Japan’s Natsuko Nisshoku Says New Album ‘Mimesis’ Is Just ‘Me Messing Around as a Nerd’
Natsuko Nisshoku has released her fourth album, Mimesis.
Launched a short eight months on from her previous offering, Anti-Freeze, Mimesis includes lead track “√-1” and “A Pebble Song,” the theme for the film Musicophilia. As the title suggests, Mimesis features “many songs written in imitation of” a variety of works ranging from film to novels, manga, and anime.
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On behalf of Billboard Japan, music journalist Tomoyuki Mori asked Natsuko, someone who continues to demonstrate free uninhibited creativity post-COVID, about Mimesis.
Only eight months has passed since your last album. Have you been working the whole time?
I took a short break after Anti-Freeze and then started production on the new album. Anti-freeze was an album with a strong message for my listeners, but Mimesis is the exact opposite. Here I’m having some fun by myself. COVID came and gave me more time to enjoy things that I hadn’t spent much time with before — things like movies, novels, manga, video games, and art. Mimesis is me trying to write songs in imitation of the things that wowed me during this time, as a kind of homage. It’s me messing around as a nerd.
So you think of yourself as a nerd?
Oh, absolutely. I’ve been nerdy since I was a kid. I’d get into something and continue to claim that I liked it no matter what anybody else said. I was one of those annoying types. [Laughs] That nerdiness was something I’d concealed once I started making music, but the pandemic gave me time to reconnect with things I’d always enjoyed. I’m sure the pandemic was a rough time for many artists. For me, though, it wasn’t all bad because it gave me time to see and listen to many different things. After I started making music, I’d get jealous of any amazing piece of art I’d encounter, not just music but also manga, art, video games, or video art. But when the music industry ground to a halt in the spring of 2020, I felt like it might be okay to give myself over to that jealousy.
What was it like writing music in mimicry of so much different art that you had been inspired by?
I realized that it’s something I can do. I’ve always been a conformist, and I think I’m also good at getting snuggly with the worlds of the art I enjoy. Really, though, mimicry is something I think we all do. When someone visits a client, for example, they mimic a great business person. Likewise, I mimic cool musicians when I get onstage. But afterwards I slip right back to being who I am. [Laughs]
I know what you mean. So how did the songs on the album come about?
The lead track is “√-1.” I don’t like to say what specifically inspires any song, but those in the know would listen to “√-1” and know right away what it came from. Of course, I’ve made the songs so they’ll resonate with even those who don’t know the inspirational piece. I wrote this song in the fall of 2020. A music friend of mine passed away while I was enjoying the piece in question. Something happened in real life that mirrored a scene in that piece, and I wrote “√-1” to capture that. There’s so much personal sentiment in it that I can’t listen to it objectively, even now. The song is more about organizing my feelings than giving people something to listen to.
The first track, “Serial,” has a rock vibe that brims with a palpable feeling of tension. You on piano, BOBO on drums, and Hisako Tabuchi on guitar makes for a wonderful ensemble.
Thank you. When writing “Serial,” I knew that getting the right collaborators for it would be key. Having BOBO and Hisako play with me was a real score. [Laughs] But Hisako couldn’t record with us because she was busy with Number Girl and PEDRO. BOBO and I recorded the piano and drums and sent it to Hisako, who added guitars. We told her the song was about serial killers and asked her to play with the image of a person who kills people while smiling. Her playing captures that image perfectly. Though she probably thought, “what on earth is she talking about with this song.” [Laughs] I had long been a big fan of her guitar playing. Maybe this is totally wrong, but to me her tone seems to have a serial killer vibe. The phrase “serial” is also really powerful. As a fan of hers, I was just happy to work with her.
“Necessities” is a track you produced through an April 2021 crowdfunding project.
It was the 21st track I made as part of a project to “produce an album of the top 20 tracks recorded at home in one go.” I originally thought about putting it on Anti-Freeze, but I had already written a lot at that time and it didn’t really fit the album’s concept. Like the title implies, it’s a track very much about everyday life.
The line “I’ll be a necessity that’s always by your side, no matter how much you use me” is really powerful. It really expresses the soul of a musician in the midst of the pandemic.
They told us we were nonessential, you know? Not being able to do concerts and having your whole existence denied hurt a lot of people. They probably saw no future at all for themselves, especially for people in a band. “Necessities” was written to say — more to fellow musicians than to listeners — that “you’re all a necessity.” I moved to the mountains in the summer of 2020, and I remember thinking that if I’d been in Tokyo during all that I probably would have gotten sucked into that vortex of despondence and quit music. I told people I was running away to protect myself, and it was the right decision.
Kin Leonn, an electronic artist out of London, did the arrangement and beat-building for “In the Depth,” the last track on the album. I understand he’s from Singapore originally?
Yes. I worked with people outside Japan for my last album, and Kin Leonn was another introduction from my producer. When I reached out to him, in addition to words, I also sent him photos to paint a picture of what I had in mind. The feel is something like the bottom of the Syvash that you see in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. He picked up on that and created a sound just like was in my head. He, converted my abstract words into sound, like all the other musicians I worked with for this album, and I’m so grateful for that.
There’s a broader sound to this album, overall. “In the Depth,” has a line that goes “The rain of righteousness washes over me, and my dignity flows away,” that seems to be talking about the stratified society we have today.
Actually, I’m only singing about myself there. I wrote that song about three or four years ago, at a time when I felt even lower than I do now, when I had a much worse inferiority complex. Talented musicians able to self-strategize were just whizzing past me. It felt like I’d fallen into some deep hole. So “In the Depth” isn’t a metaphor — it’s 100% about me. When they get to the end of the album, I hope my listeners will be able to emulate me.
This interview by Tomoyuki Mori first appeared on Billboard Japan.
