Cornelius: The New Gay Interview

To earn his badges, Cornelius became proficient in fire-starting, knot-tying and creating avant-garde soundscapes.

Cornelius plays tonight, 1/25, at the 9:30 Club. Doors open at 9.

If I was in the habit if giving my interviews cute titles, I totally would've called this one "Lost in Translation." I was excited to ask Japanese musician Cornelius (real name Keigo Oyamada) a ton of meddlesome questions about his music and his live show and general Japanese culture, but our language gap necessitated that the whole exchange be done through an interpreter. That is why this interview may seem shorter than most and why a lot of Keigo's answers are phrased in the third person.

What I did know, though, is that Cornelius' came from the same Tokyo neighborhood as Pizzicato Five and that his breakthrough album Fantasma got a lot of attention when it was first released in 1997...and that his video for "Star Fruits Surf Rider" is still pretty trippy. I'm not going to pretend I can accurately describe the music without resorting to phrases like noise-pop, but the closest I could probably come is that it bears resemblance to the sounds of swinging London remixed by a video game. His newest album is called Sensuous and the performance he brings to 9:30 tonight is called the "Sensuous Synchronized show," a 90-minute mix of sound and visuals with a full backing band. In all honesty I have no idea what its going to be like, but I'm definitely excited to check it out. If the video for new single "Fit Song" is a suitable preview, it should be pretty interesting. A really bad cold leaves me unable to experience the show at it truly should be enjoyed, but there's no reason you can't take full advantage.

Full interview below the fold.

The New Gay Zack: Is it weird reading interviews in a different language than the one you speak?

Keigo Oyamada: Its quite difficult in ways, but I can hardly communicate with my level of English.

TNG: Do you ever get misquoted or see your words written different from how you thought you spoke them?

KO: At times there are things that haven't been quoted right or have been interpreted in the wrong way.

TNG: Does your music translate to an American audience?

KO: Musically I think its being interpreted in the right way.

TNG: What is the crowd like at your show? Is it an intellectual crowd or more of a dance party?

KO: Not quite a dance show, but it involves a band and images and lights. The show is called the "Sensuous Synchronized Show," its the synchronization of the three. The show progresses in that format and is a little over ninety minutes.

TNG: Is the live experience different from the CD?

KO: First of all, the biggest difference is that the recording is done on my own, but the live show is done with a band.

TNG: Are the songs arranged differently live?

KO: Its different, its completely different. There's a band arrangement.

TNG: Do you write songs with the visuals in mind? How are the songs translated to visuals?

KO: The recording process is done first. After that he has friend who is a director, they listen to it together and share ideas and the director creates the visuals. That's usually the pattern, and he sometimes uses other directors too.

TNG: How do you characterize your sound? Its usually called noise pop, but has it grown to something else?

KO: He actually hasn't been describing his own sound to the people around him, he usually doesn't like to describe it.

TNG: How has the sound grown since Fantasma?

KO: Fantasma was a lot of information mixed, he created music with lots of information, like a sound collage. Throughout the albums he's made it more simple and created more space and selected the sounds that he thought were needed and put them in the right spots.

TNG: I hope this isn't too annoying a question, but is Japanese culture as crazy and fanciful as it usually represented in American media?

KO: That's a very difficult question. In ways it is, but not all is like that. There are things that people really stick to reality with, its a hard question.

TNG: Like in the movie "Lost in Translation," for example. How accurate is that?

KO: Perhaps from a foreign point of view that's what it looks like,but not from a Japanese one.

TNG: Is it annoying that Americans have their perceptions wrong?

KO: It doesn't irritate him or anything but he understands that when he goes to other countries, waking up jet lagged, walking around town, having an image of places you've never been to, its understandable.

TNG: What is Japanese gay culture like?

KO: There's a gay culture/community in the TV world in Japan, in national entertainment, and the characters are thought of quite interestingly to the public. There's quite a few on TV that are thought of as intelligent and they point out a point of view that's neither man nor woman, its a unique perspective.

TNG: You're turning turning forty next year. Will if affect what you do?

KO: He thinks it will change him, another way to put it is he would like it if it didn't change him

TNG: Finally, anything you want to say to people in D.C. that are coming to see your show?

KO: There's a way to say "see you at the show" in Japanese, it actually sounds like a riddle, it rhymes. There's a laugh in there but it can't be translated to English in the correct way.