Japanese pop punk band Shonen Knife Photo:
Shonen Knife are an all-girl Japanese band hailing from Osaka. Singer/guitarist Naoko Yamano talks to Music 101's Maggie Tweedie about the early days of sneaking her guitar out of the house to play live shows, and the experience of touring with Nirvana just as the band was blowing up.
Across countless tours and 42 years of music one thing has remained constant: the shared aim to uplift the audience and have a damn good time playing music they love.
So what was Japan's music scene like when they formed in 1981?
"The number of punk bands were not so many, and it was rather easy to play at clubs in Osaka, since we [were] an all-female band. Many boy bands invited us to play with them," Yamano said.
Although they were welcomed into the live music scene, for their families it was a different story.
"My parents are a bit conservative, [and] especially my mother [didn't] like me to play in a punk band. But after we played many times, she understood."
Yamano would sneak out to gigs, putting her guitar outside the house first before leaving later. This was more difficult for her sister Atsuko, the band's drummer and also a founding member.
"At first she ... just took her drumsticks! We [would] rent our drum kit at the [gig] or rehearsal studio."
In 1989 the band did a gig in Los Angeles and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was in the audience.
The grunge stars started regularly performing a cover of Shonen Knife's track, 'Twist Barbie' and for their 1991 UK tour asked the Japanese band to be their support act.
"At that time, I didn't know Nirvana and they looked very wild and I was very scared to tour with them. [But] after the tour started in autumn, they were very kind and I found that they were gentlemen.
"Nirvana were just breaking [through] at that time and all shows were sold out."
Cobain would come every night and watch their set from the side of the stage, she says.
The band even rented then-drummer Dave Grohl's kit for the tour, but struggled to fix the tom-toms.
"Dave came up to the stage and helped us [set it] up, so everyone was so kind and we had a very good experience."
Cobain described watching Shonen Knife perform for the first time as like watching the Beatles play live. Keith Flint from the Prodigy was another admirer.
The band's influences range from British hard rock from the Sixties to punk pop from the Seventies - such as Judas Priest as well as the Beatles, the Ramones and the Jam.
Osaka Ramones, released in 2011, was a tribute album that stemmed from one all-Ramones cover set in the late Nineties.
"Many people asked us to play Ramones again and we decided to release an all-Ramones cover album."
Why is it important to be playful with their lyrics and music?
"I like to make people happy through music and if our audience or listeners get happy through our music, it's my happiness too. So I like to write about happy, fun things. I don't want to write about social problems or sad things."
Their signature sound still retains its grungy, underground character.
"I don't mind underground, or overground," she laughs, "I just play our music. [If] many people listen to Shonen Knife, I'm happy."
On the origins of the band's name, she says in Japanese shonen means boy and Shonen Knife was the brand name of a pencil knife.
Once, when she went to an examination, "people had to bring a small knife to open the question paper, and when I saw the name [I thought it was] very suitable for the band because shonen is a boy and the word has a very cute feeling and knife has a dangerous feeling so when cute and dangerous are combined together, it's just like our band."
She is looking forward to returning to New Zealand and has manuka honey candies in her sights.
"I love [it] a lot and people are so friendly and kind, and ... because there are many Asian restaurants so I like to enjoy their delicious food."
Yamano says she is proud of her legacy - particularly inspiring young women to form their own bands - but "couldn't imagine that I could continue so long.
"But I never look back and I just think about a bit [of the] future, but I don't know that so many years have passed."
Shonen Knife play Artworks on Waiheke Island on 6 March; San Fran, Wellington on 7 March; Yot Club, Raglan on 8 March and the Whammy Bar in Auckland on 9 March. More details here.
