"The wonderful thing about being solo is that you can do whatever you like, without asking anyone's opinion — that's fun. But as a band there's camaraderie and you share a common goal. I never get fed up because I can do both."
So says Tomoko Kawase — and she should know. Rising to fame in the mid 1990s as singer with The Brilliant Green, Kawase also enjoys a thoroughly schizophrenic solo career as disco queen Tommy February6 and rock chick Tommy Heavenly6, both of whom found massive success in the noughties. So much success, in fact, that The Brilliant Green were sidelined into an unintentional hiatus from which they are only now properly returning.
"February and Heavenly were about the bright side and the dark side; the sweet dream and the nightmare," explains Kawase. "The concept is like a dream world. But it's not like I'm being totally 'normal' when I'm in The Brilliant Green either — it's a world unto itself."