Upon being reminded that this year marks rock band Shonen Knife's 35th anniversary, singer and guitarist Naoko Yamano just smiles and shrugs.
"It has been so many years now, I can't keep count," she says with a laugh. "Fixating on anniversaries isn't very rock 'n' roll, so I try not to. We made short-term plans, worked day by day and didn't plan too much and before we knew it, 30-plus years had gone by. It never crossed our minds when we started that we'd be doing this for a long time ... or quitting."
The ease with which Naoko talks about being a rock star is perhaps Shonen Knife's most endearing quality. There has always been an effortless quality to the band's music. Naoko and her bandmates, bassist and sister Atsuko Yamano and new drummer Risa Kawano, aren't into rock 'n' roll for fame and fortune; they're a band because that's just what they do.