Taffy call from Tokyo

Hello and I hope the sun is shining where you are. Where actually are you today?   

Hello, nice to meet you.  We are having cold days over here under the Tokyo sky.

“Fuzzed-up pop gems. Guitar buzzes like a toy chainsaw over which Iris' angelic voice glides effortlessly” That’s  how The Japan  Times described your music? How would you describe it?  

‘'sweet but hard' is the phrase I always use to describe our sound. To some people we are fuzzy sound, and to others, we are bubble gum pop or shoegazer, rock, brit pop, etc, but all we are doing is putting all the sounds, whatever we feel is right for a song and that becomes the taffy sound.   

Your single is out for Record Store Day on 21st April, does that mean there is an album on the way as well?  

Yeeees!!, and when you listen to it, you could probably see what I meant in the prior question.

The Japan Times also wrote a review placing you alongside The Primitives, Teenage Fanclub and The Apples in Stereo. If you could ask Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub) a question. What would it be?

  mm ..... 'Will you sing with me??'

Did any music from you parents record collection make you go ‘WOW’ when you were growing up?  

Not quite in a WOW! way, but there was always The Beatles being played in the house. or classical music.

 When you were in England what food did you like? or what did you think of the food? or what was the scariest/most shocking food?

We were told that the food is not going to be good there. But actually we loved cupcakes, pizza, sandwiches and pretty much everything what we ate while our stay.Except, I’m not sure if any of us liked “fish and chips”, that was more like the shocking food, I mean the taste wise.

 I read on your blog that you went to Rough Trade in London. Where/How do you buy new music in Japan?

Record stores are becoming less and less in Japan. But Tower Records is still there and there are still many indie record stores as well. But I guess the most of us buy online now, whether it’s digital data or CD.

What is your favourite venue or festival in Japan that... you've played in? ...you've been to watch other bands? ...you dream of playing?

There used to be good venues and ok ones in Tokyo. But now, the venue doesn’t really matter that much anymore, not just us but the whole scene is like that. We’d love to play in London, though. I guess it’s more about the audience rather than the venue now.

Is there a Japanese band that you think English audiences should know about (apart from yourselves) but probably don't yet?

The music scene in Japan is really a closed one. We are more like a misfit here and everyone else is aimed strictly to Japanese audience, so it’s hard to pick any…. 

Has the music scene in Japan changed since 3.11? We hear about different innovative energy saving steps being taken. Any innovations in the music scene that other countries could consider?  (One example is that pro-baseball teams give out free or cheap "family" group tickets)

 A lot of songs were written and sold for donation, and many charity festivals were done for the same reason. There are maybe less flashy promotions around than before. But it’s more like we’re all trying to get back to how we were, so, not much changes in a long run. 

 Questions to Iris from Pete & Kana

Band Website

taffy

single: ‘So Long’

21^st April for Record Store Day

Club AC30

CD / download / 7” sparkly clear vinyl