Interview with ST.WWR

The day prior to their Italian debut performance at the convention Lucca Comics & Games 2011, rock band ST.WWR granted us an in-depth interview about the band, their roots and their upcoming projects.


First of all, thank you for this interview!

ST.WWR: (in Italian) Thank you!

Could you please introduce yourselves to the readers who don’t know you yet?

TONO: We come from Japan, and our name is ST.WWR. Our genre is called “fantasy hard-rock,” and we would like to transport daily life into a world of fantasy. Our goal is to make the listener, or the attendee of our concert, feel like he’s been transported into a movie.

Speaking of “fantasy hard-rock,” how do you guide the listener into a different world?

TONO: First of all, the vocalist SAKI confuses the audience with her peculiar clothing. What we want to do through her, who wears clothes typical of visual rock, is invite the listener to enter a new world. For example, we thought of SCREAM SKIN’s PV as if it was a real short film.

Your name is really peculiar; what’s its meaning and why did you choose it?

TONO: We are four artists, we are not just singers or musicians, but we work with arts in general. “S” stands for Sapporo, a city in North Japan where our guitarist KUNIYA comes from. I, the drummer SAKI and the bassist, HIRO, are from Tokyo, that’s what “T” stands for. Sapporo and Tokyo are far from each other, but we joined together in this musical experience to spread Japanese rock through the whole world, that’s why we put “WWR” or “World Wide Rock.”

How do you create your songs?

SAKI: I write the lyrics. KUNIYA offers me his music, I listen to it and then I put in what happens in my everyday life.

TONO: KUNIYA’s guitar, its sound, it’s not only a backing track but it’s the expression of what he feels. So when he’s angry he makes a more violent sound, and taking inspiration from this, he creates the music that is later given to SAKI and she completes it with her words.

You had a short promotion at Japan Expo in France, and today you’re in this convention Lucca Comics and Games. It looks like you have a special feeling for anime conventions. Is it something that helps you writing and composing your songs?

TONO: The first thing we want to do is promoting our music, especially J-rock, to everyone who has already an interest in Japan. Speaking of France, Japanese music is really known there and its market is quite big. In Italy we noticed there are only still a few things, so we thought about coming here to Lucca to begin and make it so that there will be much more Japanese music in Italy after our experience.

SAKI, it is quite rare to find a female member in a band in the visual kei scene. How do you feel being an exception?

SAKI: Actually, I do love the visual kei style, but I pose it again in my personal "kawaii" version.

Do you hope there will be more women in the visual kei scene in the future?

SAKI: I would really love it to be so. Also, I would love it if the number of people who appreciate the fact that there are women who can sing in the visual kei scene will increase.

You don’t have any release yet. Can we expect something in the near future?

TONO: We are going to release our first mini-album on January 2012, and next spring, in March, our first full-length album will come out.

Are there any plans for a new performance in Italy and, maybe, a European tour?

TONO: We like Italy, and it also looks like the audience is quite warm. It would be nice to deepen this Italian experience, even though we are obviously not interested only in it. Actually, we would really like to go to Europe and Asia… we like the idea of a foreign experience. Getting to know an Italian band and trying to do something with it is something we definitely look forward to.

How do you feel about tomorrow’s performance?

TONO: This is the first time we perform in Europe, most of all it’s a very big festival so we are a bit excited. We can’t wait to play!

Finally, could you send a message to our readers?

TONO: We are a Japanese rock band, but I would like the Italians, people with a strong musical tradition, to appreciate our music. We absolutely want the J-rock scene to be a part of the Italian musical panorama.

Thank you so much, and good luck for your show!

ST.WWR Thank you!


JaME would like to thank e-talent bank for this interview and Erika for her kindness and her help with the translation.