After 10 years in the business, Japan’s Red Bacteria Vacuum is a perfect example of how to do women in punk the right way. Powerful without being over the top about it, by turns aggressive and fun, their reputation as a killer live band has earned them slots at SXSW and as part of the Japan Nite tour 2 years in a row.
We caught up with bassist Kassan at home in Tokyo shortly before the band set out on their American tour.
When did you guys form?
We formed in Osaka 10 years ago.
How did you all meet each other?
I saw Red Bacteria Vacuum at a live house when I was playing with other band. When I heard their sound I was very interested in them. I wanted to join them, so that’s how we initially met. The other current band members also joined from other bands, there are no original members in our band.
So you just replaced whoever was the bass player at the time?
At that time they were looking for another bass player, they were talking about at the live house.
Why did you decide to move to Tokyo?
Osaka is a big city, but Tokyo is the main city in Japan, so we wanted to try it out and see how our band would do in the big city.
What’s the current punk scene in Tokyo like? Is there a specific punk scene or do the punk and rock bands all sort of end up playing together?
Nowadays all different kinds of bands play together. The major punk band in Tokyo, SA, is still playing and is still popular, so there are punk bands still existing from way back, but right now they’re all sort of mixed together in terms of playing live.
It seems like the Japanese bands that do well here are either really experimental stuff like Merzbow or The Boredoms, or visual kei. What kind of stuff is actually big in Japan right now? What kind of music has a really strong local scene?
Well, visual kei bands are still very popular in Japan, especially among kids, but in Tokyo there are many different styles of music. There are different types of rock and different types of punk. In Japan, each band has their fans with a similar age group and attitude. I don’t know very much about US, but I feel that there are more fans in a variety of generations in the US.
Is there any one scene that’s the big thing right now?
Visual kei is very strong. Also pop is much more popular than rock. Most Japanese people prefer pop to rock or punk.
When you started out were there any other all-woman punk bands around? Did people think it was weird that you were an all woman band?
At the time there were very few punk bands with woman members, it was very rare. Now there are far more women punk bands around.
Is that how it tends to break down in Japan, with women forming their own bands, or do you see lots of mixed gender bands too?
The number of women musicians has increased. There are more women who’ve started to play rock music, but it’s not necessarily all-women bands. Usually you see bands that have both women and men as members.
Do you feel comfortable nowadays playing in Japan as an all-women punk band?
Nowadays because there are more women playing rock, people aren’t surprised to see women in a punk band. I feel very comfortable playing with all women.
Do you feel like it’s changed in the past 10 years, since you started, in terms of how comfortable people in general are with seeing women in heavier bands?
I feel like women have become much stronger compared to ten years ago.
What are your musical inspirations? I noticed you played on a Green Day tribute album, so I was curious what bands you were into when you started. How did you get involved with that? Have you ever had the chance to play with them at a festival or anything?
Each member listens to different kinds of music, but one thing that we have in common is that we all like L7. All of us were interested in seeing bands with women in them.
Was that a specific interest because L7 was a band that was very tough and cool, they weren’t trying to be pretty and cute? Was that an inspiration, that they had a very different sort of approach to the whole thing?
The first time I saw L7 I was really inspired by the strength of the women, but I didn’t want to copy them. I tried to incorporate that strength into our performances. But nowadays, because we’ve been around for a long time, we don’t feel like we need to make so much effort to seem strong. In fact, I don’t think we’re that strong anymore. We’re more relaxed and we like to be as natural as we can be, because we’re more confident.
Have you ever had the chance to play with any of the bands like that who you were inspired by, since you’ve been touring a lot overseas?
Unfortunately no.
Are there any other bands that you were particularly inspired by?
The Pixies. There was also a band called Applicator that did a Japanese tour and we had a chance to play with them. We didn’t ask for it, it just happened. We really enjoyed playing with them and were influenced by that. We don’t have very many chances to play with American bands, though.
Are there any bands that you would like to tour with?
We’d love to play with the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. Also The Pixies.
Did you play the actual SXSW festival?
This year we’ll be at SXSW for the first time.
Is that where you’re starting before you do the tour?
Yes, this year that’s the first big show, though we’ve toured the US four times before.
How did you start touring America? How did you realize that you had enough fans here for it to be worth doing an American tour?
The first tour was coordinated by Benten, Audrey* gave us the opportunity to tour the US as part of Japan Nite. The first time we visited US we were really excited to play there, and at the same time really happy. It all started with Benten deciding to promote us there and give us some exposure to the US market.
Are you guys on YouTube?
Yes, we’re on YouTube.
I noticed after the last show that you did here for the opening of the New People mall, you were hanging out afterwards selling merchandise and talking to fans. Is that something that you do in Japan too? Because it’s quite unusual here – most of the other Japanese bands we’ve seen here go out of their way to avoid interacting with fans.
We do the same thing in Japan. After we play a show we come out to where the merchandise is and try to meet fans and promote our products.
I’ve seen you guys live and you were a lot of fun. Are you a band that prefers playing live to being in the studio?
We’re happier playing live rather than making records. I think we perform best on our live shows.
Describe Red Bacteria Vacuum for anyone who’s not familiar with your music.
We’re a band that loves to play live, and we’re there to have fun. We like to spend time with our fans. We’re here to have fun and also to share our music with our fans, so we look forward to seeing our American fans again.
* Audrey is Audrey Benten, President of Benten Records. This woman-centric label’s name is a nod to the Japanese goddess Benten/Bentaizen, the goddess of all that flows (water, words, speech, music) and one of the Seven Gods of Fortune.