shinanaide; Lucie, Too; Layla; Manatsu Nagahara; and FINLANDS! I’m interested in these artists you have connections with, and if there are any others you’d love to work with in future!”

Mochizuki: “These are proposals we’ll be making publicly, right? *laughs*”

Tsuchimaru: “blur!!!! *laughs*”

Mochizuki: “It would be someone who inspired me to start music like Fujifabric who I mentioned before, and also the band HINTO: HINTO consists of the band members of SPARTA LOCALS, so those would be dreams come true for me!”

Tsuchimaru: “Shinsei Kamattechan and Nigami 17th Birthday, too!”

Mustafa: “I LOVE NIGAMI 17TH BIRTHDAY SO MUCH!!!!

*everyone laughs*
Nigami 17th Birthday blew my mind when I first came across them! I really hope you can reach out and collaborate with them someday because they are….. so, so cool!!

It’s a bit of a special story for me: When I first listened to Mochizuki’s recent solo EP, one of the first things that went through my mind was how it reminds me of Manatsu Nagahara. I really look up to her and her music, so I was really surprised and happy to learn that Uchudan had worked with her in the past! I saw a photo Mochizuki had taken with her, which I thought was just so cool! They are another artist I’d love to see Uchudan work with, as I feel you both have similar ways of expressing yourselves through your music!”

Mochizuki: “Manatsu Nagahara has performed with us, and we actually hosted her once when we were four members, 4-5 years ago, and I think all members of UCHUDAN really love her music! We’d love to realise that dream, too!”

Mustafa: “I think it’s so cool how Uchudan has shared this special connection with her for such a long time! It really makes me happy to know one of my favourite bands are fans of one of my favourite musicians!

Pop Shinanaide are another band who had a really big impact on me when I discovered them, so I’m interested to learn of your history with that band too, outside of performing at lives together!”

Tsuchimaru: “We’ve known eachother ever since the beginning of Pop Shinanaide! We’ve always been close with them: the bass player who supports Pop Shinanaide is Aki-san, who was our bass player when we were a 4-member band, which is another connection! We really love their music so we’d love another opportunity to play with them again!”

Mustafa: “I thought I recognised Aki-san because I recently saw her in Uchudan’s earlier music videos, and I remember seeing a live performance of Pop Shinanaide last year which she plays in! I didn’t realise it at the time, but now that I know the connection….. that’s so, so, so cool!!”

Mochizuki: “We really appreciate the friendships we’ve made with everyone on our music journey!!”

The above-linked live performance from Pop Shinanaide immediately popped into my head the moment Tsuchimaru explained the connection they share with Uchudan, which left me momentarily stunned because I’d watched that very live performance over any over throughout 2022, and in that moment it was immediately recontextualised into another thread that eventually led me to Uchudan’s music. We then spent some time talking about the mutual artists we all enjoyed, which was a welcome change of pace as it gave us all a moment to share particular songs we were fond of!

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9

Mustafa: “On YouTube you have reels of the band performing various different challenges, with one featuring Tsuchimaru kicking the cap off a bottle! I thought these challenge videos were a fun way of reaching out to fans in a more visual manner! How do you go about interacting with your fans, and what have your experiences been like with your fanbase in the past?”

Mochizuki: “Those videos you mentioned are challenge reels we made to promote the one-man live we had after the release of ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’! It’s related to the song ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’: to cheer up people facing their own challenges, we released those videos of us doing challenges everyday in the run-up to the one-man live. We really want our audience to have fun: of course creating and sharing music is one important way of us reaching our fans and having fun ourselves, but we also want our audiences to have fun watching those videos. Our attitude is that it’s important for us to fun have ourselves alongside our audiences!”

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10

Mustafa: “I saw two videos from when you performed at Toyosu Park in March! One video is of you performing FU-RE-FU-RE, which I’ve seen countless times now! How do you perceive your own live shows, and how would you define their importance? What was it like when you started doing live shows, compared to now?”

Mochizuki: “First of all: they’re really fun for all of us, and I hope they’re as fun for the audience too! Over Covid when we weren’t able to perform live shows for a prolonged period of time, I could actually feel myself feeling noticeably down as a direct result. For me, live performances are where we as a band and the audience create this unique energy/power together!”

Tsuchimaru: “For me, I get this feeling that the studio recordings and live performances are two entirely different things. When you’re performing live, you have to feel and read the vibe of both the audience and your band members, and react instantly based on that information. As Mochizuki mentioned: it is also my source of energy, so they’re really important to me on a personal level!”

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11.

Mustafa: “You recorded a special song and video of commemoration for Ryukoko University’s Policy Studies faculty, and performed live there too! I’m interested in how that happened and your connection with the institution, because I’ve never seen a band work with a university in that way before!”

Mochizuki: “One of the professors I had at my university moved to Ryukoko University, and he happened to be a fan of Uchudan, so he reached out to us to ask if we could make something for 10th anniversary of the university’s Policy Studies faculty!”

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12.

Mustafa: “Recently you played for the first time at Shindaita Fever on March 26th, and you described that as being a very important ‘first’ for the band. Were there any other important ‘firsts’ for the band, and are there any still left?”

Mochizuki: “Playing at Shindaita Fever was one of the most important ‘firsts’ we’ve ever had for the band. We’re really happy that we can play the album that we created as a five-member band, and getting to perform that live show at Shindaita Fever meant a lot to us. We really look forward to the future for more ‘firsts’: when we make our next album, we wish to have the one-man live at an even larger venue, and also wish that the album will reach out to even more people. We’re really looking forward to more ‘firsts’ that we’ll discover in the future!”

Tsuchimaru: “Shindaita Fever was so impactful for us that it kind of blows our older ‘firsts’ out of the water *laughs*!”

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13.

Mustafa: “Mochizuki, I only discovered your solo EPs around a week ago, and I found it really interesting how you created your solo music alongside Uchudan’s music: your second EP ‘Goaikyou’ released in the same month as ‘Hitchhiking by U.F.O.’, so I’m interested in what encouraged you to release your solo music, and how you perceive that music as being different from the sounds of Uchudan?”

Mochizuki: “I want my solo releases to be music that I can’t do with Uchudan, and vice versa! As for the lyrics, I think it’s more like ‘myself’: a more outgoing and more positive personality is captured in my solo music compared to Uchudan’s music. For Uchudan, I really want to focus on me BEING in a band as a member, while I’m trying to bring more of my personal side to my solo music!”

Mustafa: “I really appreciate the personal nature of the EP! Yesterday I was listening to ‘Friday Boogie-Woogie’, and I really love the song’s message of appreciating what makes Friday special, and not caring that tomorrow’s Saturday: “Friday night is my Holy Night”. The way you share your thoughts on the song really made me see, feel, and understand your perspective, and I really love the personal voice that you have, because I think that your creativity makes your music’s identity really special!”

Mochizuki: “Thank you *laughs*! Thank you so much!”

‘Obakachan’ is, in my eyes, one of the most perfect album openers I have ever heard. Free-spirited joy overflows from Mochizuki’s voice, and the sounds surrounding her voice invoke amusement with so much accuracy that I’m staggered by how effortless and vivid she makes it sound. A song dedicated to embracing the silliness of our clumsiness and errors, declaring with passionate confidence that it’s okay to be an idiot sometimes, could never fail to make me smile, and for that reason it was one of my absolute favourite songs to release in 2023!

Mustafa: “I saw a solo live performance of ‘Friday Boogie Woogie’ recorded during the Covid lockdown. Did you decide to release the EP after slowly accumulating enough songs, or had you planned for it to be a longterm project?”

Mochizuki: “You could say that both of those are correct! I’ve always had this vision for my solo music, to create songs inspired by music from the 50s, 60s, 70s: old Japanese Kayokyaku! Of course the EP would eventually be tied to that vision, because from the beginning I had a clear vision for this sound!”

Mustafa: “I read that alongside Showa-era music, you also included elements from post-war songs as well, which really stood out to me! What drew you to these sounds in the first place?”

Mochizuki: “Post-war songs was the music that tried to cheer up society during those tough times, and they carried lots of positive energy! I really want to have that element in my music and live performances, which is why I wanted to refer to those sounds!”

Mustafa: “From your music in general, particularly this EP, you have a lot of humour in your lyrics! Sometimes it’s really loud like on ‘IQ 3000’, but other times it’s really subtle! One of my favourite parts of the EP is right at the end, on the song ‘Kigeki’, where you finish the song with the lyric “my stage is comedy!” in a really beautiful finale with the delivery of the word ‘KI-GE-KIIII’! It’s a breath-taking moment to hear! I was interested in how you feel about humour/comedy in your life, and the importance it has in your music?”

Mochizuki: “I’m really grateful that you listen to my music so deeply and closely, thank you!

I would say that every musician has their own reason to do music, and what they want their music to mean to people. For me, I wish for my music to be something that cheers people up, and is a kind of entertainment for them so they can also have fun! It’s important to me that my music can be like that for someone, which is why I try to put humour into not only the lyrics, but also the arrangements of the songs and their overall form!”

Mustafa: “Thank you so much, I really appreciate the special wishes you have for your music! I’m very grateful to listen to your music in this way, because not only do I think it’s amazing as a piece of art, but it also really does motivate me a lot!
On the mentioning of every musician having their own reason to create music: Tsuchimaru, what would you say is the spirit that you put into your performances with Uchudan?”

Tsuchimaru: “Mostly I play for myself, really! Of course I’m really grateful for how the audience hear the music, but ultimately the core of my performance is that I’m playing the music that I love!

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Speaking to Mochizuki and Tsuchimaru was an especially unique experience full of smiles and laughter from start to finish. Even though it’s been several months since last summer, it still feels like yesterday to me because of how constant their presence has been through their music and our interactions. It’s never hyperbolic when I cite a musician or band as being vast in personal significance to me, as is the case with Uchudan: their art saw me through a mid-year trough and continues to accompany me as I brave new frontiers of life, keeping me in touch with the universe that resides within their music, and thus within myself.

FU-RE-FU-RE!!!

Since this interview took place, Uchudan released their latest song ‘WASSHOI DANCING’, which was accompanied by a new kind of music video: an ode to a dream of peace, overflowing with the celebration of music’s power to unite. In light of the ongoing tragedy in Palestine, Mochizuki spoke to me about how she hopes for her song to bring comfort to anyone suffering and facing hardship, and that she wishes to continue believing in sharing her music with the world. Her words truly moved me, and I’m grateful to her, Uchudan, and their music for being such genuine forces of positivity and goodness. ‘WASSHOI DANCING’ has been a song of hope for me in recent months, alongside the supportive presence of Uchudan’s discography as a whole. As Uchudan sets their sights upon the stars, their presence brings joy to those around them in a way that only a truly special band could.

-Mustafa

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In late 2020, I dug through DAOKO’S discography and became fascinated with her song ‘Juicy’. Thanks to an Apple Music trial (I was broke at the time), I was able to enjoy discovering new music at a rapid pace, and I was eventually led to the music of Dempagumi.inc, the first song of theirs I heard being ‘Princess Dempa Power Shine On!’. Prior to this, I hadn’t really listened to idol groups at all, and this particular song was such a refreshingly honest perspective compared to what I’d expected of the genre: using a slow and elegant introduction as a bait-and-switch for a playfully transparent reflection of the life of an idol.

The second song of this single release is ‘Senshubanzai!Dempaichiza!’. It has a completely different structure and pace, yet flows naturally when played immediately after the first song on the release. It’s noticeably more hectic and boasts even more frequent drastic changes in singing inflection, yet not once does it feel bloated or messy. My favourite part has always been the final stretch when it suddenly flourishes into a rigorously rhythmic anthem to the prideful impact of a marching beat. These two songs became favourites of mine to listen to during this time period, yet the core of what kept me returning to them would only become apparent half a year: ‘Senshubanzai!Dempaichiza!’ was produced, written, and arranged by Tamaya2060%, the frontman of Wienners! He also produced ‘Juicy’ by DAOKO, so I was a big fan of his sound before I even knew who he was!

I’m still definitely not super knowledgeable on idol groups, but I’ve always enjoyed the eclectic form of Dempagumi.inc’s discography, and Tamaya2060% role in their story is one of the things I love most about their sound! 

Earlier that year I’d met a new friend, Stanley, through Bandcamp, and we quickly began to talk loads thanks to many overlaps in video game and music interests. A mainstay of our conversations, to this day, remains our constant back-and-forth recommendations of musicians we’ve recently discovered, and it was through his recommendation that I discovered Wienners in July 2021. I was captivated by their sound from my first listen, and I heard the sonic similarity to ‘Senshubanzai!Dempaichiza!’ without yet even knowing of how they were connected. 

(((Please excuse the misspelling)))

This connection alone made Wienners a really special band to listen to, but their discography encompassed so many different thoughts and feelings that it still hasn’t lost any of the charm it had on first listen. I didn’t have my headphones to hand at the time, so I simply listened to the first minute or so through my phone speakers, and that alone was enough to convince me of giving it a full play as soon as possible. My subsequent ‘proper’ listen was so impactful that I still remember everything about it, to this day. The FLAC copy of ‘Best New Retakes’ Stanley shared with me has had a constant presence on my music player for over two years now, becoming a literal time capsule of Summer 2021 when I cycled through it over and over again, and I am forever indebted to him for sharing the album with me.

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Best New Retakes

The original band lineup consisted of Tamaya2060% on guitar, Max on synth, _560 on bass, and Manabu City on drums. Max and Manabu City left the band, and were replaced by AsamiSae and Kozo in 2015. This album serves as a celebration of both the ‘first’ era of Wienners as well as a commemoration for their next, as it consists primarily of rerecordings of older Wienners songs, alongside a few brand new releases.

The album opens with ‘W’, a fully instrumental song which serves as the perfect introduction to both the album and Wienners’ entire discography: a place where rhythm is synonymous with serenity, and punctuated by rollercoasters of energy. A gentle beat builds up to a ceremonious symphony of synths and electric guitar whispers, culminating in Tamaya2060%’s (probably) favourite sample to use: “IYOOOOOOOOOOO!”. 

And before those chants even have a second to dissipate, the ‘proper’ start sounds with ‘Cult Pop Suicide’: “WE ARE LIBERTY CULT POP AGE FREE VOID IT’S LIKE A SUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!”. It finishes before I’m even able to reel from its introduction. 

‘Rescue Ranger’ was the song to make me think “WHO is the drummer for this band??”. Every member of Wienners shines so brightly on every track, but Kozo’s breakneck pace truly makes this song.  It’s also impossible for me to not wear the biggest smile when I listen to the swarm of solos that follow 1:22. 

_560’s makes his presence known on ‘Juliana Disco Zombies’, with the song pausing multiple times to make room exclusively for his bass’ rumination. This is also the song that made me realise how much I loved the band’s sense of humour: the screams “BASH ZOMBIES” and “JULIANAAAAAAA!!!” being perfect examples of this.

With how much speed the album hits you within just the first 4 songs, you’d think the entire album is accelerating towards one mighty crash at the end, but there are just as many moments of quiet and reflection as there are of outright yelling. The fifth song, ‘Video Girl’, always struck me as a perfect balance of the two settings as there’s a genuine emotional charge behind the duet of Tamaya and AsamiSae, especially in the chorus which always finishes with the tumbling descent of “ee-ya-ee-ya-ee-yaaaaaa!” that I have to mimic every time I hear it! The conversational back and forth between the two in the second verse is such a perfectly timed break that reflects their chemistry so perfectly that it was surprising to learn this was the first album she’d worked with him on. The next song, a cover of Life Ball’s ‘Because I Love It’, gives her a wonderful moment to shine as she sings every verse, with that effortlessly catchy “Ooo, oo-e-oo!” chant!
“But this is my reality. This is the answer to live.”

‘Idol’, originally released in 2010, features next: now fully rerecorded to include AsamiSae’s voice and Kozo’s drums, it’s astounding how perfectly it enriches the original’s sound with Wienners’ newer production sensibilities (although nothing can ever top the perfect ending of the original version’s music video). ‘FUTURE’ was always one of my favourite songs from the album because of its perfect balance between boisterousness and motivation in its lyrics. It’s like I can almost hear them tearing up as they give the song their all. The gear shift into the song’s final stretch is breathtaking in its surge of willpower: “OOOOO-KE-DOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Is one of my personal vocal highlights on the entire album, and the image of Tamaya visibly shaking as he shouts it is as clear in my mind as it is in his voice.

Wienners excel at instrumental songs to such a degree that I think it’s such a shame their two recent albums haven’t featured them at all. The whimsicality of ‘Ryugu-jo Castle’ swept me away with its imaginative setting of an underwater castle, and the line between dancing and daydreaming became blurred as I witnessed the song’s tale across its two-minute runtime, seamlessly going from mockery of toxic idol culture to traditional Japanese stories in just two songs. It feels like a song that only Tamaya2060% could string together, with how much instrumental resonance he creates with such a minimalist song structure. As opposed to a journey, ‘Ryugu-jo Castle’ feels like a snapshot moment in time, and it only increases in vividness the more you pay attention to the movement of the instruments and the space between them.

My attention constantly weaves between the instruments on ‘Shangri-La’, thanks to its day-dreaming demeanour, whimsical vocal-backing in the chorus. One element I do miss from the original version is hearing Tamaya’s voice go hoarse for just a millisecond as he shouts “HOLY T-O-K-Y-O!” 

‘Tokyo Concert Session’ brings the band’s punk habits back in full force and seamlessly transitions to ‘Justice 4’, which has one of the most fun change of pace I’ve ever heard in a song as it spins its brash attitude into an impromptu samba drum solo performed by _560 and an UNREAL guitar solo from Tamaya, just to implement a break from all the craziness. 

‘Musashino City’ puts attitude at the forefront, with most of its lyrics being delivered in spoken-word sneers with melodramatic vocal backing. It’s a side to Wienners’ character that was much more prevalent with its former member lineup, and has sadly diminished in representation in recent years, but ‘Musashino City’ remains that stalwart anchor that keeps the band’s history relevant in its ’new’ era. 

‘Juugoya Satellite’ always struck me as an important song on the album, because it sets its sights on telling a story unlike everything else on the album: a mournful exchange between lovers after one of them passed away. The chorus’ ballad is powerful enough on its own, but AsamiSae’s synth melody elevates to greater somber heights by capturing the sentiment of the story perfectly within each note she plays. Wienners have an unmistakable character conveyed through synths, whether it’s expressed by AsamiSae or former member Max, and the two different versions of ‘Juugoya Satellite’ emphasise this quality perfectly. ‘Juugoya Satellite’ is my favourite example of how beautifully the band commands both vocal and instrumental performances to overflow their expressions with emotion. One of the most beautiful moments on the entire album plays from 2:35, as the synth and guitar themselves become manifestations of the lovers’ speech, yearning for each other with a desperation that adds tremendous weight to AsamiSae’s following morose monologue. Kozo’s drums bring a cataclysmic sense of finality to the song’s final verse, and I’m always left in the aftermath mourning the ephemerality of such a tragic, beautiful love. The story’s pathos has stuck with me ever since my first listen, and my reaction to it is always so visceral that it makes me grateful to know such a moving song. I always experience tonal whiplash whenever moving on to the gentler ‘Child’s Mind’, but that’s one of the many things I love about this album.

To me, ‘Electric For You’ is pure distilled happiness, particularly because of the rolling motion of the song’s introduction. I can’t pinpoint exactly when, but it became one of the defining songs on the album because of how much the singing performances on the song stood out to me. Having a refrain specifically to make room for a monologue 3/4 into the song just feels so natural in the flow of the album’s tracklist. 

‘Astro Boy’ may be the title, but the samples and lyrics always remind me of Mega Man. I love how the shouted spelling of “A-S-T-R-O-B-O-Y” is used as the beat in the song’s first half, and the verse itself takes a (slightly more) minimalistic approach by slowly building instrumental and vocal layers upon the foundation of TAMAYA’s recitation: “UP, SHOOT, ATTACK, FALL, FREEZE, CARVE, BLIGHT, TORCH”. Not only is it ingrained into my mind because of its catchiness, but it plays right before one of my favourite songs of all time: ‘Souten Delight’.

I wrote about the song for This Side of Japan last year, which you can read here! 

The Best New Retakes version of the song was the one I heard first, and its deeply spiritual core stood out amidst its cheerful demeanour. The chorus always opens with a spurring “OH DELIGHTED, BYE-BYE, BYE-BYE MY YOUTH” and finishes with a hopeful call to find “my dear stage”. What makes this song my favourite from the entire album transcends its audial tangibility: it’s like confronting every memory of life’s ups and downs all at once, which are usually categories I keep separated in my head, and mashes them together into a form that I can see myself in.

“Kick out the enemies and hecklers, and you’re in Paradise”. 

Is it obvious which lines are my favourite?

‘Love Me Tender’ is strange (its original music video confuses me even to this day). 1:30-2:20 always makes me emotional to a degree distinct from ‘Juugoya Satellite’. It feels melancholic to me, in a way where I can still smile despite feeling sad about moving on from the past, as it has a layer of vulnerability whilst still being heavily occupied by its own inner thoughts, demonstrated perfectly in the way it ends. The song has a unique feeling which connects to other songs on Wienners’ discography, so I’ve grown familiar with its presence over the years! 

‘Love2060%’ and ‘Venus’, back to back, are a uniquely sensitive note to finish the album on. Thoughts and senses transcribed into electric is how I perceive Love2060%: it presents a musical utopia that you viscerally witness as the sounds wash over, serving as a guide to various landmarks across this sensory haven. It’s so easy to become lost, that the start of ‘Venus’ feels just like waking up from a dream and returning to a finite reality. The harmony it starts and finishes with truly is life-affirming, offering a tranquil end to a most exhausting journey.
”Life is Water"

….Unless you factor in the bonus track, ‘Kung-Fu Monkey’, which does away with serenity for slapstick motivation and grand declarations of resolve. The album ends the way it started: abrupt, yet crystal clear with its emotional intentions for the listener. My favourite moment of the song is 1:13-1:35, where all instruments and voices are ignited by their clashes with each other, only to relent and make way for a triumphant finish.
”WE’LL NEVER EVER EVER GIVE IT UP”

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The remaining half of my 2021 summer was defined mostly by this album. I’d just purchased my first ever laptop in anticipation of starting university, and listening to ‘Best New Retakes’ whilst the screen illuminated the room late at night quickly became my favourite way to expend poor sleeping habits. With this laptop I was finally able to actualise my long-held dream of emulating watching lets plays of PS2 games I’d played in my youth, and the first game I flocked to was Sonic Heroes. Through the simultaneous and heavy exposure to both album and game during this time, they became synonymous in a way similar to how I described Shadow of The Colossus and Tricot’s ‘3’. 

(I realise the humour in changing topic so dramatically, but it’s relevant to this album and true to the essence of Wienners.)

(Can you FEEL that guitar at 1:00????)

The settings of Sonic Heroes, particularly the earlier levels, are ingrained in my brain as I found myself inhabiting these digital spaces way too often as a child (the image above being a prime example). Returning to these stages after over a decade was potently nostalgic, but incredibly fitting at the same time. I think the elements of the Sonic Heroes soundtrack which I was drawn to as a child are incredibly similar to what drew me to Wienners, partly because both have guitars and synths playing at the forefront in a manner where they often complete each other’s musical sentences.

Finally completing the game after so long (The PS2 version of Sonic Heroes is absolutely impossible to play properly.) brought a strong feeling of triumph to the summer. Not only through finally finishing an endeavour I’d attempted so many years ago, but it mirrored the joy I was experiencing in response to real-life achievements at the time as I approached my long-awaited enrolment to university. It’s difficult to articulate without going into details, but bringing a close to a challenging 3 year chapter was worth commemorating with joy, in my eyes. The memory of playing through Sonic Heroes whilst playing my new favourite band on loop is, to me, a perfect moment in time that I’ll forever be grateful to have lived. A moment in time that rhymes with the farewell of “bye-bye, bye-bye my youth”. 

‘Best New Retakes’ is monumental in significance, continuing from this moment in 2021 when Stanley first mentioned it to me, all the way to the present. Of course, this has only just scratched the surface of my journey with their music, so I’ll be writing even further about the rest of the discography in future posts! I initially planned to write it all into one article, but I got so swept up in the album’s tracklist that I eventually realised this was going to be a multi-part narration. 

-Mustafa

https://www.waqforever.org

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My 10 favourite Japanese songs of 2023 were just published on the Friends List from This Side of Japan (Thank you Ryo for inviting me again!) alongside many other amazing writers! I wanted to write this piece to shed a bit more light on exactly what I loved about them all, and also elaborate a little further on the songs I’ve loved this year!

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There were some songs I wanted to include but sadly couldn’t due to them releasing just outside the 2023 window, so I wanted to quickly mention them first!

Quruli- Loveless

A song full of so much warmth that it actually knocks the wind out of me: even with the loudness it has, the laidback singing has such a soothing induction. I first heard it during a stressful lead up to the end of the academic year, and it was indispensable in acting as a mental balm. Sometimes, all you really need is a video of a family going about their day to day: playing baseball, driving to and from the baseball pitch, conversations in the car, and frequent visits to a local restaurant. It’s tranquility manifest in a runtime of exactly 5 minutes, and I love every second.

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DENIMS featuring AYUNI D- Futari

For a video that features the premise of its two lead singers struggling to make eye contact with eachother, my eyes have been absolutely glued to rewatching it over and over. Not only do I think they share such beautiful vocal chemistry that really emphasises the endearing nature of the song’s lyrics, but it makes the final stretch of the song even more beautiful to witness when the duet’s energy reaches its peak and they both finally look eachother in the eyes as they sing. I also can’t help but smile whenever I hear the ragged electric guitar, especially towards the end! The house the video is set in strongly reminds me of my childhood home, too, so the song carries both memories and beautiful sentiments whenever I experience it.

I first heard a snippet of the song in an Instagram advert from FRIENDSHIP label, but I forgot to record it and only managed to get a screenshot. After reaching out to the page to ask them what song it was, they graciously and promptly responded, and I’ve been in love with the song ever since.

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Jamie’s Theme from Street Fighter 6

I first heard it when the trailer from SF6 released in summer 2022, and even into this year I haven’t been able to stop listening to it. I’m not the most-proficient fighting game player, but Street Fighter will always be special to me, and from the moment I first heard Jamie’s theme, I knew he’d be the character I’d use. I mean, a breakdancer who practices Drunken Fist and gets more powerful the more he drinks during a match is the coolest thing from Street Fighter in years! The number of changes the song goes through is enough to make your head spin, and it conveys so many different aspects of his personality: from boisterous and big-headed to cunning and slyly sinister. Whilst the game itself has yet to give his character much of a spotlight so far, I feel like through this song alone I’ve gotten to know everything there is to him, and danced along every second of the way.
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Last year, ‘SOLAR KIDS’ by Wienners was my favourite song to release, and it’s not an understatement to say Wienners are one of my favourite bands of all time. They only released one song this year, ‘TOP SPEED’, but as much as I love the song itself I didn’t place it on the list as there were so many other stellar releases this year that it became a no-brainer which would be included (that, and also because the music video is a messy AI deluge, which I really couldn’t enjoy watching. WIENNERS, I STILL ADORE YOUR MUSIC BUT PLEASE DO NOT EVER USE AI EVER AGAIN).

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10. PASSEPIED- ‘Basilico’

I’ve paid keen attention to PASSEPIED’s yearly releases ever since I discovered them in 2020. They’ve maintained a consistent yearly album release schedule ever since their debut, and I’ve personally found them to all be really interesting and enjoyable releases! Basilico stands out to me because it really spun off in a different direction compared to their previous album ‘Ukubaku’ from 2022. The album ‘Basilico’ belongs to is easily one of my favourite PASSEPIED albums, and ‘Basilico’ cemented itself as a favourite because it highlighted PASSEPIED’s  ever-evolving and ever-experimenting nature more starkly than all their releases from the previous year.

9. QUBIT - ‘G.A.D’ 

DAOKO and Seiichi Nagai create musical magic whenever they work together. I was so happy to see him feature on Daoko’s 2020 album ‘Anima’, and then as a live support member for her 2021 Happy New Year livestream performance! It’s clear they have as much fun creating music together as I do listening to them, as they’ve become bandmates through QUBIT and continued their impeccable collaborative streak (just ignore the AI music video released for their song ‘Mr Sonic’). The first song released from the project was G.A.D (‘Galactic Android Dancer’), and right from the start it’s clear that the melting pot of 5 genius musicians effortlessly formed the song, with every member getting their own moment to shine throughout. A debut so bold that witnessing it unfold live is something I know I’ll still be talking about years from now.

Not only that, but I’m so happy that for the song’s music video, they recorded a fully live performance of the song! It’s always so fun hearing the small discrepancies between studio and live versions, even down to the difference in delivery of individual lyrics, as well as hearing my favourite parts performed in the moment too!

As for why I love Seiichi Nagai’s music so much? I’ll be writing extensively about it sometime in the future…….

8. nhomme- ‘Isshu No Kaon I’

I love this song because of the contrast between it and its music video (which is easily one of the most unforgettable music videos I’ve ever seen). A blunt, ever-cycling guitar loop making its presence known in the right audio channel whilst instruments burst and sputter in close vicinity. Tension, entropy, claustrophobia, and the emotion of witnessing it all are what come to mind as I experience these sounds, with only a semblance of resistance arising when the shouting kicks in and we hear a cohesive melody desperately pulled together, like a last-ditch effort against the mechanical withering we’ve witnessed for the past 2 minutes. Not only is it beautiful to hear and picture, but becomes irresistible to replay.

Compared to the video, which is calmly conducted and tranquilly presented. Of course overlaps are felt in the pacing and lighting of the video, but overall I find it so therapeutic to watch while the audio is much more torrential. I also think the video itself deserves so much praise for doing something different: I love to see innovations in music videos that go beyond just lip-syncing, and this is an endeavour I’ve never seen done before.

I am absolutely privileged to own a cassette copy of  ‘Isshu No Kaon’. Owning a small piece of this music video feels so incredibly special, and I will forever cherish this video as a beacon of the potential of music videos!

7. Chinese Hoodie- ‘Thunder Girl’ 

Witnessing happiness makes me happy, and ‘Thunder Girl’ has happiness in abundance. Simple lyrics elevated to joyous heights thanks to their tongue-in-cheek message and the chemistry of the band members themselves! I’ll be writing about it at greater length in a future article!

6. Ultra- ‘Knight’ 

The single jacket isn’t for everyone, as it even made me wince upon first look with the notion of a keyhole existing behind one’s neck, but I think that impression perfectly encapsulates the daunting nature of the song itself. The crashes of the instruments before the first verse masterfully and unsettlingly spark with heavy weight, evoking the very nature of metallic clashes and intimidation, setting the stage for the grand chorus and its tremendous inflection: “I don’t want to think about anything”. Hearing it the first time sounds triumphant, but by the end of the song it feels imbued with sorrow, as if broken down by the continuous controlled chaos it’s been resisting all along.

5. Penguin no Yuuutsu- ‘OCD’ 

I love the world of Penguin no Yuuutsu. The heavily introspective and mood-reflective songs all emphasise a different aspect of Tana thoughts, and she defines a song titled ‘OCD’ so masterfully, commanding huge levels of respect for her ability to understand, reflect on, express, and translate her mind into sound.  Weaving between paces and moodscapes, ducking behind the cover of refrains and peeking out on choruses: Tana perfectly places every sound in its right place, and Ryushiro Ogushi voices his guitar exactly as needed to convey the blurry, shy nature of the song. I could never tire of exploring the settings that Tana captures in her work!

4. Sachiko Aoyama- ‘Hi no Tori’ 

When I first saw that Inio Asano collaborated with Sachiko Aoyama to draw the cover for her single ‘Harbor View’, I was over the moon because I’d long suspected them to be fans of each other’s art when I noticed they were mutual followers on Twitter last year; He went on to draw the jackets for all of her releases this year! Solanin is one of my favourite manga, and stories in general, ever, and with how close NEGOTO are to my heart, I’ve loved every single one of Sachiko Aoyama’s songs since she went solo.

Of all the songs from her new EP ‘Esper’, ‘Hi no Tori’ is easily my favourite because of how much it stands out from the rest on the release. The mysticism of a phoenix is evoked right from the beginning with the looming synths mimicking the swaying of an elegant blaze. Aoyama’s singing immediately seizes attention through her lyric of syllable repetition with “yan-yan-yan-yan”, and navigates the precarious verses into a shimmering chorus where her voice soars. Even with over a decade of music featuring her singing, I know every future release of hers will showcase an entirely new side to her voice.

3. Shiho Mochizuki- ‘Obakachan’ 

For the past 7 months, this has been THE definitive uplifting song for me! A short blurb isn’t enough to do this song justice, but a future article, currently in the works, might be able to.

2. Layla- ‘Wonderland’ 

I love the excitement of listening to a new band for the first time, and it was in the midst of this excitement after discovering Layla that ‘Wonderland’ was released. It was so fun to witness a new song release from a band I’d already determined to be one of my favourite discoveries in recent memory, and there’s an endless number of details in the video to notice upon multiple rewatches. Creating an entire song focusing on the optimism that accompanies escapism is such a fun development in Layla’s discography, and I’ll always love almost shouting my favourite lyric from the song: “LET’S AIM FOR WON-DER-LAND!!”.

I interviewed Layla earlier this year and we spoke about this video alongside their other music, which you can read here!

1. Uchudan- ‘FU-RE-FU-RE’ 

Packing so many imaginative twists and turns into a single song, both audibly and visually, is a feat I can’t help but fully respect and utterly adore. This is the song I’ve listened to the most this year, and for good reason: it’s a sound that’s defined so many of my memories since I first heard it, and I’m nowhere near done exploring every crevice of its soundscape.

I kept this part short because I’m currently writing a more in-depth post about it, to be published soon! I hate to be annoying by being vague, but it’ll be worth waiting for!

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I wouldn’t call this list comprehensive, as there’s still so much I want to say about them all, but for now I’m happy with it being a brief summary of the main songs I’ve loved from this year! I hope it’s been fun to read, and please feel free to send me a message if you enjoyed any on the list as I always love to have conversations about music!

-Mustafa

As Palestine continues to suffer from occupation and genocide, please please consider donating to this charity to support Palestinians both now and in the future.

https://donorbox.org/gaza-waqf
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When I ‘categorise’ music in my head, I tend to think of the time I discovered it before I think of the year it actually released. Prior to November, I hadn’t attended a live music performance in a LONG time, so seeing Tricot perform recently prompted me to reminisce on the time I discovered their music, and everything that was going on around then. The music itself is its own memorable entity, but it also permeates into everything else I engaged with around that time too. Since I first listened to Tricot in 2017, lots of events from that time bled into the music, and vice versa, which marked the beginning of the journey that eventually led to me seeing them live last month.

It was my last year of secondary school (UK equivalent of high school), and there was a looming uncertainty about the future that felt embedded in the sky, wherever I was. It wasn’t uncomfortable per se, but stuck out like a sore thumb. Maybe it was a mix of anticipating the next step of my life and moving on from where I’d been for the past few years. I suppose I tried to not think about it too much, and focused on trying to make the moment of the present last as long as possible. I don’t think that was a healthy decision, looking back, but it made my academic year memorable for better and worse.

My ‘formal introduction to Japanese music’ had occurred a year prior when I came across Wednesday Campanella, and through the then-familiarity of Facebook music groups did I come across Tricot.

Since I couldn’t afford to use music streaming at the time (and rarely had Wi-Fi access to use YouTube often), I was mainly able to enjoy repeated listens of music through digitally purchasing them, and for the entire year Tricot’s 3 was the only album of theirs that I owned. The general attitude towards 3 always seemed to be that it “wasn’t as good as their earlier music”, but I always found this way of thinking to be so reductive. I’ve never liked to compare music as whether one is better/worse, and I think 3 is a perfect example because never in a million years could I see it as a ‘lacklustre third album’.

It felt freeing. In the Autumn-Winter months when it felt like I was constantly trying to run towards the setting of the sun, I found so much comfort in the earnest singing that patterned the tracklist. I find Ikkyu Nakajima’s presence so enjoyable to watch and listen to because she makes everything look and sound effortless, whether it be letting her voice ricochet off the walls on ‘Tokyo Vampire Hotel’, or soaring on ‘Melon Soda’, I loved hearing the unapologetic yells as much as the whimsical vocalisations. A personal highlight of the album is the vocalising towards the end of ’Sukima’ which would always softly drift my mind away, like succour to soothe all manners of strife and anguish. Her singing performances are as musical as they are theatrical, given the spurs, twists, and turns the character in her voice takes across even individual songs, let alone entire albums.

That theatricality is accompanied perfectly by her bandmates Motoko Kida, Hiromi Sagane, and Yusuke Yoshida. It never felt like Ikkyu led the way, rather their sound was the entire band constantly redirecting each other that allowed for their unique sound to manifest in the first place, which I think is highlighted perfectly on ‘Namu’.

Their chemistry, encapsulated within ‘3’, was one of the refuges I found much-needed solace in, during the academic year of 2017-2018.

In that same timeframe, I played Shadow of the Colossus for the first time when the PS4 remaster released, and while the game’s experience is thematically distant from ‘3’, they both complement each other perfectly in my mind because of the strong attachments I developed to both of them across this particular period of time. It wasn’t the case that I played the game whilst listening to the album, but they became linked due to both inducing the same feeling of warmth and comfort: the same solace forming within two different kinds of experiences.

My fondness for gloomy winter skies ebbs and flows depending on which year they belong to, and the cloud sea of 2017 is unique for being one of the few I enjoy reminiscing on (ironic given how I was always looking forward to night time, at the time). The constantly grey sky of Shadow of the Colossus feels exactly the same as the sky I saw in real life during this academic year, so they naturally become mutual time capsules of each other. Since that same sky was always one of the visual backdrops to my listens of ‘3’, I think a natural connection was formed through dark clouds, of all things.

I was always aware of the game’s legendary status, which made me all the more excited to venture into its world because the PS4 remaster felt like a rare opportunity to relieve the magic of playing a PS2 game for the first time (because in 2018, I had absolutely zero means of emulating PS2 games). The game gives you only the absolute minimum context needed to understand what’s happening, leaving the rest up to interpretation of even the smallest of details in its visual and para-tangible communications. This alone was enough to hook me on the simple question of WHY the game simply WAS. It wasn’t by accident that the game came to be this way, and I wanted to find traces of artistic intention wherever I could. Colossi‘s designs, attack and movement patterns, and even potential inspirations for their designs, all became immensely gratifying to uncover.

I always aim to avoid mentioning spoilers whenever I talk about video games, in case I end up ruining the experience for another. While technically ‘game over’ screens aren’t ‘in’ the game and are more like external prompts for the player to try again, something I think is safe to mention is the remarkably thoughtful approach taken towards creating the game’s atmosphere, to the extent that even the game over screens are forever etched into my memory as integral pieces of the game’s grander gravity and storytelling structure: locking eye contact with the entity you’re irreversibly set upon slaying gives me goosebumps even when just thinking about it (my fixation on these game over screens definitely isn’t proof of me being bad at the game. Most of the time I intentionally died just to view them. Trust me.). There is still so much about the game that I’ve yet to figure out for myself, but this small aspect is one that was clear as day to understand when I first saw it, and it remains one of my favourite elements of the game.

I spoke about it before in a previous post, but I can’t talk about this game without mentioning the antagonist: Dormin. A shapeless entity, yet their vast presence is communicated solely through their voice. Both a male and female voice actor were hired to portray Dormin, and their voices are heard simultaneously in perfect sync whenever Dormin speaks. This is made even more impressive when the entire game’s script is spoken in a language made specially just for this game, and both those artistic decisions speak volumes of exactly what Team Ico wished to achieve with this game. A specific feature of Dormin’s audio design that I utterly adore is how the voices frequently echo before the word has begun being spoken. It becomes identifiable as a habit of their speech pattern, the same way we all have our own vocal attributes, yet still emphasises the completely unnatural, extraordinary nature of Dormin’s existence. This nature, their motivation, and that unmistakable voice all make them one of my favourite characters in all of fiction.

(The following video is part of the first cutscene of the game. The subtitles feature details of the game’s basic story premise, but I’m only including it because it’s the best recording of their voice I can find on YouTube.).

In short: please play Shadow of the Colossus. It’s only 4-5 hours long.

There were other personally pivotal games I played during this era, like Fire Emblem: Awakening and Persona 5 (my feelings on which are very, very mixed), but so far those games’ presences have largely remained in 2018. Shadow of the Colossus is the only game I’ve replayed in the past two years, partly thanks to its short length but also due to how much more strongly it encapsulates that earlier era of my life so densely into its duration. It’s no surprise that I was reminded of the game when seeing Tricot live last month.

I had known of the UK live tour but didn’t realise they’d be performing so close on a weekend, so it was an immediate no-brainer to get a ticket. However, there being only a week until the performance felt way too short to properly ‘prepare’. As much as I adore what live shows stand for, I have very little experience actually attending them, and I had no idea when my next experience would be. It’s like suddenly realising your birthday’s only a few days away, I guess? It felt like a sudden significant confirmation: “Tricot will be the third band I ever see live”.

I guess I got swept up a bit in the excitement because I arrived there before doors opened at 7pm, but Tricot wouldn’t be playing until 10. The actual set they played seemed to be a little shorter compared to their dates in other cities that week, but I was grateful nonetheless. There weren’t any songs from ‘3’ performed sadly, but ‘Right Brain Left Brain’ is another one of my favourites, and hearing the set open with ‘Jodan kentai’ was the perfect way to set the tone for the late evening hour! ‘#Achoi’ was so fun to hear, given how perfectly they captured every single facet of the studio version, my favourite part being when Hiromi censors Ikkyu’s shout of “SHIT” with “A C H O I”!

In the brief exchange I had with the band after the show, I voiced my appreciation for ‘3’, love for the dance from the song ‘PEAKY’ by Ikkyu’s other band GENIE HIGH (the video may just be an advertisement for an alcohol brand, but how can you not want to dance along to it?), and went on another tangent about the time Kida performed with MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS. I was also able to get one of Yuusuke’s drumsticks signed, and a pile of stickers too!


At the end of the day, after I’d returned from the live, it felt like a line had been drawn from my memories of 2017-2018 directly to that moment in the present. Not quite having come full circle, because I don’t believe a journey came to completion that day, but a phenomenon of merit in its own right. Putting myself in the shoes of my younger self makes that ever-present grey sky of 2017 feel like it actually leads somewhere, and I’m grateful to have such a meaningful addition made to my memories from such a special time.

-Mustafa

Today, with the release of their new song ‘Your Song’, Catt have announced the upcoming release of their second album ‘At the End of the Corridor” in Spring 2024! The band describes their newest song and upcoming project in their own words below: 

“Four years after the release of their first album "Catt", which was co-produced by Masaki Maenosono (8otto/Muddy Apes), Catt will be releasing their new album named "At the End of Corridor" in the spring of 2024. Sometimes running away, sometimes hiding, and their members being fluctuating, Catt has survived to accomplish this album about "someone or something waiting at the end of each one's own long corridor." This album will bring strength to those for whom fear waits, courage to those for whom doors wait, and relief to those who are alone at the end of their corridor. "your song" is the first single to be released from "At the End of Corridor". This song was written at the beginning of the band members' transition, and represents Catt itself, which is expanding and involving its surroundings and listeners in its process.

Catt is a rock band based on Tokyo. Melodious riffs layered in Vocal/Guitar/Bass are their core of the sounds. 

Members:
-Vo.+Gt: Ogushi Ryushiro. Joined 50 pears as percussion and noise, and Penguin No Yuuutsu as support guitarist. 
-Dr.: Otsubo Hirokazu 
-Dr. Matsunaga Yuta 
-Dr. Miura Shun. Drummer of 50 pears. Joined Penguin No Yuuutsu as support drummer. 
-Ba. Kusumoto Masaaki 
-Ba. Hosotani Keisuke 
-Gt. Tanaka Yoshitaka 
-Gt. Suzuki Ichi” 

The slow-motion fall of the song’s introduction is caught by the swooping, weighted drum beats, and then swept along in the remorseful recollections of Ogushi’s singing. The myriad of melodies, towering in presence right from the first verse, maintain deliberate measure in their volume and presence, never becoming overwhelming or torrential. The vast number of members working within the album makes the coordination of the sound all the more impressive, given how it invokes sorrowful contemplations with such laser-precision. 

“I will never ever know what you're trying to tell. 
Speak to me, my only song”

The lament manifests within an array of reflections on the past and the enduring, lingering presence of another in memory and perception, with the repetitions and recitations of the chorus perfectly mimicking the emotional highs and lows of internal retrospection. This particular thematic presentation is distinct from the moods of previous Catt releases, and I really look forward to seeing how it fits within the entire album’s intention! 

I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to listen to the song earlier this week, and I’m eagerly awaiting this second album release from Catt after really enjoying their first self-titled album! The developments between these releases are already audibly palpable: my favourite song from the first album, ‘Addiction’, features a completely different style of singing, but is uniform with the band’s discography in how it also features English lyrics. This always struck me as a deliberate artistic decision, which ascribes a distinct identity and outlook to the band’s work. 

I intend on writing more about the album closer to its release, so please do look forward to hearing and reading more about Catt in future!

-Mustafa

streaming URL (TuneCore): https://linkco.re/GvnXgEtY 
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/catt_the_band 
Instagram: https://instagram.com/catt.the.band 

previous releases:

Catt- https://linkco.re/Dn1MSdug

middle of nowhere- https://linkco.re/ny6Tm8rc 

body- https://linkco.re/ucCUNzdH

If you are able, please consider donating to the following charity dedicated to providing 100% financial support directly to Palestine. It is a charity I support and endorse with all my heart:

https://donorbox.org/gaza-waqf

This interview was conducted, and most of it transcribed, in the first half of 2023.

My introduction to Layla was a gentle welcome into a fiercely confident World of Sound. It began with a memorable discovery of a new song by a band name I didn’t yet recognise, which was more than enough to firmly embed this first impression into my mind: “I have never, ever heard a sound like this before.”

I cherish new discoveries across all art forms, but hearing Layla for the first time was uniquely special because of just how perfectly their music resonated with my belief in what music stands for: sincere, uncompromising, and boundlessly creative expression, striving even in the face of hardship. Whether it be soothing melodies, cataclysmic sonic crashes, or a harmony of both: the work of Aria and Miura has a legendary status in my eyes that sets them apart as truly unique artists wholly devoted to their art.

The opportunity to speak to them both was unforgettable in itself, not only due to what I was able to learn from them but also the confirmation of their sincerity through how perfectly in tune their words and philosophies were with the music they express. A true gem of a band comprised by true gems of musicians; my gratitude to Layla is immense, and I write this interview in hopes of expressing that gratitude for their world of artistry.

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An Interview with Layla

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1.

Mustafa: “Hello Layla! Congratulations on your release of WONDERLAND! I’ve been listening to it a lot since it released, and enjoyed the livestream reveals of the music videos too! To start: I’m really interested in the song ‘WONDERLAND’ and its music video. It’s really different from the rest of your discography, as lots of your songs include the theme of love, while this song leans into longing for escapism. I’m interested in what caused WONDERLAND to be so different to your previous releases?”

Aria: “For our music and videos, love is still very important to us. We’ve always had to be selective with the songs that we could have a music video for, hence love became one of the main aspects of our music videos due to the songs we’d select. However this time, we released three songs in our EP and we were able to make a music video for all of them. Since we didn’t have to be selective, we were able to make ‘WONDERLAND’ very different to our previous music videos.”

Mustafa: “I really appreciate how big a focus love has in your music! Something I also really enjoy about your music videos is how much focus they have on scenery and the people featured in them. The second music video from the EP, for the song ‘UTSUKUSHII FUKEI’ (‘Beautiful World’), has that focus on scenery, but instead of love, the lyrics focus more on a personal viewpoint on life and the world!”

Mustafa: “On the ‘WONDERLAND’ music video, I really like how there are a lot of computer effects utilised, which contrast it to your other music videos which focus so much on natural scenery. What was the reason behind utilising things like green screen for this video?”

Aria: “It’s based on the lyrics of ‘WONDERLAND’: most of the things happening in the lyrics are ‘inside’, hence we thought it was suitable to have the setting of the music video to be indoors. Towards the end of the song, we have the lyric “Can I have expectation for the world unseen?”, so we put more focus on fantasy and digital elements, such as the hamster flying, to represent the unseen world.”

Reflecting on Aria’s answer made me notice how even the video’s 1:1 aspect ratio tied into the song’s message, with the video frame being the inside home and the borders representing the ‘unseen world’, and the repeating digital glitches alluding to the confines of the video being pushed to the limit, powered by an inquisitive spirit seeking to find that world unseen for its own whimsical curiosity.

“Let’s aim for WONDERLAND!!!”

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2.

Mustafa: “Something I really like with ‘UTSUKUSHII FUKEI’ and ‘HANASHI WO SHIYOU’ (‘Let’s Talk’) is that they feature lots of beautiful scenery to complement the music, which is my favourite element of music videos! I’m interested in ‘UTSUKUSHII FUKEI’ in particular, and how it ended up being shot, because Aria stated before that it was filmed at the house of one of your friends!” 

Aria: “The location was decided because we heard from our friend that the sea can be seen from their house, and it also connects to the lyrics of the song, about having the courage to step out to see and find that the world is more beautiful than you expected.”

Mustafa: “Moving on to the last song of the EP release, ‘HANASHI WO SHIYOU’: I really like this song in particular, not only because of the scenes where it shows you both performing in the dark with a single ray of light shining on you, but the story about the couple in the video is also really really sweet, where they end up getting engaged at the end. With the EP including ‘WONDERLAND’, a song about being stuck inside, and ‘UTSUKUSHII FUKEI’, a song about going out into the world, the inclusion of romantic song feels very special, so I’m interested in what that particular song’s inclusion means to the band!”

Aria: “We’ve wanted to write songs that are related to seasons: we already had songs related to Spring (‘Harukaze’) and Summer (‘Nettaiya’), but we didn’t have one related to Winter, so we wanted to write that! We also have lots of songs related to breakups, or relationships not going well, so we wanted to write a love song that warms you up in the winter, and we thought it’d be nice if it could end up at someone’s wedding!”

Mustafa: “I really appreciate the sentiment of that song and video, in particular! The photoshoot which you both did for ‘HANASHI WO SHIYOU’, with the outfits you’re both wearing, is one of my favourite artist photos! I love that photo of the band together!”

‘HANASHI WO SHIYO’ is a tribute to the ordinary, day-to-day conversations shared between a couple that brings them closer over time, highlighting the warmth of the constant amidst the cold of Winter in Tokyo. It surprised me on first listen, because of how perfectly the song matched my own outlook on love!

Aria later mentioned that Layla has yet to write a song with the themes of Autumn, but it is something they hope to do in future!

Mustafa: “With the three songs on the ‘WONDERLAND’ EP all being very different from each other, yet included on the same single release, I’m interested in how the songs ended up being made!“

Aria: “We wanted to widen the scope of what we could do with our music!”

Miura: “We also had a lot more demos made prior to this release, and these are the three songs which we decided on including!”

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3.

Mustafa: “You’ve released a lot of music videos across your time as a band so far, which I really appreciate! A lot of other artists tend to release music videos less frequently and only release one or two every now and then, so I get the feeling that music videos mean a lot to you! What is the importance of a music video to you as a band? What is it that you hope to achieve with them?”

Aria: “The purpose of a music video, to us, is so that we can amplify and widen the image of the songs. Not all of our songs have music videos, so we choose the songs that can reach out and have the most impact on listeners through being accompanied by a music video!”

Mustafa: “That very accurately describes an experience I had with your music! When I first listened to ‘SEASIDE’, I was really blown away by the emotional intensity of the song’s introduction, and then when I watched the music video that same introduction segment depicts an emotional moment shared between a couple and is later followed by really beautiful shots of their faces. I particularly wanted to express just how much I love ‘SEASIDE’ and the beauty of its music video!”

Aria: “*laughs* Thank you!”

I have particular fondness for SEASIDE’s latter half as its volume escalates and Aria’s vocalising intensifies in cathartic and conflicting emotion, embracing pain and loss with a rare and admirable strength.

Mustafa: “’SEASIDE’ features lots of close-up cinematic shots of people, while your earlier video for ‘Apāto no naka de’ (‘Inside the Apartment’) has a different style of recording where it has lots of polaroids shown in succession to represent the memories of a past relationship. I’m very interested in the inspirations you have for the different styles or videos you make, as they’re all really personal andhave particular focuses on the relationships between people, presenting them in many different ways. Another example is ‘Endroll’, where the video looks like its playing footage from an old film recording. What inspires the way your music is visually presented?”

Miura: “We discuss a lot with the director of the video, and the styles you mentioned are choices of the director. We spend a lot of time sharing the image of the song and what we want to convey with the music, so we have the same level of understanding. As for the styles and how the videos are shot, we usually tend to let the director choose the styles and we trust their creative decisions!”

Mustafa: “You mentioned communicating your visual ideas for the song to the director. During the creation process of putting a song together, how do you go about processing the visual elements of the song? Do you start off with an image and create a song around it, or do you feel the sounds and then create an image after, which you then communicate to the director?”

Aria: “Most of the time we have those images come to us in the writing process of the songs. For example: if we have lyrics first, then we already have images attached to them. Even if we don’t have lyrics yet, there will still be some kind of imagery, like of seasons or places, present. Our songs tend to always have some kind of imagery associated with them!”

Miura: “We also wish that we could make music videos for every song we have!”

Mustafa: “I would really love for that to happen! My favourite Layla song is the first that I heard: ‘Nettaiya’ (‘Tropical Night’)! I know it released on ‘World’ which was 2 years ago, but if the chance to create it ever arises, I would be so interested to see the band’s visual representation of it!”

‘Nettaiya’ came to mind not only because of my connection to it, but also the palpable imagery conjured by its meticulous, delicate musical form. The song’s vulnerability is embedded in its lyrics as much as its sound: a transparent confession of dreams and prayer:

“On a midsummer tropical night, illuminated by streetlights, I hear the sounds of cars driving by, and I pray for the happiness of people I don't know”

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4.

Mustafa: “Where do you draw inspiration from when creating the songs themselves? You’ve spoken in the past about how Aria draws inspiration her own past experiences when writing songs, so I’m interested in what elements of your lives you take inspiration from when you create art!”

Miura: “We’re inspired by other artists’ songs, and all kinds of creative expressions like films, TV dramas, manga, anime!”

Aria: “We also sometimes take both our inspirations and interpretations of those stories, and write lyrics based on them.”

Mustafa: “Is there any particular media, like films, shows, and music by other bands, which are very close to you and you consider to be your favourites?”

Aria: “Right now we really enjoy a comedy series in Japan called ‘Brush Up Life’! At the moment we really enjoy TV dramas in general!”

Mustafa: “In terms of music, Aria mentioned in a previous interview that she’s really inspired by Zazen Boys and Kinkokuteikoku, which are two bands I’m also a fan of! What other musicians/bands have played significant roles in both of your lives as you were growing up, as well in the present?”

Aria: “When I was young I played the piano, and one of the reasons I began wanting to play guitar and sing was Yura Yura Teikoku. I came across their album ‘Hollow Me’, which led to me digging into their discography and I found another of their songs called ‘Almond Chocolate’, which inspired me further!”

Miura: “I listened to Bump of Chicken from early on, but the style that I play right now is mostly inspired by the band Hanuman. At one point I felt that I wanted to play guitar like Hanuman, but at the same time I wanted to avoid being seen as directly following Hanuman, as I wanted to have a style of my own, so I do think that consciously I want to play like Hanuman but at the same time I want to digest the sound of Hanuman within myself and integrate it with my own style!”

Mustafa: “From my perspective of Layla, I definitely believe that you’ve succeeded in that because, to me, Layla’s music is so unique! One of the main things that make me think that is your song ‘Nettaiya’, which starts off very slow with Aria’s singing being very vulnerable and emotional, and then the song also brings in a louder rock sound later on whilst still maintaining that emotional vulnerability. I feel that the song has a unique, perfect balance of vulnerability and loudness, which is also present within your entire discography. How do you feel about this particular balance, and how do you manage it?”

Aria: “The variety of sounds and layers comes about because we have a lot of things we want to do with our music, which also stems from the diversity of our music inspirations! For ‘Nettaiya’, the vulnerability came about because of the music I was listening to at the time the song was made! The inspirations we have during the writing process diversify the sounds even further!”

Miura: “The style of the songs during the song writing process and the style we have for playing them live end up being quite different. We will have demos written by ourselves in-house, and we’ll have multiple back-and-forths during this time before they’re finalised, and this process ends up creating multiple layers within the songs.”

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5.

Mustafa: “Aria mentioned before that the way in which you create songs is sometimes she will write a song and present it to Miura, and then you have that back-and-forth. I feel like Layla has a very specific vision for music, that shines through the direct emotional vulnerability at the core of your sound. When did you end up developing that vision for the band? What sort of element of teamwork is there in achieving this?”

Miura: “Most of the time we share what we like in music, so that core of the music likely originates from our own overlaps. As for the vulnerability, we’ve had that vision since the beginning. More specifically: it’s the style we started off with, and the rock sound was developed into it later on as our discography progressed.”

Mustafa: “I’m interested in how that vulnerability is rooted throughout the history of Layla. Aria mentioned in another interview that when ‘World’ was being made, it was impacted by the pandemic I’m interested in whether that shift was very sudden as a result of the pandemic, or was it a very natural change over time?”

Aria: ”‘Futari no Sekai’ was the first song we wrote after the pandemic happened, and we wanted to write something that conveyed the feeling of having a ray of light in a dark world, which is one of the reasons why that change can be perceived!”

Miura: “We see a lot of sad and dark news nowadays, so we try to write more about the positive things in life!”

Mustafa: “That reminds me of the song ‘Tsumaranai’, which is a very fast, short song; Aria mentioned in the past that ‘Tsumaranai’ is a song that reflects how she felt about herself at the time she wrote it, about not becoming the person she wanted to be when she was younger, yet the song is really upbeat! I really like how the song takes that sad topic into an energetic reflection!”

Miura: “For that song, we’d written it prior to the pandemic, and we were stuck on the arrangement of the song. We previously had a mentor figure, and he said that this song should be a ballad, but we were unsure about that direction for the song. During the pandemic, our mentor figure sadly split from us, so we decided to make this song more upbeat despite the advice we’d received from them; we went with what we initially wanted to do with the song!”

Mustafa: “I appreciate the decision to go through with your vision for that song! Do you ever find it difficult sticking to your vision of a song due to other factors, or do you find it easy to identify what you wish to do with a song?”

Aria: “For now, we use digital audio works to create songs on our computer and we have the arrangements completed in the demo stage. However previously, like for ‘Tsumaranai’, I would write them with an acoustic guitar and record a demo with just that and my voice. So for ‘Tsumaranai’, when I showed this demo to our former mentor his perspective was that it would be better as a ballad. Previously we wrote demos with just an acoustic guitar, so there would be different perspectives on how to arrange it, but nowadays we tend to have that decided by ourselves!”

The sound of ‘Tsumaranai’ is so different to what I’d expect from a song initially written with just a guitar, which I feel is testament to Layla’s creative process and vision!

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6.

Mustafa: “On the mentioning of using acoustic guitar: last week Layla did an acoustic one-man live performance, so I’m interested in what about the acoustic sound appeals to both of you, and how important is it to you as a band.”

Aria: “For the one-man live, we had all the songs rearranged specifically for that live, and the purpose of the live was to put more focus on the melody and singing of the songs, which we really enjoyed doing!”

Miura: “That live became an opportunity for the audience to focus more deeply on the songs. We know that Aria can sing softly in a gentle way, but we felt that the audience may not get that impression in our usual live performances, so this one-man was an important opportunity to showcase that style and that side of Layla!”

Mustafa: “I really like how you feel the acoustic sound conveys that side of Layla to the audience! One song from the WONDERLAND EP, ‘UTSUKUSHI FUKEI’, is naturally a very acoustic song which is unique compared to the rest of Layla’s discography. Do you anticipate making more songs like it in the future?”

Aria: “We may not be focusing an entire album around it, but within future projects we would like to include some songs that will be more acoustic-driven, or have that acoustic sound!”

Mustafa: “With the way you say there will be certain songs that will be acoustic, would it be accurate to say that the way in which you construct albums is done by a song by song basis, instead of creating all songs with a particular album theme or idea in mind?”

Aria: “Yes, we construct projects by a song-by-song basis. We write lots of songs for projects, and we pick from our demos/recordings after consider the variety of them, thus constructing an album in this way.”

Mirua: “Most of the time we continue writing songs until we have one that we feel is impactful and could reach out to lots of people. Once we have that, we write songs around the idea of having that song as the core/centre of the album!”

Mustafa: “That motivation really resonates with me, and I really feel it shine through on World! Aria stated before that she hopes ‘World’ can create a special world within all of its listeners, and World is really special to me for that reason as it created an entire special world within me that I perceive whenever I listen to the album!”

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7.

Mustafa: “What has the reception been like to your live performances throughout your time as a band? How do fans respond to them, and what are your live shows like in general?”

Aria: “One comment we get often is that they’re quite different from the album recordings! We love the loud volume of live music so we like to have our live performances take advantage of that loudness and intensity!”

Miura: “Most of the fans come to listen closely to the music, so there aren’t moshpits or much excessive dancing. The crowd tend to be there solely to listen!”

‘Emma’ is the first song that comes to mind when Aria mentions the volume of performing live, as the live version’s vigorous yelling elevates the chorus’ laments of a past relationship, letting loose the controlled chaos of the song’s studio recording.

Mustafa: “‘Happy end’ is one of the first songs you included a piano for, and I especially love the piano improvisation in the live performance of ‘Happy end’, making it very different to the studio version of the song. How do you feel the studio and live versions of your music compare to each other? I mostly experience your music through the studio versions, so how do you value both the study and live versions?”

Miura: “For ‘Happy end’, when we perform it live, we usually don’t have the piano present and have to perform without it, but that performance uploaded to YouTube is from a one-man-live we did; for those occasions which are special to us, we have a piano present. I composed the piano segment on the studio version, but for the live performance we think it’s more interesting and fun for the piano player to play the way they wish to, which leads to their improvisations!”

Mustafa: “Is the piano player someone you collaborate with regularly, or were they just hired to play that performance?”

Miura: “Yes, we frequently ask them to play piano for us, except for studio recordings! He actually isn’t originally a pianist, but a drummer! He is from a band that we play with frequently, called Jureniwa!”

This particular live performance video starts with their song ‘Nettaiya’ and then seamlessly transitions into ‘Happy end’, which I have been in awe of since first witnessing it. Uniting the softness of ‘Nettaiya’ with the carefree spirit of‘Happy end’ in this manner is, to me, nothing other than genius!

”Lala la, lala lala lala lalala”
”Do-do-doo, do-do-doo do-do doo-do-doo”

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8.

Mustafa: “A little while ago, you did a special set of collaborative ‘Kenka’ (‘Fight’) live shows. I’m very interested in these performances, because the first band you performed with for the first ‘Fight’ show was Tertora! What inspired you to do this concept of ‘fighting’ another band with these live shows?”

Aria: “Around that time, two of the members of Layla left the band, so with two members we’re considered more of a duo as opposed to a band, so we try to have the energy of a band and convey that by doing something challenging for us as a band, which is how we came up with the ‘Kenka’ live shows!”

Mustafa: “What is it like sharing the stage with them? Have connections been made with other bands through the Kenka shows, or is it done more through label contracts?”

Aria: “At the start we don’t really have much of a connection with them, but we want to become close with them so we ask them specifically if they’d like to perform together with us, or maybe we’ve already played with them in the past and would like to become even closer with them!”

Mustafa: “I’m really curious about which bands currently active in Japan that you’d like to form connections with through live performances?”

Miura: “We’re actually planning on doing another set of Kenka live shows in the summer for three consecutive months! We’ve announced the dates, but we haven’t officially announced the bands we’ll be performing with!”

Aria: “For the July Kenka we will be performing with Tricot! ”

Mustafa: ”……REALLY????!!” *Everyone laughs*

Aria: “We’ve wanted to play with them for a long time, and finally we’ll be able to play together! And for August, we’ll be playing with FINLANDS! We haven’t yet decided who we’ll be performing with in June! Aside from these artists, if we could, we’d love to play with Zazen Boys!”

It was eventually announced that Suzuki Mikiko Zu would be the artist featured at the June Kenka!

“Given how big Tricot are, I think it’s definitely likely that one day Layla could perform with Zazen Boys!” I excitedly exclaim, having been caught completely off-guard by such an unexpected reveal. Tricot was one of the first Japanese bands I ever listened to, so this particular performance was really special to learn of! 

Mustafa: “In the time that you’ve been playing as Layla, have you met or heard any other bands that you feel a similarity or connection to? Are there any artists that you feel approach music in a similar way to you?”

Aria: “The band we mentioned before, Jureniwa, the band our pianist is from! We feel similarities in how they approach music and operate as a band!”

Jureniwa recently announced they would sadly be disbanding, which makes their collaborations with Layla that much more special in how it signifies the bond they shared during this time.

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9.

Mustafa: “You stated before that the origin of the band name was Miura wanting to have a band with female-led vocals, thus you decided on the name ‘Layla’ as a result. What specifically inspired that name? It stood out to me a lot as it’s a non-Japanese name! ”

Miura: “The name ‘Layla’ just popped into my head when thinking about names associated with female vocals. As for the meaning: it doesn’t have much of a deep meaning!”

Mustafa: “You were both in different bands prior to Layla starting. I don’t know much about how you two met, so I’d love to know about the first time you spoke to each other, and how your connection has developed over time as you’ve worked together!”

Miura: “Yes, we were in different bands at that point, and my band ended up splitting, so I was looking to start a band of my own. At that time, I came across the band Aria was in at the time, and I decided to attend their live show, which actually turned out to be the band’s last live performance! I then asked her to join the band I was planning, and we then found a drummer and bass player, which is how the band started!”

Mustafa: “At the time when Layla started, what were your hopes for the band? Did you anticipate it might just be a small part-time commitment? Did you ever anticipate Layla would become so well-known?”

Miura: “I was really eager and passionate for the band from the start!”

Aria: “I was in my last year of high school at the time, so I had to be doing my entrance examinations for university. I initially declined Miura’s offer due to my academic commitments, but Miura asked me really passionately, so I then decided to join the band to see what it was like. It was when I realised I loved performing live, and reaching out to the audience with our songs, that I wanted to get bigger as a band!”

Mustafa: “Aria mentioned doing entrance exams at that time, so I’m interested in how the band is important to you in relation to your personal lives. Miura, you were very invested in it from the start, so even now is it still the main focus or has it increased in importance over time? Same goes for Aria: you wanted to try it out at first, but over time has it become more and more important?”

Miura: “It’s the same as it’s been since the start: I’m always, and only, thinking of the band. As a band there are a lot of things we can do, such as running social media, writing songs, working on live performances, so I’m always constantly thinking of these things related to Layla!”

Aria: “I was actually a pharmacy student, and I was really busy going to university whilst doing the band at the same time, so I had to devote so much time and effort to both of them. I once had to go to Osaka to perform a live, and then come back to school in Yokohama without getting a moment to return home. This is an example of how busy I was at the time, so I wasn’t able to take the time to think about what was truly important to me. However when the pandemic hit, the band had to slow down and the university became less busy with remote learning, so I had a lot more time compared to before. At this time, two years ago, I really thought about what is important to me, so I decided to quit university and be fully devoted to my music. This is now the only thing I focus on all the time!”

Mustafa: “It can’t have been easy to quit university, but the sentiment and love which you have for the band really shines through, and it really makes me appreciate Layla’s music so much! I want to express thanks to you both for putting so much effort and time into Layla!” 

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10.

Mustafa: “The band started with four members, but sadly two recently left. What was it like adjusting after the band members left? What were the feelings you had at the time, and what is it like operating now with just you two?”

Miura: “Ever since the beginning as a band, we were operating in a manner where whoever recognised a task would get ‘hands on’ with it, but most of the time it would be myself doing work such as replying to emails: I was the driving force behind the operation of the band. When the two members left, it didn’t really change much in how we operate, and actually made my own responsibilities clearer to me in terms of operating the band. So overall, the workload of operating the band didn’t really change! For our live performances, we were lucky we had someone to help us as a support member, so we were able to continue performing live!”

I voiced my gratitude to Mirua and Aria or their effort, especially given how hard it must have been when band members left, which was met by gracious smiles and laughter.

Miura: “After the members left, the number of songs that Aria would write actually doubled! So it didn’t put much burden on us, it was more that it helped us change our mindsets!”

Mustafa: “In terms of ‘changing mindsets’, would you say that it could have inspired you in some ways? With Aria’s song output increasing, was that inspired partly by these two people leaving the band, or was there something else that led to this increase?”

Aria: “It’s not like something particularly inspired us, it’s more like we got into a mindset of wanting to put more into the band, because we’re the only ones who can have that responsibility!”

Mustafa: “Those two members left after ‘World’ was released in 2021. In the music video for ‘WONDERLAND’, it features both of you alongside two ‘ghost’ figures. Were these figures meant to represent those two band members who had left?”

Aria: “We didn’t intend for that to be the case, but after the music video was completed, the director asked us “wouldn’t the audience interpret these two ghosts as relating to the former members?”, and we realised how it could be seen that way! However, we haven’t had any anyone make that specific comment to us until now when you mentioned it! *laughs*”

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11.

Mustafa: “I saw that ‘World’ won the recommendation award from Tower Records! I know that ‘World’ is a retailer-exclusive CD to Tower Records outside of your merch site, so I’m curious about what led to this happening?”

Miura: “How that came about is we had released three singles in a row, prior to World’s release. The first song, ‘Futari no Sekai’, was released in February and a distributor got in touch with us and asked really passionately about wanting to be a part of the release. There wasn’t a lot of time between this and the release of ‘World’ in May, so in those few months they helped push things forward with a lot of speed, and we received the Tower Recommendation with the help of them, too! We’re really grateful to them!”

Mustafa: “I’m glad there was such a supportive relationship, with how they helped increase the speed of the project! Have there ever been any other instances of collaborating with others who have helped with your music releases?”

Miura: “It’s not really related to music releases, but we are really grateful for the support of Majima from the live house F.A.D Yokohama! We play a lot there, and it’s like a home for us! Majima really inspired us and helped us a lot by booking us with other bands as opening acts. Someone else who supported us a lot is Otsuka from Shinjuku Loft, another venue in Tokyo which you might have seen in Bocchi the Rock! He was really supportive of Layla! When the two members left, we had to perform in Nagoya the very next day; we thought we’d have to go travel there on our own, but Otsuka stepped up to go with us. His support and kindness has helped us a lot!”

Mustafa: “Your earlier works were all released independently, but ‘WONDERLAND’ was released under the Office Augusta label. How did Layla end up getting signed to Office Augusta, and what have your experiences with them been like?”

Aria: “Someone from Office Augusta heard our music and reached out to us! We then performed at a show that Office Augusta hosted. It was here that they spoke to us and asked if we could do some releases together. Something that came about through signing to them is they provided us with a sound producer for the songs ‘HANASHI WO SHIYOU’ and ‘WONDERLAND’, which was really comforting and made us feel supported!

Mustafa: “With the way in which you work with Office Augusta now, are there any differences with before in regards to how Layla operates and releases music, or is the experience mostly the same?”

Miura: “Office Augusta lets us work freely in our decisions! Things didn’t really change, but one of the main differences is that we now have clear due dates for song writing or deciding on what songs to be on releases. Office Augusta may need song or album demos for their negotiations with other people, so now we have to have demos submitted prior to releases. Another difference compared to before would be that the people from Office Augusta are really nice people, so we are motivated by their support!”

Mustafa: “In regard to these deadlines, have they been different to what you’re used to, or have you found it to not be much of a constraint?”

Aria: “For the end product I don’t think there’s much of a difference, but for the process there are some differences, one of them being that we now have to have demos be somewhat decent, as we have to share those with Office Augusta and have a clear vision present with those demos. Another thing would be that before, we’d often stop working on demos and wait for ideas to come, but now we have to more actively try things out when working on projects to move them forward.”

Mustafa: “On the distribution of your music: I saw that Layla recently visited the radio station in Yokohama and featured on the show ‘Kanegawa Music Land’. How have you gone about reaching out to audiences with your music through distribution? In regard to radio shows: how important are they in getting Layla’s music to reach people? Given how most people are much more active on social media, I’m interested in the decision to use radio!”

Aria: “SNS is quite limited for reaching out to new listeners, unless you go viral. Most of the time, what’s put on SNS mainly reaches the people who are already fans of the music. With radio, you have the chance to reach out to a new audience, even people who don’t even listen to band music or is even aware of our band. We’re listeners of radio ourselves, so we look forward to opportunities to be guests on radio shows!”

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12.

Mustafa: “Looking back on Layla’s discography: you started the band in 2016. Since then, how do you feel about the different EPs you’ve released in the time since the band started in 2016? How do you feel the different releases represent your growth as a band?”

Miura: “Our first EP release was the first opportunity we had to reach people outside Yokohama. This was around the time we first began performing in Tokyo, too. Prior to then, we’d only performed in Yokohama and we were struggling to spread our music further outside, so our first EP and our first music video both provided us with that valuable opportunity to reach a wider audience.”

Aria: “When we released the first single after our first EP, we were contacted by someone from an office which has since closed down. They assisted us with the recording of our second EP ‘Emma’! This is another example of support we’ve received from others, and it’s from this moment that we began to get the feeling that we were being listened to by audiences, so we started to consciously reach out more and became more aware of our listeners!”

Mustafa: “Which are the most significant songs to each of you, when you reflect on all the music you’ve released?”

Aria: “For me it would be ‘Futari no Sekai’ as it was one of the first songs that I felt I was able to fully achieve what I wanted to do with the song, and it also became one of the songs that could reach out the most to new audiences! It was also the first love song I wrote which wasn’t related to breakups! I also think ‘UTSUKUSHII FUKEI’ is significant, because its arrangement was inspired by music I’ve been listening to in my 20’s, so it’s full of newer inspirations, and I’m really satisfied with how the song turned out! ”

Miura: “For me it would be ‘SEASIDE’ and ‘Flyaway!’! For ‘SEASIDE’, it was made when Layla’s four members were aligned and were united in our vision for the songs we wanted to make, and we were able to fulfil that vision during this time, which was a turning point for Layla. For ‘Flyaway!’, it’s a personal turning-point for me in regards to arrangement, as it was one of the first songs with which I approached arrangement from the perspective of both the addition and also subtraction of sounds, which I hadn’t done before!”

Mustafa: “What is the direction for Layla’s future, moving forward? Is it clear to you what music you hope to make in future, or is that something you are still considering?”

Aria: “We hope to explore the more acoustic side of the band, and we’re currently making demos in that style!”

Miura: “I want to make music that goes beyond the expectations of our listeners, and also subverts those expectations too! ”

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Miura’s answer of subverting expectations makes me look forward with great anticipation to the band’s future, confident in their dream to continue making music true to themselves, the way they wish to make it. Even after having accomplished so much, the skies above Layla look shimmeringly clear with the promise of ever-renewing proclamations of truth.

Every writing endeavour always feels like a completely new experience: all notable for diverse reasons yet all equally special to me. This interview is unforgettable to me because it not only helped to build a connection that will last all my life, but also served as a stalwart reminder of the genuine kindness that can exist within the hearts of humanity. It was a World of Sound that greeted me when I discovered Layla, and speaking to them highlighted that this world is built from the boundless warm compassion of Aria and Miura. 

-Mustafa

Since this interview took place, Layla released a new song which features lyrics of hope and reassurance, sung by Aria to her younger self. It’s supportive and comforting to listen to, given the kindness in both Aria and Miura’s voices as they sing, and represents Layla as perfectly as the rest of their discography does.

Another new song is due to be released on November 10th!

Layla’s music is available on all streaming services.

This interview is dedicated to the unyielding spirit of Palestine, and the justice its people rightfully deserve.