The Genesis of YONCE’s Band Hedigan’s: Interview Part 1

“As I grew disinterested in merely receiving, I yearned to forge my own path to sustenance or to embrace the ability to give back, you understand?” – (YONCE)

-I felt keenly that the music I was making was not for commercial purposes when I saw the debut live performance at “EPOCHS – Music & Art Collective” (see report article ). What made you choose to put the music you made in this way on a major label’s distribution?

YONCE: I like the title of the EP (“2000JPY”) a lot. It’s the feeling of asking a question. The point of this is that after the staff contacted me and said, “We’ll put it out for 2,000 yen,” I said, “Well, the title should be ‘2000JPY. It is strange that music has a price. Money can be exchanged for all kinds of things, but (music) doesn’t make you hungry. And this is coming from a major label. What do you think? We neither deny it nor approve of it. We don’t deny or approve of it.

Ouchi：This may sound contradictory, but when it comes to music, the actions of the other side are even more important. You have to get people to really listen to it, or to visit it and see it. That is because they have already given us “value. You can’t avoid paying money or spending time on the road to getting people to listen to you. But when I talk to them, I think that maybe they are not looking for just anyone. Maybe they are looking for someone who shares their values.

YONCE： Yes, that’s right. As with any form of expression, there are people who pass by and people who stop. In a museum full of paintings, there are people who stand in front of a particular painting and think about it. We are just one of them. Maybe it is a painting that makes people stop and say, “I know how you feel. I don’t like to look at pictures with a lot of annotations or frames or anything that says, “Look at this” [laughs].

Ouchi： Then why do you sell them? I’ve just made it clear to myself.

-I was rereading an article from 2015, when I first interviewed YONCE before coming here, and at the time he talked about his desire to make cool music and make-money. How would you say your approach to music and bands has changed over the past nine years as you have moved on with your life?

YONCE: It sounds contradictory, but of course I want to eat. That feeling has not changed. However, the fact is that I wasn’t satisfied with what I ended up getting a lot of. That was a learning experience for me. In the end, I didn’t buy a super expensive foreign car, and I spent most of my money on vintage guitars and amps that produced good sound, but so what? I don’t know if I made myself or the people around me happy, but rather, the fact that I became the center of attention probably made the people around me happy to some extent.

So I have lost interest in receiving, and I want to be able to make my own food and to be able to give it to others. I guess that’s all I want to do and say these days. Of course there is a part of me that can’t help it. I am the front man, and I am the one standing in the center of the spotlight on stage, but that is only for that time. The rest of the time I want to be a person who supports various things. In short, I want to play a supporting role.

-No, that is not selfishness.

Ouchi： Maybe the supporting character trait is shared by all the members. Maybe it doesn’t look that way. They all have strong personalities, but they are not “me, me, me” kind of people. They are really “music workers.

YONCE： Yes. We are doing well because we have music in the center.

-I felt that the final show of the tour was like that (live report). Music is at the center, and you are dedicated to music.

YONCE： I’m glad if that was conveyed.

OUCHI: Maybe that’s all there is to it.