Why They Would Rather Write About Food Than Love

Osaka’s finest Shonen Knife have always done things their own way. Forming in 1981 they were pioneers from the get-go in Japan where neither punk rock nor all-female guitar groups were even slightly in vogue, yet over the next few decades they became fixtures on the global scene. They built a cult following enthralled by their kitschy, hook-laden songs which burst with bubblegum melodies and cascading riffs, plus their penchant for brightly-coloured matching outfits. New album Overdrive finds them treading a slightly different path to its predecessors, but in a manner that is still very much Shonen Knife.

“It’s our 17th original album, and including other albums our 19th overall – so many I cannot count,” smiles frontwoman Naoko Yamano. “The theme of the Overdrive album is ‘70s British hard rock and American rock, like Thin Lizzy, Bad Company, Black Sabbath, Motorhead or ZZ Top. Our previous albums had a theme of punk or pop, so I wanted to make something different for the new album and recently I like to listen to ‘70s classic rock music so I’ve been inspired by such music.It was a little challenging for recording, because for previous albums I’ve mainly been inspired by The Beatles or late ‘70s punk-pop bands, but the ‘70s hard rock used power guitar chords so I tried to use six strings of the guitar and I’ve got very sore fingers! But the basic sound of our albums is always the same... If Shonen Knife play a different style of music everything can still be Shonen Knife style.”

"I’m ashamed to write about love."

Shonen Knife flit between English and Japanese lyrics, and Overdrive is a typically fun batch of songs about animals, food and dancing. “Writing lyrics is the most difficult [part of songwriting] for me,” Yamano admits. “Making melody lines is very easy for me, easier than lyrics because I try to write the words in English first but my vocabulary and my English ability is very poor, so picking up the words can be very difficult. And also I’m not a good poet – I’m ashamed to write about love, so I usually write about delicious food or animals. For me eating delicious food is very important!”

Despite the stylistic shift Yamano – Shonen Knife’s sole remaining founding member – explains that the Overdrive songs have settled well into their live show. “We’ve been playing three or four songs from Overdrive in live set. We toured the UK and Europe last spring, as well as Japan and North America and even India too, and many people liked our new songs. We played many of our best Shonen Knife hits too, so the setlist was very fun. We played our 1000th show in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the USA and we got requests from Shonen Knife fans though the internet and played requested songs. I always like touring and I always like playing shows in front of Shonen Knife fans because it makes me very happy to see people’s happy faces through our music.”