Painfulness and beauty that remain in vogue ~the music Luby Sparks aim to leave~ : Newave Japan

Interview-en | 2019.02.13 2019.02.14

文： Asahi　写：後藤倫人　

Timeless shock
Cultural influences of movies
Timeless sounds
Things remain in vogue

“Newave Japan” which introduces music life of attention young artist who is responsible for Japan’s future music scene. At this time, we interviewed Luby Sparks that attracts a lot of people with the sound and the worldview greatly influenced by the 80s and the 90s is interviewed. We asked two of the members Natsuki (ba|vo) & Erika (vo) about the musical and cultural root of the band that plays opening act for various foreign artists’ Japan concert, and what they aim to express through their music.

Luby Sparks Profile

Timeless shock

ーLuby Sparks’s music has a strong taste of the 80s and the 90s. When did you encounter that kind of music?

Natsuki:

My parents would play foreign music at home all the time. My dad loved Police and my mom loved Sade, means they both liked soul or R&B. When I first got my own CDs, I was in Junior-high, I was really into Jamiroquai. Until I entered high-school, I was listening to the rock music trending at that time like Arctic Monkeys or Franz Ferdinand. Then I started working part-time at Tower Record after entering high-school, where I gradually got deep into the 90s’ Alternative rock, Shoegazing and guitar pop.

ーWhat made you want to listen to the 90s?

Natsuki:

I saw a video of Yuck, a band that our producer Max Bloom belongs to, being on TV on YouTube and that was a total shock to me. The sound I heard was completely different from any music I knew. The volume of the guitar was so loud, the sound of it was insanely distorted, the riff was stuck in my head and the vocal sang languorously, and I got like “What the heck is that!?” From that experience, I started to listen to bands influenced them, such as Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur. JR, My Bloody Valentine.

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ーAlthough it was music in the past, you found it fresh and new.

Natsuki:

Exactly. Though I always liked foreign music, I was only listening to melodic music like Arctic Monkeys, so it was interesting for me to know there were different types of rock exist.

ーWhat about you, Erika?

Erika:

I was brought up in an environment where foreign music was always played at home as well. My mom used to play in a punk band and she dragged me into it. She played The Clash or Ramones or The Toy Dolls a lot, and my dad would play hard and manly kind, like Rage Against the Machine.

ーWhat was the music you first listened to voluntarily?

Erika:

I loved Avril Lavigne and listened to her first album “Let Go” the most. It was simply so cool. I also liked Joan Jett so much that I would copy The Runaways’s outfit.

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Open Spotify

ーSo you used to listen to foreign music all the time. What about Japanese ones?

Natsuki:

Well, I used to only listen to foreign music, but my co-worker at Tower Record told me about Supercar (スーパーカー) and I got shocked such band existed in the 90s in Japan. Now it’s my favorite Japanese band.
Since then I’ve listened to other Japanese bands but I always find myself liking the 90s’ bands like Fishmans(フィッシュマンズ). We formed the band Luby Sparks hoping to play music to be listened to for long like 90s’.