In an age where the traditional guitar-bass-drums-vocals setup of a rock band is being eschewed in favor of more stripped-down groups using laptops and synthesizers, at first glance Hysteric Picnic may seem like it's just another band following the trend.
The new wave/post-punk two-piece, which consists of vocalist Soh Oouchi and multi-instrumentalist Shigeki Yamashita (both men play guitar and synth), plays along to pre-recorded backing tracks and drum machines, just like a slew of other indie acts. But instead of propping up an expensive Macbook Pro running Ableton Live on stage, with the white Apple logo beaming brightly toward audiences, Hysteric Picnic goes for something a little less in vogue. The duo uses cassette tapes.
"We use cassettes for our live performances because we feel the dirty and muffled sound of analog fits our music more than the clear and transparent sound of digital," Oouchi says. "And we also think it's really lame to have a computer on stage."