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 When the japanese lady band Chai took to the stage of yes in Manchester two years in the past in matching bubblegum crimson and hello-vis stripes, the critic Gary Ryan marvelled at how gloriously flamboyant they had been. He adored their moves (bonkers), their pace (breakneck) and their Abba tribute (Dancing Queen). Chai, he wrote, are “this yr’s most joyous band to observe”. Amid the spectacle, their exuberant indie pop decried impossible elegance specifications and willed women to be themselves and make stuff.

Covid has accomplished nothing to dampen this spirit. In spite of the fact that live tune has been nonexistent due to the fact March 2020, Mana, Kana, Yuna and Yuuki (for privacy causes it's nicknames simplest) have kept their world fanbase going through lockdown with a pinball-desktop-style Instagram feed of primary colours, cooking demos and vibrant-eyed experimentation. They've been busy at the back of the scenes, too: the result is their third album, Wink, released this month.

We talk in jap and English (there is a translator on the demand when I get stuck), with each member going surfing from their respective sofas in Tokyo. Within the backgrounds, there are mustard-hued cushions and fluffy throws, loads of potted plants, a Teenage Fanclub poster, a stuffed fish. Mana, the lead singer and keyboardist – the band’s engine, as she likes to call herself – goes first. “When every thing became cancelled, abruptly we had the opportunity to make tune in a means we certainly not truly had formerly. It’s been a extremely fulfilling procedure.”

Yuuki, the bassist, concurs: “every person stored complaining about how elaborate lockdown become since you couldn’t do the things you at all times do. For us, notwithstanding, that changed into a pretty good element!”

‘The source of our energy is in reality the 4 of us together’ ... On stage in Bangkok in 2019. Graphic: Jack Taylor/Getty pictures

Chai came to the realm’s attention in 2017 with their debut, red, a manifesto of sorts. Early on, a person had referred to as them neo-kawaii – kawaii capability cute – and they had run with it. The “neo”, they talked about, stood for new interesting onna (woman) and their 2019 comply with-up, Punk (which, as one reviewer put it, basically need to had been called Pinker), strengthened what they saw as their mission: to enlarge body positivity and self-care and include your insecurities.

Critics and fans applauded Chai’s feminist stance. But is it feminism? “No, it isn’t,” Mana replies, with a wide smile. “That’s not it. It’s now not that I’m rejecting feminism, but I’m not claiming it, either. Our point is that neo-kawaii is for each person.”

They don’t need any labels. And if feminism can, extensively, be seen as a fight, Chai is one large, chaotic hug.

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Their joy, I say, has all the time come throughout as a form of superpower. Not smiling-for-the-cameras, fingers-in-a-V-sign pleasure (although, as a band on a mission to reinvent kawaii, there's plenty of that, too), however whatever nearer to their core, a true riding force. My Zoom begins popping about from one face to the different, all and sundry nodding and beaming and speakme directly. “exactly, precisely,” and “I’m so chuffed you obtained that.” where does it come from, i'm wondering? “The source of our vigor,” says Kana (the band’s guitarist and Mana’s similar twin), “is in fact the four of us together.” it's appropriate there in the closeup album cover for Wink, 4 smiling heads tenderly stacked like an anthropomorphic take on Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture.

 

 

 

 

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