Eddie Japan took some time to answer our questions about their music and songwriting. Let’s see what they say!
First off, What’s up with your name? Is there a story behind it?
David Santos: I have always been a massive David Bowie fan, and prior to this band forming I had the idea of doing a glam-inspired concept album with a Ziggy Stardust-like character. When I was in high school, some referred to me as “Eddie Munster” because I had a widow’s peak. “Japan” comes from the line in the song “Ziggy Stardust”, “…like some cat from Japan”, which I always liked. One day I put the two words together and thought it sounded cool. I never made the glam concept record, but years later when this band was forming and needed a name, I tossed out Eddie Japan and everyone approved. As fate would have it, our forthcoming record, Pop Fiction, is something of a concept album featuring a character called Edward Japan.
Tell us about your musical past, would you tell us about your early years?
I started as a drummer at the age of 12 and realized at around the age of 15 that I could sing. After seeing U2 in concert at 16, I knew I wanted to be a singer. I started playing original music right out of the gate in high school as a singer/lyricist, and eventually picked up the guitar and started writing words and music.
How would you describe your sound?
We describe Eddie Japan’s music as Cinematic Pop. In the beginning, we were influenced by orchestral pop bands and artists like Love, Scott Walker, The Divine Comedy and The Last Shadow Puppets. So there was a grandness to the music, and people would often tell us that our songs should be in a Tarantino movie, or that we should write a Bond theme. We had a trumpet player for many years so that definitely colored our sound. As we’ve evolved and the guitars have taken a few steps forward, there is still an epic quality to much of what we do. I guess at heart, we’re a pop rock band – an epic pop rock band.
Which artists have the biggest influence on your sound?
That’s actually tough to answer because as a seven-piece, there are so many between us. We tend to be more influenced by genres than by individual bands. We draw from glam, classic rock, alternative rock, new wave, post punk and indie rock. But to name a few in regard to our forthcoming record, Pop Fiction, traces of David Bowie, U2, The Killers, The Cars, Pulp, and Purple Rain-era Prince might be heard swirling in the mix.
What’s the last song you listened to?
“In Tandem” by Thus Love. They’re a new band out of Brattleboro, Vermont that I am rather obsessed with.
What’s your source for hearing new music?
My bandmates, Spotify and just scrolling social media on my phone.
Who is your dream producer?
Chris Thomas has produced some of my favorite records: Country Life by Roxy Music, Listen Like Thieves by INXS, and Different Class by Pulp, not to mention iconic records like Never Mind the Bollocks and the first three Pretenders records. I think he would be the perfect match for our sound.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
We’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Greg Hawkes, keyboardist for The Cars, since 2016. Greg produced our 2017 record Golden Age, and in 2019, we began performing full sets of music by The Cars with Greg around the Northeast. He also plays on two tracks on the new record, and appears in the video for one of the songs called “Time Machine.” So, we’re good!
What led you to music, and what motivates you to keep making it?
I can’t really remember a time when I haven’t been obsessed with music. As a very young child, there were certain songs that I would play over and over again because I was transfixed by their melodies. Taking up the drums was the start of being involved, but when I realized I could sing, that made me want to do it non-stop. Music is so sacred to me that I have to be a part of it – it’s sort of all or nothing. It’s too big and important to be on the sidelines watching. The fact that I am part of this amazing band is enough to make me want to keep going. It’s all about the process of doing it and the enjoyment that it brings.
Tell us about the songwriting process. How does it all come together?
In a perfect world, a song would start with the lyrics. I find that when there is a strong lyrical idea, the song is easier to write and tends to be more interesting. But that’s not always the case, so it might start with a title, a melody, or just the desire to write a certain type of song. I’m not an instrumentalist beyond playing chords on the guitar, but I have a good melodic sense and I can usually get the initial structure together to put together a very rough demo. After that, the band brings it to life.
How do you connect with your audience? What is the easiest way for them to connect with you?
Hopefully, people make a strong connection with the songs. But in 2023, it’s so important to let people in on your story and have them be a part of it. We enjoy meeting new people at shows, and if folks engage with us online, we always engage back. If someone takes the time to comment, compliment, or express something in our space, we don’t take it for granted.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eddiejapan/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6slPuTFBwpuYuIpbk8JY9P?si=7533c2ad36c24dbc
YouTube: https://youtu.be/1fePP2dw9oo
What’s next for you?
Our new record, Pop Fiction, is out on April 28. After that, we have lots of shows planned!
Anything else you’d like to add or let us know about?
We’ll be at Daryl’s House in Pawling, New York, with Greg Hawkes on April 29!
BIO:
Eddie Japan is perhaps the most elegant band to emerge triumphant from Boston’s rough and tumble Rock n’ Roll Rumble, a musical ensemble that feels as comfortable to listen to while sipping champagne at some Great Gatsby flashback party as they do while chugging a beer at a dingy rock club. The band is, at its heart, an exercise in contrasts and time travel. To listen to Eddie Japan is to be transported somewhere else entirely.
Take, for example, the band’s 2015 single, “Albert,” with its smooth, plaintive vocals and big band horns scorching a desert heat-induced mirage of hearing the band play Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca. It’s a richly layered song that feels ripped from time, and yet sits strangely comfortably in the roster of the game Rock Band 4, alongside tracks by the likes of Rush, Soundgarden and fellow Bostonians Aerosmith and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, among numerous others. It’s the band’s best trick: Feeling both classic and fresh, feeling unique and yet fitting well with an eclectic combination of artists.
Perhaps this unique quality is what lends the band so well to time travel: The band has shared the stage with acts such as Midge Ure and The Fixx, and toured with Martha Davis and The Motels, but most recently has made a mark backing Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes playing the band’s classic hits, such as “You Might Think,” “Moving in Stereo” and “Since You’re Gone.” Seeing Eddie Japan in this mode is, on the one hand, a transformation, the band easing into the role of new wave-era rockers with a sort of naturalness, but they also remain very much themselves at the same time, riding on vintage style, gorgeous vocal harmonies and an effortless sense of rock n’ roll cool, both timeless and a band out of time.
Eddie Japan’s 2019 EP The Amorous Adventures of Edward Japan, played with heat and light in ways that captured joy, lust and what’s revealed in the absence of shadow, especially on songs such as “Summer Hair” and “The Dandy of Suburbia.” Those tracks, combined with a handful of new compositions, including last fall’s “Walk Away” and March’s “Time Machine,” will be featured on the band’s latest album, Pop Fiction, set for April 2023 release via Rum Bar Records.
In short, Eddie Japan is not so much a band as an adventure, one which might have you dancing under the stars in a faraway land, or leave you broken in an alleyway past midnight, but which is never, ever dull.
