Viva! Cibo Matto

What's the difference between recording music in the studio and playing it live? According to Cibo Matto lead singer Miho Hatori, it's like "mama and dad." The funk-inducing, sweet-sounding Japanese American band from New York City is coming to Boston next Thursday, Nov. 18, opening for Live. Recently we talked to Hatori about the band, their ongoing tour and why she calls Cibo Matto the United Colors of Benetton band.

The Harvard Crimson: How is the tour going so far?

Miho Hatori: It's great. This time we are opening up for Live, so it is quite different our usual shows. We're playing bigger venues and playing for people who have no idea about Cibo Matto. Actually it is pretty interesting, the audience, they're like "What is this band?"

THC: Cibo Matto and Live have distinctly different music styles. How did you and Live get put on a tour together?

MH: It's amazing, they picked us to tour with them, a miracle, I think. I think Yuka [Honda, keyboards, vocals and other original band member] met the vocalist somewhere, and he's a very nice guy, so I guess it started from there. So many bands want to open up for Live because they're a big band. It's just amazing that Cibo Matto, a "weird band," gets to do this, it's pretty fantastic. The audience might not have any idea about us, but I think that's good, people need time to figure out whether they like it or not. We're very happy to play music for new people.

THC: This is a high profile tour for Cibo Matto, and for a "weird band" in general. How popular to you see Cibo Matto eventually becoming?

MH: We are definitely trying to break out, but that's very difficult because maybe our songs are not in the pop music style of America. The big mainstream music is teen pop music, which is absolutely opposite from us. Also, Yuka and I don't have big boobs, so that's makes it difficult. And we are Japanese. We are trying, through, through touring, to get people to know about our music. We want people to come to check us out, to see there is a band like this that exists. The important thing is that we have to keep going to spread our music around.

We want to show people that we are a very mixed-race band from NYC. Do you know the Benetton company? Their ads always put people of different races together, we're like that, we are the Benetton band. We are all proud to have this mix. We are enjoying it, that we can make one thing from five different things. It might be difficult for politics, but I think it benefits our music.

THC: How important are live shows for establishing your musical image?

MH: Touring makes us stronger because we have to play every day. It's also a great place to figure out the songs. We've already changed the arrangements on a lot of them. Touring is the place where things become real. Recording also, but they are different. I feel recording and touring are like parents, mama and dad.

THC: There is more live music and less sampling on your second album Stereotype A than on Viva La Woman!, the first album. Is this the future of Cibo Matto's sound?

MH: I don't know what the future will be like. So far, we are enjoying this style. I think in the future we would love to have horns and other real instruments, become more Funkadelic-style.

THC: You have a track on the recently released Handsome Boy Modeling School compilation. On that song, "Metaphysical," you're singing with Mike D from the Beastie Boys. How important are side projects like this to you as an artist?

MH: That song was an amazing experience, I enjoyed it a lot. Yuka does stuff also, playing with amazing jazz musicians, and Sean [Lennon, bassist and Honda's boyfriend] does his thing. These projects are like big presents for us I think, they refresh our minds. Then when we get together, we launch something new from all our experiences.

THC: How much of a connection do you maintain with music in Japan?

MH: Unfortunately I don't have much time to check on it, but I have friends like the Boredoms and Buffalo Daughter, so when I see them I always ask "what's going on in Japan?" and they give me some DJ songs, and I say "wow." It's interesting, Japan is pretty ahead. I'm not talking about mainstream music, I'm talking about the underground, that's the bomb there, it's awesome.

THC: What do you think about the college music scene in America?

MH: We just played at some college in Texas, and at the end the audience just got up and jumped with us to "Birthday Cake" [off Viva La Woman!], which had never happened to us before in live touring. I feel college kids are more open minded, that they have more capacity for crazy music. Also, it's great that America has so much college radio. I grew up in Japan, they don't have that, it's about the mainstream. College radio always finds out the new music that plays, that's the source of American music for the future.

THC: Do you wish you could spend more time in New York?

MH: I do wish we could spend more time there. I guess next year we will have more time to settle down in the city, make music for the next album, write more songs and do more experimental stuff. That's what we miss a lot. Sean is a solo artist, Timo [the drummer] has his own stuff too. I feel like Cibo Matto unites us all. We take our time to do our individual things, then we'll play together again. But it's very important for us to be in NYC, to do our individual work, I think we need that time.