Interview with the Underneath at RTOC

With the threat of rain looming overhead and bands set to take the stage at an outdoor venue, the Underneath sat down to speak with JaME for fifteen minutes before their performance at the Concrete Street Amphitheatre in Corpus Christi, Texas on April 4th as part of the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour.

Please introduce yourselves to the fans who may not know you yet.

Taka: I am Taka from the Underneath.
Tal: I am Tal, playing guitar.
Masato: I am Masato, playing guitar.
Ryo: I am Ryo; bassist.
Masaki: Masaki; drums.

Please explain how all of you met when Transtic Nerve was created.

Taka: That's the first time someone has asked us that! There's a place called Himeji Castle; there's a livehouse there and, at the time, we were all in different bands, but that's actually where we first met. The bands around us kind of fell apart and we decided to come together. We said, "Let's make this happen."
Tal: Do you know of Himeji Castle?
Interviewer: No.
Tal: Oh...do you know of the Last Samurai?
Interviewer: Yes!
Tal: Himeji Castle is in the Last Samurai!
(Everyone laughs.)

the Underneath is comprised of the same members from Transtic Nerve; why the band name change? Why did you choose "the Underneath?"

Taka: It was really a question of timing. We've been together for ten years and we felt that we'd already done everything that we could do as Transtic Nerve. Until last year when we came to the USA and had a live show in LA, and we knew there was a chance for us to do something like this, Taste of Chaos, we decided it was time, time for a change. Naturally, people change over the years. It was the identity of who we had become for this opportunity; we haven't even performed in Japan as the Underneath yet. We're starting in the USA, so that's why we decided to change our band's name.

The name change really came from the feeling, the feeling you get from the word "underneath" and what it means to be in a place that can't be seen, that is literally underneath you.

With the change of the band's name, what should your audience expect from your music style?

Tal: Our style has changed. It's obviously changed into what we've become right now, but there are things that are still the same. We still have the Japanese melody, the same Japanese rock sound. So that sort of thing is the same, but we don't know if the fans will perceive it differently since we haven't performed in Japan yet. The melody and the heart of our music is still the same.

It says on the English version of your website that the Underneath is the visual band of a new era. How do you feel about this title and how do you feel you present what the title states?

Tal: Visual kei is a huge, huge category in Japan and what we're trying to say is that we're trying to put something new, that isn't already there yet, into visual kei.
Taka: So that's kind of what we're thinking; we're thinking it's a great thing and we're looking forward to being a part of it.

When working together to create your songs, who is the main lyrics and music writer? How do you mesh the two together?

Tal: Basically, Taka takes care of all the lyrics, but musicality-wise, we all really work together. If it's Ryo's song that we're making then it's going to sound a lot like his style, but we all take care of our own instruments and making sure we all get a fair share in the work.

For audiences who may not understand Japanese, how would you summarize the overall theme of your lyrics and music?

Taka: It's not really so much whether or not they do understand the words; it's just being able to understand the feeling, that's the most important thing to us. So something we feel people get from the Underneath is just being able to understand the feeling from each song as it's played rather than picking out each single word and understanding it, but understanding the music as a whole -- the whole feeling of it from your heart.

With the transition from Transtic Nerve to the Underneath, will you only be playing new material or will you also incorporate music from Transtic Nerve's discography? Why or why not?

Taka: Right now with the concept of what is the Underneath, it only makes sense for us to play the Underneath songs, but we never want to rule out the possibility of playing songs by Transtic Nerve.
Tal: Right now, it just really doesn't make sense with the new concept and what we're trying to do.

You only performed in the USA once last year; what were your reactions upon being invited to perform on the Rockstar Taste of Chaos tour?

Tal: As a whole band, we've always wanted to come to the USA and we really couldn't believe that we were getting this opportunity, not only to come to the USA, but to be able to tour and actually play live shows here. It was just unbelievable.
Taka: Yeah, it was unbelievable!

Since you're touring with not only with Japanese bands, but also American bands, what has the atmosphere of the tour been from your point of view?

Taka: Basically, it's been great. Everything about it has been great. We've been having a lot of fun and, surprisingly, we've been able to feel like we're communicating with the people around us, our co-workers, basically. And not only that, before we came we thought it was going to be like... there's three jrock bands, right? We thought it was going to be like "you're D'espairsRay and you're MUCC and you're the Underneath," but it's just become like a big mix-up, like a whole bunch of friends. We go on each other's buses and we hang out all the time, so it's kind of become a family not like the sections in a cattle call; it's kind of become a family atmosphere.
Tal: Also, the bands that don't speak Japanese are saying things like "kampai" [cheers]. And of course, the English-speaking bands are teaching the Japanese bands all the really bad words. (Everyone laughs.) Dirty words. (Everyone laughs again.)

What are some of your plans for the future, following the end of this tour?

Taka: Nothing has been announced yet, but the first thing is obviously to go back to Japan. We want to play some live shows, we want to make some new music and, if we're ever given the chance, we would love to come back to the USA. We'd love to tour more in Asia and Europe and places like that. Just keep going; keep the momentum going. As soon as we return, we want to release MOON FLOWER in Japan.

Finally, please give a final message to your international fans.

Ryo: Everything that we've been doing is just a step-by-step to get here for the Taste of Chaos tour. Now that we're out here, we want to take everything that's happened and all the momentum back with us to Japan and be able to continue on with it and do great things.
Masaki: We would really love for everyone to come and watch our live shows and, in kind of an addition to everything Ryo just said, continue to use this great experience and great energy to just continue everything that's going to happen in our future.
Masato: I can't believe it. All over the USA there are jrock fans, but there are also jrock fans all over Europe, in Germany and England, all over the place, so it's kind of blowing us away. We're really hoping to be able to reach out to all of them and hopefully get to go to all those places. I'm really excited about our future.
Tal: The whole time I've been here, for me it's just been like a huge experiment of learning what turns fans on, what makes them react and things like that. So I've just been studying it and taking it all in. I'm just dying and waiting to go back to Japan to make some new music that's going to cater to what's going to get the best reaction out of people and turn them on now that we've seen what works. These huge bands [English bands on the tour] do it every night so I'm really excited to start a new album.
Taka: This is actually my second band and so it's kind of like starting all over again; people don't know the band, they don't know the band name, don't know the songs, but as we play our set the fans start to warm up and our reactions start to warm up; it makes us so happy. I hope in the future we can come back and do a solo tour where we are the headliners. We're really looking forward to it, so please wait for it.

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Many thanks to Rockstar Taste of Chaos and Heather Overstreet -- who also translated -- for making this interview possible; also, many thanks to the Underneath for taking time to answer our questions. Photos by Lacy.