Speaking with artists who are on the radar on Japan’s music scene right now, we bring you another volume on the MOSHI MOSHI interview.

Cheeky Parade (aka Chikipa) have been on the up and coming, widely talked about for their “aggressive” live performance. Read on to find out what they’re all about on our interview here.

Interviewees: Yūna Sekine、Seran Mizorogi、Asami Watanabe Photos: Yuta Mukaiyama Words: Toshinori Tanaka（SHUTTER

ーーYou all performed at the MOSHI MOSHI NIPPON FESTIVAL 2015 in TOKYO last year, share with us some new things you discovered through taking part in it!

Sekine:  It was nice to see a lot of foreigners in the audience. We could tell that people enjoyed our music even if they didn’t understand the language, so that was one thing we couldn’t have discovered at our other performances. We really felt the need to reach out more to our foreign fans!

Mizorogi：It was crazy how so many of the foreign fans knew the calls! It always makes us happy to foreign fans remember some Japanese through our lyrics.

Watanabe：We’ve had our fans from France fly over to our meet and greets and our performances, they’ve even set up a fan club of their own and invited us over to perform…some of them would greet us with a “Yokoso” at the airport, etc. and we’re really grateful for all of it. Being active overseas has been a big dream for us since our debut, and with all that’s been said, we feel we’re slowly inching towards this goal.

ーーYou’ve performed in Paris, LA, Hong Kong, and New York. Any interesting stories there?

Sekine：We took part in an event called “CBGB” in New York, which was held smack in the middle of Times Square. But we were taken aback when we only saw 10 people at the venue…I remember we took a cardboard box that we found close-by and wrote a note on it to promote the event out on the streets. And so we started performing with a small crowd, but we saw the audience grow in size as we continued performing. They would actually stop and watch us perform. I realized it’s important to take on different stages because music transcends the language barrier.

Watanabe：So we usually fool around by drawing on each others’ faces (laughs) — when we were in New York, we were doing this at a restaurant and when we got back to our hotel room, we realized we were locked out (laughs). So we went down to the reception with our doodled-on faces and the staff there were laughing like there was no tomorrow, it was embarrassing…

Mizorogi：When we were in Paris, we went out to go shopping. We weren’t in the outfits we perform in or anything, but some people came up to us and asked if we were members from Cheeky Parade. It would better explain things if we were in our costumes, so we were delightfully surprised when these fans came up to us and knew who we were in our regular clothes. Oh, another thing in Paris. We opened the door to our room, and it was already being used by someone. We told our manager straight away and had our rooms switched in an hour or so, but the one we switched to was also being used by someone else…so it took three rooms for us to finally find one no one had checked in yet (laughs).

ーーAny differences between a foreign/Japanese crowd?

Watanabe：Definitely. The Japanese people know what the lyrics mean, so they’ll listen more to the lyrics and do the calls upon understanding the lyrics. But since the foreigners aren’t familiar with our language, they just take the music in and dance freely. I’ve spotted people doing the moon walk to our music (laughs). They just go with it.

Mizorogi：Yeah, I felt that in Paris too. Usually in Japan, it’s a call and response. We say something, and the crowd says something back. But in Paris, people would just shout something out when they felt like it. The timing of it all was very interesting, and you can definitely see the difference in culture by watching how people express themselves at shows.

ーーSounds fun (laughs). Tell us more about your local shows in Japan.

Watanabe：We performed at 14 different places with our label mates from iDOL Street (Avex’s idol label). We really travelled far and wide this year. It’s refreshing to perform in places we’ve never been to before, we can approach our shows with a sort of renewed energy. We also realized that not a lot of people know us from the local areas of Japan, so we’d love to tour nationally and eventually be prestigious enough to do a dome tour.

ーーTell us a country/city you’d like to visit in the future.

Mizorogi：Somewhere near the waters!

Sekine：Yeah! Australia!

Watanabe：Yes!

ーーAustralia’s great! How about Asian countries?

Sekine：Korea!

Mizorogi：For sure!

Mizorogi：Oh, and Russia too. I’ve got this sophisticated image of Russia, but I hope to obliterate that with an energetic performance. It’s too cold in Russia, so we’ll be perfect to heat them up! (laughs)

Sekine：Brazil too. Isn’t Brazil the furthest point from Japan? Right on the opposite side of us, if I’m correct. It’ll be amazing to travel far, and I feel Brazilians would know how to jive to our music. The flight will be tough, but we’ll bring a load of manga books (laughs).

Watanabe：There seems to be a lot of people who perform at Singapore. We’d love to perform there too.

ーーHave you been on the look out for foreign pop culture?

Sekine：I love K-POP culture. Their performance, their outfits, their sets…just watching them takes you to a different world, and there seems to be so much hope is shoved into their works, that’s what keeps you completely hooked. There’s a lot to learn from them.

Watanabe：We took part in Comic-Con while we were in New York and it made me remember how I was obsessed with “Power Puff Girls” back when I was little. They’re still adorable!

Mizorogi：I love BIGBANG. Their performance is amazing! Each and every member also seem to have a unique quality to them. I know we differ in gender, but their performance is something we’d love to adapt and make our own.

ーーHow would you describe Japanese pop culture if you were to put a term on it?

Sekine：Omocha-bako (box of toys)! It’s hard to distill Japanese pop culture and say “this one thing is it.” It’s a concoction of different elements like Anime from Akihabara, or idols, like us.

Mizorogi：One of a kind, I guess? It’s something you’ll never see in any other culture. “Kawaii” is a really interesting cultural concept that we’ve nurtured. I also feel only the “fittest” aspects survive cultural trends, but don’t you feel Japanese pop culture appeared out of thin air? Japanese people are so inventive, and it’s incredible how foreigners actually want to incorporate our culture into their own lives and visit our countries because they’re so struck by it all.

Watanabe：Beautiful! I’ve come to realize that there are many things that are normal to us, that won’t appear “normal” in the eye of a foreigner. Like how our toilet seats are heated (laughs). Travelling abroad has made me realize that we’re really meticulous about things. For example oshuji (calligraphy writing), ocha (tea ceremony), yamato nadeshiko (an idealized Japanese woman).  Oh, which makes me recall the time we did Oshuji in France. We would ask for the person’s name and write out their name in kanji, randomly picking kanji that we thought worked well. They loved it!

ーーGive us a shoutout to your fans abroad!

Sekine：There are hundreds of idols in Japan now, but we’re really proud of what we create, and we’re confident you’ll get hooked to us once you take a listen. Keep your eyes out for any upcoming events and if we’re in your country, definitely come out and hang!

Watanabe：The ultimate Chikipa strength is our performances. I think we’re a unique bunch, it’s impressive how they got all of us in one group. But that’s an aspect we’d love for you to enjoy as well!

Mizorogi：Two things you need to educate yourself with: Chikipa and Japanese! If you want to ride the hype, this is the way to do it.