DAYS album release party

HearJapan was granted an interview with Texas Pandaa before their concert on February 17, 2008. This concert was the tour finale for their newest CD, “DAYS”.

HJ: What was the cataclysm that brought you together?

Texas Pandaa: Three of us were in the same class at our University. Nadehiko is our super Senpai!

HJ:What school?

Texas Pandaa: Jyochi Daigaku. I guess we were in the same social circle at school. A music circle. There was another drummer back then, but we mostly just played for fun.

HJ: What put you in the direction of creating the type of music you currently write?

Texas Pandaa: Our main aspiration is to make “romantic pop” music for mature adults.

kazutaka Ichimura: Does it make a difference if they are mature? (laughs)

HJ: So it’s OK if people refer to you as Romantic Pop? Texas Pandaa Yep

HJ: From your initial debut to now, have there been any significant changes in your music or feelings?

Texas Pandaa: There probably is and there probably isn’t. We just go at our own pace and whatever happens happens.

HJ Texas Pandaa is a very unique band name, why are their two “a”s in Panda?

Texas Pandaa Well, Hawaii has two “i”s…........　 (everyone laughs)

HJ: What about the Texas part, do you have some connection to Texas?

Texas Pandaa: There is absolutely no connection between us and Texas. However, during our college band days, our band name was Texas Banjo Gurentai (Texas banjo hoodlums). This name only lasted a short while and most people got confused and the name eventually became Texas Panda. We were a cover band during those days.

HJ:What songs did you cover?

Texas Pandaa: Mainly, “The Darling Buds”. They are a British band. We pretty much only covered them. They are an indies band from about 10 years ago.

HJ: Your lyrics are all sung in English, is there a reason you chose to do this?

Texas Pandaa: (long pause) I guess you could say our Japanese ability isn’t very good. (laughter)

HJ: I noticed that the title song for your new album DAYS ’s lyrics are written by both vocalists. Is this a collaborative approach to writing lyrics meant to show two peoples perspectives, or is there a deeper meaning?

Asako: Actually, generally I write the music and Mikiko writes the lyrics for most of songs. For this song we decided to do it together. The “we” in this song is not about us, but about me and “him” and our broken heart.

HJ: Are most of your songs about heart break?

Texas Pandaa: All of our songs are about broken hearts.

HJ: Tonight is your album’s release party, and you just finished a long tour. Do you have any future plans for after this?

Texas Pandaa: Actually we have already started writing songs for our next release. A ton of songs really. Maybe put out a mini-album or something before the year runs out. We want to do a bunch of interesting shows and go to many places.

HJ: I heard you went to Sendai, how was that?

Texas Pandaa: It was amazing. There was a lot of snow and we were slipping and sliding all over the place but it was incredibly fun. We also ate lots of gyoza and gyuutan. We ate a lot of delicious Japanese foods.

HJ: Where else did you go?

Texas Pandaa: We went to Nagoya, Utsunomiya, Osaka, etc last month.

HJ: Any future live plans?

Texas Pandaa: Yea, we have one planned in March 23.

Texas Pandaa: We have been receiving a lot of attention from abroad and getting lots of questions. Someone was kind enough to make something on facebook about us. We have no idea how to use it, but we try to answer any questions we get.

HJ: Good luck on your performance tonight!