Osaka's 8otto have a new album, a new label and a new mindset.
The garage-rock/postpunk quartet's first three albums (2006's "We Do Viberation," 2007's "Real" and 2008's "Hyper, Hyp8r, Hyper") came out through BMG Japan (and are now housed on Sony subsidiary Ariola Japan after Sony's acquisition of BMG). Wanting more creative freedom, 8otto (the "8" is silent) signed with the smaller imprint Lively Up for the release of their fourth full-length, March's "Ashes to Ashes."
"We thought that we didn't really need to work with Sony anymore," says bassist Youki Toraoka (who uses the stage name "Tora"). "It wasn't an issue between the label and us. It's a very good label and we still have friends there. The issue was whether playing music was still fun or not. We wanted to make things fun again. Now we're enjoying playing music much more."