Shonen Knife: The 13th Floor Interview

Japanese trio Shonen Knife are celebrating their 35th anniversary as a band with three dates in New Zealand beginning October 4th.

The band, led by guitarist/vocalist Naoko Yamano, is as active as ever, having released their 20th album, Adventure, last year and just finished their Ramen Adventure Tour of the US.

Along with music, food plays a big part in the lives of the three women in Shonen Knife. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Naoko Yamano about eating on the road and 35 years of rock & roll.

Click here to listen to the interview with Shonen Knife’s Naoko Yamano:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: … You and the band were just in Auckland just a couple of years ago, right? You played at The King’s Arms.

NY: Yes, in 2015 in January.

MD: Right. I was there. It was fantastic!

NY: Cool! Good! Thank you!

MD: What do you remember about being in New Zealand at that point?

NY: Of course, I like to eat very fresh food, and I had good food in New Zealand….

MD: Is that how you rate a place: by how good the food is?

NY: I don’t really remember very much, but I had many international foods, because New Zealand has delicious Asian food and Western food, and I had crepe in Auckland.

MD: Have you had a meat pie?

NY: Not yet.

MD: Oh, you have to have that. That’s a New Zealand delicacy; you have to try that…. How does the Japanese food compare in New Zealand  to Japan?

NY: It’s very different, but I could find some Japanese restaurant in New Zealand better than other countries. I think the taste or category is different, but both, food in New Zealand and food in Osaka, is very delicious, because I could have many choices in New Zealand.

MD: You just came back from a tour of the US, right; the Ramen Adventure tour? Is that what you were calling it?

NY: Yes. It was April and May this year, and I had tons of ramen there.

MD: Does the quality of the ramen change depending on where you are in the United States?

NY: The quality of American ramen is getting better day by day; and recently, their ramen: they sell very, very good ramen. I think the most difficult part is making the noodles. In Japan, we can have very thin noodles, and thin noodles with a kind of chewy taste; and it’s very tasty. In America, it is very hard to make chewy, thin noodles, because of the flour; so, there are more thick noodles in America.

MD: Now, I’ve got to ask you: do you think more about food or music?

NY: Of course, music! But I have many songs about food.

MD: Well, that’s good! The Talking Heads had an album called More Songs About Building and Food; so, there you go. The album, Adventure, is a little different sounding than what you guys have done in the past. My understanding is that you have taken more of a liking to harder rock these days; is that right?

NY: Yes. All the albums are inspired by punk pop, but recently, I started to listen to ‘70s hard rock – classic hard rock – and I am inspired by them and writing songs. Our previous album, Overdrive, is inspired by ‘70s hard rock too, but for our new album, Adventure, I think it improved, and it’s getting more strong and catchy.

MD: What hard rock bands from the ‘70s do you particularly listen to?

NY: I like Judas Priest and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow or Black Sabbath or Motorhead; like that.

MD: Oh yeah. It’s good stuff! Have you ever listened to The Scorpions?

NY: Oh, yes!

MD: Yeah! I like The Scorpions. Do you find that it’s difficult to mix the hard rock thing in with the punk stuff that you’ve been doing all along? How do you get them together?

NY: I, of course, cannot play the guitar very well – like a hard rock guitarist – so, if I try to make a hard rock type song, I can make poppy hard rock songs naturally, without being conscious of the song. I can make such songs.

MD: So, that just happens on its own; you don’t have to think about it?

NY: Yeah.

MD: For folks who saw you here in 2015… will they hear a different type of sound coming from Shonen Knife this time around?

NY: … The drummer and our bassist changed since the last time; so, we have our new drummer, Risa. She is very, very strong – proper for a drummer – and our performance became more powerful; and also, my younger sister – our original member of Shonen Knife, Atsuko – came back to the band. I’m very comfortable to play with her.

MD: Your drummer, Risa, she’s only twenty one years old; is that right? She’s very young.

NY: right now… twenty two years old.

MD: What’s it like having someone, who is such a difference in age than you, being in the band? Is it a good thing?

NY: Of course, there is a very, very big generation gap, but when we play music, we can be equal, because the gap of generation has no meaning when we make rock music.

MD: I’m interested in the relationship you have with your sister. The two of you have been making music, on and off, for thirty five years or so. Do you have similar tastes, or do you listen to different types of things? How does it work between the two of you?

NY: From the beginning, we had very similar taste, and I think Atsuko started to listen to rock music that, I think, was inspired by my selection of rock music; and both of us liked The Beatles very much; so, since then, we have very similar taste.

MD: I looked at one of your playlists, and you played a Monkees song, Daydream Believer.

NY: Oh, yes. I like their poppy melodies.

MD: It’s a great melody. Do you listen to a lot of that when you’re not touring? Do you still listen to a lot of music? What kind of things do you listen to now at home?

NY: I listen to various kinds of music. My favourite music, recently, is the music which I cannot make. I like to listen to funk or disco music, like Earth, Wind and Fire, Con Funk Shun, Michael Jackson – music like that – or death metal music, like Cannibal Corpse or High on Fire or Sleep, because I cannot make such music; so, I like to listen to them.

MD: Have you tried to make funk music?

NY: I would never try to make funk music. I’d like to try, but it’s very, very difficult.

MD: Yeah! You’ve got to be Bootsy Collins in order to pull it off!

NY: Yeah, it’s beyond my imagination!

MD: I think the interesting thing is, when people try to do something that doesn’t come naturally to them, they then invent a different kind of music; so, it might be worth exploring at some point.

NY: Someday, I’d like to make such music, but I’m contented just listening to them.

MD: You’ve been on the road with Shonen Knife for thirty five plus years at this point. Did you imagine when you started out, that this would become what you were going to be doing with your life?

NY: Of course no. I didn’t imagine, because I like to listen to Western rock music, and I didn’t listen to Japanese rock music so much. I’m inspired by Western rock music, but I wasn’t thinking I could be playing outside of Japan; because when I started Shonen Knife, it is very difficult to play outside of Japan. We didn’t have internet or even fax machine – regular Japanese people didn’t have a fax machine – so, overseas was very, very far at that time.

MD: What was your first overseas gig; do you remember?

NY: It was 1989; we had just one show in Los Angeles.

MD: Do you remember what… it felt like?

NY: At that time, our fans in Japan… were more calm – just listening – but in America, people were dancing during our show; so, I was so surprised.

MD: Did that make you feel better about playing, or affect how you played?

NY: Oh, yes. When people are cheerful, we can be cheerful. Nowadays, our shows in Japan have many Japanese audience members that are more cheerful.

MD: Oh, that’s good! Why do you think that is? Have Japanese audiences just changed because they see how overseas audiences react?

NY: I think just the Japanese audience got used to watching rock and roll music….

MD: So, that means that Shonen Knife was playing in Japan for, maybe, eight years before you went overseas; is that right?

NY: Yes.

MD: It must have been a big deal, to make that leap from playing just in Japan to overseas. Did you think that you had made it big at that point?

NY: Yeah, I think so. At that time, I just exchanged postal letters between our… record label in America, and I didn’t know what kind of people they were, but I went to America without anything;  so, it was a very, very big adventure. Fortunately, we had a very good show, and we continue touring.

MD: So, you must enjoy life on the road, to be doing it this long.

NY: Yes, I always enjoy a tour.

MD: What’s the best part?

NY: The best part is seeing our Shonen Knife fans; and many Shonen Knife fans admire me, and I could be a queen or something like that!

Click here for tickets and tour dates to see Shonen Knife in New Zealand.