Oklahoma Gazette: What does Kero Kero Bonito mean, and were there any other band names you guys considered when first establishing your sound?
Gus Lobban, drums and keyboards: Oh wow! um. So, uh, the band name.. Sarah has a Japanese mother and a British father. She moved to England when she was thirteen. So, Kero is actually Japanese and Portuguese meaning “I want.” Kero is a type of bird as well. And Bonito, well it’s Japanese word for a type of fish they often use when cooking. It’s kind of a global word, really.”
OKG: Sarah, you go back and forth between Japanese and English. Can everyone in the band speak Japanese? Can you tell me a little about your upbringing?
Sarah Midori Perry, vocals: I’m the only one that speaks Japanese in the band. I grew up in Japan until thirteen, and um, it was just a part of my generation. I rapped in Japanese and sang in British. I think the reason I wanted to do that was due to identity confusion growing up. The cultures, you know, I just really wanted to find someone like me, someone to look up to, someone who had a similar experience. Everywhere I went, people saw me as a foreigner. What I wanted to do in the last album, by using those two languages, was that I wanted to show the world that you can be both. It’s okay to be both (to come from more than one background). It’s my way of being a rebel, really.
OKG: Can you also tell me a little bit about radical positivity and your writing process as a positive lyricist? Do you choose to exert your energy elsewhere when you’re feeling down? If so, what is that?
Perry: All three of us have gone through personal things. our way of writing isn’t just unicorns and rainbows — we’ve been through a lot. If you don’t experience the dark, you don’t know what light is.
OKG: I love that.
Perry: Yeah. I mean, it comes from us going through the darkness. We’ve been through the darkness, so we decide to be positive.
OKG: So then who writes the lyrics?
Perry: It depends on the song — it’s a collaborative project. The Japanese is me, but the other stuff is a mixture of the band.
Perry: Oh wow. Happiness? Rare. Should I pass on to someone else?
Lobban: Music. Nature. Brumley [England].
OKG: When you think of touring, what are the first three words that come to mind?
Lobban: Bus. Van. Road. Burgers.
OKG: When you think of Donald Trump, what are the first three words that come to mind?
Jamie Bulled, bass and vocals: Not. My. President. I mean, I am British, after all.
OKG: I’ve read some interviews with KKB about combining the likes of J-Pop, Punk, and 90’s video games. What are some video games and musicians that inspire you most?
Lobban: Video games that inspire us? Yeah, definitely. The ones that we think about are the ones that we grew up with. EarthBound. It’s genuinely artistic. It’s had a real influence on KKB. Yeah yeah yeah. The game has got this really crazy, surreal, interpretation of American culture from a Japanese perspective. The soundtrack is crazy, postmodern. It’s, like, really abstract.
OKG: It’d be so fun to have that job, just to make sounds for video games.
Lobban: I’d love to do that. I’d love to do that for a game where I can do something … weird.
OKG: If Kero Kero Bonito had one chance to headline tour with any band in the world, living or dead, who would it be?
Bulled: Prince. He’s got to support us though, obviously.
Lobban: well, I mean we’ve already got Frankie Cosmos. It’s a dream come true!
OKG: If you could give one piece of advice to a child who wants to become a touring musician, what would it be?
Lobban: Oh my god. I would say know what you stand for. That’s what I would say. Know what you, as an artist, stand for.
Bulled: Get a tour manager. Make sure it’s all organized properly.
Perry: Wow, that’s so hard. My answer is simply … enjoy it. And bring friends!
Kero Kero Bonito song recommendations: “Only Acting,” “Flamingo,” “Break,” “Trampoline”
This article appears in Prairie Gothic.