Japanese band Sekai No Owari look forward to Hong Kong debut at Clockenflap
Possibly the world’s most eclectic pop group, the Tokyo four-piece whose members met at school and all live together have made their music more accessible and begun recording their first album in English
Sekai No Owari might just be the world’s most eclectic pop group. The diverse oeuvre of the Tokyo four-piece takes in everything from indie pop to stadium rock to EDM to jazz to swing to classical, although the direction of their trajectory from 2010 album Earth via 2012’s Entertainment to 2015’s Tree has been towards more accessible material. That, says the band’s singer Fukase, was simply a matter of audience reaction.
“When we first started, we made music we liked, but my friends and family didn’t enjoy what we were doing, and we realised we didn’t enjoy it unless the people around us appreciated what we were creating. We went for what we could do instead of what we wanted to do.”
Sekai No Owari – the name means “the end of the world” in Japanese, a reference to psychological issues Fukase suffered in his youth, from which music helped him to recover – make their public Hong Kong debut on November 27 at Clockenflap. They’ve played in the city once before, at the 2015 Hong Kong Asian-Pop Music Festival, a private event broadcast on various media, but didn’t have time to see much of the city.
“Our manager filled our schedule with no time to spare, so we weren’t able to explore the city at all,” says the band’s resident eccentric, DJ Love. “This time I’m hoping to have a little more time to spend in the city; my friends have been telling me how cool and vibrant it is.”
As you’ve probably worked out, theirs isn’t a traditional line-up; as well as the DJ and the singer, the latter also a songwriter, there’s guitarist and songwriter Nakajin, and pianist and songwriter Saori, who also produces the band’s stage shows. A sort of implausible real-life The Monkees, they all met at school – Saori and Fukase when they were four – once built their own music venue together and then lived on the floor, and still all live together, albeit these days in a house. “We are more like a family than just a band,” says Nakajin.
