Celebrating his 25th anniversary this year, SUGIURUMN has completed his first album in seven years, “SOMEONE IS DANCING SOMEWHERE.” It has been over 30 years since the indie rock era of the early 1990s, and nearly 25 years since I began my close association with him in 2001. His path has been intricately tied to the dance culture of 1990s Europe. Driven by remarkable determination, he has relentlessly pursued the music he believes in, influenced by a dynamic scene that generates significant trends every few years. His journey spans over three decades, leaving an enduring legacy. While no one can live exactly like he does, he remains a unique figure.
The album project began exactly a year ago. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he liberated his music from the confines of dance beats by creating the soundtrack for fashion designer Takahiro Miyashita’s TAKAHIRO MIYASHITA The Soloist. collection and the score for the stage play of the same name written and directed by playwright and director Toshi Kawamura. This creative freedom was a major catalyst. Over the year, as each track was completed, the increasing presence of dance beats reflected his genuine style. In this interview, we focus on SUGIURUMN’s journey as a DJ, exploring his early years in the late 1990s and his international success in the 2000s.
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SUGIURUMN, whose real name is Eiji Sugiura, began his career in 1992 as the singer for the indie band Electric Glass Balloon. After the band’s breakup in 1998, he continued his career as a DJ and solo artist under the name SUGIURUMN. He has released nine albums and produced numerous singles and remixes. SUGIURUMN has performed at DJ booths worldwide, including Pacha in Ibiza and Sankeys in Manchester. In 2019, he launched a new band called THE ALEXX, bridging dance and rock styles, and quickly leaped onto major stages.
Bandman Eiji Sugiura Transforms into SUGIURUMN
– This year marks the 25th anniversary of your debut as SUGIURUMN. What made you decide to do dance music as a solo artist?
Sugiura: I’ve talked about this in various places, but towards the end of Electric Glass Balloon, things weren’t going well with the band members. We decided to break up, but we still had one more album to release under our contract with the label. When the label rep asked what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to make a solo album. I still believe that making music with a band should be a collaborative effort, but at that time, even with my own songs, it was often difficult to achieve what I envisioned with the band. Even when the members didn’t think a song was good, I would feel that something wasn’t right. I wanted to try making something entirely on my own to see if I could realize my ideas. How old was I then?
– It was around 1998, right?
Sugiura: Right, I was around 28. At that time, I was starting to think that maybe I was done with music. I didn’t intend to keep going for much longer. So, I decided to finish the songs that were rejected by the band in the sound that I wanted. The producer of the early singles for Electric Glass Balloon was Yukihiro Fukutomi, and he would bring a Mac, a sampler, and a synthesizer to the studio. I found that really interesting. So, I quickly bought a Color Classic Mac, an AKAI S2800 sampler, and a Roland SOUNDCANVAS for about one million yen on a 36-month loan. I used Digital Performer software and Fukutomi-san taught me everything. I was around 22 at the time.
I made a lot of demos on a 4-channel cassette MTR, mimicking Spacemen 3. Some of the songs didn’t seem to fit with the band, so I just created them based on that feeling. This led to my first album as SUGIURUMN, “Life is serious but art is fun.” So, initially, it wasn’t necessarily dance music.
– Around 1998, dance music was also played at indie rock events, wasn’t it? You were also listening to dance music, weren’t you, Sugiura?
Sugiura: Yeah, that’s right. Around that time, at the “VEGAS” event I was doing with Keiichi Sokabe and others in Sangenjaya, my DJ sets were mostly focused on house music.
– How long have you been doing “VEGAS”?
Sugiura: Around 1997, I think. Before that, I started the “INDIE 500” event at CLUB QUE with Arai (Jin) from N.G.THREE and NORTHERN BRIGHT, and later Kin-chan (Suzuki “KINK” Hitoshi) joined us. Initially, it was truly an indie rock event, but by the time it evolved into “VEGAS,” dance music had become the focus. Wasn’t that around the time of Big Beat?
– I guess so, because The Chemical Brothers’ first album was released in 1995 and their second in 1997.
Sugiura: Yes, from around 1997, I started to focus on house music when DJing. I was getting a little tired of the unique groove of rock events at the time, where everyone had to know the same songs to get the crowd going.
– I was getting a bit tired of the groove peculiar to rock events at the time, where the crowd didn’t get excited unless everyone knew the song.
Sugiura: That’s how I got into big beats, and from there it became more and more house.
– Can you tell us some of your favorite big beat and house songs from that time?
Sugiura: They are all here (pointing to the record shelf at home), but I really don’t remember the past [laughs]. I liked Big Beat, too, because the way they used samples wasn’t as complete as The Chemical Brothers. I don’t know about house, maybe Full Intention?
– What about Armand Van Helden?
Sugiura: I don’t really like him.
– So Masters at Work?
Sugiura: Other units with “masters”….
The Beatmasters, right?
Sugiura: Yes!
– The reason I ask is that I want to remember the atmosphere of the time when SUGIURUMN’s first album came out. I was already in the middle of the trance party at that time, and I was in a different place from where you were. You were in the midst of the change of indie rock DJ events from big beat to house and techno, and I can understand it from around 2000, but I really don’t understand the late 1990s.
Sugiura: Yes, I wanted to get out of there, so I was very happy when I was invited to Aoyama Maniac Love’s “MACINEGUN” (an event organized by Capten Funk).
– Did you buy a ticket to go to parties?
Sugiura: Yeah, I went, places like Liquid Room’s “Club Venus.” Everyone was just drinking water, which surprised me [laughs]. It was there that I first saw VJs. The energy from the crowd was incredible, and I thought, “Something incredible is happening here.” There were a lot of foreigners and a variety of people, which amazed me. But other than that, I don’t remember anything at all [laughs]. I envy people who can talk about those times in detail, because I really don’t remember anything.
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Unforgettable Impact of Ibiza
– The 1st album was meant to be your first solo, but after that, it was completely dance music, wasn’t it?
Sugiura: Completely, yes.
– Was that a natural progression?
Sugiura: It was more of a conscious decision than a natural one. I thought I was doing something cooler. I decided that I would only DJ at house parties, and I would turn down rock DJ events. So from 2000 onward, it was completely house. Of course, I didn’t get any offers at all at first (laughs). (laughs) I didn’t know many people, but I decided to go for it. Especially after I went to Ibiza in 2000, it was clear to me that this was the way to go.
– So your first visit to Ibiza was in 2000. Why did you decide to go there?
Sugiura: Around the time I was working on my second album “MUSIC IS THE KEY OF LIFE,” I had started checking out the latest house tracks regularly. I began to feel that there was something different between those tracks and what I was creating. It felt like something was missing or lacking. So, I decided to go see the real scene firsthand. Everyone was talking about Ibiza back then [laughs]. It’s been 25 years already.
– That was right around the time that Pete Heller’s “Big Love” was a big hit.
Sugiura: Yeah, I think it was around the time when The Chemical Brothers released “Surrender” (1999), followed by Fatboy Slim with “Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars” (2000), and Daft Punk’s “Discovery” (2001). It felt similar to when My Bloody Valentine’s “Loveless,” Primal Scream’s “Screamadelica,” and TEENAGE FANCLUB’s “Bandwagonesque” all came out in the same year (1991). There was a sense of starting a new era around the millennium, too.
– What kind of parties did you go to in Ibiza?
Sugiura: I went to parties every day, but the best party was Eric Morillo’s “Subliminal Sessions” with Morillo, Deep Dish, and Darren Emerson as DJs. I still think it was the best party of my life.
– Was the club Pacha?
Sugiura: It was at Amnesia. That’s where I heard “AC/DC” by X-PRESS 2. On the way back from Ibiza, I stopped by London and sang that phrase at a record shop and asked, “Do you have a record of this song? I sang that phrase and asked if they had a record of the song, and I was able to buy a promo copy before it was released [laughs].
– I was also shocked by Paul Oakenfold’s closing performance of “Cream” at Amnesia in 1998, and wondered how people could go so crazy over music [laughs].
Sugiura: “Cream” in the first half of 2000 was amazing.
– And we met in 2001, didn’t we?
Sugiura: Yes, I didn’t have any friends to talk about Ibiza with, and there was no information in Japanese magazines at that time. When I came back from Ibiza, I got a phone number from someone and called EMMA. I told him I was serious about it and that I wanted him to listen to my track, and that I wanted it to be released on his label, NITELIST MUSIC.
– That’s amazing, you got there completely by your own sense of smell.
Sugiura: Yeah, that’s right. None of my friends from the 1990s understood it. When I came back from Ibiza and went to CISCO in Shibuya, they mostly played New York-style house, not much European house. So, from then on, whenever I went to Ibiza, I’d come back with loads of records [laughs]. Especially those hard-to-find tribal tracks that were hard to get in Japan at the time, I think they formed the foundation for my DJing career.
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Invited to DJ at Ibiza’s Top Clubs
– From there, you went all the way to “Star Baby.”
Sugiura: Yes, after the first Ibiza album, another album “Life Ground Music” was released with a cover drawn by Hirohiko Araki, and then we moved to Crown.
– We started working together at Ibiza in 2003, and you have been going every year since then, haven’t you?
Sugiura: Yes, I have been going every year.
– Did you feel any gap between the enthusiasm of the party dresses you saw in Ibiza and the parties in Japan?
Sugiura: I felt that Japan was experiencing a different kind of excitement than before, looking back, it was much hotter than it is now. Also, everyone was still using turntables and records, right? There was no Shazam, so when you wondered, “What song is this!?” it spread directly across the entire floor. The other day at Chiba’s “GROOVETUBE FES,” Kenji Takimi played mostly songs that aren’t on Shazam, and I thought, “You can still do this.” It was such a thrilling feeling after a long time [laughs].
– In 2007, “WHAT TIME IS SUMMER OF LOVE?” was released, and you started your own resident parties, gaining recognition in the scene, and mix CDs started coming out every year.
Sugiura: Before I started my own party “HOUSE BEAT,” I started playing regularly at “VIVARA” at clubasia, which was so successful that there was a huge line outside.
– Do you remember what the floor anthem was at that time?
Sugiura: I don’t remember anything at all. I’m the type of person who never looks back [laughs]. But there were hits that transcended genres up until around that time.
– Yes, there were! Dj Rolando’s “Knight of the Jaguar” was sometimes played at techno, house, and even trance parties.
Sugiura: That kind of thing disappeared after a certain point, when CDJs became the mainstream for DJs. I think it was around 2007 when I first started DJing at Pacha. When I told the owner that I was going to use turntables, he was surprised and brought out some dusty turntables from the warehouse [laughs]. When I started playing, club owners and managers would come to the booth and get excited because they thought records sounded great.
– DJing at one of Ibiza’s top clubs is an amazing feat. How did that come about?
Sugiura: Axwell’s remix of “Star Baby” was No. 1 on the Spanish dance charts, and that was the start. Since then, I’ve done it for three years in a row, and the Pacha staff took me to many places, including one in Egypt.
– I don’t remember the most exciting song during that period.
Sugiura: I don’t remember at all [laughs].
– You don’t remember at all [laughs].
Sugiura: We didn’t play many of our own songs or old songs, but mainly new songs.
– But there are about 10 songs that are played at every party every year.
Sugiura: I remember the strong ones like “AC/DC” by X-PRESS 2 or “Flashdance” by DEEP DISH, but the rest I don’t remember at all. I can understand it if I listen to them.
– The type with the dry ice smoke coming out at the break [laughs].
Sugiura: Also, the games between the DJs and the floor were really interesting, weren’t they? AC/DC” without a break [laughs]. It was great to see the floor go crazy with that. In a club like Pacha, that kind of game-playing was possible. The audience knew the songs before they were released. The booth was in the middle of the stairs, like the cockpit of a luxury cruiser. The DJ booth was out of sight from the most exciting part of the floor, and the audience was the star of the show.
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The Manchester Club Scene
– I thought parties were like that all the time, but I guess it was just for that one time. You started DJing in Ibiza, and then you did the next one at Sunkissed in Manchester, right? When was that?
Sugiura: 2010, I think. That was 15 years ago.
– How was Manchester?
Sugiura: Manchester was amazing. Of course, I love Ibiza, but I actually looked up rent prices because I wanted to live in Manchester, even checked out apartments on the site of the Hacienda [laughs]. It’s not that expensive there; I thought I could easily afford to live there rather than in a tower apartment in Japan. Manchester’s streets are dotted with Northern Soul 7-inch record shops like convenience stores. And there aren’t any posers around. When I DJed there with 2 Many DJ’s and Justin Robertson, they were like, “Who’s SUGIURUMN?” But then all the members of Happy Mondays came over, and they were like, “Who is this guy? Why are Manchester legends coming to meet him?” [laughs] I was really happy at that time.
– I know, right? Mandays came to greet us saying, “Sugi, you came well.
Sugiura: At another time, the day before I was set to DJ, the club’s water pipes burst, and the party had to be canceled. The club staff told me to definitely come again months later with the same lineup. They really called me, showing that kind of manliness to everyone. In Manchester, there’s this big party called “THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT” from November to December. It’s packed with world-class DJs alongside The Chemical Brothers headlining. Tickets are sold out in advance, but I got to go backstage. In places like Ibiza, it can take a while for the crowd to fill up, but in Manchester, the floor is packed from the moment it opens. Even at the bar, nobody cuts in line, and sometimes they ask, “Did you come from Japan?” and let you go ahead or treat you. They’re like tough guys from Hell’s Angels (laughs), but it’s the best. There’s no flirting even if girls wear revealing clothes, and Manchester is full of such pleasant things all the time.
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Founding of BASS WORKS RECORDINGS and Weekly Releases Over Three Years
– I was very happy to be able to do that. Then the earthquake happened in Japan in 2011, and the party scene started to slow down a little bit, but during that difficult period, you launched the label BASS WORKS RECORDINGS and started releasing music every week.
Sugiura: BASS WORKS RECORDINGS started in 2013, but I was going through a very tough time in my personal life, so I decided to do something exciting. We release a new song every week like Shonen Jump [laughs].
– How many years did it last?
Sugiura: Three years, every week for three years.
– But during those three years, the scene seemed to cool down a little bit, didn’t it?
Sugiura: Yes, the mixing of various genres and DJs disappeared.
– Around the time BASS WORKS RECORDINGS started, your sound also became more techno, didn’t it?
Sugiura: Shortly before I started BASS WORKS RECORDINGS, I noticed the goodness of techno just around the time Richie Hawtin’s “Enter” started. Around the time when “Enter” started at Space, Luciano’s party “CADENZA” started at Pacha, and Marco Carolla’s “Music On” started at Amnesia.
– This was the time when Luciano and Ricardo Villalobos were accepted enthusiastically. It was shocking how deep psychedelicism was expressed in that slow-paced techno. I couldn’t dive into it anymore, but it smelled like trance to me in the late 1990s. It was a party that the younger generation could go crazy to unconditionally.
Sugiura: It was really exciting to see house music played in a techno way. Just one hi-hat would cause the floor to explode [laughs]. But it also drove even the cutest and most fashionable girls crazy. Luciano’s music is totally different when you listen to it at home than when you listen to it on the floor. The DJs are great, but the audience is even better.
– I guess it all started with “Cocoon” by Sven Vas.
Sugiura: Sven is probably the most amazing. Ritchie, Luciano, and Villalobos were all working on “Cocoon. Cocoon has been around for a long time, so there are times when I don’t get to play it at all, but I always come back to it.
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Intent to Upend the World
– Spotify has grown a lot at around the same time, and dance music has shifted to EDM and festivals. It’s all very exciting, but the audience on the floor has stopped moving.
Sugiura: Yeah, it got more and more fragmented in the 2010s, and there was no more interesting combinations of different genres.
– I think the problem in Japan was that there were not many people in their 20s in clubs before Corona, and I think Corona was a reset or a fresh start. Do you have any memories or memorable songs from the 2010s?
Sugiura: Well, I don’t really remember.
– But you’ve done solo DJ set for 24 hours straight and played overseas, right? Do you have any songs that are tied to those memories?”
Sugiura: Not really. I honestly don’t remember much about myself (laughs). But I do remember stories that people found amusing when I told them. For example, when I played Pink Floyd’s ‘Pow R. Toc H.’ from their 1st album as the opening act for The Chemical Brothers, all of their crew came to the DJ booth and said, “You konw the good stuff” [laughs].
Sugiura: But I really dislike just talking about the past. It’s not that it’s bad, but I still feel like I have a lot more growing to do. I’ve always hated being called an artist too. It’s because I’ve been making money since my band days. I think artists are people who paint or make music without being asked, but lately I feel like I’m doing things that no one asked me to do, right? I guess I can finally say I’m an artist for real now [laughs].
– That’s right, no one asked you to do anything.
Sugiura: Yes, even if no one expects me to do it and it may not bring in any money. But it’s a little different from just doing it because you like it. I always do things with the intention of turning the world upside down.
– At first, you said you were going to make this album as a solo album of Eiji Sugiura. As your music, regardless of categories or genres.
Sugiura: A major influence was composing music for Miyashita-san’s shows and Kawamura Takeshi-san’s theatrical productions. Both of them are uncompromising artists, so meeting their expectations gave me a great sense of achievement, especially since the music wasn’t intended to just make people dance. Also, starting The Alexx simultaneously allowed me to revisit being in a band. That’s why I could create this album with a very fresh mindset. Although I was quite pressed for time towards the end [laughs].
SUGIURUMN “SOMEONE IS DANCING SOMEWHERE” Party
Saturday, July 6, 2024
SHIMOKITAZAWA SPREAD
open / start 15:30
DJs : SUGIURUMN, YODATARO
Live Guest : Haruna Yusa
3,000yen + 1D
SUGIURUMN, who debuted in 1999, celebrates 25 years this year. Throughout his career, he has consistently engaged with the dance floor, delivering messages through dance beats. Last September, he released his first original song in Japanese lyrics, marking a milestone in his extensive career. Since then, he has continued to produce music that transcends genres, featuring numerous singers including his own vocals. Now, this project culminates in the release of his album. Including unreleased tracks, the album features 11 songs. It encapsulates stories from everyone involved—singers, remixers, designers, and staff—from the past and sets the stage for the future. The album will be released on CD in August, with an early release scheduled for this day, where he invites everyone to celebrate the album together on the dance floor before anywhere else.
SUGIURUMN “SOMEONE IS DANCING SOMEWHERE”
August 7, 2024 release
KKV-155
CD: 3,300 yen
- True Story feat. Mirai Oukura
- Midnight Club feat. mayu
- Music Function feat. Hokuto Asami
- All About Z feat. Haruna Yusa
- Juveniles feat. Daiki Kishioka
- Slowmotion Through The Night feat. ANI (Scha Dara Parr)
- Razor Sharp feat. Jimme Armstrong
- Love Degrees feat. Keiichi Sokabe
- Rebel Boy
- Into The Light feat. Jun Yoshimura
- Butterfly Effect
Started his career in 1992 as the singer of the indie band Electric Glass Balloon. After the band disbanded in 1998, he continued his career as a DJ and solo artist under the name SUGIURUMN. He has released nine albums to date, produced numerous singles and remixes, and performed at DJ booths around the world, including Pacha in Ibiza and Sankeys in Manchester. In 2019, he restarted his band as The Alexx, bridging dance and rock styles and leaping onto larger stages. He also composed the soundtrack for fashion designer Takahiro Miyashita’s collection TAKAHIRO MIYASHITA The Soloist.
Following only the music he believes in, he looks back on a trajectory spanning over 30 years. No one can live like him, but he himself is still evolving. The project, which started in the summer of 2023 with the release of his first Japanese-language original song, is complete! It showcases the real humor and message of a DJ/producer who has continued to battle in Japan, where dance culture has never taken root as a scene like overseas, featuring distinctive singers.
Label pre-orders now available
https://store.kilikilivilla.com/v2/product/detail/KKV-155
