Teenagers in Tokyo.

music
9/15/2009

Teenagers in Tokyo Vs Ponystep.


by Hynam Kendall


They’re not Teenagers. And they’re not from Tokyo. Like most band names, Teenagers in Tokyo Bass Guitarist Carmelinda Marigliano assures, it was merely something stupid they came up with, not realising that somewhere down the line they’d be getting asked “gee, how’d you come up with that little gem?”


Let’s look at this factually: Teenagers in Tokyo, simply put, are four girls and one guy, all Australian. The female contingent met a decade ago on their first day of high school, formed a band in Grade Seven art class and did vocal covers of their favourite songs; the first being a cover of Daft punk’s ‘Da Funk’. The male contingent joined eight years later, while Linda Marigliano and Samantha Lim were working at FBI Radio (home of Fat Planet). The bands first, self-titled, E.P. shortly followed. The demos caused alt rock tastemakers NME to hark, "Sometimes in this crazy thing called pop, you can tell something wonderful is going on even if you're not sure what it is,” later declaring the music, both “strange” and “lovely.” Not necessarily obvious descriptive bedfellows. Teenagers in Tokyo were onto something special.  
Fast forward to now, and the band have been adopted by UK’s Back Yard Recordings - the tastemaker label responsible for finding internationally acclaimed bands such as Chromeo and The Gossip. A string of festivals, London gigs and support acts alongside some of the biggest names in the industry, and all eyes are on the band’s critically-tipped long-awaited debut longplay. Ponystep talks to the Teenagers in Tokyo’s Bass Guitarist, Carmelinda Marigliano, ahead of its release. 

Hynam Kendall: When you signed to Back Yard you moved to London. Was the record deal condition always that you would relocate?

Sophie McGinn: Our label and manager are based here, so it's always easier to sit in a room face-to-face and discuss everything that way. David Kosten, the producer we wanted for the album, is also based here, so rather than trekking back and forth to Australia, it made much more sense to be settled here to concentrate on recording and touring our new songs.

HK: You said about working with David, who obviously worked on Bat for Lashes’ album – is that the kind of direction your album is going?

SM: The reason why we chose David to do the album was because we thought he had the same taste in sound as us. Not necessarily that we wanted to sound like Natasha's album, but that we liked his approach and the way he spaces the instruments out. I always found his use of space quite elegant. 

HK: So is it a London / Europe market you are targeting?

SM: Since we recorded the album in Wales and London, it felt more organic to start touring the album and doing single releases in the UK and Europe before moving onto other areas.

HK: What did the Welsh countryside do for the creative process?

SM: It made us eat a lot of food! We spent the majority of our time in Wales recording the drums and bass, so it was good to be able to lay the foundation of the songs somewhere where there are no distractions or time constraints.

HK: I heard your studio’s a bit of a shit-tip

SM: It was for a while after we did the Very Vampyr video, because all the junk yard stuff was just still hanging around. We don't have a studio here though so we have to pack up our gear all the time which is more annoying when you're on a roll. If there are any bands out there who want to share a space with us then let us know!  HK: How moved on from your self-titled EP will your new album be?

SM: It's moved on because when we wrote the EP we were so new to song writing. We still have so much to learn and more approaches that we want to try, but the album is a better snap shot of the sound we're interested in now. When we did the EP I think we knew less about the sounds that we wanted to come out, this time we knew much better what to ask for from the producer and had the time to be more specific.

HK: What has been the difference between the audience in Australia and the London followers so far? 

SM: I think that in a sense it's harder to impress your home country because you don't appear to be as shiny and new. The industry is so small and sometimes you feel that everyone around you has seen you take your first baby steps. I remember last time we played here in London about a year ago there seemed to be a real genuine sense of excitement from the crowds. It always feels more special when you're watching an artist from literally half a world away though doesn't it?

HK: Your PR machine is pushing you as post-punk. A lot of new music, and fashion for that matter, has gone the way of grunge. Supposedly it’s a symptom of financial dire straits, and that whenever there’s a recession people turn to post-punk culture

SM: I remember a while ago thinking to myself as a joke that since there was so much 80s around, that it only made sense that everyone would go really 90s and suddenly rediscover Nirvana and check shirts. Trends are always a reaction to what has come before, so I guess maybe everyone's reaction has just happened the same way this second time round? Soon it will be about the year 2000 again! But we are far too close to the sounds we like to be objective about summarising it neatly as a whole sound. I personally am HORRIBLE at genres. I get so confused about which one is which!

HK: Well your sound has been compared to The Slits, who you've toured with

SM: I thought they were great live and were obviously a very experienced act who knew how to command the attention of everyone in the room. Not just when they were playing but during very long mic breaks as well

HK: You're gigging so much, with your older songs and a few newer ones. How will you translate the CD, when it’s finished, to a live setting? 

SM: That's what we're working on now and it has made us all really excited to rehearse again. At the moment especially we are trying out all different things so that we can get the best show possible on stage. Sam goes nuts live. Sometimes she turns off my guitar pedals by accident but it's part of the fun.

HK: Will you be getting help with any of the artwork?

SM: Not at this point. Up until this point we've done all the artwork ourselves 

HK: It's funny because you look nothing like your old press photos that are doing the rounds 

SM: There are some photos of us floating around in very colourful clothes but we stopped doing crazy photoshoots like that because we realised people missed that it was us being tongue in cheek. All it did was get us called CSS's Australian Cousins about a million times. I don’t see the connection though. 

HK: Now you're very East London looking, and I see you guys around East London a lot. Has it had an influence? 

SM: I'm not really sure. Possibly that's because I feel I haven't been here long enough to start generalising about the whole scene.

HK: There are so many quality Australian bands at the moment, but few are able to make it outside of Australia (other than the ones Modular champions). What marks you out as different?

SM: I think it's hard because at home in Australia you literally just are so far away from everyone else. There are so many bands that are working hard at home and making great music but to tour there is very expensive and so limited. We are just craving a long, long tour to let the songs settle in while we're here. At home you can only do a couple of dates in a row before you take 3 days off and you've generally done a whole national tour after only about 5 shows and that's cost you so much because you've had to fly or drive long distances between the capital cities. Ideally more bands would come over here to play and write but that just costs so much money and for young bands it is often just too much of a struggle. We were lucky because a label found us that believed in the songs and wanted to bring us over. If we'd had to wait to do it ourselves you probably wouldn't be seeing us for at least another 12 months. We still would have done it because we are stubborn but it would have taken soooo much longer and we might have hated each other in the end.


Teenager in Tokyo’s new single ‘Isabella/ Long Walk Home’ is out 5th October via Back Yard Records, with an album to follow in 2010.

www.myspace.com/teenagersintokyo

www.teenagersintokyo.com

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