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Ska punk outfit Kemuri hangs up its guitars

By Dan Grunebaum

Kemuri PHOTO FROM AVEX

TOKYO — The toughest decision a band can make is the one to break up. Most let slip the opportunity to end on a high note, fading into obscurity or — worse — collapsing in acrimony. Not Kemuri. “I felt I’d pretty much done what I’d wanted to do with the band,” explains vocalist and bandleader Fumio Ito at his label Avex’s Aoyama offices. “I’ll be 41 this year, one of the so called honyaku toshi in Japan when bad things are likely to happen to you. I felt if I were going to do something new, this was the time to make a decision.”

In keeping with Kemuri’s Positive Mental Attitude philosophy, which also provides the name for its just-released farewell album “Our PMA,” the band is going out with a bang. The final edition of its You Go charity performances is followed by a spot at the Fuji Rock Festival and a nationwide tour this fall that culminates in two nights at Zepp Tokyo.

The irony is that notwithstanding 12 years at the forefront of Japan’s punk scene, Kemuri was never intended to be more than a short-term project. “I’d thought around 1995 that I wanted to try living in the States for a while, and wanted something to show people what kind of a person I was before I went,” Ito recalls. “So originally I thought to do some recording as a kind of personal business card to give people in the States. It wasn’t something intended to last.”

But the band jelled beyond Ito’s imaginings, and when its 1997 debut Little Playmate sold over 150,000 copies, his American dream would have to wait. With a ska punk boom breaking worldwide in the mid to late ’90s, the timing was also spot-on. Kemuri soon found themselves playing not only in Japan, but also participating in key North American tours of the era, including the Ska Against Racism tour headlined by Less Than Jake (who will join them at Fuji Rock next month).

Like many of the punk bands of the era, Kemuri became enmeshed in political activism, something that seems mostly absent from the emo punk bands of the moment. Unique among Japanese bands, Kemuri hosts an annual You Go charity event that has benefited causes like assisting survivors of the Joetsu earthquake and needy children across Asia.

“I’d met activist students when I studied abroad in the U.S. When our fans began to increase, I felt the need to be a role model: We were not only about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll,” Ito says in his quiet but firm style.

Why aren’t more Japanese bands involved in the lefty activism that is a staple of so many Western bands? “People aren’t willing to raise their hands and speak out here. They only think, how are we going to benefit from this? Japanese live in a stable, affluent society, so they have difficulty imagining others’ problems. America is more exposed to immigrants who’ve undergone various kinds of suffering.”

With its messages of positivity, self-reliance, appreciation and hope wrapped in punchy ska rhythms and horn melodies, “Our PMA” is the sort of thing to curl a cynic’s lip. In an era where irony and self-absorption predominate in punk and pop, the album’s idealism is almost quaint. It also seems out of step with Japan’s current wave of “ska pop” bands.

“Many of the bands that launched with the ska punk explosion of a decade ago have stopped playing. Ska punk has gone back underground,” Ito notes. “The major label scene these days is dominated by what’s called ska pop, with female bands like Oreska Band the most visible. It’s a little different from what we do. We’ve played events with some of these bands: the audiences are more female, and have a cuter feel than the types who come to mosh at our shows.”

What is the secret to the enduring appeal of ska, a musical form that originated in Jamaica 40 years ago? “First of all, ska is fun,” meditates Ito. “My daughter would dance to ska even before she turned two. It’s simple music that’s fun to play, sing and dance to. But at the same time it’s got a complexity in its simplicity that keeps it interesting. Also, because it was born on an island country, there’s something about it that appeals to Japanese.”

Ito may be leaving Kemuri behind, but music will still be very much a part of his life. He says he wants to create a platform to bring Japanese bands abroad, not only to the West, but also to Asia and further afield. “It would be great if bands could begin their tours in Japan and then go on to play Korea, Thailand, India, China, the Russian Far East, and then end in Japan.”

The desire grew out of an experience he had playing last year in Vietnam. “We went to Hanoi to play with the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra as part of a festival organized by the Japanese government. It was interesting to play in a socialist country. We played before Sukapara, and people began to get off their seats and dance toward the middle of our set. By the end of Sukapara’s set, they were rushing the stage. I really felt the power of Japanese bands to succeed abroad.”

What will Ito do after Kemuri’s last encore at its very last concert in December? “I want to go straight home without even changing clothes,” he says with a hint of a sigh. “I don’t want to wallow in nostalgia, but keep my eye on the future. For that reason I want to really go for it over the next six months.”

June 17, 2007

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