GLR interview

On the eve of the launch of his eponymous first CD album in November 1994, Saiichi appeared on the BBC GLR 94.9, played an acoustic rendition of Crossroads and spoke with Diana Luke, the BBC presenter, about his background and the album. The interview gave an insight into Saiichi's music and is reproduced here in full.

a sampling of the entire interview

TO HEAR THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW, WHICH INCLUDES AN ACOUSTIC VERSION OF 'CROSSROADS,' CLICK HERE
(recommended for dsl @ 500 bps connections only...not suitable for dial-up...it will take too long to stream)

Diana Luke

DL - Now, usually when we think of blues, we head towards America, be it Chicago, Texas or Louisiana; but today's live music comes from a blues singer/songwriter who originated in Tokyo. Saiichi Sugiyama continues the story: Now it's one of those things...Tokyo and the blues, you know, you wonder 'does it really come together?' How did you ever get into the blues in Tokyo?

SS - Well, Tokyo is a bit of a cosmopolitan city and you get a plentiful supply of all varieties of music. When I was in Tokyo back in the early seventies, there was plenty of B.B.King, Albert King, stuff like that around and that was what I was really keen on.

DL - You had your own band when you were fifteen. Did you find that your peers were saying "Hey, come on, we are not really playing this kind of music"?

SS - No. In fact, there were loads of people who were trying to emulate...well...but probably that was much more to do with British and American rock music at the time. So, I was a bit of an odd man out in the sense that I was trying to get closer to the roots of it all, closer to the blues, which was, yes, regarded as slightly eccentric...in that sense.

DL - But why not? If you like the music, you stick with it. Then you came over to London when you were twenty. Why did you decide on London?

SS - There were a couple of reasons for that. At the time I was keen on the songwriting side of things. I thought that 'I have to go to London to see where the Beatles started,' which was not so much about the blues, but that is another side of me which comes out in the album as well. And obviously I was mad keen on Cream and other bluesy things that were going on here in the seventies. So, all that brought me to London.

DL - Did you find that when people heard the name and then heard that you were playing blues, they were confused?

SS - Yes. I must say, (laughs) to start off with, it was quite a thing. At some venue that I rang trying to organise a gig, I overheard "er...I think this is a joke, but there is a guy called Saiichi something or other who claims to play blues.." (laughs)

DL - You had to learn to keep a sense of humour in hand, I should think. Let's have some live music now. What would you like to start with?

SS - I would like to play my version of Crossroads.

DL - Okay.

[Crossroads solo acoustic version]

DL - Crossroads. That was Saiichi Sugiyama and he's got a new album out. It's quite simply, his own name. It's on Blue Water label and this is the first track on it.

[Somewhere Down the Road - the album version]

DL - That's Somewhere Down the Road, the first track from the album. Now, how many these are your own composition?

SS - I think seven tracks out of the eleven are mine.

DL - You've been pretty busy then?

SS - Yes, it took me a long time, actually, to write all of them. I started... I think the first one that I wrote goes back to nineteen..., well, I'm not gonna say when, but when I was about eight.

DL - Which one was that?

SS - I wrote a song, well, I made-up a song and that one was used for a song called Pretty Tanya. A couple of verses there actually came from that period.

DL - My God, you were really young! Eight-years-old when you started writing. That's quite extraordinary.

DL - Okay, so you can be seen tonight at the Cornet in Clapham tonight on stage at 9 o'clock and on Wednesday at the Paradise Bar in Kensal Green once again at 9 o'clock and the album is out on Wednesday. Well, I wish you best of luck, Saiichi.

SS- Thank you.

DL - I'll have one more track off the album now. It's on Blue Water Records available on Wednesday and you can go along and see Saiichi either at the Cornet tonight on stage at nine or Wednesday at the Paradise Bar. And this next track is Magic Wand. How old were you with this one?

SS - I was...um...I'm not gonna say how old, but it was this year, that song(laughs).

DL - (laughs) Oh, it was. Oh, you've got a problem with your age, have you? When you get to my age, you forget all about that...