Inside Neon are a multicultural punk/metal band from Tokyo that just released their latest album, "If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us". Receiving the most press of their career so far lately, lead singer Rich Loffman took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with journalist Laurier Tiernan for Punk Globe.

Thank you for accepting to do this interview. I understand that you are an international band. Where are all the members of your band from?

I'm from the the city of Birmingham, which is the second largest city in England, Nat York (bass) is from Ireland. He actually has British-Irish heritage but grew up in Ireland. Chris (drums) is from Perth in Australia, and Teruhisa, we call him "Teru", (lead guitar) is from Nagasaki, here in Japan.

So there are four of you in the band?

Right. That's the official number. We started off as a three piece, and switched drummers early on in the band's inception, and Chris came on board three years ago. Chris, Nat and myself have been the core of the band. We tried out other guitarists along the way, then Teru came our way and stuck around. Now he's an official member of the band. At one point he was kind of like a session player for us because he was flip-flopping between us and another band (Remedy's Library) but Remedy's Library are finished now so he's free to be an official member of Inside Neon. We are now officially a four piece after having been a three piece for many years.

This next question's answer will be a bit long because you're going to have to answer it for all your members, but how did you all end up in Tokyo? Teru is actually come from Japan…

But he's not from Tokyo originally. He's from Nagasaki and came here for university.

How did the rest of you get here? Did you personally come here to teach English?

I did actually. This was in 1999, I was living in England at the time…trying to find something that would catch my interest, and saw Japan as an interesting place to go and maybe do a little bit of life discovery. Came here as an English teacher and did that for about 7.5 years, and the last 5 years I've been working as a trainer, so I train people to teach but I don't actually teach anymore. Nat…I don't think we've ever had that discussion, about how he ended up here. I know he was living in Spain, and he met his wife….

And she was Japanese…?

She's Japanese and she was learning Spanish, and I got the impression that that's why he came to Japan…but I've never really clarified it with him. It's gotten to the point, you know when you've known someone for a long time…

It's like the elephant in the room? No one wants to talk about why he was in Spain.

Right. Right. (Laughs) He was living in Spain, met his wife there, I'm sure he was living in Barcelona, came over with his wife…. Chris on the other hand is something of a mystery. He's at once very open and very closed. He'll talk about what he's feeling right now, but he doesn't really talk about his past. I know he's from Perth, and I know he came to Japan about 7 years ago, but beyond that…..AH! He was working as a chef…and he came to Japan just to have a new experience because he was tired of his job.

So the band's name, "Inside Neon", where did that come from?

A moment of inspiration. It's one of the most difficult things you can do, to come up with a band name. I had a short list, and it (Inside Neon) wasn't on the list. I was somewhere where there was a lot of neon, like Ginza, Kabukicho or Roppongi, and I wanted to use "neon". And I was thinking about bands like "Coldplay" and "Radiohead", and I was wondering, "What goes with 'neon'?" And anyone who's been to Tokyo will tell you that the whole city literally lights up at night, so you have a feeling of being INSIDE the neon. Also, I felt that it had the right amount of syllables. I didn't want to call the band "The Somethings" either. Pinpointing that moment where you came up with a name is sometimes difficult, but I had a shortlist, and "Inside Neon" wasn't on it. I'm glad I chose it though. I think it's a good name. The thing I've always said too is that even if every member were to leave, I'd still be "Inside Neon". So "Inside Neon" is interchangeable with "Rich Loffman".

Can you tell us precisely the names of the band members and their roles.

I'm Rich Loffmann on guitar and vocals, and I do most of the writing. Then there's Nat York, the bassist, who's very much into his Ibanez basses. He loves them. I guess what Nat brings to the band is passion. He's extremely passionate about music, especially hard and fast music. But he also has his own side project that's electronic and sample-based, so his wide appreciation of music has allowed Inside Neon to branch off in different directions. His and my appreciation of a wide spectrum of music has allowed us to not feel constrained to one genre. If he was only interested in punk and metal, our sound probably never would have evolved. Chris is also really interested in metal. In the 90's in Australia he was drumming for a progressive metal band called Retaliator that was really close to signing to Roadrunner Records, and when they split up they were recording an album. Chris is a really good drummer, and he's probably the best musician in the band. He's also a great songwriter in his own right, and has stuff up on Reverbnation. He keeps time incredibly well, and he's very expressive. He plays to my vocals, looking at what I'm singing, and with his fills he expresses what I'm feeling. It also makes us sound quite organic. Teru is a later addition to the band, he's only been with us for about 2 years. But what we've found is that having him in the band has allowed me more freedom, and he's a better guitarist than I am, so he fills things in much better. I've got a much more simple rhythmic playing, but he's much more versatile. I've got this beefy grunge style, and he's got more of a bluesy feel, which somehow works nicely together.

That kind of led into my next question quite well. The Inside Neon sound, the first album was called "The Introduction of Munk" (meaning a marriage of metal and punk), do you think that's still true of your sound today?

No. But that's not to say that we won't retain elements of that sound. I know that they say you shouldn't read your own press, but I've been reading things that people are saying about our new album, and people are calling it "progressive punk". I would say that this album represents a departure in our sound in the sense that we've introduced electronica and dance rhythms and beats that weren't there before, but I think we're still a punk band. There's still a rawness to it. For example, we will never add more than two guitars per track, which keeps things pretty raw, so if you stripped the electronic frills away, it would still sound punk rock. "Alternative rock", I guess, is the genre that we fit into. I don't know. Wait until the next record. Maybe after 3 records or so, we'll have a better idea of what genre we fit into.

Watching you on Reverbnation and other sites, I think I've seen that you also do solo work, can you please explain a bit about that?

My solo stuff is material that I think wouldn't be suited to Inside Neon. As you know yourself, as a fellow songwriter, the tap is always on. It's always dripping. And since I'm a fan of all kinds of music, from classical to hardcore punk, I don't want to limit myself to any specific genre. What I'm saying here is that some of the songs I write would not be suitable to the band, so I just keep them to myself.

And the name of that project is?

Rich Loffman.

So how do you enjoy living in Tokyo and what part of Tokyo are you all living in?

I actually don't live in Tokyo. I live in Yokohama, which some people say is just a suburb of Tokyo, which I find it quite insulting because it's a big city in its own right. I work in Tokyo though, so I spend a lot of time here. Inside Neon is basically based in Jiyugaoka, which is a really nice middle-class suburb in western Tokyo, close to Shibuya, and the reason we're based there is that Chris and Nat live there, so when we're rehearsing and recording, we're in two different studios in that area.

Where does Teru live?

Teru lives in Kawasaki, so the only time that we're all in Tokyo is when we're playing gigs.

How did you find your band mates and how long did it take to get rolling as a band.

I was in a band called MJ Ultra with the (present) producer of Inside Neon and I didn't really enjoy it, and I would often bring my guitar to work. Nat was working with me, noticed the guitar and said, "oh, you play guitar, nice!" So I asked him if he played guitar and he said, "No, I'm a bassist!" So everything was starting to fall together. I was writing a lot of songs and we found a drummer, and six months later we were gigging. Dave (our original drummer) left after a year, he had to go back to Scotland, but Nat was working with Chris at the time, and the rest is history.

Did you know any Japanese before you moved to Japan.

Nope. I knew two words: "Konnichiwa" and "Arigato".

Do you know the backstory in regards to that for the rest of the band members?

Nat was living with the woman who became his wife in Spain, so I imagine that he spoke some Japanese with her. Chris, I have no idea, and Teru is a native Japanese speaker.

Can you please tell me about your song "Tiny Black Star" from the new album? The reason I ask is because I've been listening to a lot of your material in the past few years, and I think that song is the greatest departure from your general sound.

That's a really good point. It's probably the first song that I wrote that was radically different from all of our other material. As I said, I don't just listen to hard heavy music, I listen to all kinds of music, and at the time I was listening to a lot of Coldplay, and at the time I was going through a tough time in my marriage. Things were pretty rough, and that song came out of that. It's a very personal song. Also, I always used to write my songs on electric, but I was reading at the time that for Green Day's album "Nimrod", Billie Joe Armstrong started writing on acoustic guitar for the first time, so I decided to try that; to try and use open chords instead of just power chords and riffs. When I presented it to the band for the first time they didn't like it. They thought it was too mellow, but it's turning out to be one of our most popular songs. This is actually the first time that I've said in an interview that this song is about my wife, so you've got an exclusive there. I got asked by other interviewers but I said I couldn't talk about it.

What are your favorite venues to play in Tokyo?

I'll give you my top 3. #3. Golden Egg. It's a shithole, but because it's such a shithole, your expectations are so low that you can just rock out. Also the stage is pretty big and their amps are pretty good, so you can have a good time. We always just kill it every time we play there. Actually, the last time we played there, Jonny Woodward from Melted said, "I think you hurt some people tonight". We just love playing that place. It's small and intimate. My second favorite venue in Tokyo would be Crawfish. I don't particularly like it as a live house, it's alright, but I love the vibe there. I love the scene, because it's part of the Tokyo scene. It's become a hub, hasn't it, for all the bands that we're friends with, and I feel really relaxed there because the owners are friendly and one of them is American. It's so welcoming. Very friendly. It's expensive…

How do you feel about the sound quality there?

Since they're taken (half of) the roof out, it's actually improved.

I actually really like the sound there.

I've played worse, definitely. It's definitely getting better. I've seen good and bad shows that we've played there…Number One?

Yes, I'm dying to know what you think is better than Crawfish for indie bands in Tokyo.

It's a place that we're going to be playing really soon called "Space With". It's in Iidabashi. It's the first place we ever played live in Tokyo.

Do they have a noruma system?

Yes, it's a pay-to-play venue. We played there twice, so January and March 2010; the first two "Tribal Rock" events that I organized. Tribal Rock vol.1 & vol.2. I just really like it. In terms of capacity it's only about as big as Crawfish, but they've got smoke machines and strobe lights. I LOVE STROBE LIGHTS!!! We had such great shows there, and I have a great fondness for it. So this February, here is an exclusive for you, we're going to be doing our 4th anniversary show there. February 23rd.

But it's not the 4th anniversary of Inside Neon?

No.

But it's your fourth anniversary of playing in Tokyo?

Yes. All the shows we've been putting on over the years have been called "Tribal Rock", that's been our branded shows, but now it's going to have a new name.

So you're leaving Tribal Rock behind?

It'll be "Tribal Rock Presents…." something else. (Laughs)

Okay, so new name, new attitude.

Exactly.

Do you get to open, or have you opened, for any bands touring from the UK or Australia or….

No! But that's something I'm really keen to do as well. I actually have connections, actually really good connections to people in the industry. The reason I've held back on doing it is because I don't think that we're quite ready as a band. It's not that I don't think we're good enough, it's just that I feel we need a little more….we need to cement our place in Japan a little more before that.

Has the band toured Japan yet?

Define toured.

Have you organized a string of shows that you called a tour?

YES! Last year! We had what we called our "Cold Sunshine" tour.

Was that your first tour?

Yes. In terms of having a collection of shows that were pre-organized, and everything was all set up. It was 9 shows spread out over 4 months where we had a definite plan of what we were trying to accomplish. Those shows were in Yokohama and Tokyo, etc.

The Kanto area.

Yeah.

And when you're traveling for shows in Japan, you're traveling by….

Bullet Train! Yeah, actually two of us drive in the band but um, we haven't really gotten down to tour buses yet.

And who wants to tour by car in Japan?

Exactly!

Could you please tell the readers of Punk Globe some names of Japanese bands, or just bands in Japan, that you and/or Inside Neon enjoy.

Oh, gosh, this is difficult, because I'm obviously going to forget somebody…Some feelings are going to get hurt along the way. Let me talk about Andrew Tyrone Rodgers. And the reason I talk about him is because he's been very central in terms of a lot of connections with all kinds of other bands. Andy's from England and he's a singer-songwriter. He plays kind of a whimsical folk-pop. Yeah. That pretty much sums it up. He's been very central in the scene because he's formed a lot of bands whose members have been in other bands, like Teru used to be in Andy's band "Remedy's Library", and the drummer Dan, is in another band that I'm going to mention in a minute. He (Andrew) is a fantastic musician and a great guy. He organizes "Iro Iro", which is his event night that he puts on all over the place. Great musician and fantastic songwriter. He's someone whom I really feel deserves a leg up as far as success is concerned. Second, linking into Andrew's band Remedy's Library, is their drummer Dan who now plays for Sorcha. "Sorcha and the Sinners". We, collectively, as a band (Inside Neon) LOVE Sorcha, and we love her band. She actually appears on our new album, on a track called "Losing Gravity" and she's fantastic. Great girl. Fantastic vocalist, and she had an album that just came out around the same time as ours, so we did some cross-pollination in terms of promotion. Again, she's another person who deserves a lot more success. She's got the same vibe as someone like PJ Harvey, a little Joan Jett, and maybe a little Breeders. Finally, our number one favorite band from the Tokyo scene is "Sawas Phool", and the reason I mention them is that they're the band that we've played with the most. I don't know how that happened but it's true.

: Well, you guys are not so different from each other.

No, no, and I think that's why we feel so comfortable playing together. What can sometimes happen is that the scene is so diverse that you can get folk-rock bands and indie-rock and garage-rock but…(the) pure kind of hard rock alternative bands within our scene there aren't so many bands. I could probably think of 4 or 5 off the top of my head that are pure. Sawa's a wonderful girl, and Zizi's a great guitarist, and we'll probably invite them to play with us again in the near future. Not the show in February, because that will be different, but maybe in the spring, and it will probably be at the Crawfish.

Do you think there are any bands that your band members would recommend?

We really enjoyed playing with "Tits Tats and Whiskers". They're a fairly new band, but then again they have a similar vibe to us. Hard rocking. They're still working on their sound, but they're very upcoming. Great guys as well. Do you know them?

I don't really know them at all. I don't really…they're…yeah…it's just the way it is.

Yeah, right. But they're really good guys. Very friendly. I'm TRYING not to mention the two obvious bands.

They've probably gotten enough press and airplay as it is, like Nirvana? (Laughs)

Yeah.

Can you please give our readers the main url's for your web presence?

Cool. The central hub is http://www.insideneon.com

And you're on Reverbnation.com?

Yes. http://www.reverbnation.com/insideneon

And you have a Facebook page?

Yeah. http://www.facebook.com/insideneon. And twitter. http://twitter.com/insideneon

What was your biggest culture shock when you came to Japan?

Gosh. Biggest culture shock? It's the first time you've flummoxed me in this interview. I guess it was the food. I was shocked by not being able to find the foods that I had eaten for the first 30 years of my life.

Do you miss….

Not anymore. Actually, I had reverse culture shock last time I went back to England, like, "What's this greasy dodgy stuff you guys are eating? Where are the vegetables? Where's the nutrition?" One of the things I've been very thankful of, about living in this country, is that I feel like I eat so much more healthily than I ever did back home. Fish, tofu, fresh vegetables. We have a very strict rule in my house that every meal has to have at least 7 different kinds of vegetables. Yeah. I've got children, so I want to make sure that my children eat properly. I see these reports on the BBC about how the kids in the UK won't eat fruit and vegetables, and I'm like, "What do you mean they WON'T EAT IT?" It's the way you raise your kids, isn't it? You have to raise them to eat healthily. My children don't ever balk at eating vegetables and I think that's really important. I've actually lost a lot of weight since I've come to Japan, because of that. I used to be a lot heavier.

What are some of your favorite things about Japan, or about living in Japan?

One of the things that instantly springs to mind and is one of the reasons I left England, is that Japan is really really safe. I feel safe walking around here at night. I was actually assaulted a few times in my mid 20s in England, even just at times like walking home from my local pub. There's definitely a streak of meaningless or random violence. It's something I find difficult to comprehend, these kids having fun causing random violence and random destruction. You don't see that in Japan. Everywhere's really safe. You can walk around somewhere like Kabukicho, which must be the seediest place in Tokyo at night, and feel safe, even by yourself.

Actually, people are friendly down there.

Exactly. I've never felt intimidated. So the safety aspect…it's comfortable to live in Tokyo. The public transport is fantastic. I think a lot of countries around the world and a lot of cities can learn a lot from Tokyo. And the food, as I mentioned before. Eating here is fantastic. Literally any day of the week, any time of day, you can eat fantastic food.

Yeah, Tokyo got more Michelin stars than Paris, I think it was last year.

Exactly, right? And I say any time of the day, and just counting around where I work in central Tokyo, there are so many amazing restaurants. Yeah, Tokyo's a big hustling city and you've got all the amenities that you'd expect from an international hub, but also it's also really easy to get out of the city and see the countryside. You go the mountainous areas or the coastal areas, and it's gorgeous. It really is beautiful. It's a beautiful country. I've enjoyed traveling around Japan, places like Nagano, and Gunma and Fukushima, just beautiful beautiful countryside.

Do you have any words of advice for bands wanting to come play shows in Japan?

I think if you're coming over to Japan, know what you're getting into.

Because it's not 1977 anymore.

No. No. You're going to have to pay to play if you want to play in a decent venue. You're going to have to bring plenty of money, because Japan is not a cheap country by any stretch of the imagination. If you're going to play shows in Tokyo, you're going to have to book months ahead, and know what you're getting into, basically. You're probably not going to get paid if you're an unknown band in Japan. Expect that. Don't expect people to be throwing down 100,000 yen (approx. 1250 USD) or whatever after you played your show. It's not going to happen. Right? My suggestion would be if you want to come over and play in Japan, get in touch with one of the local bands in the scene here, contact us, and we'll let you know. We'll probably let you join one of our bills or something like that.

Very hospitable of you.

Yeah, well, there've been a few examples of bands who've come over from Australia and a couple of other places, and joined our shows. Like Chris Gorman, a Scottish singer-songwriter who joined us earlier this year, came over from Scotland and did some shows with us. It is possible. Bands can come here and perform. You've just got to book everything well in advance. Don't just show up with your guitar expecting to play here.

Did you play shows in the UK before you lived in Japan and, if so, what do you feel is the difference between the two experiences?

One main difference I've found is the level of enthusiasm of the crowds. At the shows I played in England it was always difficult to get people up for it. People used to just stand there with their arms folded, expecting to be entertained. Whereas here, in the shows that we've played at least, I've found that the audiences are just up for having a good time, and they're more accommodating even if you're not that great as a live band, and people are warm in their responses to you. The main obvious difference is that you'll get paid in England, and here you won't unless you bring a certain number of people through the door.

Do you have any plans to take Inside Neon to the U.S. or Canada, etc,?

I'd love to. It's just a matter of finding the backing to do it, right?

But no plans?

No. Our strategy for next year is to play fewer shows, but they'll be bigger events. The plan is to play some of the major festivals (here in Japan).

You've just released this brand new album, "If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us". This title, is it a poke at people with a Bush-like mentality.

No. No.

It's funny, because it's almost a direct quote.

No. This was more of a reaction to people's reaction to us as a band.

Oh, wow! So maybe Inside Neon is a love/hate thing?

Yeah! I felt that there were a lot of people….how can I put this? We're a lot heavier than a lot of our contemporaries. We're a lot noisier and a lot rowdier, and I got the feeling from some people that came to see us that they didn't appreciate that side of us. Some people did, and some people didn't. So this title was almost a rallying cry, like, "If you don't like us….F**K OFF!!!".

So it's not making fun of people like George Bush. It's actually a personal feeling of…

It's actually a personal feeling of mine!!!

So you'd like to tour overseas but the immediate plan is to play bigger festivals here first?

Yeah, to cement ourselves here first.

You've just released this album, "If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us" but do you have any set plans already to record any new material soon… Okay, do you want to share a bit of what that will be about?

Sure, of course! When I was recording the songs for this album, there were about 10 more that we rehearsed but didn't make it onto this record. So some of those songs will make it onto the next record. We really enjoyed the experience for this album with songs like "Soviets" and "Cold Sunshine", "Faith and Time", taking electronic elements and fusing that into the band, but what we've decided is for the next album we want to go a bit heavier. It's not a step backwards because I feel I've matured as a songwriter, so the new stuff will still be melodic, just heavier melodic. So the next album we'll start working on over the course of 2013. We're hoping for a late-2013 release.

The last track "Buried Alive" is very gentle and, if I remember well, it has keyboards and piano, and stings…There's a bit of a music journalist cliché, that the way a band ends an album gives hints as to the direction of the next album, but for you that's not necessarily true?

Um…Yes and no actually. I'm always thinking of how the next album is going to be and, I've already written some songs. There's a motif on this (current) album…a musical motif…."Cosmonaut" and "Buried Alive" have the same piano line in it, and for the next album I'm going to take a similar approach to it, where it won't be a piano line, it'll be an acoustic guitar. So in a way you're right, not exactly but yeah, sure. They're will definitely be a motif there that's similar to that, in the way that it will be more of a concept album. This (If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us) is kind of a concept album as well, but it will be even more so. You'll hear the same guitar motif throughout the album or…yeah. We're still working on it, right, so I don't want to say too much. But yeah, definitely with this album "Buried Alive" is something I wrote, probably before most of the rest of the material on this album.

"Go Kitano!" from the new album "If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us"…isn't Kitano a media personality in Japan?

Yeah.

Is it about him?

No. I wanted to chose a name that everyone recognizes because the song is about all Japanese people. I wanted to chose a Japanese name that is recognizable to people abroad as well, because everyone knows Takeshi Kitano, even if you're in the UK or America, or whatever. This song was written about my experiences after the 2011 earthquake. It came from my feelings towards the earthquake, and the people around me. I wanted to give a motivational, "Go! Go Japan!". So rather than call it "Go Japan!" I chose the name Kitano, a name that all people abroad would associate with Japanese people.

Thank you very much for doing this interview with Punk Globe, Rich. Do you have any last words for our readers?

Yes. Please check out our stuff . Please check out our (new) album. Check out our stuff online. Please. Please Please. Please. Please. Please. You can put all those "pleases" in there. We'd love to hear from bands in the L.A. circuit that are keen to come over to play shows in Japan. Let's set up some gigs. If you've got the time, money and inclination…get yourself over to Tokyo. Japanese kids love American music. You'd go down well here. There are some great places to play. So, get yourselves over here. Set up a show with Inside Neon. It would be great to have us on the bill.

How would you like them to contact you?

They can contact us through Facebook. What's that new function…the message system where you can message a band through their Facebook page? We've already had a few bands contact us that way and it works well.

Thank you very much for this interview, Rich.

Thank you, man.

Punk Globe would like to thank Laurier Tiernan and Rich Loffman for this interview, and encourages the readers of Punk Globe to check out rising "punkstars" Inside Neon via their various urls.