In July, the rock band I Don't Like Mondays. performed outside of Asia for the first time, appearing as guests at the anime convention Anime Friends in São Paulo, Brazil. Soon after, they spoke to JaME about their origins and
musical influences, how they composed their opening song for "ONE PIECE" and their experience in Brazil.
As this is our first time interviewing you, could you please introduce yourselves to our readers?
YU: It’s great to meet you! I’m YU, the vocalist for I Don’t Like Mondays.
CHOJI: I’m CHOJI, the guitarist.
KENJI: I’m Kenji, the bassist.
SHUKI: I’m SHUKI, the drummer.
YU: We’re a Japanese rock band.
How was I Don’t like Mondays. formed, and what is the origin of the band’s name?
YU: We all had our own musical activities and we got together to create a band. My friend was gathering the members when SHUKI and KENJI joined (the band). At that time, I was actually the manager
but ended up joining the band as the vocalist.
SHUKI: And when that friend dropped out, CHOJI joined as the guitarist, right?
YU: The story behind the band name? Well, you know how many people “don’t like school” or “don’t like work.” We wanted a name that would blow away the downer of Mondays. That’s why we chose this name.
If you had to describe I Don’t like Mondays.’s sound to a new listener, what would you say?
CHOJI: Music you can dance to?
What are some of your musical influences? Did any particular artists inspire you to become musicians?
YU: I’ve experienced many types of music, so it’s difficult to name a specific artist (laughs). British, American, Japanese, hip hop, rock, funk, jazz…I’ve been influenced by different music.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect your work? Do you think it somehow changed your music?
KENJI: We paused. It gave us the opportunity to think “What type of music do we want to do?”, “How do we want to be?”, and so on.
You recently released the single Kasaneiro. What can you tell us about this song?
SHUKI: It is a song commissioned by a Japanese drama series that is currently on air.
YU: The drama series is based on the main character solving various crimes based on her special ability to see emotions as colors. This song was conceived focusing on the keyword “color”.
Recently, you also released PAINT, a theme song for the anime series “ONE PIECE”. Did you use a different approach from your usual work when creating this song?
KENJI: Because “ONE PIECE” was my favorite anime when I
was small, it was important to keep the “ONE PIECE world” in mind as we were created the theme song.
CHOJI: We researched previous “ONE PIECE” theme songs. While we kept the importance of the anime world, we also wanted our message,
our “color”, to come out, so we approached it a little differently.
You had a concert in Brazil this July. Was it your first time performing or travelling outside of Asia?
YU: Though we travel, it was the first time for us to hold a concert. It was super fun.
How was the performance in Brazil? Was it very different from what you are used to in Japan?
SHUKI: Because
the Japanese fans cannot raise their voices at concerts yet (due to COVID-19-related restrictions), the fans cheering us on with their loud voices in Brazil were unbelievably exciting. I could feel their passion!
How did you feel about meeting the Brazilian fans? Did any moments stand out to you?
CHOJI: There
were fans singing in Japanese and some gave us messages in Japanese. I felt that the power of music is awesome.
We saw from your social media that you had time to do some sightseeing in São Paulo. What did you like the most? Could you tell us more about how you spent your free time there?
YU: “Batman’s
Alley" ("Beco do Batman") had the biggest impact on me! The art drawn on the walls was incredible, as was the Sunday market. There were many items that you cannot ordinarily see in a Japanese market!
What is next for I Don’t like Mondays.? Could you please tell us about some of your future plans?
KENJI: We’ll begin our nationwide tour in September!
SHUKI: We will be releasing
numerous new songs, so please check them out.
Please leave a message for our readers.
YU: We definitely want to go to Brazil again, so until that time, we’d love it if you could wait patiently and look forward
to us returning!
JaME would like to thank I Don't Like Mondays. and avex for making this interview possible.
The music video for I Don't Like Mondays.'s latest digital single Lonely Zombie Wonderland can
be viewed below. Links to download and stream the song on various music platforms are available here.
