Hi Coppe',
what are you up to at the moment?
I'm here in Tokyo , recording with the Samrai Chop guys
for my next 12" single called Blue. It's about
my favorite club on Kotto street in Tokyo called BLUE.
Kris Weston (The Orb) is doing a remix for this right
now at his studio in London. He says he's doing a KICK
ASS mix! I can't wait to check it out!
Where do you live?
In Arizona. That's where my main house/studio is at.
My silver Mickey gate, my silver Mickey water bed...
my silver baby grand are all there. But I spend a lot
of times in London since I've been recording with Kris,
Nico and Dij (No U Turn / Drum n' Bass, 2 step garage
stuff), Richard Thomas (Squarepusher band mate), Dj
V (the cut I've recorded with him is called Cyber
Cinderella... tribal/housie... warped warped Underworld
on acid trip kinda tune!). Now I'm in Tokyo recording
with Samrai Chop, Kensei (my dear hip hop dj friend,
just got signed by Mo'Wax ), and Maya (he works with
Towa Tei... ex-Deee-Lite dj )... blah blah blah... yap...
I am definitely a 100% music junkie, maybe 200%. Also
I've got a lot of gypsy in me. Got to be all over, flying
around, physically and mentally... Coppe'
wa ittsumo buttobbiiiiiii!!!!!!!
Is Coppe' your real
name? If not, what does it mean?
Yes... it IS my real name now. You pay, I pay, Co-pay'....ei.....???
That's the correct-mundo pronunciation. My real name
is "Yoshimi", which means pure, good and beautiful and
all those brilliant things, but I never use it, cuz
it sounds like "u shit me". Coppe'
used to be my nickname. My mama gave it to me when I
came out from her... you know where... and the first
thing she said was "God, this one looks like a squashed
Coppe' bread". They used
to make this fluffy fluffy softie hand made bread called
Coppe'. I do have a tiny
nose... so, there...
What do you listen to when you're at home?
Right now, I cannot live without listenning to Mouse
On Mars and Boards Of Canada. My dream right now is,
(of course I always have 10,000 dreams... but...) to
meet with the Mouse On Mars and Boards Of Canada people
and do beatzs, music, singing, or do anything with them,
cuz I know we can do some serious damage together!!!
Does anybody know how to get in touch with any of them?
As far as my prince, Richard D James, RDJ aka Ahpex
Twin, goes, he's always on my turn table. Any recording
contract that comes with some guaranteed studio time
with RDJ, I'm signing it!!! He's always pushing the
boundaries, and I'm sooooo there with him, definitely
into his attitude. When I heard Window Licker,
it gave me chicken skin all over my body, and I hadn't
seen the video at that point yet. Kinda earthquake.
Like when I encountered with Portishead's debut album.
It was like this big big TSUNAMI swallowing me.
What is the latest album you bought?
I just ordered a whole bunch of albums from Warp...
ask Tom and he'll tell you exactly what I got. I need
to check out Gimmick (ED: on a previous email, I highly
recommended Gimmik to Coppe'),
if they sound like Boards Of Canada, I've got to check
them out. I also love Bola... Plaid....I told you, I'm
a junkie...
You've set up your own record label, Mango &
Sweet Rice. Do you intend to promote other artists?
Yes, definitely, but right now, i'm into collaborating
with lots of cool cool open minded djs / artists who
aren't afraid of using all kinds of weird noises and
tweeking them to da max. Also, Mango & Sweet Rice
will start releasing compilations albums very soon.
I have soooo many music junkie friends just like me
all 'round me, and most of them don't have any recording
deals. They are all up for it, waiting for me to do
this. So I've got to do this. You have to be experimenting
and trying out something fresh all the time. If you
don't have that attitude, I'm not interested... I don't
usually work with people who says "ah... you want to
do... what...???"
How would you describe your music?
Weird and fresh, underground but pop, pop underground.
Once, when this guy interviewed me for some magazine,
he described my voice as HAGOROMO. Hagoromo are a kind
of beautiful and silky scarf that the goddesses wear
up in heaven. I wanted to take him out to a nice and
romantic candlelight din din to meet him. I think my
music is just like... masturbating. I have to be happy
and feeling good first before anybody, yes. I'm a very
self centred spoiled bitchkin... what can I say!
You are classically trained, but seem to have left
that behind. How do you think this influences your music
today?
Mmmm... I started taking classical ballet lessons from
the age of 3 or 4. I was listening to the Swan Lake
and the Nutcrackers and dancing to them. Then
I got into jazz vocal, Billy Holiday to Anita O'day,
then Led Zeppelin, Clapton, Beastie Boys. Listening
to music to me is like eating vegetables, absolutely
necessary. Sometimes I like 3D singing, sometimes I
like monotone singing. Maybe I'm able to do this 'cuz
my brain is a big big sponge when it comes to music.
You're music is very varied, ranging from electronica
to drum'n bass. What inspires you?
Just about everything, from the tone of your voice to
the color of her eye, how that candle blew, that emblem
on XTC pill the other night, scent, weather, the shape
of your nipple, the color of Ala Moana Beach, his touch...
expressions... just about everything. And how those
things made me feel. My newest tune is called, Oxygen.
The basic beatz were recorded at the hospital, where
my papa's staying at the moment, from this blue tube
which is coming out from his mouth, going into this
gigantic oxygen machine... going Gooooooo, Gooooooo...
You say that you are a recording junkie. How do
you manage to be so productive, and keep focus on what
you're doing?
Can't help it... If I don't sing, I will explode. Just
imagine not being able to go and have a poo for a whole
month, you'd feel awful!!! If I cannot sing, or
record some weird beatz/noise for a whole month, it'd
be 10,000 times worse than that. And believe me, it'd
be a serious explosion!!!
Peppermint remind me of some of Bjork's
or Nicolette's stuff, and I think that your musical
inspirations are not that far apart. Would you like
to work with either of them?
Fuuuhk yeah!! I luuv Nicolette, especially the one with
Tricky. I love her whispering voice. And everybody loves
Bjork...I can't wait to go and see Dancer in the
Dark. Also I was thinking about this the other
nite, when I was having a bubble bath: mmmm, would I
do a movie?... would I do a movie??... If I did a movie...
I think it might feel like... cheating on my music.
But, I don't have to worry about that, 'cuz I cannot
act, hahahaha!!
You've worked with Plaid, how did you meet them?
In japan, thru this promoter for Ed and Andy, who ripped
us off. We all went to Kyoto, Tokyo, Okinawa, snorkeled
on the island, chasing rainbow fish, looking for Atlantis.
The track called " Atlantis Is Kushti, Ed...." on Peppermint,
is all about our tip to Okinawa. I remember walking
on the never ending white coral carpet. The noise I
could hear every time I took a step, crushing 10,000
dead corals, was beautiful... shalit... shalit... It
always came with this tingling sensation to my feet.
But when we hit the water, the noise became like
sholit... sholit... It was even more beautiful. I dove
into the wa wa with my mini disc player, cuz I wanted
to record that underwater sound. I came up to find out
my little mini disc player was dead.
You also work with Kris Weston, from The Orb. How
did you come to work with him?
On that same trip. Kris came along with Ed and Andy.
When we stayed at this temple in Kyoto, we played tigers
on the tatami mat room. We kinda smelled each other.
When you are a music junkie, you can kinda smell other
music junkies. Our invisible antenna just goes beep...
beep... beeeeeeeep...
Is there anyone else you would like to work with?
Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Tricky, Squarepusher, Funkstörung,
Tipsy... the list goes on and on and on... I told you,
I'm a music junkie. And I'm soooo greeeeeedy when it
comes to music. Meeting with other innovative artists
and do some experimental shit means soooooo much to
me. It keeps openning up new doors in me...
We've reviewed the work of a few Japanese artists
over the last few months (Takako Minekawa, Satoshi Tomiie,
CX Audio IE). What do you think of the Japanese music
scene today?
Since I only come here once or twice a year, I don't
know much about it. If you want to find out about the
scene, you should definitely contact my dear friend
Warren, who publishes this free magazine called "Chain
Whipped". Among the millions of free publications in
Tokyo, this one always disappears in a couple of days
. A that's got to tell you something.
Japanese artists don't seem to manage to get noticed
in Europe. Does it bother you?
No, not at all. If they are not doing anything original,
why should they get noticed? I have absolutely no time
for those cheezie ass spineless copy cat spuds. People
with no pride, no integrity, just make me pukeroo sometimes.
Are you planning to play in London or in Europe?
I'd love to!... I like to whisper when I record... a
lot. But when playing live, I'd love to shout... free
style and give away free condoms with Mango & Sweet
Rice stickers... Say domo arogatoh for comin'... safe
sex... and good nite...!!!
Email interview
20 and 21 January 2001.
Thank you to Coppe'
& Nathalie |
