Feb 2

Justin’s Japan: Interview with Ary Warnaar of Anamanaguchi

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The music of Anamanaguchi is part hacked Nintendo Entertainment System, part crowd surfing rave. The Brooklyn-based foursome and chiptune vanguards are on an artistic roll after releasing an acclaimed video game soundtrack based on the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and earlier this month the band played packed houses at both The Studio at Webster Hall as a headliner and Irving Plaza with Super Mash Bros.

If you missed them, fear not: Anamanaguchi returns this Saturday at Silent Barn. I caught up with their co-guitarist and songwriter Ary Warnaar for this exclusive interview.

How did Anamanaguchi form, and what made you decide to specialize in playing chiptune music?

Pete [Berkman, the band’s lead songwriter] started writing chip music in 2003 and was releasing it online under the name Anamanaguchi. Once there was a demand for the music in a live setting, Pete decided to form a band. Over the years the lineup changed quite a bit, but solidified in 2007-08 with Pete on guitar, James [DeVito] on bass, Luke [Silas] on drums and me on guitar as well. I started messing around with chip music when I met Pete and James at New York University in the music technology program. I had been writing electronic music for most of my teen years and had become quite bored with most software by the time I entered college. Modern music software gives you unlimited options in terms of creation, and often lets you skip most steps of creation with presets and loops…software for limited sound chips (such as the 2A03 in the Nintendo Entertainment System) does the exact opposite. You’re extremely limited and are forced to make every note and every sound count. I found that the primitive software and extreme limitations actually made me write more complex music, and helped me focus on expressing myself. The harsh sound palette of simple squarewaves and white noise was also a breath of fresh air to me…overproduced lush sounding electronic music drenched in reverb and pads with hundreds of channels can get kinda boring. Chiptune music is a nice way of going back to basics.

What does the band’s name mean?

Before studying music technology, we were all fashion majors at the Parsons School of Design. Pete and James both interned for Armani, I was a secretary at Prada, and Luke worked at the Gucci store in SoHo. Whenever we showed up at fashion parties, people would always call us as the “Armani-Prada-Gucci” boys. After a couple bottles of Veuve Clicquot, people just started slurring the nickname into “Anamanaguchi.” We quickly realized the fashion world wasn’t for us, but that name just stuck when we made the shift to being a band.

Tell us about your history with Japan. How did it pop up on your radar, what made you want to go there, and how do you keep up your connection with it back home?

Hmm…I’m sure we all have different answers for this. I’ll start with answering for the band, and then get more personal:

As a band, we have never been to Japan.

As a band, we are DYING to go to Japan.

Touring in Japan is kinda our number one dream. Japanese culture, and more specifically, its music scene, is totally awesome. Even the chip-scene in Japan is amazing with artists like quarta330, USK, Maru, Aonami, Cow’P, BSK, YMCK, etc., etc…..

Personally, I have been to Japan twice. I went to Tokyo a couple summers ago and loved it so much that a week after I got back home, I bought another ticket right back to Japan to go to the Fuji Rock Festival. BEST TIME EVER. I’m always keeping up with what’s coming out of Japan, whether it’s reading blogs online searching for new Japanese artists, or asking my girlfriend to buy me clothes when she goes back to Tokyo to visit her family.

What’s your fanbase in Japan like? What things would you like to see and do there on tour?

I don’t really know what our fanbase is like in Japan…I know we have fans there, but we have yet to meet any of them! Hopefully we’ll be out there sooner than later. I love Tokyo, but haven’t really gotten a chance to see any other cities in Japan. Touring would be an awesome excuse to see all of Japan.

Click here for the complete interview.