Chatmonchy Interview: SXSW 2010

Chatmonchy -- three girls who rock -- are the hottest female band in Japan. The trio sprinkles catchy American phrases through their Japanese lyrics and will make their American debut at SXSW. Akiko is on bass, Eriko on the guitar and vocals and Kumiko on drums, and they wiill come to the US on the heels of a Top 10 album release in Japan.

Describe your sound in your own words?

Akiko: We are a rock band. We are a girl band, too, but first we are a rock band.

How did your band form?

Eriko: Six years ago in 2004 when we were in our second year of high school, the three of us got together and formed Chatmonchy.

How did you come up with your band name?

Kumiko: The name doesn't' have any meaning. [It's just] that it looks good in Japanese, and we like the way it sounds. We liked the word 'monchi,' like monkey -- not a real monkey, but from an image of a cute monkey doll named Monchhichi from a picture [from the animation series 'Futago no Monchhichi']. She wanted to name our band 'something-monchi' or 'monchi-something,' and we chose 'something-monchi.' We looked in a dictionary and found the word 'chat,' and we wrote down chatmonchy and we liked it and became Chatmonchy.

What are your musical influences?

Kumiko: My mother listened to the Beatles a lot when I was young, so the Beatles are definitely an influence on my music.

Eriko: My older brother had a band and he played hard rock, and I really liked that. That sound is an influence on my music.

Akiko: When I was in junior high school, I loved the band Aerosmith. I love American rock bands and British rock 'n' roll. But when we were in school, we spent most of our time studying. We did not have a lot of time for listening to music.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Eriko: Many people want me to listen to their band or CD, but I do not like doing that. I do not like to listen to music so much. I have always been like that, not listening to a lot of music.

Kumiko: For me, western classical and opera are my guilty pleasures.

Akiko: My guilty pleasure is techno.

Beatles or Stones?

Eriko: Both.

Kumiko: Beatles. I am a big fan of Ringo Starr.

Akiko: I enjoy the music of the Beatles more, but the history of the Rolling Stones better.

Do you have any expectations being this is your first time in the United States and at SXSW?

Kumiko: We are looking forward to entertaining people. We all sort of have the same objective and goals, to entertain and hope the audiences enjoy our music. We want that, and to have fun and meet new people.

Anything specific you are looking forward to at SXSW?

Eriko: Japan night. It will be fun to perform on Japan night. We are also looking forward to everyone coming to our shows.

What don't we know about the Chatmonchy that we should?

All: We were told by a prophet, Yochan, that because our bass player was born in April of one year, and the guitar player was born 6 months later in October, and then again in April the drummer was born, that we make an ideal trio. We hope everyone wants to come to our show and enjoys our music.


Sydnie Taylor is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.