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【MASH BROWN】Brush Up Studio LIVE!Special Interview

MASH BROWN(マッシュブラウン) https://www.mashbrown.jp/

Formed in Osaka in May 2017 after a predecessor band. Full-scale start from July.

A style of music that incorporates elements of jazz and country into the musicality influenced by Western pops.

Express free pop without being bound by the band sound.


All songs are available for free distribution (free download from HP, spotify, Apple Music, LINE MUSIC).

As soon as he formed, he was selected as a MASH FIGHT (MASH A & R) monthly artist and nominated for an eo music try Main Award.

In the start-up project, both Osaka and Tokyo were almost live with the mobilization of SOLD OUT.


In December 2019, MASH BROWN's first one-man live will be held.


Marching


Bye Bye


This is a Beautiful


Hello to everyone watching on Mahocast!

We are MASH BROWN.

I'm Kenta Tanaka on guitar and main vocals.

I'm Shobu Oda on guitar and backing vocals.

I'm Chaso on keyboard.

Thanks for tuning in.


Q.How did you form your band?

So for how we formed the band...

Well we were in a band together before this one

so as we were in that band

there was an accident

and we went on hiatus

for about a year? maybe six months

so we had this period of free time

and we decided to start MASH BROWN on the side to fill the time.

We totally changed the songs and a few things and melodies ended up changing

so we decided to try our best from then on as MASH BROWN.

Originally we were all classmates in high school

like this one's an acquaintance from middle school

he's another kind of thing

and I'd always wanted to make a band

so around the start of my second year at uni

I was like "man I wanna start a band"

and we were good friends

like he's a really great singer

and he used to play guitar

so he had a guitar too

So I just sent a message saying 'hey let's make a band'

and he was just like 'yeah sure'.

so with this really lighthearted feeling

like just because he had a guitar

not even because he played it

just because I'd heard from a friend that he had one

yeah right

so that's pretty much how we began.


Q.How did you come up with your band name?

Our band name?

It doesn't mean anything in particular...

Yeah not really

It's more about the way it sounds

we did have a few conditions though

Yeah we did hey.

When we were thinking about what we should go with for our name

we wanted a name that was easy to say

that was easy to remember and that was likeable.

For example

we started from there

and we want the name to start with an '~a' sound like a ka sa ta na

and we wanted to include a colour

and we wanted to include the 'n' sound from 'waon' (Japanese music)

and if the first letter is a symmetrical letter like M A or W

then it's easier to design a logo out of it

and then with that emphasis on likeability and making it easy to say

we came up with a few ideas

and we got a good name hey?

It really is a good name.

MASH BROWN

It's easy to say.

Because people kept getting our old band name wrong

we wanted a name you couldn't mess up.

When we first put forward "mash brown"

Our original bassist quickly messed it up

and wrote "MUSH BROWN"

like we specifically wanted a name you couldn't make mistakes with

and so went with MASH BROWN

then he comes in with a MU for MUSH BROWN.


Q.What kind of band are you?

MASH BROWN is...

A trendy pop band I guess?

So we say?

"Yeah we're a trendy pop-band"

I mean we...

Yeah

We're trendy.

We do trendy fun pop.

More than a kind of 'band sound'

we're more pop I think.

We want try all kinds of things.


Q.Regarding the one-man live show

It's unreal but on December 8th

we as MASH BROWN will hold our first one-man live show titled "Introduction".

December 8th yeah.

We'll have our first one-man show at a place in Osaka called Fukushima 2ndLINE

what do you think?

I think it feels a bit like "oh finally!"

Yeah you're not wrong.

We've always wanted to do one.

Are you looking forward to it?

Will you be coming?

I wonder what songs we'll be playing?

Have you bought your ticket?

I haven't.

Please go buy it quick.

I want to see that scenery you can only see at a one-man show.

As for what scenery that is I mean the scenery we can see from our side.

I think it will have a unique atmosphere.

On December 20th we're also doing an acoustic one-man show that we're calling 'the inverse one-man'

So including that

for the name "Introduction"

the meaning of "starting from here" is also a part of it

so we hope for everyone to love this new side of MASH BROWN

and for this one-man show to become our first step forward towards a new us.

What about the tickets?

It's normally ¥2500 for a ticket if you buy in advance

But if you bring a friend that's never seen MASH BROWN before

For both yourself and the friend you brought along

tickets are only ¥1000

So because it's much cheaper that way

everyone please get your friends and people around you involved and come along.

Thanks in advance.

As for what kind of band MASH BROWN is

we'd like to have you hear that for yourselves.

We'll have you listen to a song that's really typical of us very MASH BROWN-esque

so without further ado please listen

"Marching".


Q.Please tell us your songwriting process

So for songwriting...

Firstly I'll make like a demo or something

and chuck it to the other members

then usually after that we shape the song

by arranging it all together at the studio.

That's normally how it goes.

Yeah it's always been like that.

I'm a little uneasy as to if we can even do it any other way

That's pretty much our only method.

Like just get the song made kind of thing

I normally come up with melodies

when I'm in the bathroom

or riding my bike

or on the sofa

so I'll turn those melodies into demos

and that's how we make MASH BROWN songs.


Q.Please tell us how you write your lyrics

Lyrics are like

We order them from a game to start with

So it goes like this

I'll make the first verse rhyme a bit

and I'll have the second verse rhyme

the chorus rhymes

the whole song rhymes.

That's just hip hop!

It's popular now to make the whole song rhyme

It's hip hop! That's just rap!

Rather than really caring about having everything rhyme

it's more about the sensation of how it sounds.

So I think of lyrics with an emphasis on that actual sensation.

When I pass the melody to the others

and say like "I want the lyrics to be like this"

there are times when I say I want the song to head in a certain direction

as well as times where I say "do whatever you like with it"

and then feel like 'hmm...' about it.

In that case don't tell us to do whatever we want with it!


Q.What points of your songs should people pay attention to?

Special attention... I guess MASH BROWN

is kind of jazzy?

Ah yeah I know what you mean.

Like chords

or to pick a song

the intro for a song like "Bye Bye"

I wonder if there are people who noticed?

People might not have picked up on it yet

Might just go on and say it here.

That song actually uses the intro of another famous jazz song

or rather the start of the song plays homage to it.

For now no one's really picked it up.

I mean to start with there aren't many who really get it

but if you're someone who likes jazz

like the key is different too so there's that

but my piano teacher recognized it.

As you'd expect!

They were like "hey, wait a minute

I feel like I've heard this before..."

So happy to hear that.

In making a song that pays homage to a famous song from years ago

it got recognised.

But that's pretty common hey

in a lot of our songs.

As you recognise it there's that "huh?" moment

We tend to incorporate those references in a number of our songs.

Because you can have those 'wait... I think I recognise this' moments

and I think that that's another way to enjoy the music

please listen for yourself.

I think we'd like to have you to listen to something and

pay close attention to the intro.

Why don't we do just that with the song we were just talking about?

So with that please listen.

"Bye Bye"


Q.Tell us about each member's personalities.

Let's start with Chaso.

You guys are gonna talk about my personality?

He's a massive airhead.

It's pretty bad.

There are way too many episodes

so I don't even know where to start but

for example to go with something easily understood

we ask him to go buy a permanent marker

and we know full well

that if we ask Chaso to run an errand that something's bound to go wrong.

So we ask him to grab a permanent marker

a black permanent marker

an oil-based marker

Specifcially an oil-based one

"There are both water-based and oil-based pens so make sure you grab an oil one"

then he goes and gets a water-based one.

or by default his socks don't match

or when he thought 'and more' was an actual band name...

Oh that's right!

So back around

when we first started playing shows

you know they had listed the bands before us

like so and so are playing

then 'and more' is written on the bill as well

so Chaso goes

"Wait we're playing with 'and more' this time?

They play a bunch of festivals and everything too right?

That's so scary oh man"

Like even before that 'and more' play way too many shows!

Yeah like 5000 or so in a year!

Shobu's also a huge airhead.

Hang on

we can't ALL be airheads!

It's a bit worn out hey.

Shobu is

extremely punctual and responsible

to a level where it wouldn't even be weird to call him a perfect human.

But he really is perfect huh.

He doesn't really have any bad points right?

His voice is a bit too loud

and he's too energetic in the mornings

but that's about it.

Kenta is

surprisingly earnest and serious.

He's methodical

just very reliable.

To name one time where I thought he was really reliable

during the World Cup everyone made their predictions as to who would win

and he updated the group LINE chat

with all the results

like "X vs. Y team X won"

and drawn out games that resulted in a penalty kick

he neatly wrote out who had scored what

even as everyone else had lost interest

because we'd all already stopped watching.

Once he starts cleaning he can't stop

To a point where he's covered in sweat.

Once when there was a typhoon

he was like "I'm just gonna go out side and fix this thing real quick"

I had to stop him like "dude no wait until it's over!"

And when he came to my house

After he washed his hands he then immediately washed the sink

and got his hands dirty again.

Stop!


Q.Tell us about a time in the past where you messed up.

There are a few examples but...

with alcohol

so Chaso and our support drummer Fuku-chan

like to drink

so we were all watching the world cup at a sports bar

and after that we all went drinking somewhere else.

I made everyone drink a bit

and we all got pretty drunk

Chaso was dead drunk

absolutely hammered

and I don't really know why but the two of them

got into a big fight.

The two people least likely to fight anyone

and they were absolutely going for it.

I don't remember that at all.

I thought I told Fuku-chan

but I thought it was a total stranger picking a fight.

Definitely an alcohol-based blunder hey.

Next time we got together at the studio I apologised on my hands and knees

like "I'm so so sorry".

Fuku-chan is a kindhearted person

so he said he was really sorry too.

Absolute least likely guy to get in a fight.

Even a mishap like that is a fleeting memory hey?

We make countless mistakes when we're young.

It'd be quite fitting if we had a song about fleeting youth don't you think?

So with that please listen:

"This is a Beautiful"


Q.What is important for you guys when you play live?

It's all important.

Maybe that?

Like the "show" part of it if we had to pick.

The entertainment.

Yeah right.

You looked like you wanted to say something

so please go ahead

Ah sorry

I'll take this chance to talk then

we really emphasise the idea of a "show"

and a sense of entertainment.

It's a "show" more so than a normal gig.

We play shows with the concept where

we create a fun atmosphere

so we genuinely have fun performing

and everyone else there has fun too.

It's might not be something we can really do

at the sorts of live houses we play at now

but as the stages we play get bigger

there are all kinds of things we'd like to try.


Q.Tell us about your one-man live show.

We already mentioned this

back in week one

but on December 8th

we will hold our first one-man live show titled "Introduction".

It's already been about 2 years since we've formed.

With this as our first one-man live show

we'd been saying how it'd be nice to hold a one-man show...

or rather we were more just like 'let's do it!'

We talked about this back in week one as well

but tickets are normally ¥2500

however if you bring along a friend that doesn't know MASH BROWN

or someone who's never seen a MASH BROWN show before

both your tickets will be only ¥1000 each.

Everyone please get the people around you involved!

This time we've also got the acoustic one-man show

we're calling the 'inverse one-man'

on December 20th

about two weeks after the main one-man show.

Because we've also go this more like laid back acoustic show

whether it's the main show or the acoustic show

it'd be great if you could look forward to both of them

but what are the highlight points

of the one-man show?

We'll be playing songs that we don't play at regular shows

and we know there are people who say they like those songs

so I want everyone to listen to those songs we don't normally get to do.

What if we just play the one-man show with nothing but brand new songs?

Sounds good to me.

Songs that absolutely no one knows

even I don't know!

Oh what's that?

I gave it to you during the drive

you haven't heard it?


Q.Tell us about your future goals as a band.

To those of you who made fun of us back then

are you watching now?

What are you talking about?

So we can prove you all wrong...

What the hell man.

Today we've come this far

why don't we try saying our goal for the band all at once?

Wouldn't it be wild if we all said the same thing?

We were just asked in this interview what our main goal for the band is

so rather than answering all in order

if we answer all at once and all say the same thing that would be wonderful.

Okay here we go.

Ready?

And... go!

Sold-out one-man show!

Arena tour!

Major label debut!

So close!

You totally hesitated at the end there...

Whatever it's fine right?

We're looking at different points.

So close though!

It all starts from there though yeah?

After a sold-out one-man show

comes a major debut and then an arena tour.

Wow!

They're all tied together.

We're to keep working hard from here on out

so we can follow that path.

Well we've already reached week four.

We're MASH BROWN

and we've had an absolute blast.

It was only for a short while

so we'll keep working hard so we can do things like this again.

So with that please listen to our last song

"Boku ni wa"

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