THREE1989

THREE1989 garnered international attention quickly due to lead singer Shohey Uemura’s appearance on the Netflix acquired reality show, Terrace House. With their catchy jazz-infused pop tunes, the trio are only getting better.

How did you guys meet and when did you know that you wanted to form the band together?

Datch: We’re all from different places around Japan, but we went to the same music school and were in the same year. Right around graduation I approached Shimo and Shohey and asked if they wanted to start a band with the hopes of playing at a festival one day. We weren’t able to play a festival that year, but we got to perform at our first festival called Ringo Festival in September [of this year].

Shohey: Our dream finally came true! In the future, we’d want to play bigger festivals like Summer Sonic, Fuji Rock, and Greenroom Festival.

How has being in the band affected your relationships with each other?

Shohey: We were friends to begin with, so nothing has really changed.

Shimo: We weren’t working together at the time, so it’s a little bit of a different dynamic when we’re working together — the roles and stability we have.

Shohey: We treat each other like a family, and we’ve stayed good friends this entire time.

Who are your biggest musical influences growing up?

Shimo: I originally started listening to punk, and transitioned into rock music. Currently I listen to a lot of jazz music like Chick Corea, jazz piano music. Every single person in my family plays an instrument so I grew up in an environment where we only talked about music. Our family played as a band. You can find a home video of me playing the castanet with the family band when I was around 2 or 3.

Shohey: Our genre is Jazz, City Pop, Dance music, so we get inspiration from musicians like Bruno Mars, as well as many acid jazz musicians like Jamiroquai and Brand New Heavies. We take qualities from different genres like black music, jazz music, 80’s disco, and soul music. For me, as a vocalist, I’d want to mimic Kubota Toshinobu’s career. He was a pioneer of his genre and spread its popularity throughout all of Japan. I’d hope to do the same and spread our music nationally.

Which other artists’ careers would you like to mimic?

Shimo: I’d say I want to mimic Sakamoto Ryuichi’s career. His music is very different from THREE1989’s music, but I really respect him. He does a lot of experimental and modern music. I admire how he’s able to create pop music out of non-pop music.

Datch: International artist wise I’d say someone like Dr. Dre. He makes his own songs and creates his own remixes, and I really enjoy doing that as well. I think it’s great how he’s able to produce music while making his own simultaneously.

Shohey: I think all three of us would want to take that kind of path in the future. Not only make music as THREE1989, but produce music and such independently. We all compose and write lyrics for the band so have experience in that area.

How has the impact of Terrace House changed the way you write music and also the band’s fanbase?

Shohey: The fanbase has definitely changed. Our audience used to be predominantly older people who were into classic soul and R&B, but since we’ve been on the show, we’ve had people who’ve never stepped foot into a livehouse. We’re glad that we helped people to experience what live music is like and discover what Japanese music is all about. We’ve get a lot of younger people showing up at our shows now.

Datch: We’ve also been getting a lot of listeners from abroad! Foreigners would visit Tokyo and send messages to Shohey through social media, asking if we are performing during certain weeks.

Shohey: As for our songwriting, we used to get some inspiration from movies or books, but after being on Terrace House I started to focus on writing more about my own experiences and interactions with people I meet in real life.

Datch: Shohey would usually start writing lyrics, and we would create a track to accommodate the lyrics. But while he was at Terrace House, Shimo and I had a lot of time with just the two of us so we would start making tracks and send them Shohey, which then he would create lyrics to. We’ve had the opportunity to approach songwriting in different ways.

After being on Terrace House I started to focus on writing more about my own experiences and interactions with people I meet in real life.

What do you think is your biggest accomplishment as a band?

Datch: The reason we started this band was to perform at a festival and we finally got to do that this year at Ringo Festival in Nagoya. It was such a big accomplishment because we worked hard and auditioned for a spot. It wasn’t handed to us on a silver platter. We‘re really happy about it.

What are your goals with the band?

Shohey: Our ultimate goal is to be on Kohaku. It’s an annual tv show broadcasted live on New Year’s Eve where popular artists of that year go on to perform. It’s a show that everyone watches so it would be honorable to get a spot on there.

Datch: We were also saying we’d want to play at the Olympics (laughs). But on a more serious note, we would definitely want to tour internationally someday. Our international audience is growing so much.

Shohey: Definitely. Playing around East Asia would be cool, but surprisingly a lot of the messages we receive are from Europe, especially Paris, so we’d love to play there next year or next next year.

Are there any other Japanese artists you think other people should be more aware of?

Shimo and Shohey: Sukisha!

Shohey: Chelmico as well. It’s two female rappers.

What would you like people to take away from your music?

Shohey: I just want people to listen to our songs while walking in a nice scenic area, with a feel-good and relaxed attitude. I think our songs really set the mood wherever you are. I’d want someone to listen to “High Times” when walking from the station to back home, and think about someone they love. Listening alone is key. We want people to listen to our songs properly and focus on the lyrics, and hopefully relate it to their own lives.

PHOTOGRAPHY & TRANSLATION YOUKA NAGASE WORDS APRIL SALUD