Suiyoubi no Campanella "Zipang"
Interviewed and written by Junichi Uchimoto
Taking steps on the backs of Marco Polo or even Marie-Antoinette, here’s one great leap to the land of gold! The band who furiously works their way in pursue of only ‘what they feel fun doing’, talks about the new treasure found in the land; ‘Zipang’
The theme this time ? - [easy now-ish hip]
Appearing in numerous spots on the media such as the TV commercial for Yahoo! Auction (Japan), Suiyoubi no Campanella (meaning The Wednesday Campanella) has been winning stronger presence as a pop icon nowadays. Komuai (vo.) who plays a significant part in building their image, gives this analysis on the situation they are in now -
“I don’t feel like I’ve become famous or anything. Yes, there are people, for example, who come to me at university to say ‘keep up with the great works’, but I’m never asked for an autograph (laughs). But work has never been so much fun, and it’s getting more fun each day, and having won this recognition, I think I’m allowed larger capacity to deliver what I want to in my own fashion.” (Komuai)
These words connect directly with the latest mini-album, “Zipang.” Contrary to the last EP “Triathlon” that took an innovative path by bringing in an external producer, the latest piece was produced under the most minimal and back-to-basics establishment with Hidefumi Kenmochi in charge of song-writing/composing and beatmaking (with Komuai partially involved in some of the song-writing), vocals by Komuai, and Dir. F giving directions. Even while adhering fully to the original Sui-Can (for short) of the past, the pre-released “Shakushain” is a song in which their signature Sui-Can rap style is seen polished up to the tidemark, -the rap style in which the [groove of the Japanese language] holds both the tradition and state-of-the-art-ness of the [control of the Japanese language] that finds its roots in speech styles of traditional banters or sales pitches. Meanwhile, songs such as “Ra” or “Ono no Imoko” demonstrates their closer-than-ever approach to sounds akin to the latest dance music. The foundation of each number is extremely progressive, presenting ‘a much more edgy aspect of Suiyoubi no Campanella’ in many areas. Asked about the soundmaking this time, Kenmochi explains -
“The theme this time, personally within myself, was [easy now-ish hip]. Like, the usage of the dry snare sounds by the TR-808 or abrupt tercet beats of the Hi-hat, -I wanted to fully embrace the [now-ish] sounds that are particularly conscious of club music trends. For a person like myself who’s been making music from the 90s, I have a certain feeling of uncomfortableness with the audio senses or the ways music is made today. And still, I dare to challenge that. That’s the concept I had.” (Kenmochi)
Delivering only [what is fun doing]
Even though the album actually embraces a slightly stronger ‘intentional’ element in this EP adopting sounds that encapsulate the latest trends, the lyrics that have been and still are simply nonsense in the first place and Komuai’s vocals with empowered expressional abilities seem to engage twistedly and perfectly than ever. To be more specific, the whole piece is occupied by highly experimental tracks as if to enjoy the chemical reactions brought by throwing in various elements into the pot. For instance, the track “Twiggy” whose sound, despite being used in a TV commercial, is rather in the likes of an aggressive high-speed Jersey club number, or “Nishi Tamao”, a track that starts off magnificently combining an exotic melody line with Komuai’s innocent singing, which finds itself suddenly flowing into bass-music oriented unfoldment. Still, the sounds born from such challenges seem to take on an even stronger color of popness.
“There are, in general, subjects that are hard to be fully embraced by the public. But depending on the packaging or by having a girl on the vocals, there is chance that those may be accepted as something [pop]. Given that, I think there is part of the world that is not overly sensitive in that sense, in a good way. But at the same time, the way in which people make honest judgements whether they [like it or not] is also thrilling and fun, and that is what constitutes the pops scene. Meanwhile, we don’t intend to do anything that appeals to all. So actually, we ditched tunes that kept in the lines of approaches that Sui-Can is good at or methods we had adopted in the past. To put it frankly, okay we have a song like “Momotaro”, which is so fitting to Sui-Can’s image until now and probably something that fans would accept happily, -in other terms, [a great song]. Still, simply re-producing something that worked in the past, something that was successful in the past is never something I find joy in doing. So, yes it’s a great song, and bound to sell really well, but… sorry (laughes)! In the end, it’s just that we only want to do what we feel fun doing right now.” (Komuai)
In that sense, the way Sui-Can develops from now would probably simply act up to their style of which Komuai describes “to make music as if changing clothes”, and with that, no listener would be able to predict the band’s directions.
“Sui-Can is like a shared bus. I want to make music, Komuai wants to become famous and express ‘herself’ and Dir.F wants to deliver the world something fun that no one else has ? it’s a shared bus driven towards the accomplishment of dreams of members who have different agendas. Right now, the speed of the bus we’re on is enough to fling the passengers off, and has become something of a runaway train, wildly running people down on the way (laughs). That’s the thrill of this all, and I hope we keep running in this speed until we reach the destination and part to go our own ways.” (Kenmochi)
“Now, we have so many people involved and more people are engaged, and it seems like things might get tougher from here. But we don’t really lend our ears to people (ha ha), so we should probably be just as fine as we are as Suiyoubi no Campanella today. Of course we don’t have the slightest clue of what may happen in the future, but we will simply keep on making things [we have fun doing], and I’d be happy if our fans would join the road with us.” (Komuai)
