NJ DIYaries #1: Kogaraconstellations
feat. Off-Knowneous, IchiRockU, and Pan Ranger
May the 4th. A world renowned day dedicated to the Star Wars franchise. These days, I don’t like Star Wars like that, but it’ll always remain in a special place in my heart for being the first cinematic universe that I truly immersed myself in.
In 2024, the lore that I obsess over is the history of popular music. My galaxies are the music venues. My Jedi knights and rebel heroes are the artists and creatives.
My cinematic universe is a global scene where Alt and Idol occupy the same space.
About a week ago, on May 4th, I went to Kogaracon, an anime convention and Asian food truck festival hosted in the shadow of the Empire State. Here, they opened the Starry Door. And, through it, walked three very different groups; east/west hybrid J-punks Off-Knowneous, Michelin Star anisong brigade IchiRockU, and bread-themed tokusatsu alt idol Pan Ranger followed by their dazzling, technicolor caravan of cosplay idols.
It was around brunch time when I arrived. While I submitted my registration, the distant echoes of twinkly 2000s guitar leads and walking basslines started to fill the lobby. Even with that distance, I got chills, because of how embedded in me that type of Rock is.
If you take the nostalgic sound derived from Jimmy Eat World and Thursday, and apply it to iconic anime theme songs, you got Off-Knowneous. For the experienced J-Rock listener, I would compare them better to the ever so cathartic Ling Tosite Sigure.
I need to admit the fact that I can’t say much about the choice of songs on the setlist, as my taste in anime is more on the low key side. But regardless of familiarity, I still felt them electrify the air in the room with their flashy performance and raw energy.
After a killer set, I sat down with them for a conversation, at a table that is 20% missing. One member placed down a corndog that looked less like something you would find at a food truck, and more like a faceless, tentacled abomination that finds you at the tail end of a Junji Ito story.
We are off to a great start.
New Jersey’s underground is known for its Midwest Emo and Math Rock bands. As a band with roots in JRock and video game music, as well as the aforementioned Alt Rock subgenres, what kind of space do you occupy in the local scene? And what’s your background here?
JASON: I used to run a show house in New Brunswick, so I feel like I’ve always been adjacent to that kind of music from going to shows and booking stuff, even if we’re not playing. We draw a lot of influence from seeing our friends’ bands honestly.
That’s one of the greatest things about the New Jersey scene. It’s like, there’s so much talent around that it’s easy to be inspired. I feel like we channel all of that.
RJ: I can relate to that, because I’ve been gigging around the New Jersey scene for about 6 years now, and growing up with this kind of music and evolving as a person with this kind of music has been really enjoyable. I’ve been in so many bands as a drummer, mainly in Punk Rock-adjacent stuff and even Dance Pop.
For me, as a musician, not just as a drummer, I can access this part of me that I didn’t shove down, the anime and video games, and re-activate and love again in being a musician [in Off-Knowneous]. The ethos of this is Japanese influence with American presentation. Like, you see our stage presence and it’s more like “yeah let’s start a moshpit!”
JOOYOUNG: For me, it’s kind of a different goal. One of my big goals for this band is to bring J-Rock to a western audience. For people that haven’t had the chance to get to know it, or even hear of it, I want to bring that in and change the entire sound.
I can hear a distinguished difference between western and eastern sounds. I’ve been chasing that eastern [Rock] sound to bring into the western world. It’s kind of hard to chase that when everybody is already used to this western sound. That’s one of my biggest goals here.
MICHAEL: Jason, RJ, and myself have all experienced the New Jersey DIY scene around the New Brunswick area for the majority of our adult lives. A lot of our friends’ bands and all of the influences in them has crept into our style whether that’s something we’re actively trying to do or not.
Jooyoung comes from a different background. He hasn’t been exposed to that the way the three of us have. So, I think we all kind of take our turns, putting a sprinkling of that [influence] into what he wants to do. Sometimes it’s like “oh, I like that!” And sometimes it’s like “uh, I don’t know about that.”
RJ: “Too American!”
MICHAEL: We [jokingly] use the phrase “too American” a lot when we’re writing sometimes.
Do you like idols?
MICHAEL: We saw Queen Bee recently, does that count?
JASON: They’re more of a band. They have idol energy, I feel like.
JOOYOUNG: The singer does. The stuff they’ve been doing lately is pretty crazy, heavily produced J-Rock.
JASON: Yeah, it’s kinda progressive actually! For me, personally, I love Lisa from Blackpink.
JOOYOUNG: She’s my favorite!
JASON: We’re huge Blinkheads up in here.
Did you know that YG, the guy who runs YG Entertainment, Blackpink’s company, he helped pioneer Nu Metal?
JASON: No way!
JOOYOUNG: He used to be in Seo Taiji & Boys.
Right! They were doing the early 90s equivalent of what Linkin Park was doing a decade later.
RJ: Both of y’all [Jooyoung and Michael] showed me that and I still think about it to this day.
MICHAEL: Seo Taiji has been a big influence on us to this day.
JOOYOUNG: I would say that Seo Taiji is more of a hidden gem than YG.
Yeah, unfortunately so. He’s a godfather of both K-Pop and Nu Metal, which is an insane display of forward-thinking, and yet, he’s been mostly forgotten, especially by the K-Pop fandoms, since his retirement.
I heard that you folks are fans of The Callous Daoboys and local heavy hitters Final Resting Pose.
JASON: Yeah! Me and Mike just saw Callous Daoboys with Protest The Hero, in New York City. Amazing show! I love that Metalcore and Skramz is coming back. I’m a sucker for that.
RJ: I work with a guy who’s active in the New York Hardcore scene. He’s been in Silencer and other bands. Knowing him has made me go deeper into stuff like Better Lovers and The Dillinger Escape Plan…type beat. I was just listening to my Spotify recommendations, and it gave me “Hardcore For Plants”. So it’s like, Gel, some Dillinger, some Kublai Khan.
If Off-Knowneous were to do a Metalcore breakdown, what would be the pre-breakdown slogan?
MICHAEL: It would just be Jooyoung saying “woah woah woah, guys, too much, too heavy”, and we’d have to stop playing.
JASON: Insert huge bass drop here.
MICHAEL: “Hold on, hold on, hold on, too heavy”
RJ: Or how about, make it a thing like “Hold on, playa! You’re gonna go one on one with The Undertaker!”
Teddy Long, WWE Smackdown, circa 2008
Links:
Linktree (all of their links)
If you show up to an Off-Knowneous show, and you see a fella in the pit who looks like The Undertaker, run.
I’m glad that I didn’t meet that guy because otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to go all out for IchiRockU’s stellar, Loudrock-coded set of Anisong and J-Rock covers. I consistently have a pretty solid J-Rock “Daily Mix” on Spotify, with all of these iconic bangers from years past, and it’s so satisfying to finally experience those great songs live with such a proficient and charismatic band.
Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden likes to say at their concerts that “there is no difference, no borders between you (the audience) and us (the band)”, and that could not be more relevant at an IchiRockU show.
This was an outdoor set that got rained on, but that didn’t change anything. In fact, I think it made the aura of it all a lot more cinematic. All of the movement in the audience together, that’s mimicking a shonen final battle scene in the rain, right there. Hell, we even had a moment where we did a Naruto Run circle pit.
After the set, we took a walk into the literal backrooms of the venue, frantically searching for a spot to chill. The Cool Jazz performance in the other room painted the atmosphere of the place in a way that was very Black Lodge-esque. Despite the madness, it added a peculiar charm to the situation and we found a spot to sit and chat anyway.
All of you come from diverse backgrounds. What would you say is a previous music project which defines what you bring to Ichirocku?
ED: IchiRockU is my first band, so there’s not much before then that’s helped me shape my identity. Learning all of the songs and interacting with people at the shows kinda helped shape my identity in the band. We go out there and do our thing. So, for me, personally, it’s been doing most of the shaping. I didn’t come to it with any experience.
It’s a cool band to cut your teeth on.
ROSE: Before this, I was a solo Visual Kei vocalist. That’s what I’ve been doing the entire time. I was doing my own thing for a couple years, but I just never really had the chance to perform live. And this opportunity came up randomly, and Ash got recruited into the band. You guys were looking for another vocalist at the time because Akari, who is the other vocalist, had to step away at that moment.
So, they were looking for a replacement vocalist and I just happened to see the post. I was like “okay, why not?” and I just joined. It was actually a spur of the moment decision. It’s been really fun!
DOM: Similar to Ed, before, I had no other prior music experience. I was in another Japanese Rock band before IchiRockU. Then I formed this band because I wanted to continue playing this kind of music.
What genre or scene do you think is the most exciting right now?
ROSE: I feel like Metalcore is back, it’s back heavy! I don’t know if it’s a matter of, like, online trends and short form content that is making what is not viewed most favorably in the past now pushed to the front. Nu Metal too. Sometimes people are like “Isn’t that just a thing from back in the 2000s with Limp Bizkit?” or whatever. But now, it’s getting a lot of exposure, and making people want to go back to doing Nu Metal.
And for me personally, I think Visual Kei is going on a big rise right now. I think also because of short form content, and just people heavily pushing the visuals of Visual Kei right now, it’s getting a lot more people excited to do it. And I know the scene has said that it’s a dying form because people don’t really do bands right now and that wave has gone down since the 2000s.
But, right now, we’re on an upswing. A lot of bands right now are getting big in the scene, which is also making people get in the scene right now.
Right, Nu Metal is taken as less of a frat bro thing, and so there’s now space to see how artful it is. And I do see that about Visual Kei. It’s getting more eclectic and even more horror-based. What’s exciting to you right now, Dom?
DOM: I notice a lot of Pop lately, especially Japanese Pop. Yoasobi are getting really popular in the west.
I suppose that comes from language barriers not being as much of a hangup as they used to be. How about you, Ed? What do you think is awesome in the modern musical landscape?
ED: Social media has been giving a new rise to bedroom artists and bedroom guitarists making their own stuff. I wouldn’t tie it down to an exact genre, but I am seeing a rise of more independent artists not relying on labels. Just recording music and putting it out there. Every genre of music is having a resurgence right now.
ROSE: That’s the thing. I started officially during the pandemic. There was so much downtime. That’s when people also were looking for stuff. I was really lucky and my stuff took off during the pandemic, because people were bored and wanted to see something new.
Honestly, the bar to do bedroom producing is not that high. You can definitely learn to figure it out easily, if you’re doing a simple kind of genre. But, that’s kind of the beauty of it. At this point, anybody can produce anything if you try hard enough, or maybe find the right people.
And maybe, even now, distribution has gotten so simple that anybody can put their music on any platform. Which is good and maybe not that great sometimes. It’s made it very accessible for a lot of people.
Let’s play a game called Tour, Collab, Cancel. You can pick one artist to tour with, one to collaborate with on a song, and one to successfully cancel and end their career forever.
Tour, Collab, Cancel:
3 artists with popular anisongs
SiM (“The Rumbling”, Attack On Titan)
Ado (“Backlight”, One Piece Red)
Yoasobi (“Idol”, Oshi No Ko)
DOM: I would love to tour with Yoasobi. Out of those 3 artists, I know and enjoy their songs the most. I don’t listen to the other two as much, so it’s tough. Collab with… Ado, and cancel SiM.
ROSE: What the fuck, man?!
The betrayal!?
At this point, two other members of IchiRockU were hanging out in the room to listen in on the conversation, and this little exchange got the whole squad laughing.
ROSE: Well, he likes girlypop music. He’d play us Fifty Fifty’s “Cupid” for like, forever.
ED: I’m touring with SiM. Collab with Yoasobi. But, I’ll have to cancel Ado, unfortunately.
ROSE: I think I would have pretty much the same thing, or maybe switch up tour and collab. I wanna collab with SiM and tour with Yoasobi instead. Because, Yoasobi, they’ve got the stage, they’ve got the budget to make the shows happen. So, I would love to get in on that. But, I’d love to collab with SiM. Ado, sorry girl.
[jokingly] Shame shame! Ending a young career so fast!
Links:
Beacons (all of their links)
A larger than life Pop and Rock concert with Yoasobi and IchiRockU sharing the stage would be a sight to behold.
Right now, let’s go from a grand stage for a Pop juggernaut to a smaller, more intimate setting for idols whose stage presence is far too big for the venues that typically host them. Local idols Pan Ranger and Barri hosted a showcase for other kaigai idols just like them.
I must admit, this is not my forte. While I do enjoy more bubbly and bright J-Pop like Perfume or even FEMM, I’ve always felt at home in Alt-Idol, Sohpisti-Pop like Utada Hikaru, and the more abstract Sheena Ringo. I loved all of it, however! Everybody absolutely killed it with the choreography, costuming, the connection with the crowd. And there were some cool Pop Rock songs performed. “Super Yuppers” by WJSN Chocome took me back to my K-Pop era!
While Pan Ranger did not perform, I’ve always had a lot of fun watching their livestreamed concerts on Youtube. The Alt-Idol songs they typically pick are specifically of this mischievous flavor of Rock. I think of “UFO UFO” by Planck Stars as a highlight of their performances.
via @panranger, Instagram
Are there any fictional characters that you kin, or strongly relate to?
PAN: Y’know, I was in the trenches with Tumblr. I was a Homestuck, when it was acceptable to be a Homestuck. And I really like Jane Crocker for some reason. And also Roxy. But, in terms of characters I really relate to, I watched the original Kamen Rider from the 70s, and didn't expect it to be like that.
For the past couple years, I've been health issues and stuff like that. And there's a lot of themes in the original Kamen Rider of trauma and body horror, and it's something I found a lot of comfort in, as I was dealing with a bunch of health stuff. So, I really do relate to Kamen Rider.
That’s pretty cool and inspiring! Now, could you imagine him as an idol? What would he be like?
PAN: A little bit? Hiroshi Fujioka, the actor, is the mascot for Sega from the 90s. I don't remember I don't remember the name of the thing.
Editor’s note: Pan later found it; a Japanese ad campaign for the Sega Saturn, with Fujioka acting as a character named Segata Sanshiro. I don’t know about you, but the idea of a gamer judoka idol sounds like a lot of fun to me!
How important are cons to the kaigai idol scene?
PAN: I think we're seeing a shift right now, from conventions to like standalone types of shows. And I think the discussion before this was more like how can cons better serve the community. How can the cons work with us to create better and better events and up here in the northeast? It's still very consumer focused.
There's some original people. It was me, it was Aden, and there's a bunch of other people. Also, it's important now for the wider demographic, it’s more people who go to college, but I still think they're pretty important.
I also do see that we areat this crossroads where it's like, it's a con thing, but it's also a DIY music thing at the same time.
PAN: Yeah, in other countries like Canada, I'll see it. And in Australia, they have an indie scene there. They have the infrastructure for this. Amuse Project, CitrusPLUS, and everyone else. But it all comes down to like the infrastructure. So, like in Thailand, they have Japan Expo and Tokyo Idol Fest.
Pop Punk has pizza and skateboarding.
Gothic Rock has clove cigarettes and vampire literature.
What’s something that you think is Alt-Idol coded?
PAN: The first thing that comes to mind is yelling and screaming. I think for us, it's like, a lot of dyed hair. The portable speaker from Costco [pantomimes rolling luggage]. Strong Zero.
Oh my god. I've been seeing pictures and videos from Planck Stars yesterday, performing at a strip club. During a Valentine's Day show, they did like a game or whatever, where it's like, “come to the show and we'll give you something to play with.” And I think I was just a giveaway for a Nintendo Switch.
Links:
panranger.net (website + all of their links)
Ain’t that the heart of Alt-Idol? The art of the swerve. Boisterous displays of color and volume. A lot of us discovered this artform through “Gimme Chocolate” by Babymetal, where groovy, downtuned riffs lead into a sweet Pop song about wanting to eat nothing but candy.
J-Rock-ified Emo, Loudrock, and Alt-Idol are all these different breeds of Alt music that permeate this grassroots community of creatives. Conventions are the epicenters, because they are genres that are rooted in Japanese music.
Most of the artists I spoke with here are Asian-Americans that are importing their culture and pride into something Pop, something that rocks. Same goes for all others who are doing it with integrity and respect to the medium and its origins.
And it’s a beautiful star system of New Jersey DIY music for that.