Twenty-one years, three musicians and not a single lineup change. Tokyo garage-punk trio Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass have spent more than two decades making music entirely on their own terms, and they're joining us for LOUD WOMEN Fest Tokyo on Saturday 14 November.
Formed in 2005 by bassist Miki Uchizono, who recruited her sister Yumi on guitar and vocals and schoolfriend Kei Sofue on drums, the band have taken their raw, blues-soaked garage punk around the world, including appearances at SXSW in the US and Live at Heart in Sweden.
Their latest single, 'Hare coursing', backed with 'Heavy', is a fiercely independent statement from a band who have no interest in fitting neatly into anyone else's expectations.
We caught up with Yumi, Miki and Kei to talk about musical freedom, the lack of diversity on festival stages, writing songs in hotel rooms and a Swedish gig they reached with just ten minutes to spare.
First things first, where did that extraordinary band name come from?
Akabane is a district in Tokyo. None of us are from there! At the time, Akabane had lots of bars and drinking spots, and we had this wild image of the place.
Vulgars comes from the word vulgar. We wanted a name that felt a little seedy and rough around the edges, rather than too neat or polished. We chose the other words simply because we liked the way they sounded.
Your latest single, ‘Hare coursing’, sounds like a celebration of creative freedom. Tell us about it.
Our latest release is ‘Hare coursing’, with ‘Heavy’ on the B-side. These two songs reflect our unfiltered selves. We made exactly the music we wanted to make, without trying to be anything other than ourselves.
Listening to the songs ourselves feels really liberating, too. There’s a real sense of catharsis in them.
Even when people try not to stand out or give others a reason to think badly of them, they can still end up being judged or put into some kind of box.
Maybe if you turn the volume up and drown out all the voices coming from outside, you can hear your own voice more clearly.
You’re part of Tokyo’s underground music community, but you’ve said you don’t necessarily belong to one particular scene. How does that feel?
Tokyo has all kinds of music scenes, but we’ve never really felt that we fully belong to any particular one.
Sometimes we feel like we’re the odd ones out wherever we go. Other times, we feel like we could fit in just about anywhere. That feeling is pretty much the same whether we’re in Japan or overseas.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
When we look at festivals around the world, we often see bands with similar styles and lineups grouped together. Everyone talks about how important diversity in music is, but we still feel that the range of artists who get to play on the stages at major festivals is pretty limited.
There’s a considerable gap between the diversity of music we see at live music venues and the diversity of music that actually gets opportunities at mainstream festivals.
We’d like to see more kinds of expression given the same opportunities.
Tell us about the time you nearly missed your own gig in Sweden!
Our very first show at Live at Heart in Sweden last year was a pretty wild experience.
We were supposed to arrive the day before, but things went wrong with our flights and we missed our connection. In the end, we arrived at the venue just ten minutes before our set.
We couldn’t get Uber to work, time was running out, and there were several moments when we thought there was no way we’d make it.
We finally jumped into a local taxi. Its control panel and navigation screen were flashing away like a party inside the car, and somehow we made it!
The venue was packed. We took our instruments out of their flight cases behind the audience and started tuning up.
Right before we go onstage, the three of us always have this little routine: we hold hands and high-five to encourage each other. This was one of those moments when we really needed it.
Despite everything, the show was amazing. Even now, thinking back on it makes my palms sweat!
Is there a song that means something particularly special to you?
‘You Know Me’ is a song where lots of people sing along to the ‘Let’s go’ part of the chorus.
It’s about a woman with a brazen attitude, the kind of person who would just say, ‘You know me, right?’
She’s not afraid of much. The one thing she does fear is having someone else dictate how she lives her life, or losing the freedom to make her own choices.
Yumi wrote the lyrics. When she writes about imaginary characters, she often leaves their gender unspecified so listeners can see themselves in them. But in this song, the main character is clearly portrayed as a woman.
I really like her. I feel a lot of affection for her.
And we love the story behind ‘2049’. Didn’t that one arrive in the middle of the night?
The guitar riff came about right after we played at an anime convention in Tucson, Arizona.
Around dawn the morning after the show, Yumi woke up completely wired with adrenaline and couldn’t get back to sleep. A new riff suddenly started playing in her head, so she grabbed her guitar and started playing it over and over in the hotel room.
Miki woke up, hummed a bassline, and recorded it as a voice memo.
That post-gig adrenaline rush turned straight into a fast, driving track with a sci-fi edge. We still play it at almost every show today.
Finally, what’s the strangest place you’ve ever played?
We once played a show at a traditional Japanese inn.
We had to take off our Doc boots to play on the tatami mats, so we performed in our socks. It was the first time we’d ever played a show without shoes on, and the floor was a little slippery!
What’s next for Akabane Vulgars?
We’re playing the BACK FROM THE GRAVE HALLOWEEN BALL at Shinjuku LOFT on 18 October, followed by our own headline show at Flowers Loft in Shimokitazawa on 24 October. That will be the final date of our ‘Hare coursing’ release tour.
We’ve also finished recording with our Sweden-based label, Bark At Your Owner, for a future release.
And how did you first hear about LOUD WOMEN?
A fan of ours in the UK told us about LOUD WOMEN a few years ago and encouraged us to apply when the festival was looking for bands.
We’re really happy and honestly a little surprised that LOUD WOMEN is now happening in Japan and that we get to be part of it.
We can’t wait!
See Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass at LOUD WOMEN Fest Tokyo
Catch Akabane Vulgars on Strong Bypass alongside nine other brilliant bands from Japan, South Korea, the UK and the US at LOUD WOMEN Fest Tokyo, presented with Too Hot to Be Cool.
📅 Saturday 14 November 2026
📍 Shinjuku MARZ, Tokyo
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