Tokyo Indie

As Japan fights to return to normality, the month of May will welcome the return of a full roster of foreign bands on tour after a two-month story of cancellations and rescheduling. Who better to lead this arrival than the Duracell powered, ever-bouncy party starters, The Go! Team. They are here to tour their well-received (albeit unfortunately named) album ‘Rolling Blackouts’. As you would expect from The Go! Team, the album is a one-stop mix-tape of feel-good soundtracks to your summer. To make this evening even more memorable, not only will you get the chance to see the band live on May 20th, but they will also be appearing after the show to spin some tunes at the next Tokyo Indie x Vanity party!

Ahead of our event, which promises to be the incendiary to set the summer alight, I was lucky enough to fire a few questions at Kaori Tsuchida, one of the band’s two Japanese to find out what we can expect.

It is only natural to start by finding out how the band are feeling about coming back to Japan post-earthquake. “I’m very happy to go back there!” Kaori starts defiantly. “I can’t believe that many artists cancelled their shows; Japanese people need entertainment right now. To make them happy and get back to a normal life again.” Her final words on the matter are a party battle cry – “If other bands don’t do that, WE DO IT!!”

The Go! Team’s decision to play Japan comes as no surprise; two Japanese members and a strong popularity in Japan drive them on. However, Kaori is very humble about how ‘big’ the band are here; “I don’t feel that we are [a huge] success there to be honest, but I guess, The Go! Team’s happy and melancholic melody strikes Japanese people.”

They return to Japan to promote their latest album, Rolling Blackouts. “Ian writes all the songs” Kaori explains, “He chooses the samples from random records and cut and paste to make whole tune. It’s very long process I can imagine”. However, The new album is an expansion of this vibrant cartoonish Go! Team sound. Indeed, the highlights on the album are collaborations with Deerhunter’s Satomi Mastusazki and Best Coast’s Bethany Constantino , proving the Go! Team are more than willing to tinker with their winning formula.

“It’s more singy stuff, 60′s girl group style, than the last records. We didn’t have much singy stuff before” Kaori explains. There’s always been a latent appreciation of this between the lines of their playground-funk, but this quality is given more time and space to shine on the new album. “More guest vocals [mean] more diversion. It’s nice to expand in this way, but we did lots of practice to make it sound nice for the live set!”

After what promises to be an electric live show, the band will be joining us at the decadent Trump Room to continue the party vibe until the early hours. “A few of us will DJ there so I can’t say what’s gonna happen, but it will be mixture of dancy tunes. I like funk and soul.” When I ask Kaori what her ultimate party tune is she picks “Firecracker by YMO”.

Whilst not a DJ by trade, Kaori says it’s something she enjoys, but “I’m more relaxed to play guitar in front of audience than playing records.” she reveals.

With that, I ask if she has a final message for the people of Japan. Her promise is that “We will make you GENKI! I really wanted to go back and have same experience with people in Japan as a Japanese after that. I’m happy I can finally go there and meet people there. We’ll do our best for you guys!”. It looks like this is going to be the first big weekend of the summer. Make sure you join us for this one!

Words: Mark Birtles

Translation: Kaori Ishikawa