Interview
(Progressive Newsletter Nr.25 05/99)
excerpts from an interview with Tamami Yamamoto (Vocals)
Keizo had been thinking to form his band to expose his piece of works and when he met Sato-ken who was strong incentive for Keizo. Right after his announcement of foundation in 1992, me - Tamami, Tachibana and a drummer and keyboardist were called for the band. I sang in a jazz-fusion-pop band, Tachibana was the co-player of Keizo in their support band of well-known singer in Japan. Wappa Gappa soon started to do live performances in Tokyo area and it follows the aim to release their CD album. Meanwhile making demo tapes, Mineo and Hideaki were welcomed to the band in 1993, as the 3rd drummer and 2nd keyboardist. In 1996, our effort turned out to be the first album“Yamatai“. The reputation of this album spread to all over the world. As a producer and a spokeman, Sato-ken worked well for the band to be recognized by many music fans in the world. Tachibana left us one year after the release of 2nd album “A Myth“.But it didn’t take much time to find a new guitarist. Takemori would join the band and started to rehearse with us in late 1998.
How would you describe the music of Wappa Gappa?
We do not care or we would not like to be categorized to one place. We want to be just the way we are and the music we make is it, music of Wappa Gappa. So sometimes, it has the influence of jazz, sometimes touch of pops, sometimes very prog. Anyway we do not control or pretend to be very progressive rock band nor mixed genre rock band on purpose. Wappa Gappa want to create Wappa Gappa’s original and own music. But as a matter of fact, we are japanese musicians who were raised in very much westernized musical environment. Our creation has naturally mixture of western and japanese thing and will not exaggerate orientalism without any needs. As a lyric writer, I always try to preserve and use old and beautiful japanese words which are now disappearing.
What does the name Wappa Gappa mean?
“Wappa” means “hand cuffs “ in policemen’s slang, and if you write “Gappa”in chinese character,this stands for the meaning “ I break”. There is a hidden hope behind our name which says “Be free, be yourself” . We just preferred to use more simple japanese letters to express our name. Actually, japanese people use 4 writing characters!!
You've played some gigs in Europe. Where did you play and what's your overall impression concerning this short tour?
We have been to Utrecht “Tivoli“ (Holland), Verviers “Spirit of 66“ (Belgium) and Marseille “JasRod“ (France). We were surprised and glad that it seemed the average age of audiences were high.We got a very warm welcome and despite of the performance of not well-known band or even sung in japanese, most of them liked our music. We feel the way they listen to the rock band is very sophisticated, and well mannered. They listen well and move their bodies to the rhythm and express how good it was with big reaction after the songs were finished. We felt the tour was successfully finished.
How "big" is the Japanese prog scene? If you compare playing live in Europe with playing in Japan - what are the differences?
The prog scene in Japan is very small. It has been long time after the prog scene went to underground and became more maniac. Some remaining bands seldom do live gigs, most prog bandsactivities are hibernating. I don’t know why it is said that the prog CD market is big in Japan. As I answered before, the difference is the reaction of the audiences. They react clear and definitely in good or bad. Though we happened to confront just their reactions of “good “, some said that it is not always so, even if the band came far from Japan. I think that the japanese audiences are more quiet and hard to tell, whether they like it or not. But as we are japanese too, we understand that .
Jürgen Meurer © Progressive Newsletter 1999