Cibo's Hatori dishes it out

In the Kitchen... temporarily relocated to Wilder 110 this week when Miho Hatori, Cibo Matto's vocalist, was interviewed by arts editor, Mara Nelson. Cookies and brownies were consumed however, giving the room a kitchen-like air.

mara nelson: So, are you excited about playing here tonight? Do you enjoy all of your shows?

miho hatori: Yeah, we do.

mn: When you first started playing, was it more because you wanted to make music, or you wanted to perform?

mh: Actually, when I started to play music at the clubs, I wanted to do something...like shout, scream, whatever. I had a really hard time expressing myself, because I couldn't speak English very well. I couldn't talk well with people. I couldn't communicate, and so music has helped me a lot to communicate with the people.

mn: So you just started playing music when you got to New York?

mh: Yeah.

mn: When was that?

mh: Three and a half years ago.

mn: Why did you move there from Japan?

mh: The big reason was I wanted to study English. I wanted a different culture also, because Japan is a very very small country, and I like it there, but it's also important to see another world.

mn: When you sing about food, is it so cut and dry as, "I just like to eat" or are there issues behind it?

mh:t's so weird, because I think my culture is very foody. We're a very Cibo Matto country. And food is very important for us. That's not so deep, but I think it's a very deep thing, and a very delicate thing all over the world. Like the song "Know Your Chicken," it's an Italian saying...

mn: What does it mean?

mh: It means - don't worry, I know my shit. Italians will say: I know my chicken. And cheesy, there are so many sayings that relate to food. If you can't eat anything, you have to die, so it's very important.

mn: Does Japanese culture contain any of the element of women essentially being told not to eat?

mh: Yes, recently, it's become a very serious problem; dieting is very common right now. I was in Tokyo two weeks ago, and there were all these articles on how to diet and be like Naomi Campbell. I think it's crazy. It's too much. Girls want to be beautiful, but you have to be healthy.

mn: The album is one of the few times you hear women say, "Yes, food is great. I love to eat." That's so cool.

mh: Thanks.

mn: Why Viva! La Woman?

mh: Because we are women! And I love the picture, I think it's great.

mn: Is anything political about it? Do you see yourself as being a feminist?

mh: I don't know much about feminist culture. America has a strong political mind for feminism, and that's great, because I've never felt that in Japan.

mn: When I lived in London, a Japanese family moved in next door, and the husband was so blatantly domineering. He took the subway to work, so he decided the family car was unneccesary and sold it - without asking the wife, who needed a car to do daily chores. They didn't need the money, it was simply - the husband didn't need the car, thus why keep the car. The wife didn't like this, but she told my mother that that was just how it's done in Japan. Is anything changing?

mh: No, it's very conservative. There is a word in Japanese, kaweii, it means cute, and people think kaweii is a very good thing for girls, but I don't think so. Every time I go back to Japan, I have people say: oh Miho, you are kaweii, but it makes me feel weird, because I'm not kauar. It's weird, japanese culture is very old. If a woman works in a big company in Japan, she has to do housekeeper type things. But it's getting changed I think. But it's still very conservative. It's a little weird right now. Basically it's very old school. But I'm hoping it's going to change.

mn: How would you describe your music?

mh: I want to play everything. I don't want to play just rock or just blues or just jazz. If I make a tape for my friends, I put jazz to hiphop to brazilian music or maybe a queen song, whatever I like, and we are trying to make that kind of music.

mn: Do you feel that being in New York, where the art world is so interconnected and there is so much collaboration between mediums...did that really influence what you're doing?

mh: Yeah, I think so. Yuka's great for me in that way, because I wasn't that social of a person, I felt like I was swimming in the water.

mn: I've noticed that there seem to be two kinds of screams - very controlled, thought-out screams, and then people who just completely lose it emotionally when they scream, like Chan Marshall of Catpower - do you see that?

mh: I'm not screaming that much anymore. But when I did it before, it was for me, you know, AUGHH!! It feels so good, and after that I can go on. But I think there are two kinds of screams. One is a very artistic scream, like the Yoshimi from the Boredoms - I love her screaming - I feel so good after I hear her screaming. It makes me go: oh, more! You know, that kind of vibe. The other kind of scream is annoying, and I'm trying to do better than that.

mn: How do you put your songs together? Where do you get the samples?

mh: You can kind of make a form, or prepare sounds. Somehow I get inspired: Oh wow, Sugar Water. That word is so inspiring. So Yuca and I talk about it: wow, isn't that a great name. And then we start to think about different sounds, prepare sounds and prepare words and mix it, let's go this way and let's go that way, we think together that way.

mn: What does "sugar water" mean to you?

mh: Sugar water, it's something you feel. It might be weird, but when I feel something good, I feel floaty. Like when you eat really good food or meet your favorite friend, or when you listen to good music. It depends on your feeling, but if you do something that gives you that very floating feeling, that's sugar water.

mn: The last song on the album, "artichoke" was that inspired by something that was happening in your life at the time?

mh: Actually, I was eating an artichoke; I didn't know about artichokes in Japan. I thought it was a very weird food, because it's like a flower. A friend was showing me how to eat it - and I thought: this is amazing. It was so unique to me. I thought it was very romantic. (knock on the door - it's the trancendental meditation class - we're about to be kicked out of the room)

mn: Did you just get to Oberlin, have you been able to walk around the town at all?

mh: Yeah, I went to the bookstore, they have good hummus and good pita. Are there any good restaurants here.

mn: No, not really...

mh: Then what do you eat?

mn: Terrible food.

mh: Really?

mn: Well, there's a bad Chinese place, and a pizza place and three coffee shops, and that's about it...

mh: That's it?

mn: Pretty much.

mh: In the campus?

mn: Yeah.

mh: So you have to eat the same thing always?

mn: Basically.

mh: Ooooohhh.... That's terrible.

mn: You're a vegetarian, right?

mh: I'm not a strict vegetarian. Vegetables are living also, I think. So they're very...alive also. I don't want to make a line between animals and vegetables. I like veggies, a lot. And actually, fish is good for you. Fish is better than meat, I think. One week, I really needed chicken, so I ate it. And it was really bad chicken, too. But I think I needed it somehow, because I tore my ligament and I needed animal protein, maybe.

mn: Okay, well, thanks, I guess it's time to let the transcendental meditators in now...

mh: Okay, this was fun...thanks for the cookies.

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