In the theme song of "Late Night Canteen", Suzuki Tokiyoshi sings the journey of a cloud, from the river to the eaves, from the breath to the fingertips, and finally disappears in front of his eyes.
Journalist/Rye
In 2018, Tokiyoshi Suzuki held his first theater performance in Beijing, the "Spring Hope" concert
Dressed in a beige tunic, wearing a fisherman's hat, and a pair of round-rimmed glasses under his inverted figure eight eyebrows, Suzuki Tokiyoshi would match his tone with various gestures when talking about music. The 65-year-old guy in front of him occasionally can't hide the "bad boy" in his body and says some strange things, which accidentally matches the colorful beach shirt between his neckline.
Most people born in Japan in the 1940s and 1950s experienced Japan's economic downturn in their youth. From Takeshi Kitano to Keigo Higashino, the lost decade and years of economic downturn have become their creative accelerators, and the times are their creative inspiration and the best reason for them to break the rules. In Kitano's memories, whether it is a vintage clothing store full of fakes or a record store full of imported products, there is no exception to the "for young people" sign. During that period, these penniless "Asakusa boys" were accepted by all walks of life, and the aura above their heads was like a tight curse, crushing them breathlessly.
In the early 90s, Suzuki Tokiji, holding his favorite epiphone byrdland elitist guitar and wearing ripped jeans, appeared on various TV shows, when he was still called Suzuki Tokiyuki, and the "bad boy" atmosphere was his best posture. He liked to sing, but he couldn't always find his own voice, so he had to mix the chores of youth with hormones into elegy about restlessness. "The Red Sunset Is Burning" was one of his most classic songs at the time, and the rhythm of the dance quickly swept through the young clubs of Tokyo. In Suzuki's view, the "bubble era" has formed a typical cultural character, like a kind of apocalyptic carnival, he said, when young people try to imitate the glamorous life, but are tightly constrained by the budget in their pockets.
The "end" that does not see the future is undoubtedly the best soil for creation, new styles and genres follow, and time brutally screens works across eras. At that time, Suzuki Tokiyoshi formed a new band and named it "Meat House". In that period when multimedia was just emerging, they mixed up colorful music such as urban folk songs, Eastern European music, and trendy electronics, trying to make it enter the new century. However, the band disappeared after releasing an album.
The album, which few people remember, is titled Cloud, and Tokiyoshi Suzuki gave it a bland name to contrast it with the avant-garde voice, but that idea didn't echo in 1997, or the economic resurgence at the end of the century didn't seem to give more opportunities to an avant-garde rock record. However, the concept of "cloud" is also deeply rooted in Suzuki's mind.
Everything became flat with the upturn in the economy. The economy has brought about large-scale industrial production, mainstream values are dominant, and bad teenagers are gradually disappearing and aging, becoming middle-aged crisis elements who are topless and supportive. Takeshi Kitano once wrote: At that time, a large amount of material was dumped on the crowd, and making money replaced creation, becoming a basic principle, whether it was film and television, music or catering, all industries became shallow and lifeless. In the surging tide, real artists choose to swim against the current, they begin to realize the existence of details, and perch and focus on these tiny things.
Tokizuki turned over his years of accumulation and began to use music to restore long memories of "clouds". Like many Japanese urban folk songs, Suzuki's music is like a frozen photo, he likes to portray things, portray emotions, and more importantly, portray his own heart. In "Cigarettes", he sings: The smoke is shrouded, the world seems to be on fire, but everything is smoke, over the clouds. "Stone" is like his inner monologue, a meteor that crosses the night sky and eventually becomes a solid stone. In this batch of folk songs, their music is static, and the rough surface of the song like a stone seems to be covered with some mottled moss, and the tiny life is the delicate mind of the creator.
"In Memory" is repeatedly sung and sung between food and sake, from the sake brewers in the izakaya to the author of "Late Night Canteen", Abe Yukiro, and after several changes of hands, it fell into the director's editor and finally became the theme song. Suzuki felt like it was a cloud stumbling into the valley that was best suited to the accumulated rain.
Suzuki said that izakaya is a condensed community and a small society, and the reason why it makes people nostalgic is like the line of the Japanese drama "Naoki Hanzawa" - we must cherish the interaction between people!
Suzuki Tokiyoshi occasionally thinks of his own tea shop, curry rice and tonkatsu make the small citizens of Tokyo feel a certain kind of richness, "that is not material wealth, but actually gastrointestinal and psychological satisfaction", even if some guests have eaten all the taste of the mountains and the sea, they still have to find their own small dishes served with a large sip of draft beer, because there, a person's soul can be relaxed. As Shotaro Ikeba expressed in "The Taste of the Past", both people and tastes are products of the times. When I was young, I was very disgusted by the idea that older people should call everything "or the past is good", and recently, I have reached the age of being so criticized by young people, so I wondered in my heart, how good will the past be when I was young?
At the end of March, Mr. Suzuki said, he was once again embarking on a tour of China, and when he heard that the cities he was going to arrive had mouth-watering cuisine, he hoped to find a food to be inspired and write a late-night story about China.
Tokiyoshi Suzuki
"The smell of late at night is a comfort"
——Interview with Tokiyoshi Suzuki
Triptych Life Weekly: When you were young, you formed an ska-style band in the 90s, which was the beginning of the rise of Japanese punk music, and what is the special significance of the band's name sement mixers? What were your creations all about at the time? What did the rest of the band do later?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: Actually, the band's name comes from an early American blues song called "Concrete Mixers," and the singer is slim gaillard, whose music was legendary in the 1940s, but few people know about him now. I got the name because I wanted the band to mix a lot of styles together. Ska music spread to Japan in the 1980s because it sounded joyful and seemed to be in tune with the sluggish economic and social atmosphere of the time. Our band debuted in the late '80s and sang a lot of this music, probably because they were young and always wanted to do something different. After the band broke up, the members were doing something that had nothing to do with music, and they had always adhered to their ideals to this day, as if I was the only one.
Triptych Life Weekly: At that time, there was a very popular song on the album called "One More Cup", was this song about drinking?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: Yes, but not just about drinking. I think drinking is a way of thinking, and a lot of people will say something difficult to say when they drink, or start thinking when they drink, and that's how I am.
Triptych Life Weekly: It is said that you opened a tea shop during that time.
Toki Suzuki: Yes, I had a big fight with my colleagues when I was working at a publishing company, and I resigned in anger, and I didn't want to continue to be a nine-to-five office worker, so I started my own business. I opened a light food restaurant because time was easier, and it was during that time that I started forming my own band and trying to write something and record my thoughts with music. At that time, the customers in the shop were diverse, although not as typical as in "Late Night Canteen", but there were indeed some troublesome guests in the impression. A few days ago, I also met a student customer who often came to the store at that time, and as soon as we met, he said to me, "I used to go to your shop when I was in college!" "It's funny, he's now a famous Japanese playwright.
Sanlian Life Weekly: You had a song called "The Red Sunset Is Burning", did you know that it was once covered by a Hong Kong singer at that time, and the title of the song was changed to "The Messenger of the Flowers"?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: Actually, our band also made an adaptation of the original song, the English version of this song is called "ubangi stomp", but there are too many cover versions of it.
Triptych Life Weekly: How did your "Meat House" music with Shigeto Ueno and Karataro Kuwata started? Those folk songs sound a little bit of a bourgeoisie, a little bit of a folk tune.
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: The three of us met on the set of the movie, and because the smells were similar, we formed a band, and some people said that our band was three butchers, but in fact, we just wanted to be grounded and make it sound like there was no sense of distance. Our group released "Cloud" in 1997, in fact, in addition to folk songs, there are some avant-garde rock, shamisen, trumpet, mandolin, accordion will appear in the music, and the style may be influenced by People such as Takada Toru, Yoshio Hayakawa, and Kiyoshiro Kinno. In the mTV made by fans, you can also see the "Suzuki Meat Shop" such a shot, which is quite interesting. It's a pity that after we released this album, everyone went their separate ways and really scattered like clouds.
Sanlian Life Weekly: After you have been precipitating for a long time, what are the opportunities to restart your music creation?
Toki Suzuki: During that time, although no albums were released, I never stopped creating, and I accumulated a lot of non-group music by myself, which sounded more casual and slow, because I didn't prescribe a style for myself, and I wasn't a person who liked the model, so I slowly accumulated it, and after careful selection, I sent out an album that I thought was good.
Triptych Life Weekly: How was the theme song "In Memory" of "Late Night Canteen" created?
Toki suzuki: I have a friend who plays saxophones, and before he died, he used to go to a park to practice playing, and after he left, I often went for a walk in that park, as if I could meet. I used to be a very lively person, and I would feel happy with a lot of people, but then I felt that this friend would never see us again, and I might feel very lonely, so I wrote a song to accompany him.
Triptych Life Weekly: What do you think music has to do with food?
Tokisuke Suzuki: I don't think it's completely unrelated, but I don't think there's anything special about it either. Cooking is also a kind of life, combining different ingredients through various methods to soothe people's stomachs. The same is true of music, but it is a soothing to the soul.
Triptych Life Weekly: What was the first instrument I came into contact with in my life? Did this instrument become your main instrument in the future?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: It should be the harmonica I came into contact with in my elementary school music class. However, the harmonica has not become the main instrument of creation, perhaps because of the limitations of the structure and function of the instrument itself. You may have seen it at my show, and my most popular instruments are the guitar and accordion.
Triptych Life Weekly: When you think of Tokyo, do you think of the sound of some kind of musical instrument? Is there a sound or the sound of an instrument that attracts you easily?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: There are so many faces in a city that I don't think it's as simple as a single voice. My voices still fascinate me most, but I like pianos and acoustic guitars, which can be slowly silenced naturally.
Triptych Life Weekly: As a viewer of Late Night Canteen, what do you think of this show? Who is your favorite character in the show?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: Maybe it's because I'm involved in my music, or maybe it's related to the fact that I opened my own snack bar, and I like the background of this story because I think izakaya is a special place to live. I love listening to the stories of the little people because I always feel a vivid, eccentric or boring life that appeals to me more than the great stories. I think that's why so many people love Late Night Cafeteria. Every character is very interesting, gangster big brother, terminally ill singer Miyuki, to say that my favorite is definitely the role of the boss.
However, the real-life Shinjuku Golden Gai in Tokyo is not like this, this street has a long, long history, the earliest time, this street is very charming, but it is indeed a good place to produce stories, because there are always some soulless people who come here to find comfort. It may be because of this resonance and similarity that this drama will appear in Chinese and Korean, but unfortunately I have not seen these two versions, and I would like to hear Chinese's feelings about "Late Night Canteen".
Sanlian Life Weekly: In March, you came to China to perform again, what are you looking forward to this time?
Toki Suzuki: I hope to find a late-night cafeteria in Beijing or Shanghai.
Triptych Life Weekly: The era reflected in "Late Night Cafeteria" is a period of economic downturn in Japan, and we seem to be experiencing a similar period.
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: Food? Definitely not. Well, I think it may be the relationship between people, it should be this kind of communication and understanding. Whether the economy is in a downturn or a rapid development, no matter when there will be salaries, white-collar workers, blue-collar workers, when people are crowded into a stall to eat, they will seem to become more equal, chat, or talk, will bring comfort to everyone, and may have courage and hope.
Sanlian Life Weekly: Do you have any izakayas in Japan that you regularly visit? What do you usually order there?
Tokisuke Suzuki: There are a few izakayas that I frequent, and when I'm fine, I'll sit down and have a drink with some of my regular friends, and I'll order more tempura and soba noodles, and I'll also order beer and beef stew, referred to as the Happy Set. While touring, I wanted to go to Beijing to try haggis soup.
Triptych Life Weekly: If one day, you met your punk-obsessed self in the '80s, what would you say to him?
Tokiyoshi Suzuki: If you like music and want to make music, don't worry too much.