Interview with quaff at Anime USA

Coming back to the US to perform two concerts at the anime convention Anime USA, the unique, exciting band quaff met up with us before their performance to catch up on what’s been happening with them since our last interview.


Thank you for meeting with us. Could you please introduce yourselves and tell us something interesting about the member to your left?

MAKITO: I am MAKITO on guitar. The person to my left is SNG. He is a bass player. He is my old friend from high school, when I was sixteen years old. He is incredibly clever and dependable. Besides flute, he also plays an instrument from India, it’s called a tabla. He’s really musical, so he’s not just a bass player. He can also play drums, he’s very dexterous. He’s very nice, and the person I trust the most.
SNG: I’m SNG on bass. Over here is SEIYA. He is full of love and passion; he is a man among men.
SEIYA: Hi, I’m SEIYA and I’m vocals. The person to my left is UKISEMI. He’s always full of ideas and always shows us a good time.
UKISEMI: I’m UKISEMI, and I’m MC. The person to my left is drummer HAL. He’s the mood-maker of quaff and he’s the one that established our foundations. He’s a very dependable person.
HAL: I’m HAL and I’m on drums. The person to my left is TAKUMA on guitar. From time to time, he comforts us with his amazing jokes! (laughs) He has amazing energy.
TAKUMA: I’m guitarist TAKUMA. The person over there is MAKITO. He is always exciting, he is my guitar hero! (laughs)
MAKITO: ….WHAT?!
(Everyone laughs)
TAKUMA: You’re my guitar hero! (laughs)

SNG, speaking of the flute, how long have you played it? What made you want to learn that?

SNG: I actually didn’t really officially learn the flute… (laughs) I just picked it up one day and sort of somehow managed to play it…
(Everyone laughs)
SNG: I’ve been playing it for about… (looks to MAKITO)
MAKITO: Four years?
SNG: Yeah, about four years now.

For those unfamiliar with your music, how would you describe your style?

SNG: quaff is a band with two vocals. We write music with a mix of the traditional soul of Japan and hard rock. We bring together love and positive messages, and put on shows we feel everyone can enjoy. We would love to have you attend one of our shows!

Would you say your music is centered around a specific concept?

SEIYA: Musically, the possibilities are boundless, but if I dare say so, we will continue with songs centered around love.

This being your first appearance at an anime convention in the US, what was your first impression when you got here?

UKISEMI: When we first came to America, we went to another state’s anime convention, actually! Not as guests, but as attendees. I was surprised by the number of attendees. On top of that, we were so surprised by the people’s deep love and passion for anime that we decided we wanted to come back!

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen here at Anime USA?

MAKITO: I actually would really like to go downstairs and wander around the booths because the people down there wearing their costumes, they’re so elaborately made and well designed, there’s nothing of this scale in Japan. Everyone is just so open!
UKISEMI: They’re not afraid to express themselves.

Have you ever seen cosplayers of yourselves?

SEIYA: Ahh, no I’ve never seen that… not yet! I’d be overjoyed if someone wanted to cosplay us in the future!
(Everyone laughs and agrees)

You recorded a few songs for the "ZONE-00" manga compilation album that came out last month. How did that opportunity come about and could you tell us about that experience?

UKISEMI: The author of the manga, Kujou Kiyo, was a fan of quaff. We met once and had a talk about how maybe we should get together sometime and make something interesting. It was about two years later that something happened and we thought we’d love to make a compilation together. The CD was what came about as a result. Even for us, it was very stimulating.

Is Kujou Kiyo the artist that drew the recent depiction of quaff as anime characters on your merchandise?

MAKITO: Yes! The drawings before were done by a different artist though.
SEIYA: For the new shirt we’ve had made, the art is done by Kujou Kiyo as well!

If you could be any anime character, who would you be and why?

SEIYA: Ichigo from “Bleach.” Not only is he strong, but he is also very kind.
UKISEMI: Kenshiro from “Fist of the North Star.” He can take down buildings with one arm, but is also full of love.
MAKITO: Pazu from Laputa’s “Castle in the Sky.” I want to take the girl I love up on a castle in the sky.
TAKUMA: Sanji from “One Piece.” He is strong and he cooks!
SNG: Doraemon! He makes any dream come true!
HAL: Tony Tony Chopper from “One Piece.” He has many transformations!

How did each of you get interested in pursuing music as a career? Was there something else besides a musician you had wanted to be?

SEIYA: I discovered how deep music can be after joining quaff. Before, I wanted to be a doctor.
UKISEMI: I was ordered to do so by Tenjoukai, the heavens, as a mission.
(Everyone laughs)
UKISEMI: But I do like making material things, so if it was something else, it would be creating things.
MAKITO: Before, in elementary school, I wanted to be an astronomer but then I got so into music. I had headphones on all the time and my parents listened to lots of music too. Then I thought this was the only thing for me.
TAKUMA: I got interested in music because I got such a feeling of joy being on stage. I wanted to be a chef originally.
SNG: Music has been close to me for a long time. From when I was very young, I was exposed to music as my mother sang and my sister played piano, so it just happened naturally. If I was to be something else, it would be a graphic designer.
HAL: I live for that feeling that I can share a smile with our fans and witness their reactions from the stage. I wanted to be a racecar driver. (laughs) An F1 racer!

UKISEMI, you’ve said that you are from Tenjoukai. Why did you decide to come down from the heavens?

UKISEMI: That’s also the will of the heavens. It was a mission from Tenjoukai! I came down here to meet and spend time with the other members, make music, and have the people of the world experience these moments with us!
(Everyone laughs)

How does Earth compare to Tenjoukai? (laughs)

UKISEMI: It’s about the same. They both have convenience stores.
(Everyone laughs)
UKISEMI: And Wal-Mart. Tenjoukai has Wal-Mart.
(Everyone continues laughing)

Is Tenjoukai’s Wal-Mart bigger or smaller? (laughs)

UKISEMI: Hmm…
SEIYA: That’s not what heaven is supposed to be about! (laughs)
UKISEMI: The size is about the same, but Tenjoukai goes by Tenjoukai prices.
(Everyone laughs)

Since your first appearance in the US, your look visually has changed significantly. Is there any particular reason why?

SNG: quaff is a band that constantly changes and evolves. We may change visually yet again, not immediately but maybe later. As people who live on the stage, we want to continuously pursue new things.

Is your current look inspired by anything specific?

SNG: We’ve been inspired by various artists from around the world. We try to mix it with our own taste and ultimately create something new.

Your music has also evolved. For instance, Destiny-00 has more of a modern rock feel as opposed to some of your older songs, like KURABE. Was this a conscious deliberate change, or did it just happen that way?

MAKITO: That difference was planned. Destiny-00 was made for the manga “ZONE-00”, so when the song was created, we had that image from the manga in mind. We don’t like to be restricted to one particular sound or image, so we will continue to make different kinds of sounds, and we may hear something similar to KURABE in the future.

Besides the regular quaff MySpace page, there is also “quaff Other Side”, which seems to have your older songs on it. Why keep the two pages separate? What is the other side of quaff?

MAKITO: As we mentioned, quaff’s expression changes frequently with the times, so in order to separate our present from our past, we created this “quaff Other Side.” Basically, we have our current style that we built up with experience and then we have the different growing stages of quaff. We have them separated from what quaff is now and what we used to be so you can see that growth.

Last March, your tour in the US was titled “Impact.” Would you say anything happened that left an impact on you during the tour?

MAKITO: It was our first time participating in South by Southwest. I was surprised by the power of the music present. The whole city was overflowing with music – it was something we’ve never felt before. After the show, there was so much feedback and positive reaction from the audience. When we woke up and turned on the TV, right after Metallica’s performance was ours and then we were in the newspapers and the magazines after that, everywhere. That was so surprising, we weren’t expecting that at all! We even heard our songs on the radio talking about South by Southwest.

Speaking of magazines, what was it like the first time you saw yourselves in one?

SEIYA: It was like “Please! Please put us in more!”
(Everyone laughs)

Then you chose to name this appearance here “Destiny” for a similar reason?

MAKITO: Yes. We took if from the song title Destiny-00. We would like this concert to be like a fateful encounter to those who have not heard of us.

Your shows are always very upbeat and high-energy. How do you keep that pace going so strong each show on tour?

SEIYA: Half of our lives, we think we aren’t doing our best and putting forth our best energy. It’s like for every success, there’s an equal amount of tears. Behind our smiling positive happy faces, we’ve made a lot of effort to get there.
MAKITO: Everyone has a different way of enjoying a concert, we just want everyone to have fun. They all come to enjoy it, so we want everyone to be upbeat and full of energy at our shows. Aside from that, we are also having fun so the energy comes out naturally.

During your live shows, you’ve covered Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Why did you choose to do this?

SEIYA: Michael Jackson is a very well known, well respected artist. We wanted to do a song that everyone can enjoy, sing along and dance to.
MAKITO: We move around a lot onstage so for the finale, we want something that’s easy to move around to! (laughs)

About that dancing, who came up with the idea to have the matching choreography?

MAKITO: Everyone! We all came up with it together after watching his videos. (laughs)

As a band, did his passing have any effect on you?

MAKITO: Everyone was pretty shocked. I first heard it from my American friends.
SEIYA: It was top news, even in Japan. It didn’t matter which TV station or program you turned to, or even newspapers. It was all over. It was such a tragedy losing a superstar like him. We pray that he may rest in peace.

Do you have any future plans you could share with us now?

SNG: Everything is still in planning mode, so nothing can be announced officially, but we definitely would love to come back to South by Southwest 2010. It’s not confirmed, but we’d like to go.
MAKITO: Even if that doesn’t work out, we’d still love to come back to the US for sure!

Lastly, please leave a message for your fans.

SEIYA: We’d like to continue sharing our music with all of you all over the world. We send out all our love and power!


JaME would like to thank Anime USA and quaff for making this interview possible.