INTERVIEW: Yuka & Chronoship look to expand across the planet
Yuka & Chronoship, a prog rock band out of Japan, is actively looking to expand its musical influence around the globe. They recently started an Indiegogo campaign to fund a new music video, and their sights are set on more concerts in Europe and the United States.
The band debuted its third album in 2015. The 3rd Planetary Chronicles saw the quartet of musicians releasing music for the first time in the United Kingdom, and that seems to be a first step of them moving beyond the Japan market. Songs from the album were picked up by more than 70 radio stations and Internet media outlets, according to a press release.
“The ultimate goal for the band is the United States,” said Shun Taguchi, producer, keyboardist and bassist for Yuka & Chronoship, through an interpreter. “The band released their first album in France, and the next step was to release an album in the birthplace of progressive rock. But in terms of the business, the ultimate goal is the United States, so we are planning to play in the United States.”
Taguchi is joined by Yuka Funakoshi, the namesake of the band who also sings and plays keyboards., and Takashi Miyazawa on guitar and Ikko Tanaka on drums. They formed the band in 2009 and have been making music ever since. Funakoshi and Taguchi first played together as a duo, and then they actively recruited the other musicians to form Yuka & Chronoship.
The 3rd Planetary Chronicles, following 2011’s Water Reincarnation and 2013’s Dino Rocket Oxygen, is a concept album that features songs built around a common theme. “[We] came up with the idea of composing other songs about historical, scientific revolutions that date [from] the ancient times to the contemporary times,” Taguchi said. “As [we] created songs, the whole concept of The 3rd Planetary Chronicles came out.”
Taguchi started playing rock in high school and was an avid listener of Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. “[I] started out as a progressive rock lover,” he said. “[I great] up with the music in the 1970s, so [I] … listened hard to progressive rock in the ‘70s and also other rock and pop songs in the 1970s.”
Funakoshi listened mostly to classical music as a child. From Frédéric Chopin to Maurice Ravel to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the composers that Funakoshi listened to influenced her love of music. In addition, she grew up in a rural area of Japan, so natural sounds, including the gurgling of streams, the rushing of rivers and the blowing of the wind, were a common part of her childhood listening habits.
While Taguchi and Funakoshi grew up in the 1970s, the other members of the band are younger and more influenced by the rock music in the 1980s and 1990s. Taken together, the members of Yuka & Chronoship bring a lot of variety to their prog rock credibility.
THE FUTURE
Right now, most of the band’s focus is on the music video for the song “Galileo II — Copernican Theory,” which will feature the work of production director Masako Gomado and artwork by Oda Hideji.
Besides the music video and venturing into the United States, the band is also planning a fourth album. “[On] the third album there was a problem of language,” Taguchi said. “Many of [our] songs are mainly instrumental, but [on] the fourth album, the secret project is now going on. Yuka and another singer, a secret, may come up with an English song on the album.”
Funakoshi, who has also released three J-pop albums, summed up their future ambitions this way: “[We] have accomplished lots of dreams,” she said. “But [we] still have far more greater dreams.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Click here for more information.
