Formed of YUKA and Masaki Kousuke, mouoon are a Japanese duo that originally formed in 2005. Their 2012 song ‘Wild Child’ featured in the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! and their more recent song ‘Hello, Shooting-Star’ forms the ending theme for Assassination Classroom.
The pair performed at The Great Escape Festival in the UK earlier this year and their new video for ‘It’s Our Time’ features footage shot on the duo’s European tour. Their new album is due out this month…
What artists originally inspired you both to get into music?
Generally I like rock but I’m also influenced by electric sounds like Chemical Brothers.
moumoon appear to embrace a wide range of musical styles, from an acoustic, organic approach through to a much more electronic, polished sound. Which approach do you prefer?
A mixture of acoustic and electric sounds is our mood recently. When we get the cool mixture, that is moumoonish and we like it.
What preparation work goes into writing songs for films and anime?
When we write from scratch, we invoke the image of what type of song would suit by watching the film or anime and try to learn the story and vibes.
Some moumoon releases appear to use snippets of English in the lyrics. Could you talk a little about why you chose this approach for some songs?
We write lyrics on the melody. During that process, we put English phrases like we are playing with the rhythm. We add in words like using different instruments to make the sound interesting.
Japanese music appears to be enjoying more of a market outside of the country recently. What are your thoughts on this?
I think there are some melody lines and vibes that only Japanese music has. So, just like we think French pop is cool, French people feel the difference and are interested in the gap between French music and Japanese music.
moumoon were an early adopter of digital releases. Do you think it’s important for Japanese artists to embrace download culture more?
It’s not so easy to release CDs outside of Japan. However, by releasing our music via iTunes etc, opportunities for people overseas to listen to our music and allow it to expand.
Are there any current UK artists whose music you enjoy?
Yuka: Shura and Lily Allen
Masaki: I listen to QUEEN a lot.
As a band, do you have any great ambitions that you are keen to achieve?
To produce a song and then we think, “no other songs are cooler than this.”
moumoon’s new album It’s Our Time is released 12th August 2015 on avex trax.
