Austinist Interviews SXSW: Luminous Orange

For 15 years, Yokohama's Luminous Orange have been crafting a sound of equal parts gentle Kim Deal-style female vocals, noisy guitar feedback, and rhythms that owe debts to both shoegaze and Sonic Youth. The resolutely indie-rock Japanese outfit makes a return visit to SXSW next month after a successful trip in 2006.

Austinist spoke with Luminous Orange founder and vocalist/guitarist Rie Takeuchi about the band's SXSW experiences, along with their general distaste for Texas' Japanese food and love of Homeslice Pizza.

1. You've been to SXSW before. What motivates you to make the huge effort to travel here from Japan to play?

It's the whole atmosphere, the musical excitement, and the enthusiasm of Austin which I'd never experienced. That attracted us.

2. How were you past SXSW visits? Did you meet any other bands you like? Did it help from a business perspective?

From a business perspective, I had a couple of interviews and meetings. Although it didn't directly advance to a record deal, there were some good side effects. Since then, we've received more contact from people outside Japan, and more people outside Japan started to buy our CDs and iTunes downloads. We also had a very fruitful time at day parties we played. It helped us meet many interesting bands like +/-, Missing Tapes, Super XX Man, and Secret Weapons.

3. Your music shares some qualities with artists like Deerhoof and Stereolab. Are there any bands you'd like to play with or open for right now?

We are open to any band! But our recent gig with Ian Masters (formerly of Pale Saints) on guest vocals was a really amazing experience. It was nothing other than a Pale Saints gig which truly inspired me to form this band 15 years ago.

4. Which older bands have influenced you the most?

Well, the Beatles - it was almost impossible not to listen to them in Japan when I was a child. Composers like Debussy, Mozart, and Beethoven strengthened my musical foundation through piano lessons in my childhood, and then YMO, Joy Division, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Pale Saints washed that away later!

5. How do you feel about the current Japanese music scene? Are the artists friendly with one another? Do you enjoy the music coming from Japan right now?

Despite the declining CD sales of whole Japanese music industry, there certainly are many talents sprouting, especially among the younger people. Indie labels like Zankyo are interesting and worth paying attention to. Supposedly, cheaper PC recordings and CD-R and internet distribution helped them immensely to be really daring and creative. Their forerunners (including us and others) who didn't give in to demands like "make more commercially pop sing-along songs if you want to be heard" have survived hard times (sans PC!) somehow and keep making even keener music.

6. We traveled to Kyoto and Tokyo in 2005 and loved all of Japan's amazing food. Do you enjoy our Tex-Mex and Bar-B-Q when you visit?

Oh, I am glad to know you enjoyed Japanese food! I love visiting Kyoto to enjoy walking around and eating there. Their sense for food and cooking is amazing. Tokyo just has too many restaurants, and there are really awful ones, so it is harder to choose correctly!

As for Texas, unfortunately, we didn't know enough about Austin last year and one night we ended up in an awful Japanese restaurant. It turned out that the staff had no idea about Japanese food at all. But after that, friends of ours took us to good Tex-Mex restaurants. One guy cooked great Bar-B-Q for us at a party he organized, and the pizza place day party we played called Home Slice gave us VERY DELICIOUS free slices.