Formed in 2019 in Tokyo, Japan, re:lapse is a supergroup of sorts. Finding each other, and sharing their talents at the most fortuitous moment, well, that’s just serendipity. We’re grateful to Marky Anderson for the interview, re:lapse for agreeing to a translated interview (where language barriers can unintentionally obscure intention), Matthew and Ayumi for facilitating the interview and managing the translation. We’re thrilled to have this opportunity. –Ed.
Marky Anderson: You guys aren’t newbies to the shoegaze scene. Tell us a bit about your previous bands and what made you start re:lapse?
re:lapse: The basis for the current band is the dream pop/shoegaze band that seisui (guitar/vocals) was previously part of, called mabataki. After other members left the band, seisui was working as a solo project. After a while he started looking for members again and he met a drummer named mercy online in fall 2019.
Mercy (drums) had previously played in Fort Tracy Hyde until 2018, something that seisui didn’t know about until the met in person, and he was shocked when he found out.
Yokoyama (guitar), who had been friends with seisui for a while, promised to join the band once other members had been found. So after mercy joined, the three of them headed to the studio.
Around that time, we felt that we needed a female vocalist, so we started looking online. It was then that we met kurage (bass, vocals) who was playing with a band called Hanataba and Curtain in Yamaguchi. Hanataba and Curtain played with For Tracy Hyde at a Yamaguchi festival called Pop Music.
With a new vocalist and a change in sound to ambient, minimal shoegaze, we decided to change the name of the project to re:lapse.
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Marky Anderson: You have recently signed to Dreamwaves Records. Can you tell us a bit about that relationship and how it has helped you fulfill your creative vision to release the self-titled EP?
re:lapse: When we posted the video for our first track, “f”, Matthew from DKFM and Muso Japan posted got in touch with us about playing it on his show, Muso Asia. He was also co-organizing an event in Nagoya called DREAMWAVES and they started up the label around the time we were working on our release. Even before we started talking, I saw the DREAMWAVES Online event and thought it was amazing. So, we signed with them.
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Marky Anderson: There is a defined sound you’ve crafted through the songs on the EP. What influences led you to the sonic palette you use?
seisui: I saw both My Bloody Valentine shows when they came to Japan in 2018, and that made me want to change my music style completely. I’ve been going to shoegaze shows for a while, but at those shows it felt like listening to roaring ambient music. The day after, I stayed in bed with a headache, but it blew my mind. Ever since that experience the way we perceived the band’s sound changed.
After that, while I was working on songs, I watched the movie “Manchester by the Sea” on repeat. The soundtrack was made up of songs featuring quiet strings, organs, and layered female backing vocals, and profound orchestral songs like the St. Matthew Passion. It had a considerable effect on the music I was writing at that time, especially “f”.
And then there was a James Blake interview in which he said he boldly creates every kind of sound in Logic Pro. That kind of production process also influenced me.
For recording, we recorded everything but the rhythm section ourselves, mainly guitars and vocals. And in addition to pedals and effects, we repeatedly experimented with a bunch of effects in Logic to make sounds. So like, while shaking the tremolo arm and having shimmer via pedals, adding even more shimmer via Logic effects. And then adding layer upon layer of sounds using different methods. That was the sort of the audiovisual image we went on to create.
As for our approach to guitar noise, I think Lovesliescrushing had a significant impact. For vocal melodies, I think about Chet Baker’s long tone vocal technique when I write. Also, the way that male and female vocals work together feels right.
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Marky Anderson: How differently have you had to approach writing and recording in these COVID times?
seisui: We had been recording vocals and guitars ourselves since before COVID, so our approach didn’t really change. But during the pandemic, while we were stuck at home making songs, listening to bands and music with vocals was difficult. So I started listening to a lot of simple sounds of waves and atmospheric music and endless amounts of quiet piano and ambient songs. I got sidetracked writing ambient songs using guitar pedals, and I feel like that really affected the whole EP.
Also, since we couldn’t play shows, we started uploading session videos on YouTube.
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Marky Anderson: If you had to pick one song from the EP to a new listener, which one would hook them in and why?
seisui: I would say the first track, “f”. It’s our first song and I feel like it really showcases the core of who we are as a band.
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Marky Anderson: As a fellow gazer I’d be really keen to know more about the gear you use to create your beautiful noise?
seisui: This is a list of pedals that I’ve mainly been using:
#hologram infinite jet
#ChaseBlissAudio mood
#Electro-Harmonix oceans 11
#Electro-Harmonix Small Clone
#Electro-Harmonix OD Glove
#Ibanez analog delay
#boss rv3
#DeathByAudio REVERBERATION MACHINE
#DeathByAudio ghost delay
#DeathByAudio Apocalypse
I think that pedals used especially by ambient guitarists like the hologram infinite jet and Chase Bliss Audio mood are a big part of our sound. They’re relatively newer pedals and different from some of the more standard ones. There’s a unique shimmer and echo and you can feel the newness. And I liked the rough sound of the DeathByAudio pedals, but other gear was necessary, so I unfortunately got rid of them….
And in Logic Pro, we’re taking the sounds that we recorded with those pedals and adjusting them further. Depending on the song, we threw in some choppy, cheap sounding distortion or droney sounds that we made using only Logic Pro.
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Marky Anderson: I see you have had some guest players on this EP, notably Azusa Suga from DKFM favourites For Tracy Hyde. Can you tell us a bit about how that came about?
seisui: We love For Tracy Hyde too!
Working on this EP, we were struggling to work on guitar noise and attempted to finish the mixes of “f” and “neverland” ourselves. The result was sort of a rough Jesus and Mary Chain-like sound and we weren’t totally satisfied with it.
Suga-san came to our first show, so I asked for his honest opinion. The advice he gave me was to give the sound a little more color and make a few changes and that stayed with me. I asked him to join the recording because I thought that adding the flavor of some of his For Tracy Hyde music through synth arrangements would help our sound.
As a result, the sound transformed from loud, inorganic stereo image to organic and vital, and that’s what I wanted. After finishing these two songs, we got an idea of to where to bring “smile” and “little, little” and we finished this 4 song EP.
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Marky Anderson: Now that life seems to be coming back to some sort of normal, do you see yourself touring? And will you be touring overseas?
seisui: Currently we’re working toward the planned release party for our second EP. We don’t have any plans to tour overseas at the moment, but we want to get our music out to as many listeners overseas as possible. So, if we get the opportunity, I’d love to play outside Japan someday.
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Marky Anderson: If you could play support to any band on the planet right now, who would you pick and why?
seisui: It’s impossible to pick one band, I would be honored to play with A Place to Bury Strangers, Ringo Deathstarr, slow pulp, and Lucid Express from Hong Kong – bands that I listen to a lot that have influenced me.
re:lapse’s debut “re:lapse .ep” is currently on sale via the DREAMWAVES RECORDS Bandcamp page, as well as via major distributors in Japan. The band is currently working on their second EP, due out in early 2022.
re:lapse Twitter: https://twitter.com/relapse_re
DREAMWAVES RECORDS Twitter: https://twitter.com/DREAMWAVES_JP
Watch the music video for “f” here:
Watch the music video for “smile” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2r0dh4yw-I
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