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some Puffy AmiYumi articles
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IN TOONS AND TUNES, AMI AND YUMI PERSONIFY TEAMWORK
By Marian Liu
Mercury News
Japanese pop stars Ami and Yumi seem like the cartoons that depict them -- incredibly bubbly, wacky and hyperactive.
The two singers from Japan have star power that has amplified beyond the music scene. While they may be known best for performing the energetic theme song for Cartoon Network's ``Teen Titans,'' they've also reached into fashion and now have their own cartoon, called ``Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.''
Over the phone, they play-fight, finish each other's sentences and create this weird urge to hug them. Puffy AmiYumi, the music group -- with its fast guitar riffs and fun lyrics -- are like the Donnas on a sugar high.
``We have so much fun playing music and singing in front of people,'' says Yumi Yoshimura, 30, who will be performing with Ami Onuki, 31, on Wednesday at the Fillmore in San Francisco. ``We're glad that it transcends to even America.''
In their cartoon, there are characteristics of the two that are exaggerated for dramatic effect, says Ami, translated to English from Japanese by Archie Meguro from Sony Music, Japan. ``There is a slight essence of those animated characters in us.''
In describing each other, Ami says: ``About Yumi, like the character in the cartoon, on the outside, she may seem tough and the go-getter, but I know on the inside, she's very sweet and sometimes sentimental.''
While Yumi says: ``About Ami, she has a big-sister quality to her. When I have something to discuss or want to talk, she's very open and listens to me. She's very motherly sometimes.''
Despite their seemingly natural fit, the two didn't set out together as a band. Their record company stuck them together in 1995. Both had submitted their demos to talent searches. A decade later, they act like sisters.
``It's a joy working with them. You hear it in their music and in everything they do,'' says Meguro, who is also a general manager for Sony International.
Together they were a hit in Japan, spawning legions of copycat fans and selling more than 14 million albums in Japan alone.
But when they descended on America, the duo, formerly known as Puffy, added their own names on to avoid confusion with the hip-hop artist and producer Puff Daddy, who is now known as P. Diddy but previously had the nickname Puffy.
During their American tour, they plan on singing in both Japanese and English.
``Basically, we want to bring over the concert we do here in Japan,'' says Yumi, on the phone from Tokyo before a photo shoot with Entertainment Weekly.
For English songs, they get help from producer Andy Sturmer, from the '90s pop band Jellyfish. And on Japanese songs, says Ami, it's more of a collaborative effort, going back and forth between her and Yumi.
As for the secret to their success, they say, it's their ability to get along.
``I'm the type that gets confused or irritated, but when I talk to Ami, it puts the things into perspective,'' says Yumi. ``There's a trust factor. It's always great to sing and work with that.''
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...curynews_music
Quote:
Say hi, hi to happy-pop duo Puffy AmiYumi
By Rachel Devitt
Special to The Seattle Times
Until recently, only the hippest, most avant-garde American 8-year-olds have been down with J-pop (that's Japanese pop, for us old fogies) stars Puffy AmiYumi's peppy, contagious blend of punk, garage rock, ska, surf, and their own sugar-coated pop sass.
Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura hooked up when they both auditioned for an artist's-management company. From the beginning, their music was guided by former Jellyfish member Andy Strummer and producer Tamio Okuda, who, according to Onuki, "is just a music master a lot of people in America may not know yet, but you will soon."
Puffy AmiYumi became synonymous with the kind of kitschy, catchy, kitchen-sink pop that Americans associate with Japanese music — part Monkees, part Pizzicato 5, part Shonen Knife meets the Spice Girls performed by bubbly, tremendously fashionable young girls — only America hadn't gotten its tushy on the Puffy bandwagon yet.
Now, with the success of a Cartoon Network show ("Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi") loosely based on their career, Puffy AmiYumi is on the verge of U.S. superstardom (at least among the tween and pre-tween set) to match the runaway celebrity they've enjoyed in Japan for the past nine years.
On the phone from Tokyo, Onuki and Yoshimura (with the help of a translator) gave me the lowdown on girl power, being a rock star and "the Puffy way."
Q: Describe your music in your own words.
Yumi: Puffy can be anything. So we don't want to pigeonhole ourselves. There's rock, there's soul, there's all kinds of music — if you listen to our records, there're all kinds of influences there. So anything goes. If it's fun, we'll do it. That's the Puffy way.
Q: What's it like to be women playing music? Puffy AmiYumi gets described as having this fun, girl-power aesthetic to it. Is that something that you try to make a part of your music?
Yumi: When people describe us as girl power, that's great. But us personally, Ami and Yumi, that's not a message necessarily that we're trying to portray. Whatever people listen to our music and take from our music, we're happy with that. Puffy AmiYumi is basically about having a good time and kind of staying true to ourselves. About the difficulty of being a female in music ... because there's the two of us, the bad or the difficult parts of the business are halved and the fun parts are doubled.
Q: How has the Cartoon Network show, "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi," affected your music career?
Yumi: I guess with the cartoon show we were challenged to sing English songs, number one. Number two, probably the age range of the people who listen to our music has changed — more younger people listen because of the show.
Q: What do you think about so many of your U.S. fans being kids?
Ami: Even in Japan, some of our songs are used at the kindergarten level, in music classes, and so we have fans that are, uh, smaller, in primary school, too. [laughs]. So we're not that surprised of that, but we'll see [what it's like] when we actually visit you in America.
Q: So what's the best part about being a rock star?
Yumi: I guess that feeling of being onstage in front of people, playing in front of, you know, people in other countries, having the opportunity to do that — that's the best feeling that we have.
Q: What should we expect to see on this tour and at your show in Seattle?
Ami: Actually, right after we get off the phone with you, we're going into rehearsal for the U.S. tour. We want to make it a great show for people who only maybe have seen the "Hi Hi" show and have only seen a part or have heard only some of our songs yet, to look back and say, you know, "That song was great, this song was great."
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...yndication=rss
I think Puffy's success in the USA is great  
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1st May 2005, 11:28 PM
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