Interview with Neo Atomic Motor

Electro synth-rock band Neo Atomic Motor will be touring the East Coast of the USA this June to promote their latest EP, Beyond the Horizon. The band has released two full albums to date, and has participated in many external projects such as providing the theme song for the 2011 movie "Imada's Detective Agency" and having their track Be Naked used as Japanese Pro Wrestler Akira Tozawa’s theme song. JaME speaks to the band's guitarist Kouji about their music and more

Hello Neo Atomic Motor! Can you please introduce yourselves to our readers?

Kouji: Hi, this is Kouji. I sing and play guitar for a Japanese rock band called Neo Atomic Motor. Since our formation in 2002, we have mixed several different genres of music together while keeping rock as our core sound. Sometimes, we create walls of sound like industrial metal bands. Sometimes we even use jazz. No matter how we mix up different styles of music, we've always focused on melancholic melodies that are uniquely Japanese. We grew up listening to those melodies in minor keys.

Our more recent songs feature a lot of electronic and computer-based sounds, though that could change one day. I'm just being honest to my inspirations. So people may feel that beauty of momentum at our live shows.

What is the meaning behind your band name?

Kouji: As American people may know, there's this very famous Japanese animation called “Astro Boy”. In the show, the main character Atom is a futuristic robot which is generated by an “Atomic Motor System”. He beats his enemies and contributes to world peace. We don’t beat bad guys, but we wanted to create newer and more modern music generated by an "Atomic Motor" like Atom, so we named our band Neo Atomic Motor.

You'll be touring the US this June to promote your EP Beyond the Horizon. What's the album's concept?

Kouji: It’s about us. This title symbolizes us putting out our music and messages from the Far East. Our core sound is electronic dance rock, but we tried our best to capture skilled musicianship of playing real instruments. In the end, the songs on the EP still have those melancholic Japanese melodies.

Which song from Beyond the Horizon would you recommend to people who haven't heard your music before?

Kouji: I’d like to say all the songs, but listen to Doubt first.

What can we expect from your US tour? Anything special planned?

Kouji: Our first US show was in Texas. It was such a wonderful experience for all of us. Based on that, we expect our US east coast tour to be something very special for all of us. If possible, can you guys set something up during our stay in the US? Like fan meetings or something? We’ll have a lot of downtime in Baltimore and Virginia Beach.

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the US?

Kouji: Too much to think about. I need to live in the US to narrow it down!

Are you a fan of any American musicians?

Kouji: Of course. I feel that American musicians are more true to their inspirations and emotions. My favorite American rock stars are all crazy. In other words, they are true to themselves, not listening to what other people say. That’s just my personal opinion though.

Your song Be Naked was used as Japanese pro wrestler Tozawa Akira's theme music. How did that come about?

Kouji: This deal came to us through industry connections. We are honored to have this opportunity. A theme song for a professional wrestler has to be aggressive, so we wrote Welcome Beside from our EP Beyond the Horizon for this offer. The original demo and final EP version have different arrangements. Can you picture a wrestler coming up to the ring with the song? Since then we’ve been invited to Tozawa-san’s matches several times.

Kouji, in the late '90s, you were played guitar in the visual kei band CLOSE. What was like being in a popular band during the golden age of visual kei?

Kouji: Looking back on the past, it was such a glamorous time. An extravaganza. I was supported by lots of fans and staff. It was such a fortunate environment to create music and play shows. Though I didn’t know much about the business side of the industry, because I got signed by EMI at a young age, I learned a lot of important things back then.

At the same time I became friends with a lot of fellow musicians. I actually met future members of Neo Atomic Motor around this time. There were way too many things happening back then for me to tell you about here. What I went through back then has become the foundation of Neo Atomic Motor.

What do you think about current visual kei bands and the visual kei scene in general?

Kouji: I have been away from the visual kei scene for a long time. It seems like a lot more styles of visual kei bands are around these days than in the past. It’s very diverse. It's almost like the word “visual kei” can't even describe the genre anymore. Some artists are solo and some are female gothic style with a metal sound. For listeners, it might be a lot of fun to pick and listen to these different styles of artist. Of course, the pioneers of visual kei, and even the word itself, was created by X JAPAN. Their influence is huge. They are Japanese legends.

Are you working on any new material at the moment?

Kouji: I’ve been writing new songs. However, our US east coast tour is to promote Beyond the Horizon. We’ll be focusing on that.

What's next for Neo Atomic Motor?

Kouji: We are confident in our sound. Thus we want to take it to the world. This is only our second US tour. We would love to continue touring in the US until more people recognize us. We believe in actions based on good will. One step at a time towards the future.

To close, do have a message for JaME's readers?

Kouji: For most people, this interview might be their first encounter with us. Nowadays, there's so much music out there and you guys get to hear it naturally in your daily life. So it’s not necessary to look for new artists. Yet our hard-working American staff and awesome web media like JaME are helping us gain exposure. Because of those good people, our US tour in June will come true. We will always believe in our music. We will try our best to liberate ourselves during the shows. It’s good to listen to us online, but we would love to have you experience us live!

JaME would like to thank Neo Atomic Motor and Masa Sasaki for this interview opportunity.