Noriko-zombie
of Seattle-based girl-fronted punk band The Amazombies spills the beans on Japanese girl-bands and Northwest rock n roll. P.S.-- They just signed a record deal with GoKart!
the Amazombies. Could you tell me a little about your musical history
and why you moved to Seattle?
I started playing piano when I was 6, just because I wanted to learn
how to play Für Elise by Beethoven. As soon I was done with that song I
moved on to violin, which fit my Asian profile really well. I started
playing Rock and Roll when I was in High School, then started playing
original tunes with my bands in college. I was always the singer in the
band until my last band in Japan, 3(SAN)Vicious, where I took lead vocals
and played bass for the first time. 3(SAN)Vicious was doing well, but
my husband's time in the Uncle Sam was up so we decided to head back to
his homeland for a while. He and I decided to move back to New York
where I grew up while I was in elementary school, and we also planned a
little visit to Seattle to see his family. By the time we were supposed
to leave for NY, we were sick of packing and flying- so we decided to
just stay here. We saw an amazing show by the Fastbacks and Gas Huffer,
which was good enough reason for us to settle in this town.
How did the Amazombies come to be?
Amazombies started when I realized I had absolutely no friends after
moving to the states. I met this one girl through a friend of my
husband's, and we decided to start a band just for the hell of it. We put in an
ad in the paper and fished our original drummer and started a band with
no singer. All 3 of us had different musical background so I was hoping
we would find a singer/guitarist to change the sound a bit to where it
was more rockin'. We tried out about 6 girls until we found Kim,
recruited her, then we decided to part ways with our original guitarist
because of both personal and musical differences. Then we had couple more
line up changes and finally in November 2001, we found Josh and concreted
our final line up.
Are there any particular challenges you've faced as a female punk rock
musician?
Breaking the stereotype. Usually girls in bands are used more as a
gimmick or a novelty when it comes to playing punk rock music. We don't
have to play well as long as we wear our fishnets and look cute and sexy
on stage. Well I don't mind people coming to our shows expecting to see
some heavy make up and cute little hairdos but I want people to go home
and say "Damn, that was one hell of a band". Of course it will be nice
if they enjoyed our music, but even if they didn't- I want them to
learn that just because there are chicks in the band doesn't mean we are
your typical "chick band".
What is the best/worst part of being in a 'girl-band'?
Although being in a girl fronted band has been positive, I can't really
tell you what is the best part of being in a "girl fronted band". Maybe
getting more interviews, compilation submissions, and opportunities
because there are so many things dedicated to women in music nowadays? I
mean if we weren't a girl fronted band we wouldn't be doing this
interview with you, so I'd say that's really positive! Worst part is what I
mentioned earlier- stereotype. Maybe Josh might want to add "dealing with
2 women PMSing at the sametime" or "hey, can't you tell that the
drummer is a guy?!"
It looks like the Amazombies have met with a lot of success in a short
period of time. I know your new album is coming out soon. How did you
manage to pull all of it off?
I think we all worked hard from day one. When we first started we
played as many shows as we could, we never slacked on practicing and pumping
out new songs, and we did everything we can possibly think of to get
our band name out there. We released a 3-song demo, a 5-song EP, and a
full-length on our own even before we sent any promo packs out to the
record labels. Ever since we met Go-Kart Records, we have been working
very closely with them to get our re-release of our full length out on
April 8th.
Do you have any advice for all of the young, aspiring girl musicians
out there?
All I can say is never to give up. There might be times or situations
where you would feel discouraged but if you believe in what you do, you
can always make it happen. I know it sounds so cliché, but it happened
to me.
What is your passion/hobby besides music? Do you have any secret domestic obsessions or really boring or unusual hobbies?
I do enjoy cooking, and this goes for both Kim and Josh as well. Kim
and I take turns on cooking holiday feasts for our friends- Kim is in
charge of Thanksgiving and St Patrick's Day, and I am in charge of
Christmas. You haven't seen nothing yet until you have ate Kim's corned beef
and my stuffed pork roast. Josh cooks for a living so he is a bar-food
meister. Another one of my passion is comic books. All my life I have
been into reading cheesy girly Japanese comic books so I have a couple
thousand of them lying around in my basement. Kim is obsessed with
reading musician biographies and Josh is probably playing Final Fantasy as we
speak. All our lives are based on music- so if someone took that away
from us, we'll basically lay around and be a zombie.
