Introduction An interview with Oikawa Tsukasa from Bugy Craxone, your favorite indie band, female fronted, loud, and as you're about to find out, warped. Suzuki Yukiko - vocal, guitar Oikawa Tsukasa - guitar Asahi Tsukasa - bass Monchi - drums Bugy Craxone official website back to features		Bugy Craxone Where is the band originally from? How did you meet and form? Everybody is originally from Hokkaido. We formed the band in Hokkaido and moved to Tokyo in ‘98 but after that a few of the original members left and some of the people we met in Tokyo joined to replace them. At the beginning our bassist Asahi was living in Sapporo and flying down to Tokyo to help us record, but after he became a permanent member of the band he moved down with the rest of us. Monchi, our drummer, moved to Tokyo with a different band and we'd liked his style from the beginning. Because we were looking for a drummer when he left his other band, we didn't hesitate to invite him to join us. So, after all of that, all of the members are people who came from Hokkaido originally. Because people from different areas have different personalities, it's comforting to have the whole band coming from the same place. What made you decide to start playing music? When did you start? Suzuki: Because when I was about 11 years old I was totally addicted to bands, I thought that it would be really satisfying to be in one myself. Oikawa: When I was about 13, I would watch my brother, who is 3 years older, play guitar. I would always think to myself that I could play even better, so I started practicing. I had so much fun making things (writing songs) that I spent pretty much all my time playing with the guitar. Asahi: During my second year of high school, I would watch the bands the older students were in and think that I could do it 100 times cooler myself. Monchi: Because it's interesting. What bands that you like, and what bands have influenced Bugy Craxone? Suzuki: Unicorn, The Blankey Jet City, The Yellow Monkey, Cowpers. Oikawa: The Clash, The Mods, U2, The Police, The Specials, Sinead O' Connor, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Bloodthirsty Butchers, and others. Especially when I was around 20 years old, I was into British music, starting wth punk. Asahi: Red Hot Chili Peppers. Monchi: Nirvana. What kind of style do you consider Bugy Craxone to be? Rock 'n roll and punk. I think it has a beauty born forth from melodies specific to Hokkaido. Your compositions are unique in that you layer your guitars with different melodies and unusual timing, giving two and sometimes even three part harmonies. Do you purposely compose songs this way or does it come out naturally? Oikawa: I really like riffs that are made from not only the chords and melodies, but from all of the parts of the song. Getting this to work is definitely the most nerve-wracking part of writing our songs. Another thing I pay very close attention to is creating "gaps" in our songs that are full of tension. Your style of playing guitar strings together a lot of different little guitar sounds and making music from it, feedback, tremolo, etc. What guitarists have influenced you and who are your guitar heros? Oikawa: With the songwriting, we're influenced by Mick Jones' (The Clash) sound effects, the repetition of The Edge (U2) and the feeling of Radiohead's chords, as well as local Hokkaido bands and artists from Ireland. I remember reading on your website that Yukiko uses an american fender mustang as opposed to a japanese mustang. Is there an american guitar preference amongst japanese guitarists like there is here in the west? We have a Japanese-made guitar, so we wanted one from the country where they originated. In your website's diary there is a photo of your effects; I counted at least seven. What are they and how do you manage all ofthem? Oikawa: Clockwise from the lower-right, (1)Z-Vex Super Hard On; (2)MXR Distortion; (3)Rat; (4)Providence Line Selecter; (5)Boss DD-3; (6)Boss TR-2 and (7)Z-Vex Octane 2. (1) The booster. When cutting minute chords or when I want to use distortion, I step on it. (2) Just got it lately, and I'm really happy with it. I think it's becoming my main piece of equipment for disortion. (3) Until recently, what I'd been using for distortion. What I use now has a thicker sound, and even if I use distortion the chords aren't too muddy, so I'm pleased with it. (4) When I'm tuning, I can mute things with it, but ordinarily I don't use it much. In a pinch it lets me loop without switching to (6) or (7). (5) Digital delay. Digital stuff gives a cold sound, so I use it over analog delays. However, a lot of recent digital delays are too complicated, something I don't like. To this end, the DD-3 feels perfect. It makes the feedback oscillate when I full-throttle it, and I use it as a short delay when I want cold-sounding notes. (6) Tremolo. Used when I want to make sounds like a saw. (7) For adding fuzz down an octave. I don't usually use it for noise, but when I wring some extra volume out of the guitar with it, it makes a sitar-like sound that's pretty interesting. You play a gretsch pretty much exclusively; any other guitars in your collection that you play or like or worship? Oikawa: I use a Telecaster for recording, and a Gretsch Round Up for basic things. I also use the Gretsch for live performances. Rather than using a bunch of guitars, one Round Up works nicely. What other equipment do you and the band like to use? Suzuki: Fender Mustang USA; Marshall JCM900; MXR Distortion+; Boss PS3; Electro Harmonix Small Clone. Oikawa: Gretsch Round Up; Sunn Model-T; Z-Vex Super Hard On; MXR Distortion; Rat; Providence Line Selector; Boss DD-3; Boss TR-2; Z-Vex Octane 2. Asahi: Fender USA Precision Bass; G&L L200; a Hiwatt cabinet that looks like a fridge; Ampeg SVT350; SansAmp Classic and Bass Driver. Monchi: Sonnor Force Maple snare and pedal; Promark whatzisname sticks and towel. Bugy Craxone has changed in the last few years, going from a major label with a lot of studio production to a indie label with a rougher, garage-rock kind of sound. What prompted the change? How is Bugy Craxone different today from the days at the major label? I don't think there's that much of a relationship between the change of labels and the change of sound. Even if we'd have stayed on the major label it'd probably have ended up like this. I think the biggest factor in our change in sound was the member change. The only difference now compared to when we were with the major is that when we record it's with a much smaller staff, just the band and an engineer. This allows us to concentrate more, and above all make music that's unbalanced. Right now we're more interested in making warped music than well-balanced music, and it fits much better with the band's personality. The biggest change that's resulted of our change from a major to an indie is that the band has become more nimble, and making music has become firmly connected to all of our lives. Of course because we're running our own label the deskwork is hard at times, but regardless, the band has never been happier. Is there any Bugy Craxone excitement in store for us in the near future? Yes. But right now we're not quite ready for business. This time we want to take our time to compose, so we're taking a break from live peformances. We're taking it a little bit at a time, but it's gonna be great! We want to start recording soon. How does it feel to have a following not only in japan, but around the globe? What about touring outside Japan? We're really honored. We definitely want to do a tour overseas. We want to play anywhere people want to listen to us, and it'd be really exciting to see if our fans from countries other than Japan react differently than our Japanese fans. Interview from 2005.3.6 [translation, Graham and James] Keikaku.net would like to thank Oikawa Tsukasa and Bugy Craxone for their participation in this interview. - Larry Sven, James, Graham
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