It has never been easy for Japanese bands to find success both domestically and abroad. For the most part, they can muster notable attention on one side or the other, but rarely both — regardless of how many awkward English-language songs or cringe-worthy collaborations they attempt. However, tricot (pronounced tree-koh and spelled in lowercase) may have stumbled onto a winning strategy.

"In Japan, we've never really tried too hard to do promotion," Ikumi "Ikkyu" Nakajima, the rock trio's lead vocalist and guitarist tells The Japan Times. "We don't really try to make it look like we're some big group, we don't play ourselves up as larger than we actually are. And we had no idea we would get attention from overseas — we kept our expectations low."

Despite low expectations, tricot's music was noticed by overseas fans and critics online, and praise spread. The group — consisting of Nakajima, guitarist Motoko "Motifour" Kida and bassist Hiromi "Hirohiro" Sagane — has toured across Europe, North America and parts of Asia, while at home they've appeared at major summer festivals such as Rock In Japan. Recently, the trio penned a high-energy theme for Sion Sono's Amazon Prime series "Tokyo Vampire Hotel," and it doubles as the lead-off track to tricot's recently released album, "3." The full-length came out domestically via the band's own label, Bakuretsu Records, and through Big Scary Monsters (U.K.) and Topshelf Records (U.S.) abroad.