Interview with …And Its Name Was Epyon!
I got a DIY zine in a package from Larry Records, and I thought it was cool, so I read it and found out it was Gundam. It even had the label’s logo stamped on it, so is this possible? I don’t get it at all. But it’s not a joke. They’re serious, too. I don’t know. In that case, you have to interview them.
And the more we talked, the more we talked about their ideas, their politics, and their personal hearts, and it turned out to be the perfect interview to understand the current US scene…
Q: Hello, it’s nice to meet you. Can you please give me a brief introduction?
Jake: Of course! My name is Jake Dixon, I do backup vocals, write and play the guitar and bass for …and its name was epyon!
Sofia: Hey! I’m Sofia — I do vocals for epyon. I know Jake and I are absolutely Gundam otaku — we’ve been into the various gundam series since we were 10/11 years old.
Luke: Hi, i’m Luke and i play drums! I would def identify as an otaku; anime became a fun interest of mine as a kid, and it’s been something I’ve kept up with pretty consistently as i’ve gotten older. I’m less of a Gundam genius than my bandmates here, but I love the series for a lot of reasons. The emotional gravity of the series is amazing, and translates really well to emotionally heavy music!
Q: Thank you. I’d like to wait a bit for the other members to tell me their names and the instruments they play, but I already have my first question. Because your band name is Gundam! Why did you choose this band name?
Jake: I’ve loved gundam since I was a little kid! I remember watching Gundam Wing on television as a child and have enjoyed the series as whole ever since. Sofia was a childhood friend of mine growing up and we had always talked about making a musical project related to Gundam somehow and actually went through a few different ideas for names before deciding on our current one. I always really liked the idea of calling it Turn A or Zeta though since those were my favorite series hahaha.
“we wanted to have the sadness of the material feel present in the production as well as the songwriting”
Q: Gundam Wing was broadcasted in Japan around 1995–1996, but in US, it’s much later? And I’m surprised you follow the earlier series too, like Zeta Gundam, etc., because I had heard that no Gundam series had ever aired before then. Are all the members Gundam OTAKU?
Jake: I feel like my writing has been really influenced by that era of music, specifically the emotional punk and hardcore genre. I think that the sound that you described can be really attributed to those influences, though production wise, I’ve definitely heard high quality songs by artists in the genre that also have those attributes
Luke: The raw sound was very deliberate, I worked very hard on the mixing process with our producer David Gulik to create lots of space for individual elements. The music written by Jake and Sofie is so sad and lonely, it felt appropriate to have everything feel sort of cold and similarly isolated individually. This was especially the case on the “VISIT TO A GRAVE” EP, we wanted to have the sadness of the material feel present in the production as well as the songwriting. I’m really happy with how it helps the listener exist within the sorrow of each song.
Q: I heard that all the members of this project live far away from each other. Is this the case, or is all the production done remotely? Is it difficult to do live performances?
Jake: And yes we all live on the different side if the country from one another! We typically only get the chance to see eachother once a year for about a week during the winter holidays. During that period we finalize song ideas as a group that weve worked independently on during the year, and record them. Because of that weve actually also only played one show, which I believe was in December of 2018. We were talking about ideas to play more shows and your this year but because of the Corona virus we had to cancel most plans, and unfortunately will most likely not record anything this year because of it as well.
Luke: We live ridiculously far away from each other! It’s been difficult in the pandemic to start on new music, but luckily we were able to mix in Los Angeles and just send files back and forth to each other for thoughts. We’ve had exactly one live performance, but I’m so excited at the prospect of future shows now that we have more material and people have had some time to sit with our music and feel it more deeply.
“the lyrics that I have written for songs dont directly reference any ethos from it, but are in reference to the loss of a loved one”
Q: I think you don’t publish all the lyrics on bandcamp, what is the main theme? Are the lyrics also tracing Gundam stuff? At least the titles of your works and so on are all related to Gundam, right?
Jake: And as of right now, while the albums and song titles are gundam related, as well as the sound clips in certain songs being taken from different episodes and series, the lyrics that I have written for songs dont directly reference any ethos from it, but are in reference to the loss of a loved one. I think that theme carried over very heavily into our last release as well, with sofias lyrics (sofia being the main lyricist and vocalist) also heavily incorporating that theme as well. (Atleast, that’s what I’ve felt regarding it)
I did have a funny idea to rework a gundam song or melody into one of the songs I have been writing for an upcoming release though hahaha
Sofia: Speaking for myself, while a lot of our lyrics are certainly personal — particularly on Visit to a Grave, where most of the songs are about carrying on in the face of loss, which often feels insurmountable — I have a hard time keeping my own political commitments out of my writing.
“The disenfranchisement, heartbreak, and disappointment faced by so many people today in America are all treated as simple facts of life, but it should never be understated how painful they are to exist in”
Q: There are connections from several works, not just Gundam Wing. By the way, this may be a deep reading on my part, but the American music scene seems to be getting quite sensitive in the area of political connectedness right now. Is it your intention to make music in a place that is free from such themes? (But Gundam is also a bit politically sensitive, isn’t it?).
Jake: And to answer the last question, I dont think its necessarily our intent to make music free from any political sense or theme, rather that the feelings we had at the time of writing the songs were more reflective of the emotions we were struggling with at the time. I remember being heavily suicidal at the time of writing a lot of lyrics to Visit To A Grave, and I lost alot of the stuff I had written but I remember a line that made it into one of the songs being taken from a scrapped suicide note I had written earlier that year. That’s not to say that our music couldnt be political though. I’ve toyed with the idea of making lyrics more thematically based on gundam, because I believe one of the main ideas that it tries to press on its viewers is the idea of the younger current generation to rise above the mistakes, and malevolent actions of those currently in power as the older generation. I believe that it falls to us to address and fix the systemic issues that our country has propped up for generation after generation, primarily on the backs of the disenfranchised such as people of color, and through overt class warfare. While the situations we find ourselves in may not be as dire as being forced to fight a war in giant robots against our will like Amuro Ray’s was, it is one that we similarly face, in that we have been subject to the powers of the people before us and I find myself relating to the series in a political way that I would really like to try and write about lyrically in the future because of it, maybe as another weird gundam band, or one our next releases or something hahahaha
Luke: I deeply connect with Jake’s answer here, and want to add that the sadness present in these songs is a profound one that permeates life outside of politics, and taps into a broader existence in which politics happen to take part. The disenfranchisement, heartbreak, and disappointment faced by so many people today in America are all treated as simple facts of life, but it should never be understated how painful they are to exist in. As stated so perfectly by Jake and Sofie in our song “LIVING DEAD DIVISION”, nothing is harmless anymore; the connections we all have to each other and to the future must be acknowledged, understood, and recognized. Our feelings and actions do not exist in a vacuum, and must be properly confronted, or else we will all succumb to the pain of existing.
Sofia: I am an anti-imperialist political organizer in my day-to-day life — a theme which makes a strong appearance throughout the Gundam franchise! — and that certainly has its mark on our lyrics. “Return to Forever” in particular comes to mind as one of the more expressly political songs, but as Luke mentioned already, it’s difficult to disentangle the personal narratives of grief and loss from questions of political struggle because our lives are shaped by political forces.
That having been said, I share Jake’s desire to make that connection more explicit, and Gundam is such a fantastic source for narratives about the struggle against senseless imperialist war and exploitation — I’m personally really interested in exploring those themes more deliberately in future albums
Q: Thanks for the detailed answer. Here in Japan, some people might have thought that the band’s musicality was a gag because of the band’s name, but I think it was a very meaningful interview to know the serious answers and the ideas behind the band. Changing the subject a little, if you had to pick five albums that have influenced you in your life, what would they be?
Jake: Truthfully, the idea that people listen to our band outside of the country is a very humbling idea to me and I am very grateful to anyone and everyone who has listened to us so far! I think 5 albums that would have influenced my life the most would be: The Fall Of Troy — The Fall Of Troy The Blood Brothers — …Burn, Piano Island, Burn City of Caterpillar — City of Caterpillar Merchant Ships — SHIPSOGRAPHY Beau Navire — Life Moves That’s a super tough question though, I’ve got so many, and I’m sure luke and sofia do too, that I am really excited to see! I unfortunately dont have any band photographs that you could use, my Facebook was recently hacked (which is why I’m using a brand new account for these messages!) and I’ve lost any access to old photos I stored on there, as well as photos from the band Facebook page, though luke or sof might have some and could help you!
Luke: this is a ridiculously hard question, but I’m going to go with: Don Caballero — What Burns Never Returns Owen — At Home With Owen Dillinger Escape Plan — Calculating Infinity Hella — Hold Your Horse Is The Blood Brothers — …Burn, Piano Island, Burn (Jake is absolutely right about this one)
Sofia: five albums: 1) On the Might of Princes — “Where You Are and Where You Want to Be” 2) Indian Summer — “Hidden Arithmetic” 3) Matsuri — “Endship” 4) Coheed and Cambria — “Second Stage Turbine Blade” (lol) 5) Her Breath on Glass — “We Aimed Straight Down”
…And Its Name Was Epyon
https://anditsnamewasepyon.bandcamp.com/
The person asking the questions in this interview is Akihito Mizutani.
I run 3LA -LonglegsLonArms Records- in Japan.
3LA: https://longlegslongarms.bandcamp.com/music
