Soutosin: ‘When I looked at my grandfather’s attitude and the passion he had for music, I learned a lot’

Soutosin, a punk rock band from Fukuoka, Japan, has released its debut EP ‘City, Youth and Wind’.

The band consists of Atomu Nagamatsu (bass & vocals), Ageha Yamaji (guitar & vocals), and Masato Imahashi (drums), who describe their music as ‘poetic expressions and free beats of the mental landscape of boys and girls living in the city’. Yamaji and Nagamatsu met at a K-music group in high school three years ago, and met Imahashi shortly after, when he dropped out of aquatics.

Of their band name, Yamaji says: ‘Soutosin (pronounced “Soto-shin”) comes from kanji characters, so each “kanji” has a meaning,’ she said, speaking via interpreter Rika Asami: ‘”Sou”, the first part of our name means “playing or to like making music”. “To” means “human being” and the last part “shin” means “heart”, so our name means it’s about the people playing music, the heart of the people who make it.’

‘When I listened to the four songs, I thought they were all really good songs that resonated with my heart’

The Manga cover art depicts the band swimming in the city and was done by Yamaji, who also sings half the songs on the EP. Their love for Fukuoka can be felt in the actual buildings and billboards casually drawn in the background. Yamaji describes ‘That’s All’, on which she sings lead vocals, as being ‘a human anthem about the truth that lies beyond the everyday written from the perspective of a teenage girl: ‘When I listened to the four songs, I thought they were all really good songs that resonated with my heart,’ she said. ‘Each song has a very different meaning and a different tone. In this song, I talk about my childhood and my family, about crying, laughing and loving. It’s not just about me, it’s about universal feelings. Maybe that’s all I need, maybe that’s all there is to life?’

It’s a punk rock anthem in the making, pulled along by her powerful and impassioned vocals, opening with a shimmery guitar line that quickly makes way for a heavily-distorted one and deftly muted strings. I say that muting them gives them an edgier, vintage feel and she nods: ‘I think we did that to fit in with the melody,’ she said. ‘Also, if you look at the lyrics, they read like a diary. I think that’s what I feel every day, and maybe it’s the same for everyone. I think it’s more like the moment when you’re quietly making a small sound and I wanted to express that as it builds to the most important part of the song.’

Singing turns out to have always been a big part of Yamaji’s life: ‘I’ve always loved singing,’ she said enthusiastically. ‘When I started playing the guitar, I was in the second year of junior high school. Since then, I’ve been making my own songs and trying to sing them but I couldn’t make people listen to them. After I graduated from high school, I hadn’t actually sung in front of many people. Last spring, I had my first live performance and I realised that I could sing like this and my bandmates said I should sing more. They really loved it. It still feels quite new but I really enjoy it. Initially, Atomu sang all the songs but we each sing two tracks on this EP.’

‘Making this song cleansed my bad feelings about this place’

‘Field and Sunset’, the other track on which she sings leads vocals, is about the rural area in which she lives and is incredibly catchy: ‘There are only fields and rice fields, it takes me about an hour and a half to get to Fukuoka,’ she said. ‘I’ve been living here since I was in the fifth grade about ten years ago. When I moved here, I hated it so much (laughs). However, now that I’m thinking of moving, I don’t feel like that. I started to write this song and realised how much this place made me an adult and made me who I am now. Making this song cleansed my bad feelings about this place.’

Interestingly, they are now shaking up their songwriting. Until now, Yamaji has sung the songs that she has written and Nagamatsu has done the same but that is about to change: ‘Recently, I wanted to try something new, so I asked Atomu to sing the melody that I wrote and I’ll sing the song that Atomu wrote. We’re excited to try this new style.’

Endearingly, she describes her grandfather as her biggest musical influence: ‘He was in a band in Tokyo. He wasn’t very famous but when he was in Fukuoka, he worked at Tower Records where he played a lot of different artists and studied various bands. After he left for Tokyo, I went through the CDs he left in his room. I could tell that he was very passionate about music just by looking at what he left behind. That was when I was in my second year of junior high school. When I looked at my grandfather’s attitude and the passion he had for music, I learned a lot – I felt all the love and passion that he had for music.’

She cites Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts as inspiring her to pick up the guitar for the first time when she was 14. If she could meet any musician, she picks their lead singer Hiroto Kōmoto: ‘He’s about as big as the sky, above the clouds, but even if I could meet him I don’t think I would ask him about music,’ she said, looking pensive. ‘I admire him a lot. I’d like to ask him what he thinks of our music and if what we do is a bit different to other bands in Japan but I’d also just like to ask him what he’s thinking, so maybe we’d just talk about daily things or really small details (laughs).’

‘We all went to the same high school and studied really hard so that we could all go to the same university here together but then we all quit studying economics at the same time!’

There’s also something really serendipitous about how the band has ended up together: ‘We all went to the same high school and studied really hard so that we could all go to the same university here together but then we all quit studying economics at the same time! It was the best decision we ever made but to try so hard and then to quit like that yet still all be together is pretty funny!’

(Photo credit: Hisatomaru)