POP CULTURE! Issue

INTERVIEW
Introducing feature - CRYSTAL
Interview by Nicola Phillips Photography by Repeat Pattern and video stills from “Rendez-Vous”
CRYSTAL are Tokyo’s answer
to contemporary synth-pop.
Having just released their debut
full-length album Crystal
Station 64 after their move
over to Japanese label flau,
the colourful threesome have
been making a huge impact
since being discovered by
Justice and Surkin during the
MySpace reign of the early
00s. After debuting a stream
of EPs on the legendary label
Institubes, Ryota, Keita and
Sunao were thrown head
first into the French electro
movement together with Ed
Banger. Performing live with
Boys Noize and Para One,
just to name a few, CRYSTAL
manage to create a uniquely
twisted homage to old-school
electro and techno pop, most
impressively with a tonguein-cheek
appearance from
Teki Latex (honcho of Sound
Pellegrino) of the French alternative
hip-hop group TTC.
Speaking to one third of the
energetic trio, Ryota Miyake,
we gain a greater insight in
the Nippon naive pop and
Kraftwerkian-influenced beats
that are CRYSTAL.
Tell us a little about yourself, who are you and how
did you become CRYSTAL?
Keita Onishi, Sunao Maruyama and Ryota Miyake
(me) are Crystal. We are from the same art school
in Tokyo. We have released 3 EPs on French labels,
Institubes and Sound Pellegrino. And in October, we
released our debut album “Crystal Station 64” via
Japanese label, flau.
Your music often sounds like an intense video
game, is this where some of your ideas come from?
Or maybe fast-paced gaming-hubs like Akihabara,
Japan?
I rarely go to Akihabara. It is way too exciting for me
and is a bit too much. I prefer to go to more quiet
places or stay home and play video games. I guess
since we grew up with a lot of them, I can’t deny
video games may have influenced the sounds on
some tracks. For example “Jungli-la” is influenced
by “Donkey Kong”, and the first half of “Away and
Beyond” is the result of my effort to represent a
melancholic feeling from the BGM of the first stage
of “Transformer”. But further more, we are influenced
by the music which influenced the videogame music.
That is the main reason for why our music might recall
the sounds of video games.
Who are some of your main influences for your
debut album, Crystal Station 64?
In the case of this record, the main influences are the
first two albums of Art Of Noise, and “Zoolook” by
Jean-Michel Jarre.
I saw that you guys were discovered on MySpace by
Justice and Surkin, what was it like when you were
contacted by them?
One day we got a mail which wrote “Would you join
us?” from the boss of Institubes. Then we answered
“Yes” immediately. But to be honest that mail had
been in our spam mail folder for one week since the
mail had been sent (we learned that you should always
check the spam mail folder too if you don’t want
to miss the chance!). Later, he told us that Surkin
found us from “Top Friends” area on MySpace page
of Gaspard from Justice. There was an error on
that feature so we were one of his Top Friends
accidentally.
Social media has helped to push many
artists into the spotlight, how do you think
you’ve benefited from it?
Because of the existence of social media, we
could release EPs and this album. So for us it is
a nice thing, isn’t it?
Where have you found your music to be best
received?
In France, according to the Facebook insight!
You have this insane animated cat video for
Rendez-Vous directed by Shinya Sato, have
you worked with him before?
That is my favorite video. Shinya is one
of our best friends and also the original
member of Crystal. He left the band
because he wanted to concentrate
on making videos as a job. All
of our music