Headlight editors had the privilege of meeting eX-gIRL who traveled all the way from the orange planet known as Kero via interstellar Kero Kero warp speed. We met in San Francisco before their show at the Covered Wagon on May 11, 2000. The interview took place in the dressing room with the assistance of Brandon, eX-gIRL's manager, who helped with Kero Kero translation.

headlight: First question: Is everyone having a good time?
ex-girl: Ay yes! (laughter)
headlight Good. It's nice to be here and meet you eX-gIRLS.
ex-girl: Ay!
headlight: So tell us what eX-Girl means to you?
kirilo (bass player, vocalist) : Excellent!
headlight Excellent?
ex-girl: Yes!
fuzuki (drummer, vocalist): Like being ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, ex-human, we are ex-human beings.
headlight: Ex-human beings?
fuzuki Yes!
headlight Something new?
fuzuki Yes!
headlight Something excellent?
ex-girl (giggles!)
fuzuki Maybe excellent, maybe not, but different, sometimes weird, not always weird.
headlight: Weird?
fuzuki Weird!
headlight We like everything on your Web site, especially the frogs. Do you come from planet Frog?
ex-girl Ay yes. Kero! Kero!
headlight Kero! Kero! Oh, I see ... the frogs left Earth to go to planet Kero?
ex-girl (give HEADLIGHT editors crazy look)
headlight How did you girls first meet?
ex-girl Planet Frog.
headlight Planet Frog High School?
ex-girl (laughter!)
kiriloWe won music contest.
headlight eX-Girl formed in 1997?
kirilo Yes.
headlight You never played instruments before?
ex-girl That's right.
headlight That's amazing ... excellent.
ex-girl (giggles)
headlight eX-Girl has released three albums to date--what album do you feel is the most successful?
chihiro CHIHIRO (guitarist, vocalist): All different.
brandon BRANDON (eX-Girl manager): It's like comparing apples and oranges.
ex-girl (all agree)
headlight How has your music evolved, progressed?
chihiro Frog King.
headlight (confused) Frog King?
brandon May I try to rephrase that question? 1997 now 2000 ... Heppoco Pou (eX-Girl's first album), Kero Kero Kero (eX-Girl's second album), Big When Small Far When Close (eX-Girl's third album) ... how does sound change, each album?
kirilo First album, we just started.
chihiro Very avant-garde album.
headlight Recorded first album after six-months of playing?
kirilo Yes, very avant-garde.
headlight Big When Far Small When Close isn't as avant-garde?
kirilo Ahhh, pretty album [Kirilo gets CD from bag and shows us the cover). Pop album, very pretty.
ex-girl (Laughter!)
headlight Big When Small Far When Close is first album with acappella?
ex-girl Yes.
headlight The acappella is excellent.
ex-girl (giggles!)
headlight Fuzuki, you play percussion standing up?
fuzuki Drums!!!
headlight Okay, you play drums standing up--the sound is very tribal.
fuzuki Tribal?
headlight Tribal sound--do you agree?
brandon (Brandon to Fuzuki) Style is tribal.
headlight Do you know tribal style?
fuzuki No, but maybe we are frog tribe.
ex-girl, headlight, brandon (Laughter!!)
headlight How did you decide to play standing up? It's not traditional. Rock drummers sit down.
fuzuki I can hit drums harder. Feels comfortable to stand up.
headlight Chihiro, you are also an artist/illustrator?
chihiro Ay, yes. (Laughter) Sometimes.
headlight Sometimes? Do you do that to make money, or just for fun?
chihiro Just for fun, but if I can get money, I am happy.
headlight Tell us the process eX-Girl goes through when writing music. How do you work together?
kirilo We work with Frog King.
headlight (HEADLIGHT editors look at each other?!?!)
headlight What does eX-Girl enjoy most: writing music, studio work, or playing live? Which is more fun?
chihiro I like audience.
fuzuki Playing live.
kirilo Yes, playing live.
headlight Where is eX-Girl most popular in the world?
kirilo America.
headlight How is audience different in Japan compared to American audience?
fuzuki In Japan, when audience feel something good they don't always express themselves. Here in America, they express themselves better.
headlight(get up and make funny gestures with body and scream!!!)
ex-girl (laugh!!!)
headlight Slam Dancing?
fuzuki In America sometimes, not always. In Japan almost no, but sometimes, only young people. After show they say they like us. Many compliments.
headlight But not during show?
fuzuki Yes and no, but we know they like us.
headlight So you have no doubt your rockin?
ex-girl (laughter!!!)
fuzuki American audience always stranger way. Last show in Seattle, man does strange dance nearfront of stage, but he was fun.
headlight Do you have any culture shock? Feel America has strange manners?
fuzuki Little difference. Japan is not that different now. Maybe Japan is more conservative than America.
chihiro Ohhh ... I feel sometimes something like bathroom-- mirror is hung so high--I can not see my face (gestures to put on make-up).
ex-girl, headlight, brandon (laughter!!!)
headlight But do you have good tall shoes?
chihiro Yes, maybe.
headlight Where's your favorite place to play in America?
kirilo San Francisco ... everywhere.
headlight Who are your influences, favorite musicians?
ex-girl (pause and bemusement)
kirilo Gentle Giants.
fuzuki Love Minor.
chihiro (just smiles)
headlight Do you have ideas for your next cd?
kirilo We have new songs we perform in tonight's show. Plans for new album in November.
headlight What is eX-gIRL's reputation like in Japan?
ex-girl (confusion)
brandon (Brandon to eX-gIRLS) When people think eX-gIRL-- what do they say? Young person who likes music-- when they say eX-gIRL, what do they think?
ex-girl Teenager?
brandon Or other audience member ... all audience member?
fuzuki Audience in Japan a little bit scared. But young girls say, We want to be like you. More girl fans than boys. Girls like us because they think we are strong.
kirilo Maybe America understand what we try to be.
fuzuki It easier to be ex-girl in America.
chihiro Japanese audience very conservative, think we are strange.
fuzuki We are strange!
ex-girl, headlight, brandon (laughter!)
headlight Do traditional Japanese men not encourage you to be creative artists? Do they want you to be more like housewife?
chihiro Ay yes, a little bit.
headlight In public does traditional Japanese man expect woman to be quiet?
kirilo Mmhhmm, yes.
fuzuki Ahya ... quiet ... not loud mouths like us, like my friends.
chihiro And cute, not loud, and not long hair.
headlight What do your families think of your band? Are they supportive of you?
ex-girl (laugh) Oh yes, very much so.
headlight That was the last question. Arigato!
ex-girl, brandon Arigato!

eX-Girl's performance at Covered Wagon:
A Lesson to Clubs: Let the Band Play.

Over a hundred fans are packed into The Covered Wagon, a small venue here in San Francisco. Waiting, drinking, rambling, the anticipation grows. Some drink beer at the bar and watch overweight women dressed in skimpy gear dance on podiums to JOAN JETT, THE RAMONES, MOTORHEAD (yes, the year is 2000 but you wouldn't even know it). The overweight women are an odd sight, my first encounter of such a spectacle at a club. Are fat women in? Or is the joke on us?

Many people are still recuperating from the lethal opening band GERM (I think that was their name, or was it CRUEL?) as the leader singer, a foul-mouthed type, spit on audience members, gave us the anarchist finger, and poured beer over himself. By the third song he lost his voice. At one point a slam-pit participant stumbled to the back of the venue where I was drinking a beer and banging my head. His shirt was ripped and his face bloody. He smeared it around with his hands and seemed to take delight in his beatings. A moment later he passed out.

All this reminiscing comes to a stop when the speakers spark a new song, not the typical rock n' roll Covered Wagon tends to play; this song is haunting and eerie, circus-like with repetitive, a kind of theme song. The crowd soon parts and the gap is filled as three girls (eX-Girls) come out wearing ornate wigs and space outfits which sparkle and glow in the fluorescent light. Instead of approaching the stage they walk among the audience, make eye-contact, say hello, and with orange, glowing frog hands, reach out to greet everyone. The eye-contact is what thrills: looking deep into the eye of the music-maker, and three beautiful Japanese ones to boot.

On stage it's no foolin' as the eX-Girls buckle up into their sound-gear. Then its a few jerks of the hips, nods of the yods, grip of the guitar, and were off to the tribal wail of Fuzuki's drums. The first number, a surprising acappella, abstractly transitions into a hardcore space-jam. The audience is stunned. Everyone is smiling and cheering. At the end of the song, the ovation is huge.

eX-Girl's set is engaging. Halfway through, Kirilo asks the audience, "Do you like Sushi?" The audience all agree: "Yes! We love sushi!" As a reward for audience kindness Kirilo zaps us with a ray-gun. A song later, all three eX-Girls chant to the audience: How is your psyche? ... How is your psyche? ... How is your psyche? Or was it: How is your sake? Who knows.

Ex-Girl rip for forty minutes, but since they are not the headlining band their set is cut short. The audience shouts, "One more song!!!" Kirilo checks with the sound technician who doesn't agree. They break into a song anyway, but the technician cuts the vocals. Finally Kirilo gives up and so does Chihiro. They walk off stage frustrated. The crowd boos the technician: "One more song!!!"

Fuzuki waits at her drums. No one leaves. Brandon, eX-Girl tour manager, gets on stage and yells to the technician, "They've come all the way from Tokyo you know!"

After too long of a wait, frustrated Fuzuki drums an angry drum solo and then flails her sticks in the air and walks off stage. The sound person says, "Half the problem is they're Japanese." No, the whole problem is they're playing at Covered Wagon. Most of the disappointed audience leaves the venue. A lesson to clubs: when an audience wants an encore, let the band play.

robert jarrell and mark walker, headlight journal, 11 may 2000
www.headlightjournal.com/eX-girlInterview/eX-girlInterviewpage_new.html