tsaitogaisuto ツァイトガイスト
AN INTERNATIONAL BAND
WITH MEMBERS FROM THREE
CONTINENTS interview by JROCK'N'ROLL
Translated by Yuka Tomita
Vo/Gt/Ba. Marvin Nauendorff
Gt. Momoka Maezato
Wi./Dr./Pi. Leo Harjanto
Gt. Momoka Maezato
Wi./Dr./Pi. Leo Harjanto
Marvin from Germany, Momoka from Japan and Leo from the USA.
The trio doesn't meet up together as people usually do. They meet up online and create and build up their songs together via the help of the world-wide-web. Which is an interesting way of having a band together.
So far the band has released 5 singles together and everything sounds as the band did practice together a lot in a studio. If you love any style of rock music with a slight pop feeling, and if you don’t mind listening to music in any language, this band is surely a band you should check out!
To introduce them more, let’s ask them some questions to learn more about this unique band.
So far the band has released 5 singles together and everything sounds as the band did practice together a lot in a studio. If you love any style of rock music with a slight pop feeling, and if you don’t mind listening to music in any language, this band is surely a band you should check out!
To introduce them more, let’s ask them some questions to learn more about this unique band.
JR'N'R
First of all, please introduce yourself to the reader; tell us who you are and please describe yourself in a few words.
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Audrey Leona Harjanto is an Asian-American from California who dabbles in multimedia visual art and music composition. She plays around 10 instruments but mainly piano, bass clarinet, guitar/bass guitar, vibraphone, and euphonium. Her dream is to write an animated webcomic series and soundtrack called ReversalRain, so she's been practicing through animating some upcoming TSAITOGAISUTO music videos!
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Marvin Nauendorff is a multiinstrumentalist and composer from Germany who grew up with Japanese culture and friends. He founded the band together with the Japanese Bassist Kanako Tohda who left the band later due to private reasons. For TSAITOGAISUTO's songs he plays lead guitar, bass and provides the vocals.
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Momoka Maezato is in charge of rythm guitar. She is Japanese and was invited by me, so she joined this year. I think our band is a very strange band. It is difficult to meet each other because the countries are different and of course far away, and the languages are different, so we talk mostly in English as a common language. It's a new band that grows while being influenced by each other's culture.
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JR'N'R
How did you encounter each other on the internet? Where did you find each other? Or did you guys meet each other while on vacation?
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Leo Harjanto:
Marvin and I met on a Discord server dedicated to the Swedish band "Wintergatan" that we both like. I invited him to a group chat for musicians, where we became friends in 2018. We met Momoka through social media as well, when we were searching for a third band member. |
JR'N'R
Why did you want to become musicians? Who or what made you take this path?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
My dad is a jazz guitarist who played in several different bands throughout his life. He made me appreciate music and supported me whenever I wanted to make any kind of music. I always wanted to create the things I hear myself. When I was about 6 years old I started playing violin but quit that after a year, instead I wanted to learn guitar like my dad and continued that. The first music I made was for piano though. I started liking classical music so I taught myself piano in order to play the pieces I wrote. Later I expanded my interests into orchestral music and wrote some pieces in that kind of setting. After a few years of listening to Japanese rock music I realised that I really love this kind of music and that I would like to try singing, especially in Japanese. I ended up liking that so I continued with it. |
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Leo Harjanto:
My mom forced me to start learning piano when I was 5, but to be honest I really hated it. I picked up violin in 4th grade and was terrible, so I followed my best friend in 5th grade and chose to switch to clarinet with him, then bass clarinet in 7th grade. I was inspired by various soundtracks such as Homestuck and Anime to actually start composing in middle school, starting off with simple piano music. I wrote my first full band piece in 8th grade, then I never stopped from there. I grew to appreciate my mom forcing me into piano at such a young age because that knowledge made it really easy to start learning other instruments, and my high school was very encouraging of letting students become multi-instrumentalists. |
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Momoka Maezato:
I haven't been particularly influenced by anyone. I just started because the existence of the guitar was special to me and I was interested in it. I bought a guitar when I was 10 years old, but I only started playing it two years ago. However, when I was annoyed by always playing alone, Marvin invited me to join the band, so I was able to play in a band. |
JR'N'R
Why did you decide to name your band “ツァイトガイスト (TSAITOGAISUTO)” ZEITGEIST?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
When I created ツァイトガイスト with my Japanese friend Kanako Tohda, who had to leave the band a few months ago, we thought about connecting our two native languages with each other. The word "Zeitgeist" is a German loanword used in the Japanese language and describes the spirit of an era or time. |
JR'N'R
Why did you decide to start a band together, even if you don’t live in the same country?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
I think the idea of starting a band together always comes all of a sudden. You don't plan it, you just start and make music. When I originally started TSAITOGAISUTO, Kanako Tohda and me discovered that we both play instruments and have a similar taste in music, so I just asked if she wants to make music together. Not living close to each other is not really a problem for us. Of course we can only publish recorded music and can't do live gigs that well but I would be too nervous to sing live anyways ;> |
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Momoka Maezato:
I joined the band late. So, TSAITOGAISUTO already had some songs, and when I met Marvin and was invited by his band, he showed me his song "Dreams Of Friends". I listened to it and I really liked the melody, so I entered the band. We all live in different countries, but I don't think there is any problem! Certainly it is difficult in terms of not really being able to meet, but we can communicate somehow, so I am very happy to do band activities! |
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Leo Harjanto:
I joined the band after the original bassist Kanako left. Marvin was pretty sad about her leaving, so he asked if I would like to join. He and I had been friends for a while, but we had never created anything together yet, so I was excited to step in and join the band to play with him! |
JR'N'R
Why did you decide to sing your songs in Japanese and/or English? Why not only English, since English is a much more popular language for singing songs?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
We mainly write Japanese songs because Leo and I only wrote in English before, we just wanted to try something new. Also, all three of us really like the sound of Japanese music, since it's not only different from western music in terms of language but also different in the musical approach. |
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Leo Harjanto:
I am actually the only band member who doesn't know much Japanese, but I’m working on learning so I can understand our lyrics and communicate better with Momoka! We do have some songs planned in English only that Marvin or I wrote (one such example is “Dreams of Friends” since Marvin wrote that song dedicated to me and our other friends who only understand English, and that was before both Momoka and I joined Tsaitogaisuto), but most music will be in Japanese. |
JR'N'R
Why did you decide to play in the music style you create your songs in? Why didn’t you choose Metal for example?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
We tried much and this kind of music was the kind we liked to make the most. Also, we are too chill for metal ;) |
JR'N'R
For each of you guys, who are your favorite musicians who also inspired you?
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Momoka Maezato:
It was "ONE OK ROCK" that inspired me to play the guitar! |
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Marvin Nauendorff:
My biggest inspirations are the Japanese bands "Hammer Head Shark" and "plenty", such as "羊文学" (Hitsujibungaku). |
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Leo Harjanto:
Detektivbyran / Wintergatan were a huge inspiration for writing a lot of my earlier songs (also I met Marvin because we were fans of those bands) and my other inspirations include Joe Hisaishi, Mitski, Chopin, and Lizst. |
JR'N'R
How does composing actually work out? Since you all don’t live in the same country. Do you use video chat to communicate with each other?
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Leo Harjanto:
So far, all our released songs have been written by Marvin. He composes the parts and sends a screenshot of the notes in his music software to us, where we record those. We actually haven’t video chatted that much before although I’d like to, so we mostly communicate through Discord. |
JR'N'R
While recording your songs, are there any difficulties you encounter? Since you cannot record it all together in the same room?
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Leo Harjanto:
We just use a metronome in our ears and record a video of us playing parts from another device, and send that video to Marvin so he can work on putting the sound together and making a music video. However, sometimes this gets annoying because I use either Discord or Google Photos to send videos over, and the quality of the video becomes compressed so it looks bad. We also chose to make our first video in black and white because it was hard to make the lighting and colors of our recordings match the same type of style or aesthetic. |
JR'N'R
What’s your inspiration for writing your lyrics? Do they just plop into your mind or do you also have favorite lyricists / poets?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
Usually when we write lyrics, they're mostly about the things that are currently in our head. We just write about what we feel or our opinion on different topics. |
JR'N'R
About your song “さよならはひどい言葉 / Sayonara Wa Hidoi Kotoba” could you please tell how this song was composed and put together?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
I composed the song when I was thinking about the person the song is about of course. The chord progression I used for it is very simple and I had it lying around but never used it. I really liked the melancholic sound of the progression and had the idea to make a post rock song out of it. The character of this genre really fits to the mood. I played the first chorus on my electric guitar and really liked how it sounded. It is the first song we made that features wind instruments such as saxophone, euphonium and bass clarinet. These were recorded by Leo. |
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JR'N'R
Is there any reason why you sing the song “さよならはひどい言葉 / Sayonara Wa Hidoi Kotoba” in fully Japanese and not fully in English or parts in English?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
Actually, other than English it would be more likely for us to use German in this case. The song is about a Japanese friend who was an exchange student in Germany in the city I'm living in, unfortunately, she had to leave Germany to go back to Japan, so the song is about her. |
JR'N'R
What kind of message do you want to give to your listeners with your music?
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Momoka Maezato:
We want to convey the message that music is universal to everyone. Even though we might sing in Japanese, I think that everyone can understand the music. Maybe a song means something different to someone else than the song means to us. |
JR'N'R
What’s the most difficult part of recording a song?
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Leo Harjanto:
I’m pretty sure none of us have a professional recording studio, so when I have to record I need to wait for the house to be quiet. This is difficult because the people in my house are always loud, including my two pet birds who will sometimes scream in the middle of a recording. |
JR'N'R
The songs which you have released so far, do they somehow have a connection with each other?
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Marvin Nauendorff:
Except of the fact that we wrote all the songs, not really. Every song is about a different topic. Parts of our song "Call From A Distance" are mentioned in the song "Dreams Of Friends" though. |
JR'N'R
For the upcoming year what’s your goal for “ツァイトガイスト (TSAITOGAISUTO)”?
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Momoka Maezato:
We want to release our first Album 疾風迅雷 and also improve as musicians and as a band! |
JR'N'R
Your final message to your reader.
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Marvin Nauendorff:
Music may be great but it cannot be greater than a living human being. If you are a human being, you are much more important and much greater than even the best song you could imagine. You're even better than Beethoven's 9th symphony, just imagine that! |
JR'N'R
Thank you for this interview!
Interview by Ryu from JAPANESE ROCK’N’ROLL
Source HERE: https://jrocknroll.com/
BAND PROFILE
BIOGRAPHY
TSAITOGAISUTO was founded in the beginning of 2020 by Marvin Nauendorff and Kanako Tohda. Later Tohda left and Leo Harjanto and Momoka Maezato joined the band.
CONCEPT
We make guitar driven Japanese Indie- Post- and Alternative-Rock. We are trying out Math Rock and Shoegaze as well.
MEANING OF BAND NAME
It means Zeitgeist, which refers to the spirit of times. Zeitgeist is a German loanword both in Japanese and English. In Japanese we refer to it as ツァイトがイスト, which can be transcribed as TSAITOGAISUTO
MEMBER INTRODUCTION
Marvin Nauendorff is a German multi-instrumentalist and the vocalist, lead guitarist and bassist of TSAITOGAISUTO. He founded the band.
Momoka Maezato is a guitarist from Japan who joined third.
Audrey Leona Harjanto is an Asian-American multi-instrumentalist from California who joined the band after Kanako Tohda decided to leave TSAITOGAISUTO.
COMMENT
TSAITOGAISUTO's music is often calm, sometimes loud but always a bit rough. You can relate to our songs very easily because they sound very personal. Our lyrics resonate with your feelings and let you see very deeply into our hearts.
RELEASE (self liner notes)
「僕の名前」a song about losing your own identity in a world where everybody is anonymous.
「天泣」newest release featuring the word 天泣, which means "rain from a cloudless sky".
An emotional but still rough and raw itendie rock song about the time passing too quickly, trying again and hoping for sunlight despite the rain.
「Scarf」a calm song about Marvin's childhood that mirrors the ups and downs of the life as a child. The title was chosen inspired by a childhood memory that shaped Marvin as a musician. In elementary school, Marvin had violin lessons together with his friend. Their violin teacher always told them to be careful with their instruments and not let them cool down in the winter. That's why Marvin and his friend always took off their scarfs, hats and jackets to put them around the violin case in order to protect their precious instruments.
Of course, the two boys got scolded by their parents for not wearing a jacket in the cold.
「さよならはひどい言葉」our biggest release so far about a friend who had to leave Germany and return to Japan. The song is about the hope to see that person again. It's about how saying "goodbye" is always terrible, hence the title.
「Call from a Distance」A nearly purely English song featuring the singer and pianist Elby Dumatol about being "not heard" in the modern society.
「Dreams of Friends」a purely English song about Marvin's friends and the dreams he has about them and the things he wants to experience together with them. Many lines can't be understood if you don't know the people that the song is about.
This song contains one of our favourite lines we have ever written:
"There on the yellow fields of burning tears stands the man killed by Achilles, running towards as and we smile at him. He's reaching out his arm, in his hands and 80s Stratocaster. He jumps in and we start to jam."
SNS
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2qvacK2FXozowFSjAJGIyH?si=9BjODLKBSDSKCGYrbcZ13w
Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/tsaitogaisuto/1512676029
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWJ3bmNE6hRtzOktqmGXfZg
https://www.instagram.com/tsaitogaisutoband/
https://twitter.com/tsaitogaisuto
YouTube Music
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCCgG5QcBX6-0mVQ9GK8xjlg
Merchandise
https://tsaitogaisuto.weebly.com/shop.html
SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/tsaitogaisuto
BandCamp
https://tsaitogaisuto.bandcamp.com/
Deezer
https://www.deezer.com/en/artist/94268702
Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.jp/s?k=Tsaitogaisuto&i=digital-music&search-type=ss&ref=ntt_srch_drd_B088FM8C4K
