Japanese pop punk band Shonen Knife are bringing their underground garage sound to the Karova Lounge.
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The Osaka based band has seen a changing line up since its founding in 1981 and current members still include one of the original founders Naoko Yamano.
“I'm the only member who is continuing the band. My younger sister, the bassist of Shonen Knife, Atsuko left the band in 2006 for her marriage because she moved to Los Angeles.
“We had our former bassist Ritsuko and she left the band 2 years ago because of maternity leave. Then I asked Atsuko to come back to the band. Atsuko joined the tour from Los Angeles,” she said.
The band continues to stay relevent by keeping fresh, which is the key to keep on rocking Ms Yamano said, something that extends to the band’s stage fashion.
“My regular fashion style is not cool or fashionable but I wear stage costumes on stage. It's matching costumes made by Atsuko. Our dresses are inspired by 50's and 60's style like Piere Cardan,” she said.
Ms Yamano said she likes 70’s classical rock and feels most influenced by the Beatles. “I don’t listen to much modern music,” she said. “I recently listened to Funk, Disco and sometimes Death Metal.”
“I need to make new songs for new album but I'm very lazy. I don't write songs daily. I have to be earnest. Writing lyrics is very difficult for me. I'd like to write English lyrics because English is a language of rock music. I'm not a native English speaker.”
With a garage rock style, the band will be touring Australia for their latest Album Adventure, which was released under Brisbane’s Valve records.
Ms Yamano named her favourite place to have performed over the 30 year history of the band as Goa, India.
“We played there a few years ago for a music festival. The venue was on the top of the mountain. We stayed a fancy hotel and had all you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. I saw many cows on the road. It was amazing,” she said.
“I'm very excited to come to Australia. We always have good response there. The audience in Australia are very cheerful and friendly. I love that.” Shonen Knife will be performing at Karova Lounge on September 25 with support acts Parsnip and Ben Ely (Regurgitator).