CHAI is Not Kawaii

Mana: We have a mutual goal, which keeps us together.
All: If we didn’t get along, we couldn’t do it.

Yuuki: I don’t think I could make music with people that I don’t have a connection with. There’s no–

Mana: Point.

Yuuki: It’s impossible to catch a vibe–

Mana: You can’t coexist–

Yuuki: Which might be okay then and there, but…

Yuna: You can’t play out with someone you don’t get along with. The incompatibility would be obvious during the set.

Mana: You won’t even want to play out. It’ll come out, emotionally.

Yuna: We have in some things in common–

Mana: And some things that we don’t have in common, but our sense for when something is good is the same, which works out nicely. Our sense for when something is bad is the same too. None of us are music geeks either or super into gear. We don’t care about any particular era of music—we take the good stuff from everywhere.

Yuna: We like what we like.

Yuuki: CHAI is about not differentiating. I guess you could say that being as you are is the main theme of CHAI...
All: Totally.

Yuuki: Rather than it being about what I should do as CHAI, I think it’s more like “I am myself, and that’s CHAI.” Everyone has their good points, and we’re always telling each other how awesome we are because of that—which is naturally CHAI.

Mana: I think it’s better that our personalities are completely different.

Mana: For all four of us, our imperfections were the sources of our complexes. For example, for Kana and I, it’s our small eyes and the lack of double eyelids, which is the most common one for Japanese people. There are a lot of perfect-looking musicians, and in Japan, people with unmistakably cute vocals are guaranteed to be popular. The fact that we’re not like that is something that’s good about us, and that we can sing while making peace with these anxieties is something that only we can get across.

Mana: I think NEO comes from someone happening to calling us that, and our thinking that NEO sounded pretty cool.

Yuuki: Like Mana said, music is everything to us, so we don’t really want to explain it through words. Music is art, and we’re extremely conscious that we’re making art, and it doesn’t need explanation. But having [the terms] “NEO Kawaii” and “Complexes Are An Art” as hints for what we’re communicating is useful.

Yuna: Being candid?

Kana: Music can’t be expressed in words. Lyrics are words, but the discrete sounds can’t be put into words. When we listen to music, and think, “Wow, this is amazing,” it’s entirely sensory. The music might be carefully crafted, but when a listener says, “This is good,” or “This is bad,” it’s coming from a sensory response. I think it’s the same as when you look at a picture. You can only judge it from within.

Yuna: It's clear to me that complexes themselves are common worldwide.

Yuuki: Being here, I can really feel the North American version of positivity. There’s a certain awareness in it that, as Japanese people, we don’t have. For example, being sensitive about the words white and black. There are negative aspects of Japanese culture, and there are negative aspects of foreign cultures. I guess everyone experiences negative thinking, so wherever we go, CHAI’s message will connect with people.

Mana: If there weren’t a negative aspect to ourselves, we wouldn’t have needed music in the same way, as something to identify with.

Yuuki: We should love the self-consciousness that complexes and negativity come from. I don’t feel like you should invalidate or get rid of it at all.

Yuuki: The source of our popularity overseas is our shows. We’re smaller than everyone, our ages are kind of ambiguous, and even though our hair is in pigtails and we’re wearing red hot pants, our songs rock.

Kana: Our voices, the way we sing. We’re not trying to imitate anyone through our singing, and we absolutely don’t want to be told we sound like someone else. There are lots of musicians we love but we’ve never once thought about mimicking them.

Yuuki: There’s also our identity. Especially because we’re Japanese people who’ve made it overseas, we can’t forget the fact that we’re Japanese. Rather than trying harder to fit in overseas, or trying to become popular overseas, we’ll naturally be ourselves by not forgetting where our music, our look, our hearts, and our substance comes from.

Mana: I guess it’s important to remind ourselves to just be ourselves.

Yuuki: Nothing that’s overly embellished.

Mana: Yeah, simple is good.

Yuuki: It’s gotta look cool. In a feminine way.

Mana: Not necessarily in an overly girly way though.

Yuuki: Since we get bored with stuff pretty quickly–

Mana: Whenever we make a new song, we want [our clothing] to match it right away.

Yuuki: Like, this look would fit the song better; it’s always changing.

All: Yeah, we get tired of stuff way too fast.

Mana: CHAI-ness isn’t really defined, and because it’s not defined, there’s nothing to lose track of. [Laughs]

All: It’s true.

Kana: We like anything and everything, so we’re not tied down to one thing.

Yuuki: It’s the first sign that we can change the world. It’s proof.

All: We’re not like saviors or anything, nothing like that.

Mana: I want this face to be famous. I can’t imagine a face like mine being famous, but if faces like ours can get to the top, then even Japan can change.

Yuuki: Because Japan is the most resistant to change–

Mana: Exactly. I guess it’s because we’re Japanese.

Yuuki: It won’t stop at music, probably. There’s a lot we want to do. We want to do something related to animal welfare. We’d like to have a CHAI-run festival with acts from all over the world.

Mana: We’re absolutely going to do a nice festival in Japan. I think that’s something only we could pull off, because all the folks that we’ve played with and would want to involve trust us. Also, we love clothing, so we’d like to do something involved with fashion. I’m not sure that we can do it at the same time as music though. We’d like to set up an amusement park, but that’s further down the line.

Yuuki: Right now, we’re working on songs. For the next album.

Mana: With this album, we’re looking to move up, to any extent possible, because in any case, what’s important is scaling up.

Kana: Because we haven’t really reached very far yet.

Mana: As soon as possible, I’d like to have thousands of people coming to see us. We’re only in the hundreds right now. So we have to keep at it, 100 percent.

Yuuki: As the opening act, we participate in shows that get a few thousand people, but as a solo act...
Kana: CHAI alone can’t pull in that kind of crowd yet.
Mana: So the music is key. Words are one barrier, and music is another. But we definitely feel supported.

Kana: I think they are. The music we’re making is kind of new.

Mana: It’s completely different from what’s popular now. In any case, we want to make something that’s good, you know?

All: Something that we’re all satisfied with!