Shonen Knife
Sugar Shock
2008-02-07
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Naoko Yamano, frontwoman for the well-traveled Japanese bubble gum pop punks Shonen Knife, fielded Synthesis’ phone call from her home in Osaka, Japan, at 7 AM, but she informed us that it wasn’t a problem. She always wakes up early in the morning, because she likes to keep busy. It keeps her “brain fresh.”
With a career spanning over 20 years, Naoko has done just that. Though the modicum of widespread States-side attention Shonen Knife garnered in the 1990s is a distant memory, the group continues to release albums and tour worldwide (having passed through the US and Canada in March of this year). Their latest album, Genki Shock, is set for release in Japan this summer, but has yet to find distribution in the US, but not even that seems to discourage the soft-spoken, friendly songwriter. There are probably few things that could.
I was reading a snippet of a previous interview with you that mentioned the topics of your songs. Is your songwriting very deliberate or is it something more spontaneous?
For the first, I make songs, I’m looking for topics of the songs. When I’m spending my daily life, sometimes I find very interesting things, and I write down the keywords in my notebook. When I start to make songs at home, I expand on those keywords.
Do you carry your notebook everywhere?
Yes [laughs]. It’s a very tiny notebook.
Is it more challenging for you to find things to write songs about in places other songwriters may not be looking?
Yes. I don’t know why, but some interesting keywords or some interesting topics came to me very naturally. I’m very shy, so I cannot write about love like other musicians, and also, I don’t want to write songs about politics because I want people to enjoy—I want people having fun—with Shonen Knife’s music. So, I don’t want to write about very serious or bad things.
Do you find yourself spending more time on the lyrics or the music?
For me, writing lyrics is very important — very difficult. We have to write lyrics not only in Japanese but also in English, too. So, translation is very difficult. But for music, not so difficult.
What was it like for you guys starting up? What was the music scene like when you started Shonen Knife?
When we started the band, the music scene in Japan was not like it is nowadays. There are other things in the music scene. There are pop idol singers, some rock bands and some techno bands. On the local scenes, like the music scene in Osaka, there are some punk bands and also some female bands, but not so many.
And also, in the old times, people didn’t have computers or CDs or CD-Rs so it was very difficult for people to make their own music, but now everybody can make music using computers and CD-Rs for a cheap price. So now I think everyone’s a musician.
Do you see that as a good thing or a bad thing—that technology has made it much easier to produce an album?
It became easier to make music and that is a very good thing, but so many people can make music very easily and many people make many CDs, so I think people get full. They get tired of listening. I think Japanese young people are having an interest in cell phones. And a mobile phone is like a small computer. It can be a camera, video camera, a mobile phone or you can make animations with cell phones, so I think people’s interest is leaving from music, because it became too easy to make music.
With a career spanning over 20 years, Naoko has done just that. Though the modicum of widespread States-side attention Shonen Knife garnered in the 1990s is a distant memory, the group continues to release albums and tour worldwide (having passed through the US and Canada in March of this year). Their latest album, Genki Shock, is set for release in Japan this summer, but has yet to find distribution in the US, but not even that seems to discourage the soft-spoken, friendly songwriter. There are probably few things that could.
I was reading a snippet of a previous interview with you that mentioned the topics of your songs. Is your songwriting very deliberate or is it something more spontaneous?
For the first, I make songs, I’m looking for topics of the songs. When I’m spending my daily life, sometimes I find very interesting things, and I write down the keywords in my notebook. When I start to make songs at home, I expand on those keywords.
Do you carry your notebook everywhere?
Yes [laughs]. It’s a very tiny notebook.
Is it more challenging for you to find things to write songs about in places other songwriters may not be looking?
Yes. I don’t know why, but some interesting keywords or some interesting topics came to me very naturally. I’m very shy, so I cannot write about love like other musicians, and also, I don’t want to write songs about politics because I want people to enjoy—I want people having fun—with Shonen Knife’s music. So, I don’t want to write about very serious or bad things.
Do you find yourself spending more time on the lyrics or the music?
For me, writing lyrics is very important — very difficult. We have to write lyrics not only in Japanese but also in English, too. So, translation is very difficult. But for music, not so difficult.
What was it like for you guys starting up? What was the music scene like when you started Shonen Knife?
When we started the band, the music scene in Japan was not like it is nowadays. There are other things in the music scene. There are pop idol singers, some rock bands and some techno bands. On the local scenes, like the music scene in Osaka, there are some punk bands and also some female bands, but not so many.
And also, in the old times, people didn’t have computers or CDs or CD-Rs so it was very difficult for people to make their own music, but now everybody can make music using computers and CD-Rs for a cheap price. So now I think everyone’s a musician.
Do you see that as a good thing or a bad thing—that technology has made it much easier to produce an album?
It became easier to make music and that is a very good thing, but so many people can make music very easily and many people make many CDs, so I think people get full. They get tired of listening. I think Japanese young people are having an interest in cell phones. And a mobile phone is like a small computer. It can be a camera, video camera, a mobile phone or you can make animations with cell phones, so I think people’s interest is leaving from music, because it became too easy to make music.
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