Interview with FLiP during Japan Nite 2009

An all-girl rock band from Okinawa, FLiP has been impressing audiences with strong instrumentals and powerful vocals. As part of the Japan Nite 2009 tour line-up, the band arrived in the US for their first overseas tour. JaME met up with the group before their New York show to get to know them better.


Could you please introduce yourselves?

Sachiko: (In English) Hello, my name is Sachiko. I am the singer and play guitar.
Yuko: (In English) Hi, my name is Yuko, guitarist.
Sayaka: (In English) My name is Sayaka, bassist.
Yuumi: (In English) My name is Yuumi. I'm the drummer.

How was the flight here?

FLiP: Very tiring! (laugh)

Tonight is your third performance on this tour. How has it been so far?

Yuumi: The fans are great! They're very warm, it's been really fun!
Sachiko: They're really accepting of our music and our band.

How did you all meet to form the band?

Sachiko: We were in the same class in middle school. Then we all went to the same high school. We wanted to form an all-girl band, so I just kind of gathered everyone together.

Why did you pick the name FLiP?

Sachiko: We decided to go with English rather than Japanese, because of the English meaning of 'flip'.
Yuumi: We wanted something related to music somehow.
Yuko: Musical in a way.
Sachiko: And the English meaning in Japanese can mean to pluck, and you can pluck a guitar. It sort of has the same meaning, so it's sort of music-related.

How would you describe your music to someone who's never heard it?

Sachiko: A mixture of rock, but only as a girls' band.
Yuko: It combines elements from all genres of music.
Yuumi: But it's rock!
Yuko: But it's rock! (laughs)

FLiP was formed in 2005 but the first release wasn't until last year. Why is that?

Sachiko: We were just doing independent work. After high school...
Yuko: We had part time jobs...
Sachiko: Yeah, we were working part time and having our band rehearsals. It took a little time because we were doing it all by ourselves.

Being independent, how did you get started?

Sachiko: In 2006, there was an audition in Japan and we were representing Okinawa as a band.
Yuko: We went from Okinawa to Tokyo to audition and the management we are with right now was interested in signing us, so that's how we got started.

The songs on your first mini-album are quite powerful. Where did the inspiration for the lyrics come from?

Sachiko: Personal feelings, anger, sadness... feelings on the darker side. Kind of like the inner darker side of our personalities.

How did the song writing process go?

Sachiko: I would start out with my guitar and start singing, and possibly get up to 80% of the song done. Then, we would go into the studio and polish it from there.

Did the lyrics come before or after the music, or was it a simultaneous idea?

Sachiko: It depends on the songs. The music usually goes first, but it really depends on the song.

Has growing up in Okinawa influenced your music in any way?

Yuko: There's a really big rock-feel in Okinawa, I guess because there are a lot of American army-based people, so yeah! Definitely!

Your homepage says the lowercase 'i' in FLiP is for the look. Is that also the reason the song title SiNG has a lowercase 'i', too?

Sachiko: Yes, that is the case. That song in particular is softer compared to the other ones, so I didn't want to capitalize everything. Doing that made it feel too harsh. We made the 'i' lowercase because we wanted to make it feel a little bit softer.

What kind of music do you yourselves listen to?

Yuko: All sorts of genres! Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Yuumi: (In English) Me too! (laughs)
Sayaka: Reggae and punk, Stevie Ray Vaughan, blues, too, so they vary.
Sachiko: Oasis... I listen to all kinds of genres as well, a lot of different stuff.

Last August, you played at the Summer Sonic Music Festival, what was that experience like?

Yuko: It was definitely a great experience. We learned a lot of things we need to work on.
Sachiko: There were actually a lot of people that came to see our show, so we definitely felt something big there!

Yuko mentioned filming a PV in her blog. Could you tell us about that?

Yuko: It was our first time shooting a PV. I wasn't actually playing the guitar for the video, we were just listening to background music, so it was difficult to do that. We were filming for half a day, so we did get used to it, though.
FLiP: We really liked the final outcome!

What can we expect from FLiP in the future?

Sachiko: We'll be releasing our second mini-album in May. We'd love to tour and communicate with our fans, having learned from this experience.

Do you have a message for you fans?

Yuko: We're growing and getting better, so please support us!
Sayaka: We want to spread our music, starting domestically. We're just starting out, so we'd love to perform more!
Sachiko: I appreciate the fans and as we continue to grow and change, I hope you'll continue to support us!
Yuumi: We're still growing, including the genre and the technical stuff, so watch out for us!


JaME would like to thank Audrey Benten, Ryu Takahashi, Taro Kumabe and FLiP for making this interview possible.