Appearing at Summer Sonic and boasting a number of musicians among their fans, Perfume is a rare breed, crossing over the norm of idols and gaining attention from the public. They made their break with the single “Polyrhythm” released last September, and in the time since, they’ve appeared at Countdown Japan, reached a record #3 on the singles chart and more, now making their growing momentum something of note. Nakata Yasutaka of capsule produces their high-quality technopop sound and heartrending lovestruck lyrics, and their emotionally restrained, robotic vocals, the polar opposite of anything sweltering or forward, put the finishing touches on the ephemeral, plastic-like worldview they express.
Formed in 2000 and hailing from Actors School Hiroshima, the group, with their long career and disciplined background, seems to have finally aligned that potential in lockstep with the modern era. Perhaps because they spent such a long time at the bottom of the totem pole, their real-life characters sometimes come across self-deprecating, but they’re down-to-earth, too, and there’s an entertaining gap between this and their perfectly polished staging.
As if smoothly evading the fever heating up around them, their album GAME, set to be released on April 14th, is a hard and heavy-hitting techno record. The sad, sweet and beautiful world of Perfume unfurls in perfect order, revealing a magnificent result. In commemoration of this album’s completion, we asked the three members of Perfume to look back on the eight years since their group was formed.
―― Perfume was originally formed between A~chan, Kashiyuka and one other girl in 2000, when you were elementary school students. What image did the three of you have at the start? A~chan: There was no real concept or anything — we just did things energetically. Well, it’d come down to how Nocchi viewed Perfume back then. Nocchi: I was already enrolled when Perfume was formed, but within Actors School, they were like real idols. It felt like, “There’s a cute group of three girls here!” We had something called unit auditions, and if you passed, you could take part in the school recitals with your group. I saw Perfume dancing during one of those unit auditions, and they were so cute. Like in the kind of way that other girls admire. But I didn’t know anything about the members individually. They were really cheerful and energetic.
―― Then you lost one member and reached out to Nocchi. A~chan: That’s right. We wanted someone who’d fit into our dynamic as three members, so we started talking like, “Then it’d have to be Ayano-chan, right?” We decided to invite her because of that.
―― I’ve heard that you all liked SPEED [a four-member girl group], so why were you so fixated on having three members? A~chan: We originally talked about auditioning with just the two of us, but we thought we wouldn’t be a strong unit as only two, so we decided to add one more member to the group and became a trio. Then we lost that girl who joined at the beginning, so I chose Ayano-chan to replace her. Kashiyuka: I wonder why? Maybe because there weren’t many trios around us? A~chan: That’s true, there were basically either quartets or duos. Kashiyuka: It was like duos, quartets or quintets. So we thought a trio would be nice. That’s probably all it was. A~chan: Yeah, probably.
―― Then you must’ve had the sense that doing things differently from the rest was more interesting from rather early on. A~chan: Oh, was that it? But maybe we felt like there was no point in doing the same thing as everyone else anyway. Nocchi: Yeah, we didn’t imitate anyone either. A~chan: A lot of the others were going the “cool” route, and even tiny little kids would be singing grown-up kinds of songs and auditioning with those. Yeah, maybe there weren’t very many groups who had a cute style. So it was like another thing that’d make us stand out. Kashiyuka: The people around us were incredible, too — they were all at such a high level. It was almost all older girls, so we probably felt desperate to keep up with them. Going towards the auditions, I think we were naturally conscious not to lose to those girls.
―― Next, you made your indie debut in March 2002, and your direction was a little different at that time compared to now. A~chan: That’s true. It was like they took the feel of Perfume at the time and made that into a song. We came across very idol-like, with a kind of energy and power and vigor; I think we had that sort of “they’re young, but they’re working hard” feeling (laughs). Nocchi: We came in like a storm all at once (laughs). A~chan: Right, we blew in and then we blew out (laughs). Nocchi: I think our hit-and-run approach has been with us since then (laughs).
―― (laughs) Do you remember when you had the most fun back then? Kashiyuka: I was really happy to be able to sing our own song. We received a song of our own for the first time, and that was made into a CD and distributed out into the world, but we still hadn’t gotten to the point where we were conscious of our audience yet. Until then, it’d only ever been our parents coming to see our recitals, so they’d never required anything of us but to put together a fully complete production on stage. Creating those performances and dancing were really fun for me. A~chan: At events, there was something like a sectioned-off block for Perfume. We were happy to have that. They’d release the setlists of who was scheduled to perform one or two weeks in advance, and if you weren’t listed there, you couldn’t go on stage. For Perfume, though, our songs wouldn’t be decided in advance, but they’d basically set aside a block for us. That made us happy. It felt like we were a little special somehow. There were a hundred or 200 students at the school, so there were definitely people among us who got buried, like people you never even knew were there. Some people came just to have fun and others were doing it for real. So there was kind of a serious competition between us, and we were happy to have that little bit of special treatment.
―― What did it feel like when your indie debut was decided? Like a “We did it!” type of feeling? Kashiyuka: It was just that: “We did it!” A~chan: But we absolutely wouldn’t say it in front of everyone. Even when we were looking at the paper, it was like we were sneaking a glance at it (laughs). Kashiyuka: On the inside, we were screaming, like, “I’m so happy!” A~chan: We were in a pretty good position in the school, so we almost had to act a little like we didn’t care about things like that. Really little kids and girls who’d recently enrolled would all know about Perfume and be like “Wow, it’s really them!”, so we were a bit like celebrities within the school (laughs).
―― You must’ve felt swept up in all kinds of dreams about what might be waiting for you once you debuted, didn’t you? A~chan: Ah, I think we probably didn’t have any idea what debuting itself would be like. We don’t really understand it much even now, though. We didn’t really get what the difference between an indie debut and a major debut was either. Since we’d gone all that way with it as our goal, hearing the word “debut” made us really happy. Once we got there, we didn’t think about how we’d change or what our situation would be like at all — it just made us happy that we’d get to have our own songs and appear at lots of events. We were just happy and that was all, so we didn’t think anything of what was ahead. Nocchi: We knew that it was a huge chance, though, and all of us understood that if we let this go, we’d be finished. So instead of looking back, we only looked ahead. But it was like we couldn’t really voice any big dreams or anything. It wasn’t that I was seeing it in some idealized way, but I just thought it’d be nice if we could go to Tokyo and do well, although I couldn’t say it to anyone out loud. But I knew we’d have no future if this fell through once we got there, so I did have those worries. Well, if I say that, I was always worried. A~chan: That’s right. Nocchi: But we were always hanging by the edge.
―― (laughs) But to realize that failing there would’ve been the end of the road for you, the three of you must’ve already felt incredibly strongly that you wanted to keep going as Perfume forever. Perfume: That’s true. Nocchi: Anything else was unimaginable. Kashiyuka: We didn’t think about any of it. We thought we had no choice but to stay as this trio. A~chan: I think it was probably because all of us believed it’d be impossible to make it individually. It wouldn’t have worked even with two of us, so we must’ve been under the — false? (laughs) — impression that the three of us together made it all possible, I think. I’ve never given it any serious thought like that, but we came together as this trio before we even realized it. Kashiyuka: It felt like we weren’t in a position to choose whether or not we stayed as these three members. That part just went without saying, and we weren’t allowed a say in anything else about our direction like adding new members or things like that. But we didn’t want anyone else to join. We did feel like that. A~chan: We definitely had some pride. Even compared to other schools, in ours it was like if you could dance, then you were someone who could really dance, and our school tended to have a reputation like that. Then, since we’d gotten so much praise for our dancing, we thought this kind of idol stuff would be easy. So to some extent, it felt like you had to really excel in some way or else you wouldn’t be good enough. Don’t I sound really self-important right now? (laughs) Nocchi: (laughs)` Kashiyuka: No, but it wasn’t as if we were so good out of everyone else in the school either. A~chan: But we were good for being young. So probably, if we were chosen based on that criteria, only Nocchi would’ve gotten through. Nocchi: Oh, that’s sort of nice. A~chan: It wasn’t really so much that we could dance but just that we kind of shined, so if someone really egotistical had pushed her way into the group, I don’t think we could’ve maintained the atmosphere that Perfume had then or now. Yeah, I wonder why? When I think about it like that, it feels really strange. It just happened naturally. Nocchi: Timing was part of it, too. A~chan: But maybe us being friends was a big factor.
―― For girls, say, it’s normal to marry or pursue something like this as only a temporary hobby. I imagine there might’ve been girls like that in your school as well. A~chan: You’re right, there were a lot like that.
―― But the three of you weren’t like that and even knew you’d have no chances left if you failed here. Why did you have so much drive to push yourselves that way? A~chan: Just a misunderstanding. Nocchi: Right, a misunderstanding, that’s all. A~chan: We thought we could do it, or I don’t really know, but even our moms thought we could make it. Kashiyuka: We had a weird self-confidence. A~chan: Those people are strange. After moving to the capital, there were times when we had no work and then our minds would go in a different direction, like, “Ah, maybe there’s just no point. I’ll work hard in school instead.” We had moments when we’d lose hope, but our moms would be under this bizarre wrong impression like, “You kids can get to the top!” (laughs) I guess it’s in a parent’s nature to be like that, though. But I think we were probably able to make it this far because our moms were there for us in that way. So it all started from a misunderstanding. “We can be stars! We can do it!” Nocchi: It was really nothing but misunderstandings left and right. A~chan: Yes, we came this far on a misunderstanding.
―― Following your indie debut, you moved to Tokyo in the spring of 2003, when you were in your third year of middle school. What led up to that point? Kashiyuka: Someone who scouted new talent would periodically come to see our recitals, and in their rookie development program, there was something called Farm, an exclusive recital just for certain local groups they selected. After watching us there a few times, they were kind of like, “What do you think about heading over this way soon?” Then we didn’t hesitate either, and as soon as we could go, it was like, “We’ll go right now!” And we didn’t even feel any worry at that stage. That was probably just our own misunderstanding, though. We just felt so much hope. First it had been our dream to debut and we made our indie debut in Hiroshima, then putting out a CD had been our next goal, and then going to Tokyo had been our next goal after that. Then around the fall of our second year in middle school, they informed us that we’d be moving to Tokyo and I just thought, “Another one of our dreams is coming true!” My head was so full of that, I couldn’t think about school or anything else. It was just like, “We can go to Tokyo!” Nothing else mattered. A~chan: For us, the four years we spent going to that school were really long and really intense. They always had us doing something every day. But when I think about it now, it’s been five years already since we came to Tokyo, and if I compare four of the years we’ve spent here to those four years, they’re completely different. The four years we’ve spent here are precious, too, but I think if not for those, we wouldn’t be where we are right now. But those four years in that school were an extremely dense four years. So part of us did feel like, “I wanna go to Tokyo already! I want to get out of here as fast as I can!” Kashiyuka, Nocchi: Yeah. A~chan: But we might’ve been looking at something way above our heads. Kashiyuka: Right? We had so much hope towards our goals — our mentality was really incredible. We felt so strongly that we were going to make this happen no matter what. A~chan: But I think we couldn’t have labored under that false impression if not for our parents’ help. There are a lot of girls who lose steam or who have to give up on their dreams because of money. The admission fees and tuition costs are a huge burden. So we have to show a lot of gratitude to all of our parents for allowing us that misunderstanding.
―― But it was fun for you, too, and not like you were being forced. Nocchi: Yeah, it was hard, but it was fun, too, of course, and it felt like something we needed to be doing. A~chan: That’s true, it might’ve become like something we had to do for us. Nocchi: Yeah, without being told by anyone. Kashiyuka: Before we knew it, we’d started thinking of it that way. Nocchi: So maybe it really was a misunderstanding (laughs).