Interview with quaff in San Antonio, TX

quaff, whose musical style is a melodious mix of rock and rap with the addition of traditional Japanese sounds, held their first USA tour in September 2008. During their tour named U.S. Tour 2008 20,000 miles with fellow band and friends BAKUBENI, quaff met up with JaME at their San Antonio, TX stop to answer some of our questions. They discuss how fate brought them together to create a new style that can "refresh" any listener; determined to touch people's hearts with their music, they even received help from Tenjoukai (translation: celestial heaven).


Hello and thank you for meeting with us! Please introduce yourselves to our readers.
MAKITO: Guitarist, MAKITO.
SEIYA: Vocals, SEIYA.
UKISEMI: MC, UKISEMI.
HAL: Drummer, Haruhiko.
sng: I play bass and flute, sng (pronounced shingo).
TAKUMA: Guitarist, TAKUMA.

According to your official website, you're all from different parts of this world such as France, the USA, and various cities in Japan along with Tenjoukai (translation: celestial heaven)! How did all of you meet?
MAKITO: It was destiny!
SEIYA: I wanted to make a new and wonderful style and give this to the audience. Everybody wanted to do the same thing, having the same goal, and that's why we got together.

What is the meaning of "quaff" and why did you choose this for the band's name?
SEIYA: If we're going to explain why we chose quaff, it's going to be a long story, so I'll try to give a shorten version. Quaff means to drink a lot, so in a way we want people to "drink," to absorb everything through our music. It's like love and peace.
quaff: Love and peace? That doesn't make sense! (Everyone laughs)
SEIYA: For example, if you feel worry, sadness, pain, and suffering and then "drink" our music, you'll be refreshed. Once you drink all of it, you're going to experience happiness and joy.

Unlike most beginning artists, quaff released an album during your first year and one almost every year after; why begin with such a huge feat?
MAKITO: We listen to a lot of music from classic to rock to R'n'B, everything, so we have experience listening to many kinds of sounds. We don't mention it, but we feel we're different from other bands and because of this we wanted to release things differently from other bands. If you release an album first, then it's more exciting!

Your music style is very unique mixing traditional Japanese sounds and vocals with rock and rap music. Why did you decide to create this style of music?
SEIYA: To be honest, since we listen to a lot of music it inspires us to create this type of music.
MAKITO: It's really easy to play these types of songs. We take something from each style, incorporate it together, and then create our own song.

What is the process developing your lyrics and music composition? Which comes first; how do you mesh them together?
MAKITO: I write the music; UKISEMI and SEIYA write the lyrics.
UKISEMI: First we decide on a theme, and then we work separately. When we come back together sometimes we have different ideas for the theme so we start to mesh our ideas together. We have the lyrics and then we re-write them to something we both agree on.

Let's talk about the vocal styles; SEIYA sings while UKISEMI raps; why did you choose this twin-vocal style?
MAKITO: If you listen to our songs, you'll understand why. (Smiles)

SEIYA, you have a unique vocal style, something that sounds similar to that used in the Ryukyu Islands. How did you learn this style?
SEIYA: It's not Ryukyu. It's kind of difficult to explain.
MAKITO: Ryukyu sound is really popular in Japan right now, but it's not traditional music.
SEIYA: I'm from southern Japan and we have strong accents. My family helped inspire my vocals.

It is mentioned on your YouTube account that "quaff" is trying to convey human emotion, vision, heart of music as an art form, and strong will. What is it about these messages that move you and want to include them in your lyrics and music?
sng: The sentence was written a while back and not all the members were aware that it was up. So now, that sentence doesn't really relate anymore. If you check our lyrics, then you'll understand.
MAKITO: The message we want to share depends on the song. Right now all our lyrics are in Japanese, but in the future, we would like to translate our lyrics into English so others will best understand the feelings from our songs.

more than blue seems to be your first music video, please tell us how the video was created. Were your ideas included in the directing of the video?
sng: We want to spread all the emotions that people experience in everyday life. If we're interested in something new, then we just want to do it. We don't want our fans to get used to one style, so we create music from different styles.
MAKITO: At the time when we made the video, we were having a photo shoot. When one person wasn't needed, he took a break. We found a good spot and put the video camera in that area. Then the person, who was taking a break, would do his part in the video. It was really just for fun, made by the six of us, and from the footage, we just decided to make the video on impulse.

quaff carries a modern rock look with extravagant hairstyles including UKISEMI's unique masks and fans; why did you choose this for your visual style?
UKISEMI: I'm not sure. (Everyone laughs.) I came down here the Tenjoukai. It's all natural.
MAKITO: We are not from Tenjoukai. (Everyone laughs.) We're just rock stars.

UKISEMI, what do your masks and fans represent? Do they represent something from Tenjoukai?
UKISEMI: This is the formal style. (Everyone laughs.) The meaning is light and darkness. (Everyone laughs.)

HAL and sng, both of you lived outside of Japan in either the USA or France, please tell us about your time there.
sng: I was just born in France then when I was three-years-old we moved to Japan.
HAL: I was born in the USA and we moved to Japan when I was eight-months-old. We came back when I was 14-years-old and stayed here for five years, and then went back to Japan.

MAKITO, you formed the band in 2001, how do you feel about the band's current progress?
MAKITO: I'm so happy! When we started the band, we told each other, "Let's go to the USA someday," so it makes me happy that we finally accomplished it.

This is quaff's first USA tour with two other shows before this interview; how was it performing here for the first time?
SEIYA: We were so happy! When we were rehearsing before our first show in Atlanta, it hit us that we were actually going to perform in the USA!
MAKITO: Before we came to the USA we didn't expect people to be excited about our songs, but when we played they went crazy listening to us.

Your logo is rather interesting; did either of your design it?
MAKITO: I had a general idea of the design, but then I gave it to Kao, a designer, who brought my design to life.

Just for fun, say something to the band member sitting on your left.
MAKITO: (Turns and hugs SEIYA.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.)
SEIYA: (Turns and hugs UKISEMI.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.)
UKISEMI: (Turns and hugs HAL.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.)
HAL: (Turns and hugs sng.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.)
sng: (Turns and hugs TAKUMA.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.)
TAKUMA: (Walks around the table and hugs MAKITO.) I will always be thankful to you. (Everyone laughs.) He's a great man!
sng: We appreciate each other and it's fun. Everyone is always positive.

Please give a final message to your fans around the world.
MAKITO: Please expect us to share more songs with those who already know us and those who might know us later. We promise you! We're going to find a new style again and we're going to share that with you. We promise that we'll have a show you've never seen before!
SEIYA: I want to share a "dokidoki" kind of excitement; I want your hearts to beat fast from our music.
UKISEMI: If you come see our shows, I'll escort you to Tenjoukai. (Everyone laughs.)
HAL: We're going to love you and you're going to love us. Keep smiling!
sng: Because of this tour, this is the start of a new quaff. This is our first time in the USA, but next we want to try for Europe, and eventually conquer the world!
TAKUMA: I want to make the audience happy and excited through our music. We want them to keep smiling. We don't want any barriers.


JaME thanks to Jonny Yen for making this interview possible, Nao Iwasa and Kanae Jitozono for translating, and of course, quaff for taking time to answer our questions.

The photos used for this interview are from a live in Japan before quaff's tour in the USA.