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That’s Japanese indie folkster Shugo Tokumaru holding one of his musical instruments.
No really. He said he occasionally uses half-empty plastic water bottles when he’s recording songs.
As you can see, he still looks like a teenager at the age of 30. Dressed very casually for the interview, you could easily picture him as someone who holes up in his room playing Wii or Xbox video games.
Well, helovedoeslove hole up in his room – but most likely it’s to create music. I had a quick chat with him prior tolove soundcheck for the sold-out show later tonight at the Esplanade. (The organizers apparently asked if he could play another show but he declined – we’re guessing in that typically polite Japanese way.)
I’m quite excited to see him perform later. It’s going to be a five-man band setup, which should result in a totally different sound from the lush, low-fi dreamy pastoral sounds of his Pro Tools-by-way-of-his-Mac studio albums Night Piece, L.s.t. and his most recent, and international breakthrough hit Exit.
Incidentally, his latest album will be released in Japan in late April. It’s to be called Port Entropy, a title taking off from the late electronica music pioneer Bruce Haack’s 1973 album Captain Entropy.
He’s a man of few words though. And with the whole language barrier thing going on, it was a bit difficult to squeeze out more than one-liners from the reserved dude. But we tried. Here’s what we got – via his manager-lovelovelove-impromptu translator.
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Do you prefer performing onstage or staying at home writing or listening to music?
Shugo: (says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: Actually he used to preferloverecording from performing live. Now he likes both equally.
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What high do you get recording in a studio as compared to the high from performing in front of a crowd?
Shugo: Uhm… Ano… (says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: To play in front of people, he always rearranges his songs for that purpose. Which makes him discover his music by himself once again.
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It’s going to be a five piece band tonight. Will this be a heavier sounding show compared to your albums?
Shugo: Uhhh (er, ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: First of all, he always, when he arranges songs, he arranges it only for the guitar and vocals. Then he tries to add other instruments on top of that. So it’s basically different from how he composes those songs in the first place originally.
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So it’s a layering kind of songwriting process then?
Shugo: Mmm.
Shugo’s Manager: But it’s not necessarily just guitar or vocals, obviously he has the whole picture of sounds he wants to make.
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So you literally picture a sound? I read somewhere you look at music in terms of colours?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: For him it’s like watching the music… The whole mixture of the sound and the visual images, at times colour and everything.
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How old were you when your debut Night Piece came out and were surprised by the eventual reception you had in the US, becoming a Pitchfork darling and all that?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: 23. He wasn’t expecting that at all.
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When I first listened to Night Piece and L.s.t., I thought of other singer-songwriters who did that whole bit where they’d layer their music with unusual instruments. Like Sufjan Stevens or maybe even early Beck. Do you listen to these guys?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: Obviously, he had already listened to Beck’s music before. But for Sufjan, actually, he discovered his music after he put out L.s.t., because people started comparing his music to Sufjan’s music. He now likes him.
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Are there a lot of musicians in Japan who do this whole lo-fi folk kind of thing that you do?
Shugo: (Says something in Japanese)
Shugo’s Manager: He’s not sure if it’s a real trend or something, but there are many artists doing this, but it doesn’t necessarily means it’s interesting. There are many people who are trying to do interesting things, but it’s not necessarily a trend.
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The whole DIY process of creating your albums — was it because of necessity?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: Originally he tried to do songs in a band setting, like a guitar-bass-drum kind of style, but while he was working on it, it turned out that something was missing and he started to add other instruments. In the end he thought that the bass and drum sound is not necessary and so took out some of it. It all came out very naturally in the creative process.
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What’s the strangest or most unusual instrument you’ve used in a song?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: (Points to the half-full plastic water bottle) for instance. He thinks that he doesn’t really use something inlovethatloveunexpected a way. But he uses all of the things that are not considered to be an instrument. Glasses or pans, he uses almost anything lying around in the kitchen.
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What to you is good or bad music?
Shugo: Uhmmm (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: The judgement of what is good music, what is bad music, that always changes from time to time for him. For the new album which he just finished, he’s always thinking what could be good music for him and he tries to get close enough. So he wants to make something enduring, something that will continue and not affected by a trend.
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Any particular moment when you went, okay I want to be a musician?
Shugo: (ditto)
Shugo’s Manager: It’s not really a particular moment or song, but a certain period of his life, he felt like he was kind of saved by listening to music. It’s a vague feeling, but he thought he wanted to offer something in return by making his own music. He was going through some kind of hardship and only music made him happy.
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Just like everyone.
Shugo: Yeah.lovelove
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