The No! (Japan)
Interview with Ken
Many of the people reading this are fans of the Japanese pop punk scene and know some of the current bands. Can you please introduce The No! and tell us how you are different from other bands playing pop punk in Japan?
Hi, this is Ken from The No! This band started to play music in 2015 and is mainly different points from other pop punk bands in Japan are having pop punk and also the flavor of 90's skatepunk strongly. Of course I love pop punk, but I do skatepunk, especially 90's as well. So tried to mix them without reserve, in the end, it gets so complex and hard for listeners to enjoy, but I don't care because I like it. And this band doesn't have songs over 2 minutes, all the songs are in 2 minutes. I've never seen such pop punk bands in Japan but I guess already tons of such bands exist.
Ken, are you the main songwriter for the band? How does the songwriting process work for you guys, and do you do any home recording for demos?
Yes, I write all the songs. I started writing songs with much influenced by Atom & His Package. I tried to do like him, so all the instruments and lyrics by myself and now The No! is. Basically, I make melodies at first with the guitar with unknown language sounds like English. But sometimes start with the drums or the bass, or designing the structure of song.
A few years ago, I recorded demos with multi-track recorder, but now I use Garageband on iPhone. Garageband on iPhone is good because I can program wherever I am.
Can you tell us about the city where you live? Did you grow up there, and what's everyday life like in your city?
The No! is from Saga, Japan. But now I live in Fukuoka. Saga is next to Fukuoka and the both prefectures are in Kyushu region, south Japan. Fukuoka is the biggest city in Kyushu, but not bigger than Osaka or Tokyo. But I think it's good and I like it. My top favorite Fukuoka food is tonkotsu (pork bones) ramen. The best ramen ever. I eat every day, just kidding.
My hometown, Saga is the countryside, and hardly to get punk records. The best punk record you can get in Saga is Sum 41. Saga is the best place to feel nature and surf the Internet.
I have noticed that punk rock has a mainstream appeal in Japan, especially catchy fast punk. Do you relate to this more professional, polished style of punk? Or do you prefer an underground scene and sound?
I like both of them, to be honest. Major bands in a mainstream play such great live shows and talk like a comedian. They try to make their fans, especially girls happy and be a friend with their fans especially girls, seriously. Underground bands focus on making really really great music rather than playing good shows. Like talking about their favorite bands and try to spread their favorite bands of course their friends' bands to their scene. Also, have biggest respect to the history, the scene, the old bands and so on. Both bands have good points each other, I guess.
As you know, I am very interested in Japan. One thing that I am curious about - does your family and people in general support playing in a band as something worthwhile? Are your hobbies something that people respect, and do they admire the work you put into creating music?
Yes, my family support what I'm doing. My wife is a big fan of The Flatliners, so doesn't have a bad impression about a punk rock band, but she doesn't like songs of The No! tho, cool! In Japan, idols, anison (the theme songs of anime), program music, k-pops, j-pops are popular as usual and a band music is not popular like them lately. But most of people in Japan don't start a band easily like in US because don't have a garage with amps and drums and no drummers in their school, so a friend of mine is likely to respect what I'm doing because no one do a band in their friends.
Do you communicate often with bands from other regions in Japan about releases and shows? Is there a community that supports each other, and do you feel a strong connection to the pop punk scene in Japan?
The No! is in south Japan, but I have a strong connection to the other regions because no pop punk scenes or skatepunk scenes is in Fukuoka or Saga. Hardcore is popular in Fukuoka and pop punk scene is not big in even whole Japan. To enjoy pop punk, I'll go to Tokyo and many bands gather there. I call pop punk bands in other regions when I'll hold a show with them in my town. I welcomed The Nerdy Jugheads and The Hathaways in Fukuoka before as The No! presents The No Fest. I'll call Romeorocks, Lext, The Hum Hums, Pelotan and Little Yusuke next. Not many bands in Japan like US, so we have to share a stage with the other genre bands especially if it's a small city like Fukuoka or Saga, so basically The No! played with a grind core, thrash metal band, but I think it's weird, funny, but pretty cool! In the end, my best friend is a metalhead like a ska band from Gainesville said before.
I noticed that the music of The No! is more complex than a lot of the pop punk I listen to normally. Do you guys have any formal music training, or did you teach yourselves?
We have no music training. This band is almost my solo band on the process creating music. I play all the instruments and create by myself, but it may be the reason why The No! is complex. I wanna make a song what I wanna listen to rather than everyone likes. Japanese are so busy every day for their own work, and some Japanese go to Karoshi (Overwork death). Anyway, Japanese doesn't have enough time to listen to music I thought. So I decided not to make a song over 2 minutes. All the songs are in 2 minutes. But I wanna put many ideas I got from 90's bands in my songs and in the end it will be so complex songs. Especially I like ALL (than the Descendents). Their songs are complex and I may try to be like that. I like Converge with the same reason as well. Their songs are also complex and complex.
I've also noticed in Japan that many people still appreciate cds, but in the USA people seem to only want vinyl. Do you think it's true? Why are cds still important in Japan, and is collecting physical music still pretty common?
Yes, it's true. In fact, I'm the one of them. I don't know the reason, but Japanese like CDs. In my reason, I buy CDs because I want to have a master disc. Music on streaming service platforms like Apple Music or Spotify, will be deleted in the future and low quality. If you have CDs, you can listen to high quality music whenever you want and never be deleted. And simply easy to get because Tower Records (still remains in Japan) sells more CDs than vinyl. I don't know any other CD fans' reason, but they listen to music on a laptop or a car and vinyl is hard to listen with such a machine. Import vinyl's a little more expensive than CDs because of shipping, and then they might not buy them easily. I think it's also the one of the reasons. But even in Japan, underground punk fans like vinyl than CDs and they also love a cassette. I buy vinyl as well, but I have more CDs.
How would you describe your work and family life? Is it difficult to balance your responsibilities with your passion for creating music?
If I have 24 hours for creating music only, I'll do nothing. My passion for creating music is getting stronger when I work, hang out with my child, cook, do the pokemon and do something except music, and during then, I'm making a song in my brain. After that, I'll record them. It's my life, someone will say I create music for 24 hours every day.
Your English is very good in my opinion, Ken. Was learning the English language part of your regular education? Do you have any opinion on the US education system? Since I am a teacher, I am interested in your thoughts.
I'm very happy to hear that. Thank you. I learned from regular education in Japan only, no US education system. You may already know, the English part of regular education in Japan sucks. I think no one will be a English speaker with it. Never. I studied by myself by reading punknews.org, chatting a pop punk friend in New York on myspace, or talking about Naruto with an international student from Indonesia. Japanese regular education of English sucks, again.
What would you like the American audience to know or appreciate the most about The No!, and what is next for your band?
First of all, please give a listen to The No! and give me feedbacks what you feel about. I respect and try to do 90's US punk, but I know I've never reached, so want to hear a feedback and make it better, but at first anyway give it a listen. I don't have next plan yet, but I want to put out next stuffs, go tour in US, put out from US label. I still have many dreams have not come true yet.
Do you have any people you'd like to mention or thank? And also do you have any closing comments or words of wisdom?
Arigato, Dustin and Little Yusuke.
Twitter/Instagram: @TheNoJPN
Bandcamp: https://thenojpn.bandcamp.com/
