So you know Radiohead is more serious than the B-52s but honestly they are about as seminal as each other. Gus: And one thing that freaks me out is when an aesthetic choice in pop music kind of becomes something that defines its quality. Jamie: It came to a point where if you sound sad or offensive you're a band, and if you sound positive, you're joking, you're obviously having a laugh. KKB isn't necessarily 100% only positivity, but at the same time to even have an iota of positivity especially when we started KKB, there weren't many people doing positive music or demonstrating that there can be such a thing as a positive perspective. I read an interview with you guys where you talked about radical positivity. Like whether it's rave music, original house music, northern soul, whatever it is, if it's not like the sort of liberal elite consciousness, it's probably worth paying attention to, you know. Gus: It all seeps into the mainstream consciousness eventually. So much cool music, at some point, was considered and I hate using this term, but like as working class Gus: I think it's a shame when people delineate stuff like that. In a way, people see that specific genre as a lower-class thing, so the fact that it's going to be brought up here is amazing. If you just Google it and click on the first couple of links there are these great mixes and you know it's the sort of mix where there will be a couple of Indonesian girls like in make-up and I will be like OK, should I be watching this? But the music is really cool and out there and it's like just completely unknown in the U.K. But also there is also really cool indie stuff like The Upstairs and one subculture that me and Jamie are really interested in is this stuff funkot… it's really fast EDM, basically, but I don't know enough about the background. Gus: Oh yeah! I think Isyana Sarasvati made one of the best pop songs of the last decade-like her breakthrough song 'Give me love/Give me love baby' thats one of the best pop song of the last 10 years. I think this generation is more aware of than ever. And the awareness of that kind of thing is great. You mentioned Ghost in the Shell one, and the real problem there is that there are far fewer roles for Asian American actors than white American actors. Gus: It's used as a blanket term, but there are definite real issues, that there is now an awareness of. You can experience it on your TV or like going shopping, in fashion… I think there is not much wrong with that. I could have lived all my life in the U.K., never been able to speak Japanese and with the Pokemon thing, it's not that you have to go to Japan to experience Japan. Sarah: It's really strange because just because I'm half-Japanese, doesn't mean it's authentic or not. If you want it authentic but also completely modern… It's interesting, we had some totally clueless comments actually about KKB's music. Sarah: It's weird because if you start saying that, then it means your parents have to be from there or you have to have grown up in Japan, so it's kinda of a… the line is not straight forward… and now we have Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. How do you feel about this discussion about culture appropriation right now? Back in the day, Gwen Stefani got some heat for basically using Japanese girls as props in her videos. Some things definitely can't be described by only one language, like you can't really translate it completely, so it's kinda natural for me. Sarah: I grow up in Japan until I was thirteen and my mum's Japanese, my dad's English so it's kind of natural for me to want to use two languages. Sarah, why did you decide to sing in both Japanese and English? For me, shrimp are inherently rich because I get sick whenever I eat them. But one of the inspirations for that lyric is that I can't eat shrimp. So it's not because flamingos eat shrimp… Gus: It's actually a great question because it's just one for me because I'm allergic. VICE: So, how many shrimp does it take to make your skin turn pink? Together, the London-based trio try to answer the big questions. She met Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled when she responded to an ad on a popular Japanese expat message board in the U.K. And off course when we were kids we always wanted sweet things." It's not like you swallow it, you kinda suck on the tip and it's kinda a sweet honey taste. "Me and my friends liked to, I don't know, hangout and walk around while eating flowers. "In spring there wasn't much stuff to do as a kid so we used to go to this field and there was flowers," she said. Perry, who is half-Japanese, half-British, spent her childhood years in Hokkaido, spending her time wandering the port city of Otaru and eating flowers.
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