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BACKGROUND

Artist Bio:  O’summer Vacation is a guitarless, bass-heavy noise punk/mathy new wave band from Kobe, Japan.

Genres: Punk, Hardcore, Math Rock, New Wave

Band Lineup: mikiiiiii (Bass), Ami (Vox), Manu (Drums)

Website: https://osummervacation.bandcamp.com/

Most Recent Release: Wicked Heart (LP, June 2021 [Re-release on Damnably Records along with vinyl edition])

Sputnik User: Dewinged

INTERVIEW

I caught up with Sputnikmusic staff member Dewinged about how his band O’Summer Vacation formed and what touring is like right now, all before receiving some very important nuggets of De-wisdom.

Tell us a little bit about how o’summer vacation formed. Is there a story behind the band name? When did you join the group, and what sparked your interest in making noise/math punk?

o’summer vacation goes way back to that time in 2009 when our band’s dear leader mikiiiiii didn’t have money for a guitar, so he bought a cheap bass instead and started jamming with a couple of friends. He was a big fan of the Touch and Go label bands and early 00s math rock by then. For some reason, probably just laziness, the band never got a guitar player, so they started playing gigs as a trio of bass, drums and vocals. I’ve heard the other option for the band name was something like The Romans or some other historical misconception but instead it seems mikiiiiii wanted something that sparked joy and posi vibes, and nothing like the idea of a summer vacation on the horizon to convey that. I believe the “o’” was a random addition. I joined the band in the summer of 2019, soon after the original release of their first album (yep, I’m not the drummer on the album!) so all this is just part of the lore I’ve learned playing with them these last couple of years. About stylistic choices, mikiiiii, who is the main riff maker, is just fond of making things as un-orthodoxically fun as possible, and he also plays really fucking loud, which translates into me sweating my soul out in every gig so the drums can actually be heard, but there isn’t any conscious choice of genre or sacred bounds. He loops and stacks bass lines and I ride them as fast as I can, wherever they take us.

Give us some insight into the personality of the band. Is it laid back or serious? What unique contributions does each member bring (outside of their instrumental or vocal capabilities)?

Very not serious, and I think it translates well into the music. I mean, even the band’s main concept already sounds like a joke (no guitar, pft, wut?). As I said, mikiiiiii was the founder and the only constant member, the band is basically his baby, so we let him pilot the ship his way while we take decisions as a group. He’s very committed to his craft and his principles, and he usually prefers to be in the background, not a fan of cameras, etc. Ami is just explosive, she loves Cartoon Network, Marvel movies, and she’s a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. She is what in Japanese is referred to as an “otaku”. She’s also quite young so she just performs at a different speed than us two, boring and grumpy old men. As for myself, well, I’ve played in a lot of bands before, so I’m used to the routine and I’m probably the most balanced. We are really, really bad with social media, but I try to keep us alive there in the wild, even if I’m not a big fan of it myself. There’s also the fact that we communicate in Japanese, which is my third language and not necessarily my forte. They are both studying English like crazy now just in case we get to cross the ocean and meet the gaijins.

Summarize o’summer vacation’s musical style and core appeal for our casual listeners/readers. Are there any artists that you can cite for them as an easy point of reference? Also: would you consider any of these artists to be true influences on your craft, or is any overlap merely a result of possessing similar approaches/musical ambitions?

I think our music revolves around making fast-paced, high-tension and short bursts of music, in an approach maybe similar to old school hardcore or grindcore but with the light-hearted feel of new wave, pop, or math rock. Ami’s vocals are very similar to those of Yasuko Onuki from Melt Banana, which has prompted comparisons between both bands, and we are in the same label as Otoboke Beaver, so there’s a bit of unintentional overlap with them too. Me and mikiiiiii like a lot of different music, but we have slightly different upbringings so when we are building songs, our crossed influences come to surface. Sometimes there’s a thrashy riff, sometimes there’s a goth vibe and we know exactly where it’s coming from. As for Ami, she likes really obscure punk, noise, and crust bands, like really, you wouldn’t believe, sometimes I think she’s making up those names.

Your debut LP, Wicked Heart, was revealed to the world last June and received a decent amount of attention on Sputnikmusic. How did the album’s reputation here compare to its reception elsewhere? How concerned are you with the band’s ability to gain traction in the critical and/or public spotlight?

The album was originally thrown into CD format and it has been sold on shows since 2019. It wasn’t until we signed up with Damnably Records last year that the album was officially released. It did gain some traction since it was added to streaming platforms and was released on vinyl. Following up on that we decided to make some videos for some of the songs and make some real effort to promote it. The pandemic nullified every attempt of touring, so we couldn’t really bring it overseas, which was our main goal, but we are still trying to work it out. We are confident that bringing the songs to a live audience will help to spread the word about the album, but so far, our chances have been reduced to local shows. And about o’summer in the Sputdom, our boy Johnnyofthewell was kind enough to write a fantastic review for the album, and he also came to see us live in Kyoto, which was a really good time, so any response it got on Sput is all thanks to him. We treated him to beer and manta ray meat as a token of appreciation.

Based on the feedback you received, was there a particular song (or songs) that garnered the most positive attention? As a band, do you pay attention to that sort of thing when it comes to determining future directions, or do you simply follow your creative instincts?

We asked our friend Ben Willis from a Detroit band called Throwaway to make a video for “Hommage”. We met Ben when we played with them in Osaka a couple of years ago and, actually, I don’t remember if he chose the song or we did, but it worked out great. The opener, “扁桃腺のモニーク” (or just “Monique”), seems to be a crowd favorite, along with the closer “Steeeeel”. My personal favorite is probably “After All”. We do care about these things when we come up with the track list for a particular show but not when writing new songs, no. I try to keep the drum parts as close as possible to the original sound of the band, so it doesn’t stray much from it, but we also like to try new things and, especially, we love to surprise people.

 

The album art for Wicked Heart features an interesting blend of geometry and humanity. Is there a statement behind the artwork (i.e., the duality of O’Summer Vacation’s music between mathy structures and free-spirited energy) or are all inferences merely coincidental?

I think you already put much more thought into what the artwork means than its creator, who is Jyunichi Yabuki, from the band kasuppa. I think they just let him do his abstract thing, which none of us really understand. He’s a very talented artist with a very unique style. The new record will also feature his work, we just got a mocap a few days ago and it’s just crazy stuff.

o’summer vacation’s music is very high energy and seems like it would be an absolute blast live. How has COVID impacted your band’s ability to tour/perform shows?

In 2020 there were months of zero activity, then we started gathering for practice after the summer. In 2021 cases were really low so we resumed playing live. You could notice less people in shows in general but overall it wasn’t too bad. When the second and third wave hit, there was clear evidence that everyone was fed up with the situation, so several live houses and fellow bands decided to ignore the problem and just “rock on!”, you know. Osaka is a wild city and the underground never sleeps. As a result, there were several clusters in live houses we had played or among bands we had played with but for some mysterious reason none of us had gotten the bug yet. We were in talks with the label for a possible tour around the UK this year, but the necronomicron had other plans, so everything is on the air right now. We haven’t lost hope though, we’ll see. It would be a blast to meet some fellow sputters on the way.

Speaking of live shows: what would your dream tour look like? Are there any specific countries or even just continents that you’d want to visit? Would you be touring with any other acts? Opening for them? Headlining? Discuss.

I don’t think we have the name as to headline a tour around our neighborhood even, so if we do tour outside Japan we would probably do it with another band from the label, unless unexpectedly a bigger name shows interest in bringing us along. We all have side jobs, and I am a family man, so the available time for touring at the moment is quite limited, which makes it even more difficult for the label to make plans. The US would likely be a first choice in mikiiiiii’s and Ami’s list of countries to play in, for sure. I would like to play in my hometown in Spain and hang out with the old crew. Besides that, I have a strange fixation with Iceland, so I’d love to play there, if possible with Kælan Mikla (heart emoji). But on top of it all, I would be just fine touring Japan and playing a few festivals in Europe this summer, but it looks like it’s not gonna happen for at least another year.

You joined Sputnikmusic in 2016. What was everyone hyping here around that time? Who were the popular users? What was the drama? Fill us in.

Oh man, that was a good time but also quite turbulent. I remember the Sputistution or whatever it was called, sach and Futures running amok, Potsy being quite abrasive and in general just having a blast re-discovering my love for music while dodging bullets from folks that just wanted, well, drama. I remember people going nuts with Vektor and Ulcerate on one hand, and Death Grips on the other. I had no idea what I was doing. I had just read Mongi’s review for “Mariner” and I thought the comment section was hilarious. As for popular users, Pots had a strong presence I remember, so did Fripper(tronics), and I remember loving Jots’ (JohnnyontheSpot) reviews. KILL was still around I think, and Doofus was contributor (or became contributor soon later?) but I also remember reading every review he posted. Good times, good times indeed.

Leave us with some parting words of wisdom (Dewi-sdom? De-wisdom?)

Certainly, Sow, my dear friend. Did you know… I have in good faith that listening to “Wicked Heart” increases your sexual stamina by a whipping 136%. It also improves your skin pigment, making you grossly incandescent and therefore, infinitely more attractive. Your IQ will also go up dramatically but be careful: more insight means you’ll be closer to enlightenment, and consequently, to the cliffs of madness, so listen with measure. It’s just a few bucks on Bandcamp anyway and the vinyl is red, which, as I saw on someone’s list, ranks on top of the best hi-fi wavelength choices for analog stereos and it’s used in NASA to perform scans of rocks in Mars. Food for thought, am I right? Thanks for having me/us. Arigatou!