flumpool: Japan’s modern-day Beatles?
Meet flumpool, an up-and-coming four-man pop-rock band from Japan.
The group, which burst onto the scene in 2007, consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Ryuta Yamamura, lead guitarist Kazuki Sakai, both of whom are 27 years old, as well as bassist Genki Amakawa, and drummer Seiji Ogura, who are a year older.
flumpool's journey to fame in Japan was aided by helpful breaks -- one of their singles, Over the Rain, was used as the theme song of local drama series Bloody Monday, and another,Hana ni Nare, was used in a television commercial, and after their first mini album, Unreal, hit number 2 in the Japanese Oricon album charts in the week of its release, they emerged as one of the top new bands in 2008.
Three albums, numerous successful sold-out concert tours and even two books later, the band is now Singapore-bound, and will debut here on 15 September in a small showcase to begin with, a part of what is perhaps a daring gamble by its parent company, Amuse Inc., to bring J-pop back to popularity here.
'We've always only had music'
Not something you'd hear from an average Singaporean, that's for sure -- but for flumpool, going into music professionally was a natural process.
"We started with street performances -- from there we started gaining listeners, and we felt like our music really touched them," says Ryuta Yamamura, who takes lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar. "We felt from there that this is what we should do; it was what we were destined to do."
Yamamura, Sakai, and Amakawa were friends since they were in kindergarten.
Both started playing their instruments at 14, during a time where playing the guitar was a fad. For the -- for the three of them, it became much more than that, though.
They started calling themselves "cube" because there were three of them, but at the beginning of 2007, the trio roped in Ogura, their dynamic, high-powered drummer, and refashioned themselves with the letter "f" from "four", combining the words "lump" and "pool" -- which mean mass -- into their resulting unique name.
Modern-day Beatles?
Like their local pop-rock predecessors Happy End in the 1970s, flumpool says they're greatly inspired by the legendary British rock band.
"The Beatles get us through our troubles in life, and that's what we feel we want to achieve for other people -- we want our music to help people gain confidence in whatever they do," shares Yamamura.
True, one wouldn't quite associate their music with the bouncy, catchy tunes of Love Me Do or From Me To You, but Yamamura says they aspire to the effect that The Beatles had on their millions upon millions of fans.
And there are similarities between the four 20-somethings and John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr: the relationship between Yamamura and Sakai is somewhat reminiscent of that shared between Lennon and McCartney, with them sharing much of the writing responsibilities, while Amakawa puts up a quiet but passionate front, the way Harrison always did -- except that Harrison played the guitar.
'A special connection'
Asked how they differentiate themselves from a significantly-saturated local market, Yamamura explains that the band has a special connection with its audience.
"We don't think we're particularly unique, but we feel like we perform for an audience that feels the same way we do," he says. "It's a communication process that we have with our audience that we feel is different from certain bands."
And connect they do -- during their most recent concert in Tokyo on Sunday night, the band spent at least a fifth of the two-and-a-half hour show chatting with the audience, sparring among themselves and working the crowd.
Yamamura does most of the talking, and addresses both floors of the 5,000-capacity Tokyo International Forum hall separately and together, making it a point as frequently as possible to thank them for coming, and for their support.
He also at one point introduces the other members of the band, speaking at length about the quirks and interesting mannerisms his counterparts have -- from saying that Ogura is "way too skinny", and is only ever seen buying drinks, to sharing about how Amakawa wears running attire even in winter.
flumpool's comic side evidently emerges during their shows, in particular with lead guitarist Sakai, who at one point on Sunday night picked up a menu, ordered a plate of food, had it brought in and even took a bite from it -- even though he provides supporting vocals to Yamamura. He also spars well with the lead singer, in particular, compared to the relative silence from the other two.
Their energy and passion is also telling in their concert, during which the band performed live some 20 songs. Most of these were rock, but Yamamura did slow it down for a few numbers, sharing about the creative process of their songwriting at various stages.
And they are good quality musicians, too -- Yamamura's singing voice is classic pop-rock style, with a strong, clear quality; Sakai and Amakawa pull their own weights with several solid guitar and bass solos respectively, with Sakai playing both acoustic and electric guitars at various points. Ogura, too, displays some epic drumming skills in a lengthy, rapid tirade at one point, also weaving songs seamlessly together -- another unique facet of the band's performance.
Venturing into Singapore
The four are now looking forward to expand into Singapore, where the J-pop scene once thrived as strongly as the Korean pop scene does now.
"Our aim in this is simple: we just want to connect and communicate with Singapore fans, just like how we connect with people here," says Yamamura. "That's the most important thing -- we don't know (Singaporeans) very well yet, but through our music, we hope to be able to connect with Singapore, learn about its culture and be inspired by them to do new things (with our music)."
At the same time, the band is learning Mandarin (and very slowly, English) in preparation to break into the massive Chinese market, having toured previously in Taiwan, and even though concrete plans to move beyond Singapore in Southeast Asia haven't been made yet, the lead singer says Singapore is, where they're told, "the place to be".
"It's a great country, with great people, and that's why we want to go," he says. "We've heard very good things about it, and have never been there, so we want to learn more about it (Singapore)."
flumpool is doing pretty well in Japan, and while the extent of their international success does remain to be seen -- they are only about five and a half years old -- these modern-day Beatles aspirants do seem to have passion and promise.
http://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/bl...medium=twitter
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A rather long writeup but I never would have thought Yahoo S'pore would have written such a great if not unbiased article on flumpool
And seriously , I cannot wait to see them live in performance next month here in my country alongside with WEAVER
Front rowstage baby
