The Next Music from Tokyo tour is blasting through Canada right now and I was lucky enough to get to talk to mothercoat about the tour. Here’s what they had to say:
How did you get involved with this tour?
A Canadian guy called Steve offered this tour to us. He is kind of famous among Japanese indie bands in Tokyo because he shows up at cool bookings too much often for a resident of Toronto. We got to know his high motivation to convey real indie music of Japan which he would enjoy so much to the audience in his own country where only limited stereotypes of traditonal and pop idols music are recognized as the ceiling of Japanese music scene. We were moved by his dedication and accepted the offer.
Have you traveled abroad before? Where? What was it like?
We have played in Fanime 2006 held in San Jose and SXSW 2007 in Austin, both in the U.S. They were great experiences, especially the visitors to Fanime love Japanese culture from the start so we were highly-welcomed. SXSW was so exciting in another way, we enjoyed playing in the stage of SXSW and also seeing other great bands like Sparklehorse much closer than we see them in Japan. We tried to talk and give our albums to Mark Lincous and he was so gracious, which becomes a sad memory at this moment.
Your style has a lot in common with many indie bands in Canada – what foreign bands have influenced your music? Any Canadian bands?
Oh, we do? We haven’t given much of the exposure to Canadian indie music scene before, so your question arouses interest in them.
Do you hope to tour outside of Japan more often in the future?
Definitely. Actually we are going to be touring in the U.K. fresh off the plane back from Canada and would like to continuously expand the opportunities in the future.
What do you do when you’re not making music?
We do something other than music.
What is one thing you want to do in Canada?
We’re dead set on seeing the Horseshoe Falls. (ed. note: more commonly known as Niagara Falls)
What would you like to say to Japanese music fans in Canada?
We would like you to feel mothercoat in lives!! This tour is really an invaluable and rare opportunity for you to touch the real cutting-edge music scene of Japan that internet cannot tell you.
Thanks mothercoat! Their tour is currently ongoing, here are the dates:
May 22 Vancouver @ the Biltmore Cabaret
May 25 Montreal @ il Motore
May 28 Toronto @ the Rivoli
May 29 Toronto (All-Ages !!) @ Whipper Snapper Gallery
July 9 Tour finale in Tokyo, Japan @ Shibuya
O-nest !!
