Make Believe Mailer 94: Suiyoubi No Campanella (Wednesday Campanella) 2015 Interview
Pulling From The "Deleted From The Internet, But I Saved It" Pile
Sitting down with KOM_I of Suiyoubi No Campanella (Wednesday Campanella) in 2015 presented a first for me — an artist so open to talking that me and my editor at MTV 81 had to be the ones to stop the interview due to other work obligations. She was just so thrilled to chat about everything — her music, her approach to performance, her life — in a way few artists I’ve ever interviewed have been (bonus points for a management team not interfering in it…I had other sit-downs this same year where staff were clearly LINE messaging one another “when the fuck is this person going to be done”). At the start of the afternoon, KOM_I told us she planned to head out to Shinjuku Loft later on to catch (extremely 2015) Nature Danger Gang live. As evening set in, I think she would have been happy just sitting in her label office another two hours.
I cherish this interview because it’s the only time I ever formally interviewed KOM_I, who is one of my favorite live performers of all time and the animating force behind a project defining large chunks of the 2010s (and, thus, my 20s). I tried to do it again in the years after, when Suiyoubi No Campanella released maybe my favorite album of the decade. I did talk to project producer Kenmochi Hidefumi for The Japan Times a few years after (another cherished chat), but never KOM_I. I should have kept the conversation going.
In 2021, KOM_I left the project, with Harajuku model Utaha taking her space. Suiyoubi No Campanella Original Flavor was very successful for a bit — appearances on Music Station, SMAP X SMAP, commercials galore, Budokan — but the Reboot has scored a TikTok-powered megahit while the Gen Z face of the project is EVERYWHERE in 2023, including Coca-Cola bottles and Pizza Hut ads. I think both are great in their own ways — Utaha has found her voice and perspective, and it’s fascinating how KOM_I captured Millenial tension while Utaha nails the following generation’s viewpoint, to the point comparing the two feels like a sociology paper in waiting — but after checking in on the group’s newest single bound for mainstream attention and remembering they will once again play at Budokan early next year, I caught myself feeling a little nostalgic.
So what better way to look back then by raising the dead? While the fine upstanding folks at Viacom Japan erased all evidence of MTV 81 from the web (save for still-baffling appearance in Clear Bandit’s biggest moment), I saved all my stories (important lesson fellow writers of the digital age!). Here’s my interview with KOM_I — currently a new mom after giving birth in the rainforest, the most KOM_I move possible — from 2015, as it appeared on the site nearly a decade ago except we spelt her artist name really weirdly so I changed it to KOM_I.
A steady stream of salarymen walk out of the Mori Trust Tower in downtown Tokyo late one Friday evening, each one looking more exhausted than the last. As they stagger towards the subway, the lead singer of rising outfit Suiyoubi No Campanella (“Wednesday’s Little Bell”), KOM_I, zips around the plaza, stopping only to make the occasional goofy face or pretend to fall down. She spends several minutes in awe of MTV 81’s photographer’s beard, before zipping off again1.
“I have some shows coming up this weekend, so I had all of yesterday to relax,” she says several minutes later when asked where she gets all this energy. “I had a friend who beatboxes come over late at night, and they ended up performing for my dog.”
But listening to any of the music she’s recorded as Suiyoubi No Campanella, where she’s joined by producer Kenmochi Hidefumi and “jack of all trades” Dir.F (who shuns interviews), and it’s clear she’s always switched on. The group’s songs jump from jazzy shuffles to high-energy techno, KOM_I entrusted to sing or rap about subjects ranging from guided bus tours to vampires over it. The next night, at the BAYCAMP 2015022 mini festival, she darts through the thousand-plus crowd and eventually ended up performing from the edge of a mezzanine.
MTV81 caught up with KOM_I the day before that gig, to talk about her origins, how she views Suiyoubi No Campanella in the J-pop landscape and her perfect Wednesday.
MTV81: Suiyoubi No Campanella has been getting a bit more attention since releasing your fourth mini album last November -- you’ve been written about more by Japanese media, had more live shows and even Kyary Pamyu Pamyu shared your song “Momotaro” on Twitter. How have the last few months felt for you?
KOM_I: Suiyoubi No Campanella has been getting a lot more radio airplay as of late, so the whole project has felt a bit more buzzy in local scenes. Like, more people are hearing about us in Hokkaido, Osaka and Hiroshima, for example.
It’s like a typhoon. When I’m at one of my shows, I get to see people waiting for me and showing appreciation for Suiyoubi. That’s the raging part. But in regular life, it’s like the eye of the storm -- it’s quiet and calm. I can go out in public and it’s not like tons of people crowd around me.
Do you have any sort of routine you do before a live show, to get your energy up?
Well, first I always stretch, and then I listen to music, though not necessarily anything related to my music. I’ll walk around the livehouse and become part of “normal life” -- for example, if I’m in Shinjuku, I’ll wander around the crowded streets and feel like “this is regular life.” But it also feels a little boring to me, so that gives me ambition to make the live show better. Regular society might be boring, but I’m going to try to make it interesting.
What was your childhood like?
That’s a long story (laughs). I grew up in the suburbs of Tokyo, in a bedtown. But I didn’t really like where I was born and raised. A lot of the people around me, many of the adults, were teachers and salary men. I felt like I wouldn’t become one of those. I wanted to meet many different types of people, doing all sorts of interesting things.
I went to junior high school, and was surrounded by lots of smart and rich kids. I thought it was quite boring. At that time, though, I learned about Peace Boat, a non-governmental organization where you see the world via a ship3. Eventually, I went to their office, and met lots of really interesting people, and a lot of dropouts. In Japan, many are afraid of having a gap in their career. There were a lot of people like that at Peace Boat, so I’d talk to them about it. That had a big impact on me.
How did you meet the other members of Suiyoubi No Campanella?
At a house party. I hadn’t felt like I needed to become a singer or a performer. They asked me to take part in this project, and even though I didn’t have a desire to be a musician at that time, I thought it would be a fun thing to do. So I jumped on board.
When Campanella was starting up, I listened to a lot of Cornelius, among others, music that featured a lot of programming. I also really liked scum music4, which was like a really filthy take on rock. Like, one band, the lead vocalist would throw his crap around during live shows5. I got my live influence from that (laughs). But musically, more so from a band like Supercar.
There was a point, as Campanella, where we had to decide where to take our music -- like, should we go more pop, or go more underground? But then I listened to [Osaka noise band] Boredoms and had an epiphany that we didn’t really have to choose.
Where did the name for the project come from?
Kenmochi had already decided on it by the time I got involved with it. He thought a long name was good, that the longer the title was the more it sticks with a listener. Plus, having a mix of Japanese hiragana characters and katakana characters was a good way to make it stick. When Japanese people see the list of musicians on a festival website, for example, the Japanese names stick out more. And Kenmochi thought the sounds in “Suiyoubi No Campanella” just sounded good!
An American magazine called Complex recently included you in a list of “25 Japanese hip-hop artists you should know.” Do you consider yourselves a hip-hop act?
(Overly serious voice) Yes, of course. I am. (Laughs)
On our first album, we had maybe two or three songs that included a rap part. But we’ve been featuring it more, especially on the last release. My voice isn’t good at rhyming, it sounds fluffy. I can’t attack words strongly. Singing fits more with my voice, but Kenmochi likes when there is tension. He wants me to rap, because it doesn’t fit rap. That gives the music a sense of something being just off.
Where do you see Suiyoubi No Campanella in the Japanese music landscape?
There’s like, an idol world over here, and the J-rock scene over here, and off in the corner is the programmed beats place. I think we are sort of in the middle of all that.
You have a lot of videos, and a lot of unique ones at that. What’s your role in making those?
I actually have a lot more chances to express myself creatively when it comes to the videos. Kenmochi makes all the music, but I am more involved on the video side of things from the get-go.
Your videos have a lot of traditional Japanese imagery in them, what are you going for with that?
We actually make sure that our videos our never too Japanesey. Like, we don’t want to film during the middle of the day, with all these recognizable landmarks behind us. The video for “Marie Antoinette,” for example, is filmed in Asakusa, which is popular with tourists because of the Senso-ji temple. But filming it when we did...even a lot of Japanese people haven’t seen that location late at night. I had seen a photo of it online, and liked the depth of it.
Since I grew up in the suburbs, nothing around me looked traditional. It was all concrete and apartment buildings. So old-school style Japanese things really appealed to me. It was a whole new world for me.
Live, you are the only one on stage performing, with just a laptop. Why do it that way?
The other two guys don’t want to go on stage (laughs).
Originally, Suiyoubi No Campanella featured three women total...I was the last one to join. But the other two left, so the situation demanded that I perform alone.
How do you feel on stage now? Are you nervous?
Nervous! Very nervous! Especially on the bigger stages, surrounded by lots of people.
You have a one-man show coming up this March at [famous Tokyo livehouse] Liquidroom, how are you preparing for that?
Actually, that one should be better for me. Since Suiyoubi No Campanella is the only act to play, we are going to have a DJ break up the show in the middle. The DJ will be a Kansai artist named Oorutaichi6, he produced our forthcoming single. It’s the first time someone besides Kenmochi has made a song for us. We need to change things up a bit.
One of the more unique videos on YouTube related to Suiyoubi No Campanella is one where you perform a mini concert while walking through the streets of Shibuya. Why did you do that?
I had a big gig in September of last year, and I did that video the week before. So to hype it up more, we did this street live. It was really fun, and I want to do more activities like that, I love doing exciting things, things that are a little weird. So, doing shows not on a stage, taking it somewhere different...like the street...is a rush for me.
Last, what’s your image of the perfect Wednesday?
Take a nap! Take a nap outside, actually. Ideally, in a field or forest. I love sleeping, and watching my dreams. It is more exciting than a movie for me.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
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I can not find these photos, unfortunately.
So February 2015.
This is the moment everything about KOM_I and Suiyoubi No Campanella clicked into place for me, as I’ve known multiple people who have also done this…and yeah, there is definitely a type willing to spend months on a modified cruise ship seeing the world, and KOM_I is it.
Nature Danger Gang or Have A Nice Day! are probably more approachable versions of this.
Young Patrick should have asked “who??????”
Who KOM_I would go on to work closer with on the album Yakushima Treasure a few years later.