Yokosawa Shunichiro’s “This Kind of Story” is bubblegum-psych
The Japanese producer and vocalist’s new song “This Kind of Story” draws from Teenage Fanclub and The Avalanches in equal measure.
Japanese musician Yokosawa Shunichiro says the internet might have made him, and pretty much everyone else in the world, a little crazy, and that internet-induced craziness has probably manifested in his music. He’s almost definitely right: take one listen to his new single “This Kind of Story,” premiering today on The FADER, and you’ll probably feel a little loopy. It’s a delirious, washed-out sugar hit that feels like it should soundtrack a merry-go-round or, maybe, a tour through Willy Wonka’s factory. Drawing from '90s icons Teenage Fanclub and cut-and-paste geniuses The Avalanches in equal measure, “This Kind of Story” — which is also the opening track on Shunichiro’s new record Haiji, out this summer for the first time in the US on day to day records — is a wonderfully hyperactive introduction to the Japanese DIY producer and his peculiar brand of bubblegum psych.
“While I was writing the record, I had moments of extreme fun and joy and, in contrast, feelings of sadness and isolation. I really wanted to make these moments into something people could feel and tried to capture these feelings in these songs,” Shunichiro tells The FADER via email. “Haiji is a collection of very personal songs, but I didn’t write them just for me; I wrote them thinking how nice it would be if there people all over the world who also understood these small moments.”
Haiji is a marvel of production and songwriting; recorded on Shunichiro’s laptop in his Tokyo apartment, the record is richer and more immersive than seems possible, taking detours into folk and prog at points in a way that points to Shunichiro’s own personal lack of genre affinity.
““It’s a little hard to parse out what influences me musically,” the producer says. “I suppose power-pop bands like Teenage Fanclub have had the largest influence on me. When I was growing up, I was listening to a lot of '90s Japanese Pop bands, with Cornelius being my favorite and most influential therein. Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream may also have had an inadvertent effect on my music. […] I think maybe this stuff all has a connection to the “Vapor Wave” thing that’s going on right now.”
Listen to “This Kind of Story” below, and preorder Haiji here.