Courtesy of Freesscape

Scouted by a storied Japanese producer at 15, willowy singer and trained cellist Emi Evans was supposed to become the next Morning Musume-type tarento, albeit one with an international twist. But somewhere along the way, her actual talent intervened and the bicultural, Japanese-English Evans veered onto a more inspired course.

“I sent off a few songs I’d written to the producer, and when I told him they were my own he said, ‘Maybe it’s better to release you as an artist, rather than as a teenybopper tarento,’” recalls Evans over lemonade at a Shibuya café. “He suggested I wait five years, carry on writing, and let my style develop, and then get back in touch. That’s pretty much what I did.”

Coming to Japan as a university student five years ago, Evans contacted the producer, who put her in touch with multi-instrumentalist and arranger Hiroyuki Muneta. Such was the birth of Freesscape, a duo that creates music Evans calls “alternative ambient trip-hop,” and which has just released its second album, Next Confusion.

But along the way to their current sound—Portishead are perhaps the best point of reference—were a number of twists and turns. Freesscape’s producer had given up on the idea of molding Evans into a teen idol, but he hadn’t given up on his commercial ambitions for the band. “He was trying to get us signed to Sony, and he thought country and western was hip at the moment. We were horrified, but we thought we’d give it a try. So we recorded one arrangement of a song. We had to murder it to turn it into country and western. We both came out of it going, ‘If this is what we have to do sell, then forget it.’”

Evans and Muneta then flirted with Universal, which financed the recording of their debut album… and then at the last moment pulled out. “It was kind of annoying, but also kind of nice, because we got it recorded for free and have all the rights,” explains Evans. “The second album we recorded by ourselves, so we’re very free. We’ve got a few record companies watching over us and helping out, but we’re enjoying being independent.”

With Evans’ fragile soprano floating ethereally on a bed of faraway, computer-generated instrumentals and the occasional cello, Next Confusion is imbued with a sense of sadness at odds with the lively impression Evans gives in person. “It’s about things not being orderly, the beauty of randomness and confusion and mess,” she says. “Part of it might come from the fact that neither of us particularly likes J-pop, and much of the pop these days. It’s just too perfect, overproduced and polished. It lacks a human quality.”

Evans’ lyrics are often obscure, and she cites the “dark vagueness” of Radiohead songs as an inspiration. But one line about “Trying to make the best of both worlds” from the leadoff track “Golden Spectrum” immediately sets us off on a line of questioning about her identity as the daughter of an English father and Japanese mother. “Being bicultural, it’s very comfortable for me to live and work here. I do have the best of both worlds because I get gaijin treatment and get the jammy gaijin jobs, but I also have the Japanese background and feel an empathy with Japanese culture. I don’t get angry in most situations where other foreigners would get angry.”

Yet Evans, who makes her living as a commercial vocalist (including a stint as a “singing Santa’s little helper”) as well as by licensing Freesscape songs for commercials, ultimately wants to reach an English audience. “It’s very nice to be in Japan and base my music from Tokyo personally, but eventually I want this music to go back to the UK. We’re definitely in the wrong place to be trying to market this kind of music. It’s not mainstream at all in a country where mainstream is really big. We’ve been selfishly creating to satisfy our own creative needs rather than thinking about aiming it toward any particular market.”

She’s also resisted writing in Japanese. “Japanese lyrics don’t come naturally to me. A lot of people have said, ‘Why not?’ But I feel English is so subtle and rich and ambiguous, and with Japanese I can’t imagine being able to do that.”

Such tensions can often be the source of interesting music, so with any luck Evans will remain agreeably confused for the foreseeable future. Freesscape launch Next Confusion at SuperDeluxe this month in a record release party that will feature a number of guests, including frequent contributor, keyboardist and light artist Morgan Fisher.

SuperDeluxe, Sep 14. See concert listings (popular) for details.

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