Today, we sat down with the band The Lamb to talk music inspiration, music listened to growing up and much more! Be sure to check out their music below after the interview!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your surroundings?
To be honest, I may have stopped making music out of inspiration. This statement may be undermining the trust of listeners, though.
I’m always thinking: “What’s the next concept?” “What kind of people do we want to reach?” “What’s happening in the current music scene and can we find our place in it? We can’t help but think about these things.
Even so, sometimes when I’m on the train reading “Haruki Murakami” and the setting sun is just poking through the window, a feeling suddenly catches me, and that becomes the image for the song. It happens only once a year or so.
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
My father is not a musician, but somehow, he made me listen to a lot of music. From a very young age.
By the time I was six years old, I was learning to play the violin, and he also made me listen to classical music. I didn’t have any interest in it at the time.
My father was born in 1959, and Japanese people of that generation were into “jazz-fusion” when they were in college. That’s why I was exposed to all that music. I think he liked guitarists like George Benson and Earl Klugh. Of course, I listened to a lot of older jazz as well.
Even if it’s not jazz, pop music like The Beatles or The Carpenters are like classics in Japan. They’re even in the music textbooks. I think we had all kinds of CDs of those pop songs at home.
On the other hand, when I was a kid in the 90s, “karaoke culture” was at its peak in Japan. It was called “J-POP”.
My father would take me to karaoke on weekends and teach me the latest hits. It included some classic “City Pop”.
In Japan, the bathhouse restaurants often had a karaoke stage and sometimes I was asked to sing there.
The audience would be so interested in the little boy singing that they would throw money at him. They even bought me juice.
After I became a teenager, most of the music I actively listened to was rock and roll or blues-based music. My father’s tastes were a little different. But I think my father definitely influenced me.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
Eric Clapton, I guess. Anyway, when I was a teenager, I wanted to be him. Especially in the 60s and 70s, he is still my idol.
I used to practice guitar and imitate his hairstyle, clothes, and the way he held the guitar.
Maybe you won’t feel any direct influence from The Lamb’s music today, but I always have a yearning for him in my heart.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing today?
Until elementary school, I was good at drawing. I won some prizes.
And I like to teach, so I could be a teacher, but I don’t like big school organizations. I’m probably a “SIGMA”.
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create music?
Now stop it and do your job!
Music:
