i may never sleep again.

etting back to the 80s with Tommy

Intro&Translation by: Brian Stewart & Takako Sakuma

Interview by: Yamada Junko from Japanese Groove Magazine vol.11 2001

Intro:

Leave it to Kawase Tomoko, the mousey low-key vocalist of Japanese pop/rock staple The Brilliant Green, to come up with something this bizarre. Allow me to introduce you to Tommy february6 the alter ego of Tomoko, an eighties throwback who wears rimmed glasses and carries her books in a bookband. Unlike Tomoko, Tommy sings 80s style synth pop, her first single "Everyday at the Bus Stop" could very well have been a hit circa 1984. As you will see in this interview taken from a relatively new magazine J-groove Magazine from the makers of J-rock Magazine, Tommy is a reminder of what made the eighties good. With vapid but sweet lyrics, a melody that sticks in your head, and a video that shows a side of Tomoko you may have never guessed existed, this conceptual solo project definitely qualifies as a departure from The Brilliant Green. Not since "Mickey" have you such blatant usage of cheerleaders in a promotion.

In what may turn out to be just a bizarre one-shot Tommy february6's debut single (7/25) "Everyday at the Bus Stop" comes with a DVD featuring three versions of the video, each featuring varying levels of censorship on a key scene involving an exploding mannequin, a making of featurette, a karaoke version, a cheerleader choreogrpahed version, and the TV spots. So get with the times, break out your chain belts tie your hair up in a fontaine, go out and find this CD, read this interview and get dancing. .

J*GM: It being hot today and since we made "summer" the theme of today's photo shoot, I'd like to ask you what you remeber most when you think of summer. Your summer memories...?

Tommy (T): Ah summer... Well you know, when I was in elementary school I had to go to the school pool two or three times a week. So I'd go cause I really loved diving in. In fact I spent all my time diving in, telling everyone to "get outta my way" =) and they'd make a space for me, then in I'd go again and again. Then one day, my friend says to me out of the blue, "the way you dive is weird". You see, normally you dive with both your legs out straight, and that's how I'd always thought Iwas doing it, but apparently I was folding my legs in when I dove. After that I stopped going to the pool altogether. I'd tell my friends that "I wasn't well" to get out of going. I haven't been to a pool or the sea since then. Since about the time I was in the 4th grade.

J*GM: Because of one thing your friend said?

T: Haven't you worried over stuff like that? Eventhough it's this trivial thing, you cared way too much.

J*GM: Yes I have. Like some innocent comment someone said to me...but is that the only reason you haven't gone back (to the sea or pool)?

T: Haven't gone at all but recently I think I've gradually at last been able to forget that trauma. This year I'm thinking I might even go to a Southern Island.

J*GM: Getting away from that, you aren't afraid of the water or anything right?

T: No it was just the trauma of being called "strange". When you're a kid you're really sensitive to people saying you're strange, you know? Like your hair, if you wear a ribbon that someone calls strange one day... then you'll stop wearing that ribbon.

J*GM: Yes right =) But if you really loved it, I'd see how that could be a real shock.

T: Right, I went home all bright red blushing.

J*GM: What a summer memory! =)

T: I was pretty into club activities Basketball, Sports etc, but around that time, I got really passive about those too, and I lost my drive. If that hadn't happened to me, I'd probably be living a very different life. More lively, winter snowboarding, summer at the sea... I bet I'd have been that type. Probably wouldn't have been into music =)

J*GM: So in a way...=)

T: It was for the better perhaps.

J*GM: So this summer is anything goes

T: Yes that's right.

J*GM: But this summer you're busy as Tommy february6 aren't you. I got to hear the song "Everyday at the Bus Stop", it's so cute and it has a nice melody.

T: Ah, I really love the melody.

J*GM: It doesn't just end at being cute pop, the more and more I listen to it, the more it starts to repeat in my head, and before I knew it I was humming it to myself. =) I thought it was a song with quite a mysterious effect.

T: Hahaha =) That's exactly what I was going for. That makes me happy. When I originally put it on tape, I thought to myself, "I wonder how it's gonna sound?", I didn't really know, but as I listened to it it got better and better.

J*GM: Did you take special care to make it easy to get into this time?

T: It's not really that I wanted to stress the pop quality of the song, I just wanted to do pop. As far as the image goes, I was more concerned about getting the flavor of the times into the music, rather than follow the pattern of the popstar and musical style.

J*GM: Was there something that made you want to make it that way?

T: Well as you may guess, The Brilliant Green (BuriGuri) has a set pattern like the one I mentioned earlier but its quite the opposite of that. The style is rigidly set, and it's quite difficult to stray from it. even if we experiment, it's actually harder to get anything across, there's a high probability that the image will come across as unnatural. But under a seperate name, and a seperate character, no matter what I do it'll seem new and will be accepeted more than if it were BuriGuri doing it.

J*GM: I see. So this Tommy february6 thing you're doing, is being done completely as its own entity. I like that's it's not some half assed attempt =)

T: Yeah, I dunno how to say it but, I was seriously grappling with the concept. =)

J*GM: Conversely, if you see the embarassment of this being different than the usual Tommy, the appeal is reduced by half.

T: There was nothing to be embarassed about. I'm not putting on a performance, I'm not putting in anything that isn't already inside of me. It's very natural. In fact, BuriGuri is more like a performance to me. The Tommy february6 character is actually closer to the real me, because she does what she wants to. How do I put it... she's not concerned about selling records, she just does what she wants.

J*GM: In what way is Tommy february6 like you?

T: Yeees... first off, the easy to understand Popness. Also, i guess the visual look, the sense of story that she has. For this project, I have glasses and these props, also I made a logomark, and there's a certain power in that.

J*GM: So it's like only Tommy february6 could get this across.

T: I think so. More than asking the listener to listen for the detail of the music, I want them to feel the atmosphere of the work as a whole. Not the quality of like "this part of the lyrics" or "this melody". They should be like "the song itself is weird" or "it's interesting", "I like it", "I hate it".

J*GM: So there's no need for reason or logic for Tommy february6?

T: No that's not what I mean =) Basically I'm not writing about anything life changing even in the lyrics. That's one of the main points.

J*GM: It's been 6 years since The Brilliant Green was formed in 1995, what made you now want to do this concept solo project?

T: The reason I'm doing it now is purely coincidental =). It started when I expressed an interest in covering a song by Strawberry Switchblade.

J*GM: The third track on the album "SINCE YESTERDAY" right? Is that how it began?

T: Yeah. =) Well I guess it would have been fine if we covered it as BuriGuri but the musical style would have changed, and if I was going to go to the trouble of doing it, I thought I may as well do it solo with a concept. And if I was gonna go ahead and release it, it would probably be better to do an original song then a cover.

J*GM: Did you like Strawberry Switchblade?

T: Not enough to buy their albums or anything, but this song has been lying around in me for a long time, and I've always wanted to try singing it. Of course I don't know how it would really sound but, immediately after I heard the song it was like going round and round. I liked that about it.

J*GM: Ah, something your song has in common with it huh? =)

T: Yeah yeah right. That's cause I wanted to make something that would stick in your ears.

J*GM: This time, as far as sound concept you're going forlike 80s New Wave sound aren't you?

T: Yes. Well, the teens today copying that fashion, for them its brand new and trendy. Even the music is probably pretty fresh for them.

J*GM: Tommy, do you too have an interest in the music and fashion of that time?

T: It's not that I'm interested in it, that's the way it was. When I was in elementary school I wore a Peppermint Green athletic jumper =) And music-wise, Rick Astley was popular, if you look at the lyrics of Rick Astley or Kaily Minogue who was popular around the same time, they sang nothing but silly things. =) I thought that might be cool, so this time I shaped my lyrics that way too. I'm not singing about anything earth shattering. =) I myself like lyrics that don't have much meaning but have good word sense. Anyway, even that kind of content has its merits. =)

J*GM: Is that sense that you yourself are coming through that you discussed earlier tied into what you remembered yourself about the 80's?

T: Ah yes, it's easier to do something you've experienced. Like that way your memory is triggered when you open a drawer. Nowadays the word "Bus Stop" it's got kinda this 80s vibe. =) I'm not writing about some serious love, or even just wanting to go out with someone like when you're a teenager. I wrote about a non serious kind of love, where your happy just to be next to someone, just to look at them.

J*GM: Is that also one of the points?

T: You could say that. Like love for love's sake. Taking from my own taste, I just love girl's manga, especially Ribon. For me girl's manga that has kind of a popular more adult physical relationship, isn't really girl's manga anymore. I'm not really trying to criticize, I think there are plenty of good manga out there, but for me it all ends in a kiss, a confession, that's the level I prefer it at, so I tried to match that with my song. =)

J*GM: A kind of bittersweet feeling eh? I think that if you mess up even by one step it can quickly turn "embarassing" but it never got like that. Is there some kind of line you draw in yourself?

T: Maybe, for me, it's the most beautiful world, I'm doing things based on my own appreciation of beauty. Even the lyrics to the song "Everyday at the Bus Stop" began from daydreaming. the girl remembers something from the bus stop, it turns to night and she's still thinking about him, by the time it gets to be morning the girl is at last determined to ask the boy "if he's free this weekend?", and then it goes back to the chorus. After all is said and done, it's endless. Like the enjoyment of a Bon Dance. =)

J*GM: That's what makes it good.

T: Yeah, in the end it just doesn't go anywhere. That's what attracts me to it though.

More Tommy! Including a brief history of the woman behind Tommy february6 and BuriGuri.
Check out part II (coming soon)!

Anx said:

Don't tell me you didn't see the Bowie/Eno influence on her music?
[Edited 3/14/06 4:05am]

MikeMatronik said:

you mean, i'm going to have to go to berlin and quit my drug habit after listening to her?