BRADIO Talk ‘PARTY BOOSTER,’ The Funky Party Album They Hope Will Put Smiles on Everyone’s Faces: Interview

Driven by a desire to put a smile on everyone’s face, the three-piece band BRADIO just released a new, funky party album PARTY BOOSTER.

Billboard Japan recently got to interview the three-piece band, which is generating excitement worldwide, having recently put on a wildly successful show in Chile as part of SUPER JAPAN EXPO 2024. They talked to us about their new album, the musical journeys of each band member, and their band’s story.

What kind of band do you feel like BRADIO has become?

Takaaki Shingyoji (vocals): We’re often called a “funky band,” but it’s not like we set out at the start to form a funk band. As the band’s front man, I wanted to stand out, which is the only reason I grew out this afro. It wasn’t our intention to be a leader of funk culture in Japan. But I feel like over the past few years, our own sensibilities have aligned with the public perception of us as a funky, danceable band.

Could each of you tell us a little about your own personal musical journeys?

Ryosuke Sakai (bass): I got into music because of B’z. I started out by playing the guitar, and after about a year I picked up the bass. This was back when bands like X JAPAN and LUNA SEA were popular, and I was listening to music like that. As for Western music, I was listening to hard rock. Bands like MR. BIG or Bon Jovi. But when I started going to music school, one of my assignments was to perform Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and that experience opened up to me this whole other world of music, and I started listening to Motown.

Soichi Ohyama (guitar): I was really influenced by hard rock and legendary guitarists. Then for a while I was got deep into pop-punk and hardcore bands. That led to me starting my own band. I got into disco and funk after becoming an adult. The biggest influence on my guitar sound in BRADIO is probably Nile Rodgers. He’s my musical idol, and always will be.

Takaaki Shingyoji: When I was in seventh grade, my English teacher loved the Beatles. That got me into the Beatles, too, which got me thinking, “Hey, I like music, why not try playing it?” After that, I started listening to a lot of Japanese bands like Hi-STANDARD and L’Arc-en-Ciel. I gained an appreciation for funk and soul in around 2010, when BRADIO formed.

How did BRADIO arrive at its current musical style?

Takaaki Shingyoji: We started out as a five-piece band, but then one of our guitarists left, so we went from having two guitars to one. We had to change our sound as a result. Through some trial-and-error, we shifted to a sound with a groovy bass and strummed guitar. People started calling us funky with our 2013 album Diamond Pops. But that’s how we arrived at our current style, and it’s why we’re not funk through-and-through. I think that’s one of BRADIO’s best features. It’s a critical part of our very identity.

Your new album, PARTY BOOSTER, is packed with everything that makes BRADIO so wonderful. What kinds of themes are you exploring with this album?

Takaaki Shingyoji: On our last album, DANCEHALL MAGIC, we were exploring just what it meant to be funky. Now, a year later, we’ve created PARTY BOOSTER, which is, in a way, like DANCEHALL MAGIC 2. But this time, the first word is “Party.” I think that really suits us. We explored this theme like only BRADIO can.

Did you have a feeling like “what we need to do now is focus on this direction”?

Takaaki Shingyoji: Yes. We felt like we needed to get to know ourselves better. We came to feel that BRADIO was a greater band than any of us had realized before. We thought about what set us apart, and found that the key words that conveyed what we were about were “party,” “funky,” and “exciting.” In the past, we’d been overthinking things. We were thinking “we have to be like this or that” or “we have to be inspiring.” But the conclusion we eventually arrived at was, “as long as in the end we’re putting smiles on people’s faces, then it’s all good, right?”

Soichi Ohyama: I think the first song, “PARTY HEAD,” really epitomizes BRADIO. With this song, it’s like we could really put anything out there, so it feels like the song set the tone for the album. For example, “EIGO DISCO” has a 32-measure guitar solo. That’s just not something bands do nowadays (laughs). We have that kind of unfettered freedom, a spirit of “if it’s fun, then go for it!” I think that’s one of BRADIO’s distinctive qualities.

Ryosuke Sakai: We have this fascinatingly steep gradation that goes from really simple to really complex, and there are a lot of places where I can show off my chops as a bassist, which is wonderful. There are bassists that make you think “wow, a new bass hero has arrived,” like America’s Joe Dart. They play bass lines that listeners can sing along to. That’s the kind of bass line that I want to play, and I think that desire is reflected in the new album.

Takaaki Shingyoji: We named the new album PARTY BOOSTER, so we want to go around putting on shows that live up to that name. Of course they’ll be parties, but the people coming to hear us have their own lives, and they’re out there in the trenches every day, so we also want our shows to be boosters, giving them a lift in their day-to-day lives. I hope we can put smiles on all their faces.

—This interview by Tetsuo Hiraga first appeared on Billboard Japan