How did the three of you come to know one another?

Nao (leader): Chinnachin and I met three years ago at a club called Nazz (in Shinsaibashi. It has since closed down), on Ska Night and we just started talking. A short while before that I went to see Candyflip at Club Quattro (6/91). I was standing in line by the stairs before the place opened and Chinnachin was standing directly in front of me. At the time she had this really strange hairstyle and I was like "What’s her deal?" So after meeting at Nazz and talking, we found out that we were the same age. (Nao was born 7/75. She was fifteen at the time.) She’d been hanging out in clubs ever since she started high school–same as me. I met Yoko-chan (went on a ski trip and was absent for this interview) about a year and a half ago. A bunch of us had a plan to hang out in Nishinari-ku. I arrived late at the place we were supposed to meet. I apologized to everyone, but Yoko-chan was giving me this fierce look. I was about to start a fight, and I would’ve done it, but I thought, "This person over here–there’s something about her that’s appealing." Then I started to really like her.

–-How did Superball come about?

Nao: When I was 16 (Fall of ‘91), I went to a school festival at Osaka University of the Arts and saw Audio Sports. I thought they were really great. I heard that (Yamatsuka) Eye-san was also in this band called the Boredoms, so I went to see the Boredoms play live. I was blown away. I was like, ‘Let’s do something!’ But I couldn’t think of what I wanted to do. ‘What do I want to do? What do I want to do?"....I thought about it for a long time. So, I think it was around April of last year (’93). Out of all the girls I knew, Chinnachin and Yoko had this character, so I invited them to join and that was the beginning of Superball. Seeing the Boredoms live had a great impact on me. I had only been going to clubs, so I didn’t really have an interest in bands or going to livehouses. After everything, I started going to livehouses. ‘There are a lot of really great Japanese bands in Osaka, too’ was the feeling that I got. For me, it was an overwhelming sensation. It was very easy to be influenced...

––Chinnachin, how did you feel when you heard [Nao] say "Let’s do something?"

Chinnachin: There wasn’t any specific talk about it. It was more like, ‘This is interesting, isn’t it.’

––What kind of music had you been listening to?

Nao: In elementary school it was Madonna and Duran Duran.

Chinnachin: I liked Bananarama.

Nao: I also liked Bananarama. When I was in junior high school man che (Manchester bands such as Happy Mondays–MK) was very popular. I usually listened to man che and house. When I was in high school and going to clubs it was already out of fashion. After that, it was grunge and everything.... I guess.

–-Any experience playing a musical instrument?

Nao: Not at all. How do I put this...I was spending all my time hanging out in clubs. None of my friends were in bands. I used to have simple ideas about making music. I thought that you could just pick up an instrument and soon play anything. When I first picked up a guitar it was like ‘What’s this, I can’t play anything. I can’t figure this out!’ (laughs) I realized that it was difficult, but I thought it really didn’t matter one way or the other. I was thinking, ‘I can’t play an instrument, isn’t there something I could do!?’ and that was how I came up with Superball. There’s a band boom now. Everyone has started a band.

–-Nao-chan, you got on the stage and danced at the Urge Overkill show in February. Plus you like bands such as Teenage Fanclub. If you could play an instrument would you do stuff like that?

Nao: I ordinarily like indie music. Well, I also like A.C., the Boredoms, and Missing Foundation. I listen to a lot of music, but when I do something on my own, it’s not something I can cut down the middle with a single stroke by saying it’ll be like this band or that band. I have often been told this by my friends but..I guess we are a mutation or something.

–- Nao-chan, before you started Superball, the sight of you frequenting livehouses in geta (traditional wooden slippers) and Chinnachin’s shaved head (bozuatama) had the first real impact. Any reason for putting on geta?

Nao: There was no real reason. I just wanted to put them on. I had been wearing setta (colloquial term for zori, Japanese sandals), but I guess I wanted to hear the katakata sound that wood makes. I started wearing geta when I was sixteen. I really like the katakata sound that wood makes. Even now, I’ll put on geta when I feel like it.

–-Chinnachin, what about your shaved head?

Chinnachin: I don’t have any reason. Other people have told me that there’s nothing shocking about me on the inside so maybe I wanted to have a shocking outward appearance. Most of my hair has gown back and I’m no longer a bozuatama , so I guess that means that I’m gonna get sacked from Superball. (laughs)

Nao: Like that’s gonna happen...

–-The first thing you released as Superball was a cassette, right?

Nao: I have a bunch of stuff that I’ve recorded. There’s also stuff that the three of us have done. I record every idea that I have.

–-The first cassette that you released was dark, don’t you think so? (There was a poem in which the words "scary," "dark," "cold" and so on were read in a continued manner.) Is there a reason for such a dark manner of expression?

Nao: But I didn’t write those lyrics. A friend of mine wrote them (laughs). I saw them in my friend’s notebook and they seemed interesting and my friend let me use them.

Chinnachin: She’s a dark person and her true character came out.

Nao: That may be true but the next cassette is going to be much more confusing.

–-How many cassettes have you released so far?

Nao: Two. We’re planning on combining both of them on one cassette, so I guess that would be our third release.

–-Superball’s first cassette quickly picked up a great reputation when it was released. You got booked in clubs soon after that....

Nao: Our first gig was June 6th, 1993, at Bears, I guess. It was with Solmania and Monde Bruites–noise bands, and Digital Shiki (who have since broken up–MK).

–-The second time you played live (8/28/93) is already legendary. Yamatsuka Eye said it was "the greatest sensation since hearing the Butthole Surfers for the first time." Others have said that it "exceeds the boundaries of musical performance and non-performance." Since that time information about the band has continued to spread at an accelerated speed.

Nao: Anyway, I hate it! That’s all I’ve been hearing lately. Last fall we appeared at a school festival at Doshisha University (one of the top private Universities in Japan, located in Kyoto.–MK) The person who invited us did so without seeing us before. The person came to the rehearsal and said "Please get it together," which pissed me off. I was like "THIS IS SUPERBALL!!!" (laughs)

–-With all of this unsubstantial information preceding you, have you thought about a strategy for dealing with the media?

Nao: We don’t have any strategy. I just want to do the things that I want to do. But I really can’t believe the current situation, myself. I can’t keep up with all of it. I like to do things at my own pace. I do feel pressure but as far as being used to it.... My feeling about Superball is that Superball is not my whole life, so I really don’t take it all that seriously.

–-Recently (people are saying) that the Boredoms influence has come out and Superball is an up and coming band.

Chinnachin: Really? I wasn’t aware of that...

Nao: Chinnachin and Yoko don’t have any idea of what’s going on. I feel that I’m the one running around.

Chinnachin: I feel that Yoko and I usually find out what we’re going to do when we show up on the day of the show. We tried to rehearse a little for our very first show. Nowadays, when we have a gig coming up, I’m usually told the week before, "Hey, we have a gig coming up." I only have an inclination of what I should bring to the gig and the kind of clothes I should wear. When people ask me to tell them something about Superball I usually tell them that there’s nothing I can tell them about Superball.

Nao: That may be true if one was talking about my "one man" band (Miss Osaka), but the three of us want to perform together, and when it’s the three of us it’s as Superball. We are friends before being bandmates.

–-You’ve often said that Superball is just Superball and nothing more. You’re able to look at yourselves objectively, aren’t you.

Nao: Superball is only what I came up with cause I couldn’t play an instrument and wanted to do something. When I’m at the point where I want to take it to a different level it’s still going to be the three of us standing on the stage. I’m not thinking of doing Superball for my whole life and there’s no way that being in a band is going to put groceries on the table. There are many things that I want to do and I honestly feel that music is only one of those things. Superball is not the only thing that I think about.

The rest of the interview centers around Nao’s plans to re-enter a special high school after dropping out of the tenth grade twice. Chinnachin dropped out after two years. Yoko , the only member of Superball to graduate high school, is now attending college. In other news: Superball will release a double album on Ecstatic Peace (Thurston Moore’s label) and have a split single coming out with Truman’s Water on Subterranean. Nao also has put together a Black Sabbath tribute band called "The Give-Ups."

Interview from G-Scope, Kansai Chaos Guide, April 1994