Tsune: It is difficult to find information about the band that is not in Japanese. Can you tell us about the band and its members?

Mayumi: We are "Miaou," an insturumental band based in Tokyo. We write pop and melancholic music. The members are Tatsuki (guitar), and sisters Hiromi (Drums) and Mayumi (Bass) Hasegawa. Miaou formed in 1999 when I (Mayumi) met Tatsuki at a music club in college and we started thinking about forming a new band. I then asked my sisiter, Hiromi, to join.

Tsune: Where does Miaou get its name come from? This pronunciation is a cry of a cat in Japan, that are there any relations?

Mayumi: I would say that it doesn't have any kind specific origin. When we were thinking about what the name of the band should be, Tatsuki got the idea of the word "miaou." We knew that "miaou" was a cat's cry in French at that time. After that, we began to like the spelling and the sound of "miaou." Besides, all of us like cats so "miaou" would be suitable for us, and finally we took it.

Tsune: What do you focus on when you make music and did you have a concept for "Painted" before you made it?

Mayumi: We currently focus on the melody. We think that melody is the most important part of our music and it's the best way to express Miaou itself. Especially with the new EP, we tried to write songs as the most melodious and poppy we've ever made, so you can easily get into our world. I'm not sure but the concept was directly aimed at  "POP," but it was a natural development from the emphasis we placed on melody.

Tsune: What is the song writing process for the band?

Mayumi: Usually Tatsuki or I bring in many ideas when we begin working in a studio. Tatsuki brings almost perfect demos that he has made outside on his on time. In my case, I bring more incomplete, fluid ideas that I've been working on in my head. For example, "there is impressive melody here " or "drumming is very aggressive and sounds like 'Zun-doko Zun-doko'..." I relate these more conceptual notions to other members by word, so it takes a long time them to get my idea sometimes because it can be very abstract. After working with a first ideas separately, we work with each one's idea together until a completed idea is formed.

Tsune: Could you tell us about your musical influences?

Mayumi: I think we are influenced from various music everyday. It's hard to say exactly....but I could say Sonic Youth, Tristeza and Telefon Tel Aviv etc...

Tsune: What plans do you have for the band in the future? For example, gigs, new products　and recordings, etc. What would you like the band to accomplish?

Mayumi: We'd like to release our next album this year if possible or early next year.We are writing songs for it now. We always want lots of people in Japan and overseas to listen to Miaou's music more and more, so we try to make good music for them and have lots of exciting live performances in different places.

Tsune: There are remixes in "Painted", did that bring a change in the band's state of mind?

Mayumi: We were going to make a simple 5 track ep at first but Pascal of Milimetrik suggested to us that he'd like to remix a track and he had good idea for it at that time. We thought that was a neat idea so we added the remix version. After that Thomason Sounds label suggested to add 1 or 2 more remix songs, so we ended up with 3 remix songs on the e.p. It was not a  changing of mind for the band, just there were lovely people who gave us the opportunity to put on some excellent remixes, so we took it.

Tsune: What is the most important thing to you when you make albums and play shows? And is there a reason for playing with some additional members at live performance?

Mayumi: The most important thing to us is the sound.  We  want our sound to feel comfortable, it's like "miaou melody." We write songs freely, not strictly as a three piece band, which often makes it difficult to perform the music with only three musicians, so we often have two additional members when we play live.

Tsune: How do you feel about your music being listened to by people in foreign countries? Do you think that foreign listeners think language is not important because of its instrumental quality?

Mayumi: We don't consider ourselves to be strictly an instrumental band, although that is the form the majority of our music has taken thus far. Some songs with vocals might be in a next album, we are not sure yet. But yes, I believe people all over the world can easily accept our music because it is instrumental. Understandably, many people probably do not wish to listen to music with vocals in a language they can not comprehend. I think that listeners don't realize we are a Japanese band when they listen to our music.

Tsune: How was it decided that Below the Sea and Miaou made the split EP together?

Mayumi: When the Japan tour with Below the Sea was decided, we were thinking that we should make CD together.At that time, each band had some songs recorded, but we asked Below the Sea to write a new remix track, and when we were working with it Osamu of Linus Records asked us to release it from a new rebel that he started at that time. Then we decided it immediately.

Tsune: Miaou has actively exchanged music with foreign artists like playing some shows with bands such as TracerAMC or Below the Sea, and inviting foreign musicians to Japan. Do you have a plan for doing overseas tour in the future?

Mayumi: We've wanted to have live shows out of Japan so long. We have invited some bands from overseas because we're fans of the bands and want to see their performance, but also because there are lots of instrumental bands and lots of enthusiastic listeners in the world, as well as in Japan, and we hope we can communicate with other bands, foreign or native, play live shows together, and make people happy and enjoy by music. Of course we want to go overseas someday, but we don't have much opportunity...so please introduce someone who can support us!

Tsune: "Painted" was a less ambient affair than its predecessors, is this a general direction that the band is taking or merely something you did for the EP alone?

Mayumi: We wanted "Painted e.p."to be more melodic and poppier than usual. So I know that you may feel its less ambient than "Make things Alright," but it wasn't a conscious decision to reduce the ambience, just a progression from the focus we placed upon melody. But we are not sure what's happening to us next, we might write super ambient music, who knows? What we should sound like is decided by the intuition at the time (laughs).

Tsune: Miaou recently signed a distribution deal with Darla Records in the US. What future plans do they have with this arrangement?

Mayumi: It was really lucky that we sighed Darla for distributing our CDs. We really hope that many people get our CD and this makes it easily accessible. And we are looking for distributors in Europe and Asia so that people who really have interest in our music can get our CD easily.

Tsune: Painted contained remixes from some very respected artists, like Epic45 and Qua. How did you come to know these artists and do you plan on having artists remix your work in the future?

Mayumi: First, we have performed with Qua once but we couldn't talk with him at that time. When we were considering artists for the remix, Qua's name came to us immediately, since we are big fans of his work. And then we asked him to remix and he said back "OK" right away. About Epic45, I personally have been a big fan of them too, but we didin't know each other. The owner of Thomason Sounds is also a big fun of them and have been talking about license of their CDs etc, so Teru suggested that we asked them to remix. Again, they took the offer right away. We don't know if we work together to remix again after that, although when they come to Japan we want to have live shows together and keep in touch with them. They are obviously great musicians.

Tsune: What other Japanese artists would you recommend to our readers?

Mayumi: It's a hard question to answer. There are lots of good artists, but I can mention "Toe" of the post-rock genre. I respect their music and especially the live show; it's really professional. And recently I have come to like "ICHI" from Nagoya after I saw a performance. He manipulate glockenspiel, steelpan, vocals, trumpet, and sampling etc. He is a very talented musician.

The Silent Ballet thanks Mayumi and Miaou for the interview