Kobayashi ***New Interview***

Kobayashi is an awesome punk band from Bremen, Germany. They have a great live set that they have played all over Europe and shared the stage with a ton of great bands. They amazing set of releases and are just an amazing band all around. I got the band to tell their story...

Intoduce Yourself...
Peter: I am Peter, I am trying to sing with Kobayashi. Besides I am the usual suspect when it comes to driving the van.
Daniel: Daniel trying to play the bass :) Running a label also, but lazy moments...
Roberto: I am dealing with the drums.
Roberta: guitar, voice

How did the band start?
Peter: Umh... I personally haven't been a part of Kobayashi from the very beginning, but I think Roberto (drums) and Martin (git) wanted to set up a band together after both having moved to Bremen because they were long-time friends and had played together previously. Maik (git) and Daniel (bass) were in the same situation: After having played together in a band in their hometown, both of them moved to Bremen. So it was a perfect match. That was back in 1997. I had a van by that time and always enjoyed driving bands so I ended up as their standard driver pretty quickly. After some concerts, they forced me to sing a song and soon afterwards Martin and Maik got tired of singing most of the time so I took over. 8 years afterwards, Martin left the band because his priorities had shifted. Then Maik moved away from Bremen last year and had to leave Kobayashi as well. Luckily, two long-time friends who both play guitar liked what we are doing and joined us: Roberta and Jana.
Daniel: Actually Roberto and me agreed on going to the practice-room to see what happens when we got to know each other in Barcelona in 1996. The rest happened as Peter already mentioned it.
Roberto: In autumn 1997, Daniel gave me a call and mentioned to meet for a session, by the way, a friend of his that plays guitar just moved to Bremen. That was Maik.
Roberta: We began because Maik couldn't play two gigs which the others did not want to cancel. They asked us if we could replace Maik for these 2 gigs. In 10 days we managed to learn the set and did play like a kind of Maik's guitar-karaoke. It was funny and we did well all together, so they ask us to stay, and we did.

How did you come up with the name?
Peter: Again, I was not involved in that discussion but I think the goal was to find a name that sounded good and straightforward but had no simple meaning. Kobayashi is one of the most common surnames in Japan. There is this movie “The Usual Suspects” where one of the key characters is called Kobayashi. At the very end of the movie it turns out that this character, just as the whole story around him was made up by one of the suspects. The cop realizes this after already having bought the story and let the suspect walk away. I think that´s a good background for a band name. In general I think it has been a good choice: We are still happy with it after 14 years, I guess few bands can say that.

Who would you say are your influences?
Peter: I am not a music nerd at all, I do not even listen to a lot music nowadays. However I think that I would probably not be involved in the band or that we might sound different if I would not have listened to classical political punk bands like early Muff Potter, early But Alive, Graue Zellen, Slime or Koyaanisqatsi. Still I am sure, every band member's list would look totally different in this regard.
Daniel: I also love those bands Peter mentioned besides But Alive (uargh...), but I won`t start naming more influences because I wouldn`t know where to start and where to end.
Roberto: No idea, I think we´re all listening to a lot of different styles and bands. For sure here and there are parallels to other bands. I would say we are more influenced by the whole idea to arrange and organise as much as possible by yourself. We love the idea of diy if it works out. ;)

What is the punk scene like in Bremen?
Peter: We are in the very good situation to have several venues where you can setup uncommercial
concerts, most of them existing for 20 years or even longer. The scene is well established and I think it´s a good mix of older people and younger kids. Another good thing about Bremen is that it is not as big as Hamburg or Berlin. Bremen has around half a million inhabitants. So the “underground” music scenes (justlike the local radical left itself) are not that fragmented as in these big cities. At least I got that impression.
Daniel: I share his opinion. It is pretty relaxed.
Roberto: It's an awesome place for bands. Just come by, make yourself an image.

Describe the song writing process...
Peter: Not very exciting. Usually Jana (git), Roberta (git) or Daniel (bass) come up with a riff, Roberto (drums) plays something along, they are searching for more parts, we discuss every idea until we have a structure everybody is happy with. Then it is often me who thinks about a vocal part, but lately Jana and Roberta are also taking over this part which is really great. Usually the lyrics are written by the one who is mainly singing them and then discussed among the whole band.

You released 'Basta de Ciudad Muerta!', tell us about the tape...
Peter: That was back in 2000. Asier, a friend fom Bilbo / Spain (or Basque Country, whatever you prefer) wanted to put out the recordings of our debut single in Spain. Since vinyl was practically dead by that time in Spain, we decided to release it on tape there. We wanted the packaging to be something special and include a comprehensive booklet so Asier came up with the idea of putting it into a printed A5 envelope. We liked the idea and did it that way. In the end it turned out that the idea was not that brilliant: The envelope looks like shit pretty quickly if you put it into your distro box on concerts and people are browsing through the box continuously.
Daniel: Nice idea, but not so good-looking result. I would add that the tape was we—distributed at that time so a lot or some people got to know us, I think.

You then released a self-titled 7", tell us about the 7"...
Peter: The others recorded some songs before I “officially” joined the line-up as a singer. These recordings were supposed to be released as a single by Skuld, a label of a long-time friend. After I took over the microphone, we decided that we want the debut to contain recordings with the actual line-up, so we had to re-record everything. That's why we we went into another studio and recorded the songs again. I think it was the first recording in that studio which was just opened up by two other friends. Besides lack of recording experience on our side that´s probably the main reason why the single sounds that horrible- at least in my ears.
Daniel: Yes, but it still sounded better than the „first“ recording.
Roberto: .. or the 2nd testpressing and we were not satisfied with the 3rd master version but thought “Ok, that's how it is.”

You then released 'Disco', tell us about the LP...
Peter: We did the recording in the same studio as the 7” but were and are still a lot happier with the result. However, on concerts today we are playing maybe 2 songs from that LP because we have evolved quite a lot over the past years.

How do you feel 'Some Chosen Old Songs' differed?
Peter: The “Disko” LP and the two split singles that followed up had only been released on vinyl. To make the songs available for all those who do not have an LP player, we decided to put out a cheap CD. Since we did not like some songs from the Disko LP anymore we replaced them by the songs from the split 7”. That´s the reason why the tracklists are different.

You recently released 'Neuanstrich', tell us about the album...
Peter: Well, “recently” is relative- the release of “Neuanstrich” has been back in 2006. I still think it´s been our best recording so far although there are definitely things I´d like to have done differently from today's perspective. We are really keen on getting a new LP done soon because the line-up changed and so did ourmusic. I hope this will happen before next summer.
By the way: The whole Neuanstrich LP including some bonus tracks and the booklet are available as a free download on our website.
Daniel: I like the way it was released: Gatefold LP and Digipack CD. Not that it is something important, but I like it that way; also the general fact that it was released on vinyl AND CD.

What else have you released?
Peter: I think we mentioned everything: The debut 7“, two split 7” (with Koyaanisqatsi and Disface), the “Disko” LP and the “Neuanstrich” LP and CD.
Daniel: There are quite a few compilations released over the last years where we contributed a song.

Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
Peter: You are asking the wrong guy here. I have a very bad memory and will for sure forget to mention important bands if I start naming some we´ve played over the years.

Do you prefer to do shows at large venues or small clubs?
Peter: I prefer small clubs without a stage at all.
Daniel: As long as it stays uncommercial and as diy as possible, I don`t care. I also like it when lots of people have a good time. I love to play abroad because there is usually more interchange between us and the people; that is more interesting than in Germany, but that doesn`t have anything to do with your question :)
Roberto: I don't mind as long as we can manage to get a good sound on and in front of the stage. It's always nicer to have contact with the audience and have the chance to be part of it.

Have you toured?
Peter: Yes we did several tours and have visited countries like of course Germany, Spain, Netherlands,Poland, Switzerland, UK, Finland, Israel, Italy, Belgium, France, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, UK, Slovenia and Austria.

Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
Peter: We would love to do a tour with Chicken's Call from Grenoble, France one day. They are very good friends of Daniel and all of us are convinced it would a perfect match.
Daniel: I would love to do a tour or share concerts with Juggling Juggulars and Criatura, but yes, Chicken`s Call are my favorite band in that regard. They are extremely sympathic, excellent people. Besides their music is amazing! Grenoble has a small, but very heartful, dedicated and open-minded punk-scene where old people mix up with young kids.
Chicken`s Call`s website is not just a website, it is collectvie homepage including bands, labels and a self-managed place called „Local autogéré“ - brilliant and somehow a bit different and fresh! Check it out at www.lustucrust.org
Roberto: Definitely Chicken's Call and Juggling Jugglars again.

Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
Peter: Not really. I am always interested in discovering new places. Still this has become kind of difficult today because we have been playing quite a lot and usually only find the time to do weekend gigs today which narrows down the radius to well-known venues.
Daniel: Asia, Latinamerica!
Roberto: Hopefully Japan one day.

What do you see is the future of Kobayahsi?
Peter: The most important thing for me would be to get a new LP recorded. I don´t think that it is realistic to do a tour next year but of course that would be awesome as well. In general I am quite happy how it´s working at the moment: We are getting along well internally, are enjoying making our music without taking it too seriously and fortunately there are some people out there that come to our shows.
Daniel: Yes, I think we are a bit more relaxed!

How can people contact the band?
Peter: Visit www.kobayashi-disko.org and write to mail@kobayashi-disko.org