Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2010

Visit the backstreets of Koenji, Shimokitazawa or Shibuya, and you’ll find live houses teeming with hopeful young musicians. Students or freeters by day and rock stars by night, they dream of the big time—major label deals, private limousines, and playing to adoring crowds in giant arenas.

Step forward Please Please. The indie quartet took the stage at the revered Nippon Budokan last year as part of the Next Age Music Awards, an annual contest for student musicians, where they performed alongside big-name guests like Ai, Chemistry and Shota Shimizu.

“I don’t remember much,” confesses drummer Tel, a lanky, happy-go-lucky type who fidgets restlessly as we talk. “I remember that day—November 23—really clearly, but those five minutes that we were on stage are a total blank.”

“It felt amazing,” adds Joe, the band’s bassist and resident screwball. “But at the same time, you’re still aware that all these people didn’t come just to see us play.”

The extra exposure probably netted them a few new fans though, right?

“We had ten more people join our Mixi community,” Tel says, as the others start laughing. “It’s actually had a bigger effect on the bands we play with now. They’re like, ‘These guys did Budokan!’”

Joe, Tel and vocalist Makoto, classmates since high school and currently students at Waseda University, formed Please Please in 2007, along with original guitarist Tetsu. They started off playing covers at school festivals, but were soon approached by a local live house—a development that seemed like a mixed blessing at the time.

“When we played our first show, we only had one original song,” Joe admits with a laugh. “All the others were covers.”

“When we started writing our own songs, we were doing it all for the first time,” says Makoto. “Looking back, I can’t believe we were actually able to create songs like that, with absolutely no idea what we were doing.”

They must have been doing something right, because by late 2008 Please Please were kicking off their first Kanto-area tour, which included a gig at Akasaka Blitz. When Tetsu left in May 2009, the band turned to current guitarist Tatsuya, who became an official member last December.

Please Please play a brand of melodic rock with strong hints of emo and melocore. Frontman Makoto possesses a goosebump-inducing, gravelly smoker’s voice that lends power and depth to the band’s sound—something which the other members believe helps them stand out in the Japanese music scene. “Most of the popular singers out there have these high, clear voices,” Joe explains. “We’re trying to get more people to recognize rough voices like his.”

“A lot of the stuff now just sounds the same,” adds Makoto. “The bands you see on TV have this really ‘pretty’ sound. But we’re completely different from that; if anything, we’re more like the kind of bands that were around ten years ago.”

One thing the members agree on is their goal of making it back to the Budokan—this time as headliners. “I haven’t been able to forget the view from that stage,” Tatsuya says. “It’s definitely something I want to see again.”

Pretty big words from a band that has yet to score a record deal. But then, that didn’t stop them the last time.

Please Please
Japanese melocore band with Grand Stand, The Parks and others. Sep 5, 4pm, ¥2,000 (adv)/¥2,500 (door). Club Quattro, Shibuya. Tel: Surprise Promotion 0570-00-3337. http://66.xmbs.jp/pleaseplease

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