Interview with Chimidoro

The funky and playful electronic group Chimidoro has been around for more than ten years, but only released their full-length album in 2007. While they were in France for L’EXPERIENCE JAPONAISE 2009 - a biennial that celebrates Asian culture with a number of live performance groups and workshops - JaME had the opportunity to catch up with the group and talk about their beginnings, their influences, and more.


Hello. Could you please introduce yourselves to our readers who don’t know you yet?

Nao: Hello, we’re from Tokyo and the four of us make the band Chimidoro. We do rap and play the bass with electronic music, which makes us close to techno and hip-hop styles, but with a rather cheap and funky sound. Our lyrics are fairly simple, so everyone can sing and have fun while dancing to happy music.
The others: He’s explained it all. (laugh)

Nao, at university, you discovered the Detroit's techno scene and ghetto house. Was this a decisive factor in your desire to play music?

Nao: Yes, indeed. The music from Detroit and especially the house style from Chicago made a major impression on me. There were these basic rhythms, on which voice samples were repeated several times. It sounded simple but I thought it was cool, really funky and punchy. So we thought we could do the same thing too.

How was Chimidoro born after that?

Kentaro: We met in high school.
Nao: Yes, we played video games together or hung around on the streets with our bikes. Then we bought a synthesizer and a sampler and we had a lot of fun singing and making weird sound effects with our voices.
Hiroaki: Like this: (sings in a strained voice) "O-ho!" (laughs) (Hiroaki always sings in this out of tune way as desired. Additionally, one of their songs overuses this hilarious "o-ho.")
Nao: Yes, those kind of things. One thing led to another and we finally ended up making music. (laughs) And we've even come to play in France. (laughs)

How did you make your first concerts? How did the audience react back then?

Nao: Before Kazuhiro joined us on the bass, the three of us were playing in front of friends who were encouraging us, in small halls, for parties or feasts. Kentaro and Hiroaki were particularly reluctant. They didn’t want to do it. For them, it was like having to do a dare.
Kentaro: A punishment, yes. (laughs)
Nao: But I really insisted and finally, they did it for me.
Kentaro: On my part, I was a DJ back then, and I really didn’t know how it was to play in a band. Moreover we only had one rehearsal before playing. (laughs)
Nao: After our first concert, I really thought we would not do another one. (laughs)
Kazuhiro: As for me, I was a spectator during their first show. I was watching CHIMIDORO, and I thought that they were a really interesting band. They were full of anxiety, like a schoolboy’s first concert. Their hands were shaking, they didn’t dare to sing - it was something fresh and genuine. A really extraordinary band! (laughs)

Your first concert was nearly fully improvised?

Nao: The lyrics, the singing, everything was prepared beforehand. But nothing turned out like we expected. (laughs) Yesterday, everything was also improvised. (laughs)

Really? It sounded really professional. (laughs) Kazuhiro, when did you join CHIMIDORO and how did it happen?

Kazuhiro: We had had other opportunities to meet during parties. It happened that one day, Kicell was also scheduled to play. Nao is a great fan of the band and he was really edgy. We talked about this, and this is when he asked me to play with them, to have something a bit more instrumental. When was this?
Nao: In 2006. It was three years ago.

Kazuhiro, did Chimidoro's music change once you arrived?

Kazuhiro: Ah no, nothing has changed. (laughs) It would be embarrassing if something did change. This kind of amateur music feeling must not be broken. I really did not want to change that.

Since you started, we had to wait ten years - until 2007 - for the release of your first single and album with the very young label Tokyo Fun Party. How did you meet its chairman, SoccerBoy? Was he the first one to offer you a contract?

Nao: We didn’t plan to release CDs when we started. It was SoccerBoy who offered us the opportunity to do one. He kept saying, "Do it! Do it!" (laughs) And then it happened.

Then everything went along very quickly and you’re now also distributed by the French label Sonore. How did that happen?

Nao: Aside from us, SoccerBoy also signed a French musician, Digiki, whose album was released the same day as ours, by the way. We became friends after that. He knew Franck Stofer and introduced us.

Could you tell us a little bit about your recent video clip, Tokyo Tokkyo Kyoka Kyoku? For example, what is the meaning of the masks that you’re wearing?

Kazuhiro: The artistic director wanted to do something around our concept of a game among friends. We’re wearing the masks in the evening, when we’re riding back from work on our bikes and we all get together to party. Then in the morning we go back to work, after having removed the masks. It represents some kind of border between reality and the game.

Today, you’re in France for the LEX 2009 event along with several Japanese artists; what are your feelings about this?

Nao: There are a lot of artists I really like in this festival, like De De Mouse and Kicell. It felt so odd to think that we’re also part of this and that we’re seen like any other musicians.

How did you feel about yesterday's concert? Is the French audience different from your usual one?

Hiroaki: They have nothing in common. (laughs)
Nao: I’d like to play in France all the time. (laughs)
Kazuhiro: The French are really extroverted; they show their feelings.
Nao: Yes, they're really open.
Kazuhiro: In Japan, even those who like what we’re doing don’t really show it openly. Sometimes we have to wonder if they don’t find us boring.
Nao: I was just speaking with Kentaro about this; in Japan, if no one starts to show he’s having fun, then no one will because they'll think that it’s ridiculous.
Kazuhiro: But we were very pleased to play in front of people who showed they were having fun.

Was playing abroad one of your dreams? What would you have thought ten years ago if a fortune teller had told you this would happen?

Kentaro: I would not have believed him. (laughs)
Nao: I would have thought he was a bad one. (laughs) It would have been unthinkable.
Kazuhiro: When we were given the opportunity to come to France, it was really unbelievable. I thought we were really lucky to be able to travel for free and to have a concert abroad. But later, when we received the list of the musicians who were also invited, I became very afraid! (laughs)

What do you think about the current Japanese electronic scene? According to you, what unique trait does it have to offer?

Kazuhiro: The electronic scene is very broad, I think.
Nao: During the same show, it’s possible to listen to hip-hop, techno, breakcore, and so on. These different bands influence each others' styles and something really original can be born from that. Electronic music is also influenced by rock, and other various things.

Do you have any other projects for the future?

Nao: Nothing better can happen to us now. (laughs) But we want to make a second album. We are also collaborating with a girl band for an album. They sing, play guitar, keyboards and do a lot of things. In fact, they’re saleswomen for a garment shop in Koenji. They haven’t really played music, so it may be interesting to play with them.

Are you planning to release a single? An album?

Nao: Nothing has been decided yet, but an album would be nice.


JaME warmly thanks Franck Stofer, the manager of the label Sonore and artistic director of the Lex, Antoine Chosson, Théâtre de Nîmes's press agent, our translator Satoko Fujimoto, and of course, Chimidoro.