Make Believe Melodiesは最近Canopies And DrapesのChickをインタビューしてきました!新作カセットStray Sheep’s Delightの収録曲の一曲は、Ano(t)raksのコンピレーションアルバムUpwards And Onwardsにも収録されています。作品、宗教観、そして日本の女性インディー・ミュージシャンについて聞いてきました。 Make Believe Melodies: 2011年の夏に以前のバンド、Nu Clear Classmateが解散し、Canopies And Drapesを始められたそうですが、その経緯について少し説明して頂けますか? Nu clear classmateのときは、「GOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR」というレーベルに所属していたのですが、EPを発売してから、なかなか思うように動けずにいました。当時、コンスタントに、リリースしたいという気持ちと、ライブを定期的に行いたいという気持ちが強く、レーベルを離れることにしました。そして、Nu clear classmateも、そこで終わらせて、Canopies and Drapesとして、ソロになることに決めました。一緒に活動していたZakくんとは、最近連絡を取るようになって、また一緒に、音楽をすることになりました。今度のライブは、彼と一緒に出ようと思っています。 MBM: バンドからソロに移行するのは大変でしたか? CaD: Nu clear classmateは、ユニットでしたが、曲を作るのはお互い一人で作っていたので、今と変わらないです。Canopies and Drapesは、私のソロプロジェクトですが、ミックス作業はNILE LONGのkomeさんと一緒に行うし、ライブも、サポートメンバーを加えて、バンドセットでライブを行うので、あまり一人という感覚はないです。本当に、恵まれていると感じます。 MBM: Canopies And Drapesの曲からは強い物語性を感じます。曲を書く時にイメージやストーリーを意識したりはしますか? CaD: はい。情景の浮かぶ音楽を作りたいと思っています。次の質問とも、重なりますが、小説でも、結末よりその結果にいたるまでの、過程を大切にしている話しが好きなので、私の歌詞にもストーリーはありますが、ハッピーエンドとも、バッドエンドとも取れない曖昧なものにしています。曲を聴いて、色を思い浮かべたり、自分の生活に重ねたりと、好きなようにイメージして欲しいためです。イメージするということが日々のなかで、何より大切だと思っています。 MBM: どのような文学が好きですか?それはなぜでしょうか? CaD: ユーモアのある設定や、文章に惹かれます。起承転結のはっきりとしたものや、衝撃的結末が待ち構えている話しは、あまり好みません。日々や、登場人物の感情を淡々と描いている話しのほうが好きです。暮らしのなかで、些細なことを、特別だと感じたり、愛しいと思っているからでしょうか。以下、好きな作家です。 三浦綾子/よしもとばなな/金井美恵子/山崎ナオコーラ/ミランダ・ジュライ(Miranda July)/エイミー・ベンダー(Aimee Bender) / ローリ・ムーア(Lorrie Moore). MBM: 去年は2枚のカセット、”And…
Music Alliance Pactは30以上の国から毎月それぞれ国のブログがアーティストを1組ずつ紹介しています。今月我々は日本が誇る最良のバンドの1つである京都のHotel Mexicoを紹介しました。彼らの”A.I. In Dreams”を含む、世界中から寄せられた最高の音楽をご堪能あれ。 Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the full 39-track compilation through Ge.tt here. JAPAN: Make Believe Melodies Hotel Mexico – A.I. In Dreams Hotel Mexico, hailing from the historic city…
boy from HOTEL MEXICO on Vimeo. 今週Hotel Mexicoがリリースしたニュー・アルバムHer Decorated Post Loveは要チェックです。上から試聴出来るリード・トラック”boy”のビデオもリリースされましたよ。この曲のキーボードのフレーズは、以前にリリースされた“Starling, Tiger, Fox”に近いものを感じます。このPost Loveでは、ボーカルはファルセットでなく地声で歌われているのですが、Hotel Mexicoには新しいチャレンジをしても失われない、普遍的な魅力があります。いつまでも幻想的な音楽を作り続けてほしいです。
明けましておめでとうございます!新年一発目は我々のお気に入りのバンド、Hotel Mexicoの新曲を紹介しますね。実は彼らは12月の下旬に “A.I. In Dreams”というシングルをリリースしたのですが、現在オフィシャルの音源はネットに出回ってません。なので代わりにライブレコーディングバージョンが公開されています。リラックスしたムードの曲なのですが、彼らの今までの曲との大きな違いは…ボーカルが今までのようにファルセットで歌うのではなく、地声でよりディープに歌っている事でしょう。面白い試みです。試聴は以下から。 Hotel Mexicoは上で解説したトラックも含む”Her Decorated Post Love”というニューアルバムを2月6日にリリースします。7曲のうち公開されているのは”A.I.”のみなので、我々が今一番期待しているアルバムの1つです。
We spoke to bassist Kai Ito and vocalist Ryuyu Ishigami from Kyoto’s Hotel Mexico ahead of their first overseas performances in Brooklyn this weekend (Aug. 24 at The Knitting Factory and Aug. 26 at Glasslands Gallery). The band have released the album His Jewelled Letter Box on local imprint Second Royal and last year they released a single on Double Denim in the U.K. They’ve played gigs with acts such as Jesse Ruins, Pictureplane and Seiho. With two Buddhist monks in the band, we wanted to know how a Japanese indie act works around the demands of the temple and prepares for a show overseas.
MBM: Hotel Mexico will be playing shows overseas for the first time this weekend. How are you preparing for them?
KAI ITO: We’ve been practicing a lot, but I don’t think we can do anything more than what we usually do at a practice. I’ve found that it’s more difficult preparing for the trip itself. We’ve never had the experience of moving our equipment via airplane, so that’s been the biggest concern.
MBM: Are you excited for the shows?
ITO: Yeah, we’re really happy about the opportunity. The band has been discussing the need to try playing overseas for the past year, so we’re excited to finally have the chance. We also wanted to play shows on the West Coast, like in Los Angeles or San Francisco – or even Vancouver, but due to our personal schedules we could only fit in a weekend in New York. We’re really gutted about that, after it was announced we’d be playing in New York, we started getting lots of emails from venues on the West Coast asking us to come. Like I said, time doesn’t allow it. However, it will be incredible to play the Knitting Factory and Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn. It’s great to be playing at venues that host the kind of bands we like to listen to.
MBM: Are you nervous at all?
ITO: We have some concerns, I don’t know what it’s like to play in front of an American audience or how to behave with the venue owners. There are certain “ways to behave” in Japan. We’re mostly just worried about our equipment though, preparations regarding the equipment must be different overseas … I don’t think I’ll relax until we’ve finished a successful show!
MBM: How have your shows in Japan changed over the years?
ITO: The biggest difference is that we now play live with six members as opposed to just five. We always had six members in the band, but just for recording. We’ve also changed the structures of our early songs, so that’s different as well. Also, we usually play in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Kyoto, but this spring we played Okayama and Hiroshima. It’s like an American band playing New York, Chicago and Los Angeles branching out to maybe Portland or Denver? We are also setting up shows in Shizuoka and Shimane (maybe like Memphis or Phoenix). There’ll be a difference in the crowds there.
MBM: You’re based in Kyoto, what is a typical Hotel Mexico show like on home turf?
ITO: The Kyoto shows are really fun for us, and we live close to the venues so it’s easy to get home! We’ll often play at a club called Metro when our label, Second Royal, does an event. Usually the other bands and DJs are our labelmates. There are a lot of regulars, so we’ve grown out of the band-fan dynamic and now we just hang out and talk about our everyday lives after the shows. It’s the same when we play at OZ, an event in Osaka. However, the vibe is so comfortable that I find it’s easier to make mistakes. And regulars can catch those!
MBM: How did the band come together?
ITO: We all went to the same university. We are different ages, but we were all in the same music club. We didn’t form a band when we knew each other in university, but after graduation I got together with Ishigami, (guitarist) Hitoshi Kikuchi and (drummer) Masaaki Iwamoto to try playing together. We started writing material in 2009 and played our first gig in 2010. We were joined by (synth player) Jiko Kobayashi and (second guitarist) Jiro Mizushima in time for our first gig.
MBM: Three of your members are also monks, how does that impact the band?
RYUYU ISHIGAMI: What we do as a band and our religious activities don’t have any direct link to each other. Some of the lyrics could come from our religious views, I may use metaphors in the songs to express them, but I’m not referring to a specific religion (in the monotheist sense). It’s my own interpretation, but I feel that religion isn’t based on one’s thoughts and beliefs but rather that religion is built on human actions and experience. Actually, for me Hotel Mexico has been my way of momentarily escaping the role of a religious person or worker.
MBM: Is it harder to schedule around a monk’s schedule or a salaryman’s schedule?
ITO: Monks are generally busy in the middle of August and around the New Years holidays, so we can’t get together as a band at those times. There are other religious events during the year at which monks have to perform their duties. However, salarymen [the Japanese term for a businessman] are always busy, so we usually have to limit band activities to the weekends. That’s why it is difficult to have longer tours.
MBM: Finally, what kind of music are you influenced by? There tends to be a division among Japanese fans who listen to either only Japanese or only foreign music. Do you listen to one more than the other?
ITO: My favorite Japanese group right now is Jesse Ruins. We’ve done some events together with the Cuz Me Pain crew. One of the shows we did in Kyoto had Jesse Ruins and Faron Square, who were really good live. It’s difficult to say what the other members like, we all have different tastes. We all grew up liking Phoenix, maybe that’s why we try to play pop music that will make people want to dance. We don’t limit ourselves to listening to indie, but the band members tend to like music that’s edgier, weirder and darker than most. If you can combine the edgy and strange into a pop song? Then that’s really cool. I don’t like songs that are easy, they’re boring. Japanese chart music tends to be like that. But then again so-called underground music gets too dark or too weird so it can be less accessible to average listeners. If today’s music was like the music our parents listened to (a genre called Showa Pop), then we’d probably listen to more Japanese artists.
20. Your Gold, My Pink “Adolescence” Back in May I saw Your Gold, My Pink play the Nara Street Style Music Festival, going into their late-day set absolutely jazzed to see what they could do live. An hour later I wanted to hightail it to the McDonald’s across the street to drown my disappointment in…
boy from HOTEL MEXICO on Vimeo. Hotel Mexico’s new album Her Decorated Post Love dropped yesterday, and definitely worth your time. The Kyoto group also released a video for that album’s lead-off track, “boy,” yesterday, which you can watch above. This song bares a slight resemblance to Hotel Mexico’s older “Starling, Tiger, Fox,” what with…
Hotel Mexico’s being pushed hard as Japan’s first chillwave band. The Kyoto-based six piece has garnered attention from indie-leaning magazine Snoozer to national newspaper The Japan Times because they offer an easy gateway to the hottest blog-centric trend of the moment. Even chillwave-depot Altered Zones wrote a blurb about the band, wherein they dropped the…
Kyoto band Hotel Mexico announced on their website tonight that they have officially split up. It means one of Japan’s finest indie bands of the last few years – and one of the first to receive attention from Western blogs and music websites – is calling it a day. Hotel Mexico began in late 2008,…
30. Michiyo Honda “Paradise Lost” J-Pop remains an easy punching bag in 2011 because most of the criticism lobbed at Japanese mainstream music ring true. A large chunk of acts crowding the upper reaches of the Oricon chart are 90’s holdovers with appropriately bland tunes. Labels seem to be in an arms race to see…
Welcome back! We are back from sorta vacation, and kick off 2013 with a new song from one of our favorite musical outfits going in Japan right now, Kyoto’s Hotel Mexico. They released a new single, called “A.I. In Dreams,” near the end of December, but the official recording can’t be found online at the…