noodles toured the US again for just three days in late October 2007, but Keikaku was able to interview them about their latest album and their tours in the States.

○You’ve had a variety of projects this year, like working on a movie and a TV show. What was it like making an album in the midst of that?
Yoko: The songs we did for that movie and TV show are on this album, but that did make it harder to put together. In that way, I suppose it was harder to make this album than usual.

○Did you get any inspiration from working on those other projects?
Yoko: Well, not out of the actual production of the songs for those projects, but I think they were inspiring experiences.

○I’ve heard that you usually start from a general image when you’re making an album; what was the image you used for this one?
Yoko: I started with the title, “Metropolis.” I wanted to have songs that sort of looked at the world in a way that matched that. No, wait, that might not be it. (laughs)

○So, what does the word “Metropolis” mean to you?
Yoko: On our West coast tour last year, I saw the San Francisco city lights at night, and it looked really amazing, like…I don’t know, like a space station. That’s when I thought up the title, you know, to represent something wonderful, or something big, or…you know. (laughs)

○What about you, Ikuno? You’ve been doing two songs for each of the recent albums.
Ikuno: Oh, I did two songs for this one as well.

○Did you work from the same image?
Ikuno: I don’t think I’d heard what the title was when I wrote them. Had I?
Yoko: No, you hadn’t. (laughs)
Ikuno: So I think I just wrote them like I usually do. Just, you know, “how about this?”

○Just sort of on your own?
Ikuno: Yes. But I did think about balancing out the songs on the album, and things like that.

○I’ve heard your using a Korg D4 digital recorder for your shows now. Could you talk a little bit about that? What are you using it for?
Ayumi: Well, we have the sound staff set it up to play along with us as we’re performing.
Ikuno: We use that for the synthesizer parts.

○So you’re using it because you’ve got more synthesizer in this album than you’ve had before?
Yoko: Yes.

○Are you using any new pedals or effectors in addition to that?
Yoko: Those are mostly the same. We actually use a fair amount of synthesizer normally, but there are a lot of songs on this album where the synthesizer stands out.

○Were you going for a futuristic sound, since the title was “Metropolis”?
Yoko: No, it’s more that the kind of sound I like now is one that uses synthesizer more.

○What kind of sound? Could you give a band as an example?
Yoko: Well, I like C.S.S. lately. Do you know them?

○I think so. They’re from Brazil, right?
Yoko: Right. So we haven’t gone towards that sound completely, but I thought that a sound with more synthesizer would work for the Noodles as we are now.

○By the way, if you’re using the usual pedals, what are those?
Yoko: The one I’m using all the time now is a handmade Dyna Red from Sweden. I like that one. Other than that, we use the usual distortion ones, I think.

○You’ve been doing tours in the US for five years now, is that right?
Yoko: Isn’t it six?
Ikuno: I thought it was four.
Yoko: Well, let’s say four or five.

○OK, so you’ve been doing tours here for four or five years. What do you think about the shows you’ve done here, and how people listen to music? Are they any different from Japan?
Yoko: I noticed from the first time we came here that the way people appreciate music in America is completely different from the way people do in Japan. It’s very free. I like that. Um…that’s all. (laughs)

○Anyone else?
Ikuno: I think maybe adults listen to rock music more in America than in Japan.
Yoko: Yeah, in Japan, rock music is for kids, or for young people, so when people grow up they stop listening to it.
Ikuno: But adults who listen to rock music blend right in over here. They’re accepted. The other thing is that shows are more expensive in Japan. I guess that makes it something special to go to a show in Japan, but in America it’s more common and everyday. At least, that’s how it seems. I haven’t lived here, so I don’t really know.

○No, that sounds right. Ayumi, did you want to say anything?
Ayumi: Oh, uh… (laughs)

○Sorry, I know you’re answering last.
Ayumi: Well, let’s see, I think there’s a lot more music playing just in daily life. In Japan, things get sorted really strictly by genre, I mean…I guess people choose a specific thing that they want to listen to and go with that. But here it seems like it’s just sort of naturally part of life, mixed in with everything.

○What it’s like performing in America, considering that you were influenced by a lot of American bands?
Yoko: We do have a lot of songs with English lyrics, right? So I feel a little embarrassed about that. But it feels really great to be in a country so far away and still have people come to see us play, still like our music.

○You’ve been playing together for 16 years. Is there anything you’ve realized about being in a band, or playing music, in that time?
Yoko: Hmm.

○Sorry, I know it’s a broad question.
Yoko: Well, sixteen years or seventeen years is a really long time. And people talk a lot about how great we are for being together that long. When that started I didn’t think it was that big a deal that we just kept going on, but lately I’ve started to think that maybe it is. I think playing music as a band, several people doing the same thing together, is really difficult, but it’s also really fun.

○Would anyone else like to add something to that?
Ayumi: Um, that’s OK. (laughs)

○OK, we’ll move on. When did you realize you wanted to be musicians?
Yoko: I’ve wanted to since I was a kid.
Ikuno: When I was 22, I sort of thought it up, I guess.

○What did you want to do before that?
Ikuno: In high school I wanted to get into computer graphics, so I went to a school for that and found work that way, but in the middle of that I somehow ended up wanting to play music instead. So I went out and bought an instrument. (laughs)

○Had you already played something when you were working on CG?
Ikuno: No, I hadn’t played anything at all then.

○What about you, Ayumi?
Ayumi: At first, I wanted to be involved with music in the background, working on sound systems or as an engineer. I’d known I wanted to do something with music since I was little, but I wanted to do it in that way. I really liked fiddling with fader switches. And then I suddenly got to know the other band members, and got invited to play with them.

○Do you still fiddle around with those switches, like during recordings?
Ayumi: (laughs) Not now, I don’t. I just watch.

○Well, to finish, is there anything you’d like to say to your fans overseas?
Yoko: Hmm.

○Sorry, that’s another broad question.
Yoko: Well, the first day of our tour over here is the release date for our new album, Metropolis. So it’s not on sale over in America yet, but I’d like you to listen to it however you can.

○OK. Thank you very much.
Yoko, Ayumi, Ikuno: Thank you very much.

Ayumi (A): Nice to meet you. This is the first Noodles…

All: …Hot Splash!

A: I’m the MC, Ayumi, on drums. First, let’s introduce the other band members.

Yoko (Y): OK! Good evening. I’m the lead vocalist for the Noodles, Yoko.

Ikuno (I): Good evening. Ikuno, on bass.

A: Ayumi, on drums. (laughter) Like I mentioned before, this program will feature us, the Noodles, every Friday for an hour at 5 pm. Please tune in and listen.

Y: Yes, please do. We hope to make this a fun show.

A: Yes, that’s right.

Y: Let’s give it our best.

A: Yes. Oh, also. The main feature of this program is our idle chatter, but I’d also like to introduce Hot Splash’s boy mascot for the evening. (laughter) Our boy mascot, Tommy!

Tommy (T): Nice to meet you. Um, I’m sorry. I’m not really sure what that means…

A: Yeah, sorry to just throw that at you. The three of us aren’t going to be able to make it by ourselves, so…

Y: Sure we will!

A: Oh, right. Well, let’s do our best.

Y: Right!

A: Since this is our first time here, we’ll be doing a special feature on us, the Noodles.

Y: OK!

A: I hope those of you that already know about us listen too, so you can learn way too much about us! Well then. To commemorate the first Hot Splash, let’s have Yoko, our lead vocalist, introduce the first song.

Y: OK. This is Noodles, with “She, Her.”

—–

A: This is Hot Splash, with the Noodles. So, we’ve finally gone and started the show…

Y: Why are you narrating it like that?

A: Um, well. I’m not really used to doing this kind of thing.

Y: That’s true. But this is our first time, so if people will just let that slide…

A: OK. Well, what you’re hearing now, this is going to be the mood for the show. So, in this program–well, when we first heard about this show, we had all sorts of ideas that we talked over, but are we going to have different kinds of segments, or…

Y: You mean, what do we want to do?

A: Yes, what’re we hoping to do?

Y: I’ve got plenty of things I’d like to do. What about you, Ikuno?

I: Huh? (dead silence, then laughter)

A: Oh, you got her.

I: I, uh, hadn’t really thought about it.

Y: Well, I…actually, Tommy, do you have any ideas?

T: Well, sorry to play the MC for a bit, but today is our first time hearing the Noodles, right? So people, myself included, probably want to know what kind of band you are, what kind of people you are.

Y: I see. Well, today we’re introducing ourselves…

A: That’s right.

Y: …or doing a feature on the Noodles, so we’ll take care of that self-introduction, and talk all about the Noodles. But starting next time, we’ve got all sorts of things we’d like to try, so we’ll get more personal.

A: Wait, really?

Y: Well, that’s what I had planned.

A: So then, since we’ve brought it up–let’s talk about us, the Noodles. I’m sure there are things people don’t know about us, and, well, people who don’t know anything about us at all, but first, let’s talk about the band name.

Y: You mean where it came from?

A: Yes, where’d the band name come from?

Y: Oh, I feel like I’m being interviewed. Well, this was before the band really got together, naturally, but when we first started playing, I thought we needed a name, and looked in a foreign dictionary. And actually, it got to be a problem when we were on the radio doing campaigns or whatever, because there are stations where you couldn’t say the meaning of “Noodles” on air.

T: Wait, what was it? Something like “big idiots”?

Y: Can I say that, “big idiots”? It’s OK, right? But there are some places where it isn’t–maybe NHK?–and we got told not to say that. It was hard not being able to say what the band name meant. It’s slang, right? “Noodle” is slang for “idiot”, and I wanted to use the kind of English slang you’d hear in normal conversation for the band name. You see band names like “Cardigans”, or “something something something” ones, but I thought this’d be better. Just a single noun, the kind of thing anybody would know. So when I saw that “noodle” meant “idiot” or “fool”, I thought that was just right. So I put an “s” on it, because…have you seen “Once Upon A Time in America”?

T: I have.

Y: It’s a movie, and Robert DeNiro is named Noodles in it, and since I liked that movie a lot, I thought that’d be good.

T: So you didn’t talk it over with the other band members?

Y: I didn’t. I guess I just sort of decided that myself.

A: But it really felt like it fit, didn’t it?

Y: I guess that covers that. So, when the three of us first met…well, we started out with four people, and played that way for over ten years, and recently, just in the last year, we became a three-girl band. Anyway, we met because we were all working part time at the same place.

A: Yes.

Y: At a certain music club, although it isn’t around anymore.

T: So you all got to know each other at that club?

Y, A: Yes.

T: That’s the first time I’ve heard of that.

Y: Really? Well, I think I met Ikuno first.

I: Uh-huh. Oh, I started working there first, didn’t I?

Y: Yeah. Ikuchin knew all of us, but before we got the band together she quit working there, although we knew how to get in touch with her. So when me, and Ayumi, and our former guitarist were together and looking for a bass player, I suddenly remembered about Ikuno. But at the time, Ikuchin was playing guitar or drums in some other band, right?

I: Well, I played drums for them, but it was over after one session in the studio…(laughter) Really, I went through a streak of bands collapsing.

Y: Collapsing?

I: Yes.

Y: So yeah, we were looking for a bassist, and there’s a great untold story here. I guess we can call it that?

A: Maybe an inside story?

Y: Yeah, or a legend. So, the legend of Ikuno joining the Noodles.

I: Sure, the legend…

Y: Do you want to hear it?

(pause)

I: Oh, she’s going to tell it!

Y: Here goes! Ahem, so the Noodles were looking for a bass player. I thought maybe Ikuno could play bass for us, so I gave her a call. But at the time, like we said before, Ikuchin hadn’t played bass at all.

T: She’d never played bass?

Y: Not at all, although I think I’d heard that she had a guitar. So I thought it was crazy, or weird, for me to suddenly ask her to play bass for us, but I had nothing to lose, so I called her, and it turned out she’d bought a bass the day before. (laughter) I was just hoping to have her say something like “I’ll think about it”, but she just said “Yes! I’ll do it!” And then…

T: Why’d you buy that bass?

I: Well, I guess I’d…sort of had an epiphany a little earlier. (laughter) When I was playing guitar and drums…

Y: And collapsing?

I: Yeah, when I was going through those band collapses, I watched some video, and thought “Hey, I’ll play bass!”, and around the next day I went to a guitar shop and bought a bass, but I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to do after that. But right around then the call from Yoko came, and she if I could play bass for them. Perfect timing!

Y: Right on, huh?

I: Yeah.

Y: So she said she’d play with us, and joined, and we’re still together. Isn’t that great?

T: Well, things like that happen, I guess.

Y: Yeah. No changes in members.

A: For a long time. (pause) My friends ask me a lot what kind of music we play. I tend to say something like “pop”, but…

Y: Pop?

A: But that’s a pretty broad, vague description.

I: It’s pretty hard to describe in one or two words.

Y: Well, I say things like we’re a guitar-based band, or we have a sort of alternative feel…what do you think, Tommy? What kind of band are the Noodles? We’ll get an objective opinion! From an uninvolved third party!

T: Wait, I’m objective? I’m not really…

Y: But you are, you are! (pause) Say something good, OK?

A: Please.

T: Well, I think you’re cool, for sure.

Y: Cool? Really?

T: I’ve think known about you since you got big. I went to some club in Shimokitazawa, and although I hadn’t gone there to see the Noodles, you really left an impression, so I went to a record store the next day. Really, I was surprised just to see how much stuff you had there.

I: Is that so? We surprised you.

T: And I’ve been a big fan ever since.

Y: For real?

A: Thank you so much.

Y: So…I guess that’s what kind of band we are.

T: It’s hard to say what genre you are, isn’t it? For me, too. I think it’s best just to go see you live.

Y: Yeah, listen to CDs, come to our shows, and whatever you get from that is the Noodles. Although if I could replace what Ayumi said earlier, I think “rock” works.

A: Ok!

(pause, laughter)

I: So, we’re “rock”!

Y: Right, we’re rock.

A: Next is, well, I guess this is the song that got us started. We’ll have Ikuno, our bassist, announce it.

I: OK. “Mellow Metallica.” Please listen.

—–

I: This is Hot Splash, with the Noodles.

(laughter)

A: So, the Noodles have released six albums, four singles, and a DVD so far. That’s quite a lot, isn’t it? Isn’t it. So, we’ve made a lot of songs, but do we have a lot of memories for any particular one?

Y: Well, really we have those for all of them. There’s a lot in all of them. But I don’t really go through the “throes of creation” or whatever when I’m writing them. Same for you, right, Ikuno?

I: Hmmm. (laughter)

T: Some people say songs just sort of falls from the sky onto them.

Y: Wellll, I think “falling from the sky” is sort of a weird way to say it. I mean, it doesn’t really fall from the sky, does it? Honestly. That makes it sound sort of mystical. But for lyrics, I feel like I wait. Wait for it to fall on me, I guess. And when they don’t just fall from the sky, I go looking for them. But it’s not like it’s a question of time, so sometimes I write a good song in just a minute, or can’t even write a good song with a whole day. So with lyrics, I always feel like I’m waiting for the right timing.

I: I see.

Y: For lyrics, anyway.

I: What about the songs themselves?

Y: For songs, I just sort of take whatever comes out of me. I mean, if I just wait I don’t come up with anything. (laughter)

I: I see.

A: But when you really try to, you write them pretty quick. Just one after the other.

Y: Yeah, but I’m like Katsuo from “Sazae-san.” (laughter) If it’s been decided that I need to write songs, then I come up with something good. Like if they told me to have a song ready by tomorrow, then I’d give it a try, but if they told me to have two songs ready by the summer, I’d wait until the last day of June. That’s the way I am.

A: Always at the last minute…

Y: Yeah. I’m the type that needs a deadline.

I: I might be the same way.

Y: Ikuno, it’s more like you don’t do anything at all. (laughter)

I: Well, if I don’t have a goal then I don’t do anything.

Y: I suppose. But y’know, normally musicians write a whole bunch of songs, write them every day, and have this huge stock of them. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but I usually I write the songs after the album release date has been decided.

T: Once you have a deadline.

Y: Yes. So then I think about what kind of album I want to make next, or what kind of songs I want to make next, and sort of work on things that express that. Once I’ve reached a conclusion about what vision I have for the album, then I use that as a basis for the songs. Our first album from way back when was different, of course. We picked our ten best songs at the time. That might seem like a higher-quality way to make an album, but I think the way we make them now suits me.

T: So, when you’re making an album, do you have ideas about what you’d like to be the first song, the second song, and so on?

Y: Well, I usually have an image of what I want for the first and last songs, but everything in between I decide at the last minute, so there’s a lot of “not this one, that one,” and changing things around.

A: I see. So that’s how it works. Well, Ikuchin’s been writing songs a lot lately, right?

I: Yes.

A: How’s that?

I: Well, I also get more into it if they ask me to have a song or two ready by a certain date, although there are times when even then I don’t really feel motivated. I find I don’t really start with the general shape of the song.

Y: I think it’s fun to come up with a title first.

A: Oh, yeah.

Y: It’s important to have a catalyst like that.

I: I kind of wish I could just crank out songs like it was daily business, but y’know…I’m a lazy bum.

Y: That’s right! The Noodles are basically lazy bums, Tommy!

I: What should we do?

T: That’s not too far off from the name of your band, is it?

Y: Being lazy is different from being stupid!

A: So we’re lazy AND stupid. Well, anyway, since we’re talking about putting songs together…

Y: Putting songs together?

A: A lot of times we start with Yoko singing and playing the guitar and bring the drums in to match her.

Y: Yeah…I guess that’s analog, huh?

A: Yes, we’re using analog methods, even in this day and age.

T: So your recording times must be pretty long.

Y: Well, now we have producers working with us, and we always do what they call the pre-recording work, so things go pretty smoothly once we’re in recording. It depends on the song, though. Some songs really come out nice and crisp. Some people, like Ikuno, have MTRs, that can play and then sing and put it together afterwards, and bring it to other people already made, so they get sort of a global view of the song just by listening once. But I don’t have an MTR, so even now I play the guitar and sing for everybody in the studio. So maybe we do end up taking more time.

T: So Ikuno is the best with electronics and things like that?

(sounds of disbelief)

I: I’m not so sure I am. It’s more that I can’t play and sing at the same time in the studio. Between my clumsy playing and clumsy singing, nobody’d understand what I was doing. So that’s why I record it all together like that. Of course, it’s fun, too. After I got an MTR it was really, really fun to start putting songs together.

Y: I want an MTR.

A: Right?

Y: But there probably aren’t too many musicians who decide to buy an MTR this late in their career, huh? (laughter)

A: Well, you could just ride the wave… (laughter)

Y: Wave? What wave?!

A: Like, with the flow of time, gradually change your approach to songwriting…

Y: What is this?! Can we just play the next song now? (laughter)

A: Oh, also, Ikuchin doesn’t just write songs for the Noodles. She does some as “Pleiades”…

Y: Her solo project.

I: Solo project?

A: You write lyrics for those, too.

I: Yes.

A: Are there any difficulties you have with that?

I: Well, I guess I have some of the same problems as Yoko. Bits and pieces will come out really quickly, but then I’ll have gaps I have to fill, or I’ll need one more line. And then something will sort of come to me.

Y: Yeah. Waiting, again. Actually, as we’re talking about this now, I remember a REAL long time ago I talked about something with Ikuno, and the later, after she’d started Pleiades, I talked to her about the same thing, and she said something different. I remember thinking, “Wow, she’s changed!”

I: Oh, really? Aw, no…

Y: No, that was good! It was a good way to change. So, back around when we got together, Ikuno asked me, “Don’t you get embarrassed when you’re writing lyrics?” And I said something like, “Should I?” And she said, “Isn’t it embarrassing to tell the world what you’re feeling?” And I sort of understood, but I said it was even more embarrassing to write things that I didn’t feel. She just said “Oh, I see.” But then, we were talking after she’d started Pleiades, and she said it was really embarrassing to write lyrics about things she wasn’t feeling. And I felt like, “Yeah, you get it now?”

I: I guess I didn’t understand because I didn’t sing myself back then.

A: So then, you’d gotten someone to really understand you.

Y: Um, not really. (laughter)

A: Oh, you hadn’t?

T: And here she’d just found a way to wrap things up…

Y: Oh, was that was that was? Sorry. It did sound good…

A: No, that’s OK. Well, since we’re talking about Ikuchin writing songs, we’ll do a song that she wrote…

Y: Yeah, one of Ikuchin’s songs.

I: OK. “Silent Apple.”

—–

Y: OK, after Silent Apple, you heard Fuzz Hill. That’s from a mini-album, right? That’s the first (A: Second), I mean, second track, the title track, from Fuzz Hill.

A: Well, we’ve talked about several things so far, but next we’re going to talk about our shows.

Y: Our shows?

A: Yes. We’ve done shows in all sorts of places. So maybe first we could tell some disaster stories.

Y: Oh, we’ve got a lot of those! A lot! (laughter)

A: We make a lot of mistakes just during regular practice, after all.

Y: The things I remember the most are strings breaking, or other equipment troubles. Little mistakes happen all the time, so I don’t mind those. I think the first big thing that comes to mind was that time at Quattro–can I say the name of the place?–at Quattro, we were doing a show to count down the end of the year, and you’re not supposed to take too much time, right? We came out before the countdown, and just as they were telling us to stay on schedule, a string on Ikuno’s bass broke. It took about five minutes to replace it, and I was all, “aaahh!” But they were really pushing on the drummer, or somebody, from the band before us, so it’s not like we’re the ones who made them late, right?

T: So the Noodles played right before the countdown?

Y: No, there were a few more after us, but they were pushing us from early on not to waste even a minute–and then the string breaks! I mean, really.

A: I think I just remembered that now.

I: Somehow I still can’t really remember it. Did one break then?

Y: It did! You get scared when that happens, don’t you?

I: Yeah.

Y: Actually, I get really frustrated when Ikuno’s strings break. I’ll say something about how she has to set them up better. It really bugs me.

I: Sorry!

Y: I’ve had that happen to me, too, but only once at an important time. We were in Kyoto, and I was about to play the intro for Slow Coaster, and right then, twang!, my string broke. So I asked our guitarist at the time, Junko, to play the intro for me, but then she said “How’s it go, again?” (laughter) So I’d say “D!” and she’d play D, and then “F!”, and so on. I had to talk her through the whole thing.

A: Like we were a band that’d just gotten together on the spot, or something.

Y: And then after I restrung it, it was out of tune, and I had to adjust it by a half or a whole fret, but I was in such a panic that I couldn’t do it at all.

A: But in a way, a string breaking is just an accident, and not our fault, right? You can fix that pretty easily.

Y: But part of it is that me and Ikuno don’t change our strings too often. (laughter)

A: Yeah, you’re sort of famous for that. Famous for not changing your strings.

Y: In a way, I’m being ecologically conscious.

A: Right, I suppose you could say you’re being earth-friendly.

Y: By cutting down on waste, right? Actually, on that last tour in America, I didn’t change them much at all.

I: Yeah, people respected you for that.

A: Yes, I guess that’s one of our legends.

Y: But I do change them, honest.

A: I wonder if I’ve got anything…well, I break my sticks a lot.

Y: But wasn’t there that one time where the bass drum broke? And after I said something, they were like, “Wait, a girl broke the bass drum?” (laughter)

A: But I didn’t mention it until after we’d finished playing. There’s actually more than one skin on a bass drum, and the second layer hadn’t broken, so sound-wise it was basically the same. But that was some kind of event, right? And after us was some really great band.

Y: Oh. Sorry about that.

A: So of course I made to sure to say sorry to the drummer, and say I’d get it replaced immediately. So I guess there’s been things like that.

I: Well, the one I most remember with Ayumi is that time with the smoke…

Y: Oh, yeah, in LA. Tommy, you’ve gotta hear this.

T: Smoke?

A: Smoke came out of my monitor.

T: Wow, you’ve had all kinds of things happen.

Y: Yeah, all kinds. But really, LA, or that club in LA, was just awful.

A: Everything was awful there.

Y: Like the PA system being down, and nobody announcing us when we got started, and the sound was just…

T: Was the audience booing?

A: And when somebody went to say something the person in charge of the PA, it turned out they’d gone out to buy beer.

I: That was unbelievable, wasn’t it? (sounds of agreement)

A: In Japan, at least.

Y: Honestly, it was unbelievable. So, do we have any stories from the America tour?

A: Well, speaking of the America tour. (chuckle) Last year, in March…well, I guess this isn’t actually part of the tour, but when we were traveling, I…

Y: Ohhh! (laughter) Have you heard this one? Seriously, this girl… Have you heard about The Denver Incident?

T: I haven’t.

Y,I: She really blew it that time.

A: So, we were going from New York to Seattle…

Y: Seattle by way of Denver, right?

A: But supposedly it was a direct flight to Seattle. Anyway, I was relaxing and taking a nap in the plane, and we landed. It seemed like they were asking people to get off, and everyone was getting off with their luggage, so I thought, “Oh, this is it.” And there’s the place with the luggage…they take your luggage, right? And you have to go pick it up. Normally I walk with everybody, but for some reason I walked off quickly by myself. I got to the luggage place, and waited for a while. I thought, “Man, where is everybody? Oh, they must not know how to get here!” (laughter) So then I just waited there by myself. The airport was pretty huge, and I didn’t realize that was Denver. It turned out Denver was just a stop on the way.

Y: You thought we were in Seattle, right?

A: Yeah, I thought we were in Seattle already. And I was thinking, “Man, they’re slow!” The airport was big, and you had to ride a tram to get to the luggage place, so I thought to myself, “Haha, they didn’t realize you have to ride a tram to get here!” Then suddenly, our manager, Ms. Arai, came running at me with this scary look on her face. “This is the wrong place! We haven’t reached Seattle yet!” she said. And I went “Whaaat?!!”

Y: In the end, she missed the flight.

T: She missed it?

Y: The rest of us went on ahead.

A: I really caused a lot of trouble for everybody.

Y: But it wasn’t so bad, right? You made it onto the next flight…

A: Yeah, the next flight, luckily.

T: Were you by yourself then?

A: No, Ms. Arai was with me. That helped a lot.

T: You can count on her, huh?

A: I really can.

Y: That’s The Denver Incident.

A: The Denver Incident. It’s also in my diary on the homepage, so if you want more details you can read about it there. (laughter)

Y: You got any memories of America, Ikuno?

I: Let’s see. Hmmm. I think Seattle was a nice place. (laughter)

T: Well, you went there to do shows, but you had time when you were free, right?

Y: Yes, but when we were free…well, you know, the Pillows really hate sight-seeing. They absolutely hate it.

T: Is it OK to say that?

Y: I dunno, but really, they’re pretty intense about that. But we like sightseeing, like most people, even when we’re traveling in Japan. Of course, it’s not like we’re traveling around just to sightsee, but as we’re doing our shows, we like to look around and enjoy the places we go to. Like, when we’re in Kyoto we always go around looking at the temples. It’s become a tradition. So even in America, we always try to go to the big tourist attractions of all the cities we go to.

T: But you’re going to America again, right? Are you going to go to the places you didn’t see last time? Anything you’re looking forward to?

Y: Yeah, actually…after I’ve been around a city once, I feel like that’s enough.

T: You get bored easy, huh?

Y: Well, the first time we went to New York, a few years ago, we went and saw the Statue of Liberty, and were really into seeing all the sights. And we had fun, and came back, and then went again with the Pillows last year. And again, everybody said they wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, even Ikuno…

I: Yeah, I really wanted to see that liberty thing.

A: “Liberty thing”? You mean Statue of Liberty, right?

Y: And I felt like I didn’t want to go, since I’d already seen it! But I went anyway. Really, I’m OK once I’ve seen something once. Next time we’re going to…what is it, only the West Coast? And, let’s see, we’ve been to Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it’ll be our first time going to San Diego, Eugene, and…Portland. We’re really looking forward to it.

T: Have you looked up anything on those places?

Y: I don’t really buy guidebooks, but Ikuchin usually…

I: Actually, I bought one, but they cover San Diego in only four pages, and it’s a really thick book. (laughter)

Y: Yeah, that’s right.

I: I think they’ve got an aquarium, so I’d like to see that, but…

A: Is that all they had listed?

I: That, and the…US Army base.

Y: Yeah, they say San Diego’s the city Top Gun was filmed in! So we’re excited.

T: What about the food?

Y: Well, the food…I’m really picky about food, even when I’m in Japan. And, y’know, I really like Western food, so I thought I’d do fine in America, but everything there looks good and tastes awful.

T: “Awful”?

Y: I’m not sure if I should say that, but…

T: Maybe you just had bad luck?

Y: Well, maybe, since I only go to cheap places. So yeah, maybe that’s the reason, but I hated everything I ate there.

I: You get tired of it, really.

Y: Yeah, you do. But it’s not like I start wanting to eat Japanese food instead! It’s just that things look so good, but they really aren’t once you try them. (laughter) I mean, there’s all this good-looking food, but not much I can actually eat.

A: Also, things sort of taste different than they do in Japan…

Y: Yeah! Everybody adds all these unnecessary flavors to everything! Herbs, and things like that. Really, it’s OK just the normal way!

A: We made a lot of mistakes with things like that.

Y: We sure did. The drinks were all SO sweet, too! God, I couldn’t take it! (laughter)

A: Shall we play a song? OK, then I’ll introduce it. So, since we’re going to America–actually that’s not really the reason–we have a cover song. It’s the… Buzzcocks?

Y: Yes. It’s a cool song, isn’t it?

A: Yes, it is. Here we go: “Ever Fallen In Love.”

—–

Y: After the Buzzcocks song, you heard “Lemon Grass Foo Foo.”

A: Yes, it’s on our album “Ivy.” Please check it out.

Y: So, we’re already at the end.

A: Yes. How was it?

I: That was quick!

Y: We talked too much!

A: We did, didn’t we?

Y: I think I talked too fast, huh? What do you think, Tommy?

T: What? I think that was just fine.

Y: I’ve gotta talk slower! (laughter)

T: It was fine.

Y: No, I feel bad. Well, let’s have everyone give their impressions of the day.

A: Well, I called myself the MC when I got started, (laughter) but man was I a crappy MC. I’m going to think about what I did and try harder next time.

Y: Next time might be our last, you know.

A: That’s true. I guess if we got cancelled after this, that’d make this show a memorable occasion..

Y: What about you, Ikuno?

I: Well, it was fun. It went by a lot quicker than I expected. I wasn’t sure I’d have anything to talk about…

A: At first, yeah…

Y: But really, there’s a lot to talk about, isn’t there? (laughter) And Tommy?

T: Oh, really, I was just doing my best to keep up.

Y: C’mon, keep up! So, we’d like to get faxes from you! Here’s our fax number. Ayumi?

A: OK. Tokyo, 03-5456-4978.

Y: One more time.

A: 03-5456-4978.

Y: OK! Please send us something. Also, please check out our homepage. We’ve got information on our upcoming activities, and releases, and all sorts of things. The, uh, address number–is that what you call it?

T: URL.

Y: URL? Sorry about that. It’s noodles.velvet.jp. Please give it a look. And, well then. (laughter) Tommy?

T: This is going to be a weekly program, right? So I hope we get more listeners each week, and that a lot of you come to see the Noodles’ shows.

All: Right.

Y: We hope you come see our shows, and listed to our CDs, and come see our homepage.

I: Everyone’s going to be pretty busy.

Y: Yeah, you’ll all be busy!

T: But we’re looking forward to the West Coast tour. We hope you get some recordings of songs or people talking on the tour so we can listen to them on the next show.

Y: Yes, songs or comments from the bands we play with.

T: Get something we can use as a jingle.

Y: A jingle? OK.

A: Well then, it’s…

Y: It’s farewell!

A: Yes, farewell! Look forward to another Noodles Hot Splash next week. We’re the Noodles.

Y: Yoko, on vocals, and…

I: Ikuno, on bass, and…

A: Ayumi, on drums. And…

Y: Our boy mascot?

T: Tommy. (laughter)

A: So, see you next week.

All: OK! Bye-bye.

Where is noodles from?
Japan.

How did noodles form?
We formed the band as friends in 1991.

How were you introduced to music?
We started playing instruments once we formed the band.

When or how did you learn to play music or instruments?
When I was a kid I listened to The Carpenters and other oldies, and from there I got into music.

Were any of you in bands before noodles?
No.

Who were your rock n roll heros growing up, japanese and or western?
From oldies to The Pixies, there’ve been a lot.

Besides Yoko’s Mustang and Ikuno’s 4001 Rick what other guitars or equipment do you like or use? Pedals, amplifiers, anything, there’s a few of us here that are real gearheads.
We use a Fender Twin Reverb as a guitar amp and Tama drums. The bass amp is acoustic. Currently, I’m not using a Mustang, but a new Fender Cyclone.

Will Junko be replaced?
No, we’re going to remain a trio.

Now that you are a three piece band, what kind of adjustments will you be making?
We have one less guitar, but other than that nothing’s really going to change.

Sometimes you write and sing in english, why is that?
When we want to stress something in our sound, we sing in English.

Is being a noodle a full-time job, or do the band members have other occupations?
No.

What can be expected from noodles in the future?
We will continue to make good music.

Is it just me or does Ayumi remind you of Ringo?
Well, I don’t hate Ringo… .

The Smashing Pumpkins/Ben’s Symphonic Orchestra/Harco/スネオヘアー/Gash/Muse/The Animalhouse/Junket/seafood/The Webb Brothers/Llama Farmers/Herman Dune/Action Spectacular/Lincoln/Gel/Elastica/ザ・スズナリ/Domino label

[NO EFFECT NO.3]　translation into English
Happy New Year! I guess 2001 means we’re in a new century now …and Kimura Takuya’s getting married, too. So, by the way, I’m a night person. I never wake up before noon unless it’s for work. I get all my sleep before noon, see, so why would I be awake then? I think I generally went to sleep around 10 when I was a kid, and then 12 when I was in high school, and then I started staying up later and later, and now I go to bed around 5 am. I’m one of those people who can fall asleep anywhere, so it takes me 20 minutes at most to fall fast asleep once I’m in bed. It’s kind of fun to think things over while I’m waiting to fall asleep, but I go to sleep quickly, so if I try to think up the set list for my next show or something like that, I’ll usually have only picked about five songs before I’m out.

My favorite time of day is late at night, between midnight and 3 am. I watch a lot of late-night TV. Yeah, you might wonder what on earth I’m doing until 4 am every night, but I don’t really do anything in particular. Even when I’m feeling kind of sleepy, I feel like it’s a waste to just go to sleep before three, so I’ll always just watch some TV. I don’t understand mah-jongg at all, but for some reason I like watching mah-jongg shows like “Wareme de Pon.” (although I naturally don’t watch the whole thing) I like “Tailor’s Workshop”, too. I wish they’d make something for me. A while ago I was watching that and started wanting to make something myself, so I tried to add something to some clothes of my own, but I messed up. I guess I shouldn’t try to use a sewing machine that late at night. But you know what’s surprisingly boring, is late night TV movies. Don’t you think so? I wish they’d play better stuff, like the satellite cable channels do.

I have a really serious hatred of getting up early. It’s not that I have low blood pressure or anything like that, I just hate it. I hate getting up early for check-out when I’m on tours, too, but I’d hate going back to my room and getting to sleep early the night before even more. And I have dreams almost every night. They’re in color, and all kinds of people show up in them. I dream about the house I lived in as a kid a lot, and I’m happy whenever my old dog shows up. I also have a lot of dreams about the Noodles. A pretty common one is that we’re stressed out because we’re late for our set. I also have this silly dream where I start laughing so hard on stage that I can’t sing. Every once in a while, I dream about the Noodles playing for an audience of 20,000 like GLAY does. I really would like to do that, but I know that’s getting way ahead of myself. Although, Ayumi also had a pretty ambitious dream a long time ago, where they were saying on TV that, “Ayumi from the Noodles has passed Hitoshi Matsumoto to become the richest person in the world!”

Come to think of it, video games are probably one of the best ways to pass time late at night. There must be tens of thousands of people up late at night-I wonder how many of them have lost themselves in a video game? Or are computers the big thing now? I’d like to use the internet, too. I’d like to surf the web. Hey, what’s the “IT” in the “IT revolution” stand for?

Some friends and I talked a while ago about whether we laugh when we’re watching TV alone. Pretty much everybody said they laughed, but I don’t actually laugh out loud. I don’t talk to the TV, either, or even to myself. I do sing, though. They don’t play the commercial with the Noodles in it that much, but I sing along with the commercials a lot. Like the Sokenbicha one, or the one for Onoden.

So, that’s how this golden time of day is slipping away from me right now.

-Kimura Takuya is a famous actor.
-Wareme de Pon is a show which just features celebrities playing mah-jongg.
-Tailor’s Workshop is a show where two teams of clothing designers compete to make an outfit for a guest celebrity.

[NO EFFECT NO.2]　translation into English
Hello. It’s so hot lately. I guess I summer is here. I haven’t gone swimming at the beach for a long time now, but when I was a kid I went all the time.

It seems like around middle school most girls stop swimming and just run around giggling on the shore in cute bathing suits, but I always just wanted to swim. It actually doesn’t feel so good when I swim in the ocean now, but as a kid, I’d swim like crazy until my lips turned blue.

At the beach, they have those buoys that mark where it’s OK to swim, and where it’s OK for boats to go, so I’d always swim out to the buoys that marked the start of the boat area, until I got scared by how cold the water was, and by how far I was from the beach. And after I came back in, I’d go back out again. I was a dumb kid.

Of course I didn’t just swim straight out to sea. I’d get carried sideways a lot by the waves, so I didn’t know where I was when I finally got back on shore. So I’d walk along the hot, hot sand, cooling my feet once in a while under people’s umbrellas, until I made it back the sheet (?) my family had spread out. And there my mom would be, waiting with a scary look on her face.

The ramen they had out by the beach was really good. I don’t like ramen much normally, but the ramen there was great, so I had that all the time. Why are places by the beach always so expensive, though? Sodas would cost like 400 yen. That’s like Miami prices! And why do you always feel so sluggish on the way home from the beach? My legs would be so heavy I could barely walk. (from swimming too much!)

There’s one more thing I can never forget that happened in the summer. In grade school, our homework for the summer vacation was to grow a morning glory. Each of us was supposed to keep a morning glory at home and keep a journal of its growth, and bring it with us to school on the first of September. I got mine to grow pretty big, and took lots of pictures of it. Really, all we needed in the picture was just the flower, but for some reason I’m in all of those photos.

I even broke off stalks of bamboo from the yard so the vines would have something to grow around. It ended up growing all big and lush, so when I went over to my friends’ houses and saw their wimpy little morning glories, I’d ask them if they were even giving it any sunlight. I was pretty proud of my morning glory. Like, really proud.

But on the 31st of August, a horrible accident took place! When I was out of the house in the afternoon, the dog I had tried to play (?) with the morning glory, and when I came home in the evening, it had scattered the morning glory all over the yard!

When I thought about it, I realized my dog had always kind of had his eye on that morning glory, but I never thought he’d do this to it. And on the last day of vacation! I cried like a baby while I gathered up all the scattered petals so I could press them. I hated that sweet old dog so much! The next day, I went back to school with all the other kids, with their dark tans from summer vacation. In my backpack I had a single picture of the morning glory. A picture from when it was still alive. This is a true story, by the way. Sniff.

I still have that picture at home. It’s a beautiful picture, and the morning glory is in full bloom. The only funny thing is, that stupid, sweet dog is there in the background, too.

Good-bye, summer.

Snug/Coldplay/Tahiti 80/Of Montreal/Chewy/Dressy Bessy/Ant/Bikeride/Linus of Hollywood/Miles/Luminous Orange/Graham Coxon/Midget/Ca-p/Harco/Shortcut Miffy!/Water Gun/Happy Space Gun/Glow/Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci/Petit Vode/…And You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead/Giant Step/The Crocketts/The Flaming Stars/Polak/Hefner/Chicago Bass/Masahiro Naoe/Idlewild/空気公団/The Chewinggum Weekend/Soul Wax/June6 & The Exit Wounds/cafe-au-lavel

[NO EFFECT NO.1]　translation into English
Hi, this is Yoko from the Noodles. I’ll be writing a regular column here starting this issue, and I hope you’ll keep reading it.

For my first article I thought I’d do the appropriate thing for a music magazine and talk about how I first got into music. The first music I ever heard was the Carpenters. My dad always played the Carpenters in his car, and so when I was around four or five I spent a lot of time singing along to the Carpenters in my imitation English. I think that might be the only cool story from my childhood, really! But anyway, I listened to a lot of Western music. I’ve always liked good songs and good lyrics regardless of genre, and on the weekends I’d actually (I can’t even imagine doing this now) get up early in the morning just to listen to the radio straight all the way until evening. And that was AM radio! I didn’t start listening to FM until I was in high school. In middle school I was into 60′s music, and I bought a lot of oldies albums and movie soundtracks. I made a lot of mix tapes for my friends back then, even if they didn’t really ask for them. I always put the songs I liked most at the beginning and the end. Yup, I gave a lot of tapes like that out. Back then I liked this 60′s song called “Sad, Unrequited Love.” There were a lot of song titles that started with “sad” in the 60′s, but that was my favorite out of them. The Carpenters got me into those songs, and a lot of other stuff, when I realized that most of the Carpenters songs I liked were covers. I thought that must seem weird, so I went looking for the originals and ended up listening to other bands, like the Beatles. I learned about a lot of music through the Carpenters. And, at some point, I started making my own music instead of just listening. I was into writing poetry when I got started with the Noodles, and I showed a notebook of those poems to our guitarist, Junko, when I invited her. Just showed her that and said, “Want to start a band?”–scary, huh? Actually, reading those poems now, they do kind of scare me.

Oh, this is kind of random, but when the Noodles had just gotten together, I loved walking around with my guitar. Takashi from Miffy wrote the same thing last issue, too, but really, no matter where I was going, I’d take my guitar with me. Even if I was just going shopping someplace nearby I’d act like I was coming home from practice. Pretty stupid, right?

Just shows I was faking it back then. Now I really hate walking around with my guitar. (I like guitars, though. Mustangs are awesome!) And actually, I’m listening to music less and less. I don’t put CDs on at home or anything. But I still enjoy finding a good new song more than anything else. I used to spend a lot of time looking around for songs I liked, but at some point I decided I wanted to create those songs myself. Now, I want my own songs to make me feel something deep. I want the songs I write to move me more than the ones I just listen to. Actually, I’m guess I’m still listening to all kinds of music, it’s just that my friends who aren’t in bands seem like they know more about all the new bands, and have membership cards at places like Tower Records, and that’s sort of odd.

By the way, Noodles will be releasing a maxi single in August. The recording’ll be over soon, and then all we do is wait for it to go on sale. Somehow, I feel a bigger sense of accomplishment with this album than I did the others. This next maxi is really good, so I hope you’re looking forward to hearing it!

-”Sad, Unrequited Love” is the Japanese title for Helen Shapiro’s “You Don’t Know.”
-Takashi Numakura is the vocalist and guitar player for the band Shortcut Miffy.