Aug 04, 2014 8 Questions With: Lullatone
Lullatone are Nagoya, Japan-based musical duo Shawn and Yoshimi. The band started as a lullaby project, and expanding into soundtracking the rainy seasons. Little by little, directors invited them to soundtrack their videos. It all came together organically, and Shawn explains, “I think something about the way we approach sounds in a playful non-methodical manner appeals to a lot of creative directors because our sounds have more texture than straight up midi computer sounds.” You can check out a ton of their albums on their great Bandcamp page. Soundtracks For Everyday Adventures is one of their most popular albums and serves as a great intro to their sound. I first discovered the work of Lullatone when I got mildly addicted to Patatap – the portable sound kit website they contributed to, which aims to illustrate synesthesia – a condition in which one type of stimulation (sound) evokes the sensation of another (color). Check it out but don’t say I didn’t warn you! Shawn and Yoshimi have some awesome projects coming up so stay tuned for more! You can follow them on Facebook too.
What are you currently working on?
Lots of recording! Over the last year we’ve been releasing an EP for each season. We made ones for summer, fall and winter but a lot of client work came up and we couldn’t finish spring before the summer snuck up on us here in Japan again. Now we are hoping to finish it in time for the spring in the southern hemisphere. There is also a list of top secret client projects that we can’t wait to share with the world.
How would you describe your job?
We are really lucky to get to make songs and sounds for our day job. Maybe 60% of our time is spent on recording new bespoke songs for clients like Google and doing lots of paperwork and emails for licenses for our released songs. 10% goes to sound effect jobs for iPad and web apps. And both of these allow us to get kind of get paid trying new recording experiments, testing out new effects and stuff, that we bring back to the other 30% where we get to focus on making new songs of our own.
What does your average work day look like?
It is really all over the place. One day might involve 18 straight hours recording followed by taking the next day off and staying home with our kids to balance it out. Usually though, I (Shawn) get to the studio by about 9:30 and try to leave by 5:30 with a break in the middle for lunch and going to the gym. Yoshimi is at home for the most part with our 2 little kids.
What’s the best thing about living and working in Nagoya?
Nagoya is nice because it is a big city but not as overwhelming as Tokyo. We live on the very edge of town in an area filled with old people, parks and small forests. There are a lot rice fields by our house so recently our son and I go out every night after dinner to look for frogs, bugs and lizards in the mud around their edges. It is gross… but fun.
Where do you find inspiration?
The weather, writing down ideas before we forget them, trying to be optimistic on purpose, riding bikes. And for client work, deadlines! I’m always amazed at how tight deadlines can force your brain to come up with exciting new ideas. That is why we were trying to set deadlines on our personal seasonal EP project.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?
I grew up surrounded by woods in he US. I was always climbing trees and building forts and dams. I think I wanted to be an explorer or adventurer. I probably still do… Last weekend my son told me that he wants to own a store that sells seashells he has collected – a very noble profession!
What are you reading at the moment?
Yoshimi is always reading a stack of books as high as her elbows to the top of her head. I’m currently re-reading Frank Chimero’s The Shape of Design and our yearly subscription to the New Yorker is a relentless stream of exciting stories.
What’s your favorite post-work destination?
There are tons of restaurants with Happy Hour specials near the studio, but most of my Japanese friends work too late to make it… which may be a good thing because there are a lot of parks in our neighborhood so we usually go to them instead.
In the summer we also usually take a trip to the beach (which is just about an hour away) almost every weekend. Yoshimi’s parents own an empty apartment room there so we can spend the night. There is no internet and even the mobile reception is bad. Only fireworks, the sound of the sea and deck of Uno cards. Perfect!
If possible, I almost always want to be outside and most of my friends make fun of me for getting too tan in the summer because I hate being inside.
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