Men’s Folio sits down with Japanese rock band RADWIMPS, the mastermind behind the soaring soundtracks of “Your Name” and “Suzume”, to learn more about the art of world-building and the undying spirit of rock.
Whether you’ve heard of RADWIMPS through the anime films they have created soundtracks for, or seen their name appear as the artist to popular tracks used for Japan travel videos on TikTok or Reels, it’s undeniable that the reach this Japanese rock band has is anything but conventional. What they’ve managed to achieve with film music has earned the admiration of fans worldwide, even if they were never the type to pick up anime. There’s just something seamless and right about how their orchestral masterpieces hit with the heart-wrenching storylines they accompany, but there’s a lot more to this trio than genre-bending what we hear from the worlds of anime — a twenty-plus year career filled with a robust discography of pure, unfettered rock.
Ahead of their stop in Singapore as part of their Asia tour The Way You Yawn, And The Outcry Of Peace, we speak to Yojiro Noda, Yusuke Takeda and Akira Kuwahara to learn more about how they’ve kept that creative flame alive after all these years, how they became sonic auteurs, and why going on tour is the reason why they will never fall out of love with rock.
Photography by Takeshi Yao
Charmaine: Hi RADWIMPS! How does it feel like to look back at 20+ years of doing music? Is this how you guys envisioned your journey in music to be like?
Yojiro Noda: Playing in front of so many people at a sold out tour around the world was not what we expected when we started the band when we were 15. Feels like we’re still living in a dream. it’s all way beyond what we expected.
C: Like many of your newer fans, my introduction to you guys was through Your Name (am such a huge fan of this soundtrack), and later Weathering With You and most recently, Suzume. How did working with the director Makoto Shinkai on these projects impact how you guys make music, if any?
Yusuke Takeda: There’s so much we’ve learned from these experiences that have shaped RADWIMPS’ own music. Especially the use of orchestral sound. When you score a film, there’s so much new input we had to learn, like regarding plug-ins and synthesizers. That really helped us.
C: What’s the creation process like? I imagine its a lot of back and forth and feeding off of each other’s ideas because both of you are crafting worlds at the same time.
N: For Suzume, initially, I had long conversations with Shinkai and the producer Genki Kawamura. We all wanted a very different type of sound for this film compared to the previous ones, so we agreed to not make the theme a typical pop song. That’s how “Suzume feat. Toaka” started taking shape. Nostalgic and native sounds of Japan were incorporated into this title song. As we sketched it out, we started to share the atmosphere of the film, connected by the image of vast landscapes and big sky. And we went from there.
C: Did this process get easier or more difficult with each project? I’m sure there has to be an element of universality when creating music that represents fiction worlds and its hard to replicate that without literally replicating approaches and their outcomes.
N: Not at all! It gets harder with each project. Even the time spent for the production gets longer. We spent a year and a half on “Your Name.,” and “Suzume” took two and a half years to produce. We never want to do anything the same, and we’re always ready for new challenges.
C: How does this compare to how you guys created music for the Japanese movie “The Last 10 Years” and theme song “NINGEN GOKKO” for the Japanese TV drama “Ishiko and Haneo: You’re Suing Me?”
N: It was a fresh challenge to score a live-action film for the first time. In total, I’ve seen the movie close to 100 times during the process, but when all the arrangements were done and we did the final orchestra recording, I felt the tears rolling down watching those scenes combined with the music. Also, unlike anime, we actually get to see the movie scenes as we create music.
C: After working on these projects with such critical acclaim, what do you guys think makes a good animation soundtrack?
N: Animation and music have a close relationship, but I think the most important thing is the connection between the creators. Not like a simple tie-in, it has to come as a result of a strong creative connection with respect for each other.
C: Moving away from these projects to your wider discography. Let’s start from the most basic of your identity — your name. Where did the name “RADWIMPS” come from and has that meaning evolved with time?
T: RAD is like ‘cool’ and WIMP is ‘sissy’ or ‘coward,’ so we put these extreme words together.
C: What do you guys feel about the love for rock music today? Especially with the Gen Z looking back to the 2000s for cultural inspiration (be it fashion, music, art, culture, etc.) and “rediscovering” rock bands from that time?
N: I believe that rock band revival will definitely happen soon. Also for us, as we head into our 20th anniversary, we have been talking about going back to our roots, in the original rock band sound.
C: As working musicians since 2001, how has your relationship with music changed since then?
Akira Kuwahara: There are quite a lot of variables in our live performance which keeps things fresh. We also still try out lots of new ideas and challenges every time we go into rehearsal.
N: We had a lot of opportunities to work on more academic projects, including film scores, for the last seven, eight years. We learned a lot through those projects but, at the same time, we steered away from our rock band sound. As we head into our 20th anniversary, we have been talking about going back to our roots.The original band sound kind of. So I’ve been wanting to go back into the studio with these guys and physically create music together.
C: How about between the three of you? You three have basically experienced half of your lives together. What has changed and what has stayed the same in terms of the way you guys work together musically and as people?
N: In our 20s, we played it cool, we rarely talked at all. But now we talk a lot. When you get closer to your fans, you realize how much it means to them. That interaction. Little by little, we are growing as people [laughs].
C: Who are some artists you look up to and some newer artists whose work you recently discovered and were inspired by (if any)?
T: New artist we want to introduce to you is Toaka. I think a lot of people know her from “Suzume” but her sensitivity and artistry are so interesting. I hope everyone will check her out.
C: You are about to embark on your Asian tour soon. What’s something about touring that you look forward to the most?
A: Food. Pretty much everywhere is good. Asian food is comfort food for me.
T: I want to try alcoholic drinks. I find different kinds of beer around the world that I’ve never seen in Japan. I wonder what I can find this time.
C: Any favourite memories from touring Asia in the past?
T: We didn’t have much time off in Asia but as for our shows, we prepared our stage talk in local languages. The audience seemed to understand us so that was fun and made me happy.
N: To see everyone singing our songs together, overcoming cultural and racial differences, was an experience I will never forget. I also ordered tons of Uber EATS in Asia, too. I think I had the most Uber EATS meals in the entire world last year. You should see my Uber EATS past orders from all around the world including Europe and the US.
C: How about pre-show rituals? What do you guys do to get in the headspace?
A: Personally, I always eat a banana and drink a Red Bull.
N: Counting back from show time, we run through the setlist a few hours prior. Yusuke and I always do stretches around 90 minutes to two hours before the show. We’re pretty precise but maybe all bands are like that.
C: And as for sources of inspiration. Where do you guys find them nowadays?
T: I get strong inspiration from my child. They learn so fast and can do something new everyday. That inspires me to work harder.
N: For me, shooting a drama for three months straight was very inspiring. Drama production is like a session and having over 100 crew and actors involved is difficult, but interesting. On another note, I see tons of verbal attacks on social medias and you can’t go without noticing them. People are getting tired of it and I keep thinking why that is. Japan is an island country, so we might feel far away from wars. But I think the world is in jeopardy. I want to keep my eyes open and express that through my creativity. The more we tour and meet people around the world, I think there is so much for me to perceive this year.
C: Lastly to wrap this up. What do you think is was key to letting RADWIMPS continue to make music from debut up till today?
A: Keeping it fresh is the key.
N: Also, since COVID, I felt that we can’t take for granted that we get to travel around the world and play live shows like this. There are pandemics and wars happening even as we speak, and nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. We have to go out and meet everyone while we can. That’s a big motivation for me.
RADWIMPS will be performing at the Singapore Expo on May 11, 2024, as part of their Asia tour The Way You Yawn, And The Outcry Of Peace. Tickets can be purchased here. Once you are done with this story, click here to catch up with our March 2024 issue.
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