This is the 1^st interview with Atomic Fireball in the language known as  English. There are some misspellings, but in the end it’s not about spelling words correctly, it’s about having things to say. I decided to publish this interview uncut and unedited because it feels wrong to edit something which I haven’t written. Please read this interveiw and don’t pay too much attention to the spelling errors. OK? Itaru Higashida, the drummer of Atomic Fireball, was kind enough to answer some questions I had written down. If you have any further questions or just want get to know Atomic Fireball some more, then please write to the band. 

Who does what in Atomic Fireball? What brought you guys together?

The members are Itaru Higashida (drums), Ryuji Onozato (bass and vocal), Daisuke Yamada (Guitar) This line-up is not the original, actually I am the only original member (Itaru). Our bassist, Ryuji used to be in the band Faith of Blind. Faith of Blind and Atomic fireball often played together, and we also released a split single. At about the same time we released the single, our first bassist quit and Faith of Blind broke up, so I asked Ryuji to join the band and he agreed. Daisuke was introduced to us by the stoner heavy rock band called Backet-T. He was friends with them and was looking to join a band.  

How did Atomic Fireball start?  

I was playing in hard rock band when I was a high school student, then that band broke up because of musical differences and cause we lost interest in the music. So I started another hard core band called MIGHT, because I wanted to do something new. I was fed up with 70's hard rock style. MIGHT sounds like an american 80's hard core, like circle jerks or screeching weasel. Anyway the rest of the hard rockers (the vocalist and I) reformed a new band, and that's Atomic Fireball. Then in 1992 our vocalist changed to guitarist, and I found a bassist at my english school. Then we started to make songs. I didn't want to play hard rock any more and at that time we were interested in Junk bands like sonic youth and Unsain. So we started to play noisy music.

 Is there a meaning behind the name Atomic Fireball?

  I wanted to name the band something very strong and exploding. I knew there is this famous candy called Atomic Fireball in the U.S. We talked about the band name, and Atomic Fireball was one of the  candidates. Then when I was in Boston on a trip I went to supermarket and I found the Atomic Fireball candy, and I thought it was interesting, a Japanese band called Atomic Fireball. There are 2 meanings, bomb and candy, I think it's so cool. So I guess there's not a really serious meaning. Just kind of a coincidence

 How would you define the type of music you play?  

I don't want to categorize my music. To me I am playing a kind of Hard Core music. Early atomic fireball sounded very influenced by Unsain, so people said Atomic is Junk band, or noise band. But recently our sound is more heavy than before and more metal feeling. Not like korn, though, I like a more chaotic sound.

 Why should people buy your records?

This is diffcult question, why people buy our records... I guess they like our shows and music. At least as far as I know there is not a heavy band like us in Japan. People says our sound is unlike anything else in Japan. Almost all Japanese heavy band are so boring, and lately so many bands sound like Korn. So I think people who like us are anti mainstream. Or maybe they just like our album cover. Our 1st album jacket cover is beautiful picture of a slug.  

Being a band from Japan, have you ever felt that labels or people in general have overlooked or turned you down because of your origin? Are people skeptic about Japanese bands?

  I think you intend this question to mean outside of Japan, but it actually kind of applies more inside of Japan. There are many people in Japan who are very skeptical about Japanese bands. These people like only foreign music.Its kind of pitiful because they don't try to listen honesty. They just follow the trends.  But it's not only a musical thing, every cultural thing is basically a copy of American culture. Underground music scenes are getting bigger, but still now I don't feel there is enough. There are so many bands in Japan, but so many bands are playing boring music. Of course In Japan, there are many good bands too, and they are trying to play in their own original ways. But it seems sometimes good bands still can't find their own values. A lot of famous Japanese bands don't play their own original style. Especially in the country side in Japan, people only believe in mainstream music, so they don't try to dig into other sides of music. We have felt so many times our music is overlooked because our originality (we don't sound mainstream enough), but I don't care, I always think when we play, even if 99% of the people hate our music, if 1% of them like us a lot, that's enough. And our situation is not so bad, I think its getting better now. Our surrounding bands are so great, because they are playing their own music. They should be playing many places, and they should be introducing themselves to other countries too.  

Are there any Japanese bands that people should know of? What about zines from Japan?

  I really recomend '54-71' 'Nine days wonder' 'NAHT' 'Hellchild' 'Kirihito' 'Envy' 'Spike Shoes''Green Machine( they broke up)', 'Dig A Hole' 'exclaim' etc. These bands are so good, and I am fan of them, Hellchild, Kirihito, and Envy have already toured in U.S. and europe. Nine days wonder released a single and an album from Dim Mak records, so you may have heard of them. '54-71' sounds like a  abstract hip hop and avant-garde rock. They are so original, and their groove is really awesome. 'Nine days wonder' and 'NAHT' are intense emo sounds. 'Nine days wonder' sounds like Shot maker and Sleepytime Trio. NAHT's sound feels Washington DC,like Dischord,and Slowdime. 'Hellchild' is deathmetal band. but not just a deathmetal, they plays their own evolved style. Especially the vocalist, Tsukasa's voice is amazing. 'Kirihito' is very unusual, standing drums and a guitarist playing noisy space rock. He also sings and plays casio tone using his foot. About zines, some people do a like free papers, but I don't know anything about Fanzines. There are only few fanzine in Japan. One fanzine called 'chain-whipped magazine' is free,pretty interesting, and it prints in both Japanese and English.  

You did a split-7" with Frodus on Lovitt Records. How did you get in touch with Frodus?

I have a friend who works at a record shop, and he always recommends good stuff to me. One day, he told me about a american fanzine called 'Punk Planet' (I think). In this issue, Shelby from Frodus was speaking for Lovitt records, and he said he want to put out our records. He already knew our band, because we released 7 inch from Boston's local label called 'super 8 records' and he was interested in our music, so I decided to contact him. At that time I already knew Frodus, and I am fan of Lovitt bands, like Sleepytime trio and 400 years. So we contacted by email, and they said they want to tour Japan, so I decide to tour Japan and release split 7". Shelby suggested that we cover each others songs.  This split 7" was also released on the Japanese label called 'Flatree records' and the Lovitt version and Flatree version has a different jacket cover. We toured Japan for 2 weeks in March 1999. It was a DIY tour, I did everything for the set up. Usually, when American and foreign bands play in Japan, tickets cost too much.  I this system sucks, so I set up cheap tickets like normal shows. They stayed at my apartment, and sometimes we slept in our van. But the tour was successful and I was always able to pay them enough guarantee. The biggest reason for success was a lot of  people and bands helped me. Without their cooperation, the tour couldn't have succeded.

 What made you choose to cover Frodus's song 'swingset' instead of any other Frodus song? 

This is pretty simple, we like swing set, and when we decide to cover 'swing set' we were thinking that it would suit us best. I feel 'swing set' is like runing at full speed with lots of energy, and I like the intro guitar. We covered it in our way, and we tried to mix up the feeling of swing set and our style. I was really glad to release the split with Frodus. I think Frodus and Atomic Fireball have something in common,  it's like something exploding... and this is such an amazing thing to me, this is the first time to answer an interview in English. Everything has changed since we toured with Frodus. This is a great thing to communicate with other countries' bands. I feel Japan is still like a blockaded country because of the language barrier.  

What type of feelings are you trying to capture when making a new song?

  Compared with our old songs, recentry we have been making more sense-based songs. Before, we used to be playing thick and heavy songs, but since we released 1st album( January 1999), we wanted to make more changes. It's like a making a story, every song has a story, like a short drama. Our sound is still basically heavy and thick, but its contrasted with a feeling or sense, like sharp or nervous. For example, it's like a aching, or stickey feeling guitar, something like that. About lyrics, Onozato(Bass) writes them all, so the songs are his world.  

Is it difficult to express yourself in English rather than Japanese? Please explain? 

Yes, I am not good at English. I did go to English school, but after graduating school, every year the chance to speak English is getting slimmer. I still have difficulty expressing everything in English. Even now I am thinking in Japanese, and then translating to English, so it takes more than double as long. When Frodus came to Japan, at first when they to talked me, I was so confused, and I couldn't say a word. It was big trouble in my brain. I didn't know what should I say to them. Ultimately, their discretion helped me. They tryed to speak slower, so we could communicate better.  

Do you ever feel a pressure of being forced to perform at your very best when playing in front of a live-audience or when recording new songs for records?

Yes, I always feel pressure when playing, but this pressure is what makes me excited about playing and giving the audience people a lot of excitement and tension too. And this is very difficult, I want this excitement and tension to change an atmosphere of the show. I believe most important thing is, when we play show or when someone listen our song, I want to the change atomosphere wherever we play live or on cd. So when we record songs, to keep a feeling of tension is the most important thing. I always try to do it this way, I wish I can do it well,but I am not sure if we are sucessful all the time.

How do you want your songs and yourself as a band to be received by your audience?

As I already mentioned in the last question, I want to be received to the audience in whatever way they felt. But when we are playing sometimes I'm not sure if they are having fun or not because Japanese people are so quiet. We have played in front of American Navy guys. Their reaction was very easy, and simple. They danced. But In Japan our audiences are so quiet. When we finish a song, they clap, but while we are playing, a lot of people just look at the stage and they don't talk at all between songs. I remember once when Frodus was playing the audience was too quiet, so Jason(drummer) tryed to relax them. He did a mic performance, he was wearing a american flag vest,and tear drop sunglasses and he was pretending to be like a rock star.  But they were still too quiet. So Jason shouted 'Are you having fun? I want to have a party, Japanese party!!' to one guy who was standing in front. But he was so shy, and he couldn't say anything, not even one word, like 'Yeah'. That was a funny situation, and other people in the audience were laughing at it too. I want the audience to have fun and feel their own way.

What does the future behold for Atomic Fireball?

I don't know exactly what is the future for us, no one knows. But in the near future we are going to re-release our 1st album through New York's label 'MIA records' in Summer. Since we released the split 7", I got many emails of inquiry, so I talked to Frodus and they introduce me MIA records. I sent a CD to MIA, they like us a lot, so we decide to put out album. We are also thinking of future releases too. I hope at the end of this year, we may release new album from MIA too. We have got a lot of new opportunities since we toured with Frodus, and I really appreciate them. This is a good opportunity to play wide and expose our music to new people. I hope we can play many places, europe and america, and Asia too. Our sound is not definitely not a mainstream sound, but I hope our sound can be accepted in the underground all over the world. Musically, we continue to seek our own sound deeper and deeper, and try to discern what is the sound of Atomic Fireball. May be these will be changes to absorb from our musical interests. To me I want to make the sound of human's insides. Very abstract. Like every answer is not the only one. I want to express the feeling of human's mind in many ways of sound.

 I think the Atomic Fireball/Frodus split-7” and the Dignity For All/Jejune split-7” bares the same resemblance in terms of the layout. What are your opinions about that?  

I haven't see that split single so, I can't say anything, but I am satisfied with our layout. Shelby did the artwork,and my friend Jota made a Japanese original font for this split, and I know Japanese fonts are very popular in foreign countries. Is Dignity for all/Jejune split using a Japanese font too? If they use Japanese fonts I want to check it out. I often see foreign people wearing a meanless Japanese letter on T-shirts. and I also see artwork using Japanese Fonts. Sometimes its just nonsence. That's funny, but I think it's cool. Anyway, I want to see this jacket!

Do you feel influenced by other bands/persons, or do you feel that you have accomplished something original which separates you from other bands?  

Our early sound was influenced from Unsain. I am a big fan of Unsain. Especially the origen of my druming is from their first drummer Chalie Ondaras. When I started Atomic fireball, I listened Unsain almost everyday, and I still keep on playing like this style, and I think I can assimillate well. But We don't want to play just like a copy band,so I try to find our way- what is the best way to play. Of course everyband has their own roots, and this is an important thing. But I think it's nonsence to play just the same way as your influences. I don't want to say anything to other bands, and  everyband should be playing whatever they want to play, but my opinion is our band should trying to give people something new. Like when I  heard Unsain the first time, I want to give something new through Atomic Fireball.   I asked to my self, 'Do I think like this really seriously?'... I don't think so. I am not sure I can give something new to people. I just play whatever we want to do. We have been influenced by a lot of bands, not just Unsain. I especially  listened to american and european underground music. I know some great swedish bands too. I like to listen the swedish band called Cobolt.I don't know how famous they are in Sweden, but I think they are well known. Cobolt is very melow and not intense music, but I like a lot. 

 Many people claim that playing music is rewarding in different ways. In what way is music rewarding for you?

When we played good show to audience, I feel very satisfied, That is the reward. When the audience likes us a lot. That would be awesome too. Of course when we get a good guarantee, that's great too! But we just like to play music, and being able to keep playing music is the happiest and also most difficult thing, I know a lot of friend's bands who broke up or quit playing music, so I think we are lucky to continue playing. And one more thing, playing in a band, we can have friends in common from a lot of places. I think that's so fantastic.  

What's the difference between hardcore and punk?

I don't know, I like metal more than punk. Punk remains to me a rudeness, and fashionable. Hard core remains to me very strong images. But I don't use the word 'punk' so much. I think your image of punk and Japanese punk is different. In Japan there is a famous punk band called 'Sobut', they are very fasionable, and they wear expensive vintage Levis and other expensive clothes. They are often used like fashion models in  magazines. My image of punk and hard core is more spiritual. Not about clothes.  Because they looks too satisfied with their clean punk fashion. Real punks look more hungry, and sounds hungry too. About hard core, there are so many hard core styles, and I think every style is a kind of hard core, so hard core is not just a sound style, so much as an energy or power exploding to something. So I like to use the term hard core rather than Punk.