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Japanese Sunday

SDP: What have you guys been up to since the release of “Taps Taps Lights Out” last year? Eric: Well…we’ve been playing a lot of great shows with a lot of great bands like The North Atlantic, Transfer and The Jade Shader…but we’ve been taking some time off to let Justin focus on his other band Hialeah…they just dropped a new CD…it’s good…the bastards…check it out…

The album has received some stellar reviews from both local and national publications.  Have you guys noticed an increase in your fan base (people at shows, play counts on myspace, whatever) in conjunction with this? 

Yes…we’ve been getting more airplay…more and more people with unfamiliar faces have been coming out to shows…more people have been checking us out on myspace…so yes the great press behind the new record has had a really positive impact on JS…we’ve been doing pretty well this last year…hopefully it continues into the next…

Looking back on “Taps Taps Lights Out” what are your favorite parts of the album?  Is there any theme, idea, or message the band is trying to put across with the record? 

Hmm…that’s a hard one…a favorite part?  The entire record is my “favorite part”…but I’m not closed minded enough to say that I don’t think that some songs are stronger than others…as far as any theme or message I’m going to have to leave that one blank…takes all the mystery out of it…I’ll leave that up to the interpretation of the listeners, like they say…”if I tell you, it’s like taking the piss out of the whole thing”…
 
After receiving such good press on the last release, how do you plan to approach the next album?  Can fans expect more of the same, or does the band intend to follow new musical directions?

We plan to take this very seriously…I don’t think anyone of us want to take a step backwards…but we certainly don’t want to “re-write” the same songs either…fans can expect to be challenged sonically…they’ll hear something more focused…but at the same time it’s definitely not going to be 4/4 radio anthem music…so I guess a little bit of the same…but not so much…and more of the new…

The band recently signed with Grayscale Records.  How’d that come about?  How’s the label treating you?   Does having a label allow you guys to do anything you couldn’t have accomplished as an unsigned artist?

I initially approached a couple of labels…some in San Diego…some outside of San Diego…Grayscale Records seemed really eager to work with us…they seemed fair…their contract seemed fair…our relationship with Grayscale Records is more of a partnership than a label to band relationship…their work ethic was the same as ours…so we felt comfortable in signing with them…

The label has been great with us…sending our music out to press and helping us get it out there…there hasn’t been any pressure to sell more records…or any pressure to write new material…they work with us…and it’s been awesome to work with such a label…

As far as them helping us out with accomplishing more than the average unsigned artist…yes…they’ve helped us a lot with digital distribution of the record…you can pretty much find our record available for download on any music site on the net…  someone once gave me some really good advice though, and that is  “the less you depend on your label, the better off you are”…

What do you think of the current music community in San Diego and how do you think Japanese Sunday fits into it?

For the most part I think that the San Diego music community is strong, and thriving with new talent…there are a lot of good people here that help to cultivate the music in San Diego…Tim Mays at The Casbah has been awesome to us…Same with Tim Pyles at 94.9…

A lot of people used to say that “San Diego is the next Seattle”…we will never be the next Seattle…but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing…When people think of Seattle music they for the most part think of grunge…When people think of D.C. music you think of hardcore…

For San Diego you can’t really place a label on the music that comes out of here…a lot of San Diego bands have crafted a sound all there own…some cling on to the coat tails of what’s the popular trend and selling at the time…but for the most part, I think that San Diego has it’s own sound and niche…and that’s is we don’t really have a niche….Our strength is in our diversity…

You can expect to hear great post-hardcore from bands like The North Atlantic, Hialeah or Goodbye Blue Monday…you can expect to hear great electronic music from bands like Via Satellite, Ilya or First Wave Hello, you can expect to hear great Indie rock from bands like Pinback, The Black Heart Proccession, or Transfer…you can expect to hear great math rock from bands like Sleeping People…

As far as where Japanese Sunday fits into all of it…well…we just feel humbled to share the stage with some of San Diego’s best bands…

What’s next for Japanese Sunday?

We are taking time off of shows for the time being…writing new follow material to TAPS TAPS LIGHTS OUT…we want to follow up strong to the last record…we want to be able to top what we thought was our best...you will be able to hear a preview of it soon…we are releasing one song on a new San Diego comp brought to you by the good people at BLACK BOX recording studios on there own label BLACK BOX RECORDS…

So far the roster of bands is going to be

JAPANESE SUNDAY
SLEEPING PEOPLE
TRANSFER
SIRHAN SIRHAN
HIALEAH
FIRST WAVE HELLO
THE JADE SHADER
ILYA
MODERN RIFLES
THE NORTH ATLANTIC
DREW ANDREWS (VIA SATELLITE, ALBUM LEAF)

And this list is going to grow longer soon…

Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Joel…you’re still fucking sexy!

Thanks to everyone who listens to Japanese Sunday and comes out to shows and supports!

Website: http://www.japanesesundaymusic.com
mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/japanesesunday
Photos: ??
Interview conducted via e-mail, January 2006 by Joel Scheingross.

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