Bomb Factory

The punk veterans look overseas from a domestic market obsessed with youth

From left: Kazuya, Joe, Shira and Jun-ya Photo: Dan Grunebaum

How does a seasoned punk band with a decade and a half career and respect by the truckload sell itself in a market increasingly dominated by fresh-faced, teen-oriented pop-punk bands?
The answer may come from, of all places, a German woman who saw the group at a gig in her home country in 1999. “A friend dragged me to the show, but I had no idea who they were,” explains Wenke Gillner, manager at Bomb Factory’s label Sea Green, at a recent show at Club Asia in Shibuya. Taken with the band, Gillner began to do promotional work for them on an informal basis when she moved to Japan a few years later.

The next part of the story is equally fluky. Gillner was working on productions that involved a major Japanese rock star (who prefers to remain unnamed for this story). The star also happened to have his own side project in the form of Sea Green, at that time an artist management company. The intense, multi-pierced Gillner was hired to turn Sea Green into a label, with a distribution deal that the influential star signed with major label Toshiba EMI.

When Gillner played Bomb Factory’s material for the star, he was so impressed he decided to sign the group straightaway. Through the combined talents of Gillner, the band and the star, the idea was to bring to fruition the glimmerings of overseas success that have emerged from a number of Bomb Factory’s well-received North American and European tours. Overseas recognition could then, as has been the case with many Japanese bands in the past, translate into renewed cachet at home.

Speaking backstage before their performance, the four members of Bomb Factory are, needless to say, enthusiastic. “The advantage for us is that we can have the opportunity to release our records overseas, which is unusual for a Japanese punk band,” says guitarist Kazuya, who with brother, vocalist Jun-ya, formed the group in 1991.

While many Japanese bands have distribution deals with indie labels in the West, few possess the marketing clout of a major label deal. After seven albums with a Japanese independent, the band was ready for a change. “At the time we formed, major and indie labels were separated by a vast gulf, but now, as far as we can see, there’s no difference,” explains Jun-ya over the din of a warm-up band. “CD shops have indie corners, but groups that are actually on major labels are being promoted there. With all the mergers, you don’t know what you’re looking at, and anyways we’ve already done the indie thing of releasing our own albums.”

When the fine-featured Jun-ya and Kazuya relocated from their native Yamagata to Tokyo and created Bomb Factory with bassist Joe and drummer Shira, punk was still an underground creature of the city’s murky basement clubs. It wasn’t until the mid-’90s and first the melocore and then pop-punk explosion of bands like Bad Religion and Green Day, and in Japan Hi-Standard and 175R, that it emerged as a mass-market phenomenon.

“Punk was much more violent and aggressive,” remembers Kazuya with more than a hint of nostalgia for the hardcore scene out of which Bomb Factory emerged. “People who listened to pop music at the time wouldn’t think of listening to punk, and the major media wouldn’t support it. Punk’s current popularity dates to the mid- to late-’90s, when indie bands in general began to see a boom in sales.”

That was also about the time Bomb Factory began to tour abroad. Their first overseas junket took them through Europe in 1999, where their expert, high-velocity thrash found them both fans and friends in high places. A recent headlining slot saw the group performing before thousands at the Rock’Oise Festival in France, while back in Japan, they’ve supported the likes of Bad Religion, and Good Charlotte have cited them as a favorite.

Currently, Bomb Factory are holed up in the studio hard at work recording their debut album for Sea Green/Toshiba EMI, due out in November. A foretaste of that came in the form of the July single “Slickdrive,” on which the band showcase Jun-ya’s increasing command of English lyrics.
But as the group mounts the stage at Club Asia and Jun-ya begins to wave his mike stand about and hurl his vocals at the audience, a moshpit forms and larger concerns are forgotten amid the adrenaline rush of Bomb Factory’s fast-flowing chops. Punk may no longer pose the danger to the establishment that it seemed to when the Sex Pistols sang “Anarchy in the UK,” but that’s not going to stop the motley mix of punkers and groupies from abandoning themselves to the moment.

Punk’s co-optation by the mainstream and its teen takeover also aren’t going to stop Bomb Factory. As they enter their 30s, Kazuya, Jun-ya, Joe and Shira are in some ways finding in their band the opposite of punk rebellion. When asked what the best part of being a member of Bomb Factory is, the members are all in agreement. “We’ve been together for a long time, so we understand each other,” says Shira. “We’re like a family.”

Shinjuku ACB, Oct 1 and Shinjuku Loft, Oct. 7. See concert listings (popular) for details.

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