The HEAVIER JAPAN was able to conduct a short interview with former EZO and FLATBACKER drummer Hirotsugu "Hiro" Homma who will be celebrating his 60th birthday at the HIRO FEST to take place this weekend at the CLUB CITTA in Kawasaki, Japan.
- Congratulations on your 60th birthday! Tell us about your upcoming HIRO FEST birthday show.
Hiro: Thank you! Well, when I looked back I realized that a lot of the bands I was in are not active anymore, and I never got to do any so-called anniversary shows either. For the first time I'm doing this sort of anniversary thing for my 60th birthday, and I wanted to organize the whole event from scratch on my own as well. So, I consider this my way of celebrating a milestone. First I wanted to perform something from all of the bands I have been part of, but I realized it's impossible to do that in just one night. I don't think I can physically cope with that either (laughs). So I decided to have some friends join me for that night. SEX MACHINEGUNS and UCHIKUBI-GOKUMON-DOKOUKAI will be performing as guests. Also on the bill I will have T.R.I, which is a session band that I play in. We do instrumental covers such as Cozy Powell, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, etc. I will also be performing with my current band NAKED MACHINE. And for this special occasion I will have ANCHANG from SEX MACHINEGUNS and Junko from UCHIKUBI-GOKUMON-DOKOUKAI, as well as Takenori Shimoyama from SABER TIGER as a special guest to join me for a special session band called FLASHBACKER. This will be a "flashback" of the good old days!
- What is your main band at the moment?
NAKED MACHINE is my current band and the band consists of members who are younger than myself and have less experience in the music scene. The band has one album out, and we just released a new 3 song maxi-single the other day. It's called "Monochrome Heart" and it just came out in October. We did a release gig with BLINDMAN at the Wildside Tokyo the other day and we had a great show with a full house. It was awesome. We really want to keep this good momentum going, so NAKED MACHINE performing at the HIRO FEST will be a great opportunity to play in front of a new audience.
- Tell us about your life in the US when you were with EZO.
Hiro: Prior to EZO making their debut in the US, there were bands like LOUDNESS and VOW WOW that performed outside Japan. But the difference with EZO was that we stopped all of our activities in Japan and relocated ourselves completely to New York. We were the first Japanese band to live in the States and make our debut there. It was the very first attempt as a Japanese band and definitely a challenge. Interestingly, once we started out in the States we didn't really consider ourselves a Japanese band in the US, but our mindset was more like that of a regular American band in the US. We looked at the other bands as rivals and we set the same goals as they did. We toured together with many bands back then...ARMORED SAINT, GREAT WHITE, SKID ROW, and a lot more. We shared the stage with so many bands, and that was a great inspiration for us. We had this positive rivalry with the other bands, and again we didn't consider ourselves as a foreign band, but as another rock band performing in the same scene. That was something that really kept us going.
- What bands did you enjoy touring with the most?
We played with SKID ROW once at the Ritz in New York, and I remember very well that they told me how they loved EZO. SKID ROW actually chose us to be their opening act for that show. I remember that show very well. Sebastian left the band and they have a different singer now, but I learned that they even recorded a cover version of EZO's "Fire Fire" a while ago. It's great to hear that they play our song after all these years.
- Was there anything you wanted to but were not able to accomplish during your stay in the States?
Hiro: The band breaking up was a pity since we did want to achieve bigger success as a band. We wanted to step up from club tours to playing opening act for stadium tours. We wanted to see the continuation of our dreams become reality. Honestly not being able to fulfill that was a pity.
- How do you view the future Japanese metal scene? We don't see any Japanese bands now that base themselves outside Japan like EZO did back then. Do you find it important for Japanese bands to be active outside Japan?
Hiro: We don't hear much about Japanese bands like EZO that relocated to the States to pursue their career in music. But in contrary, I feel that there is more attention towards Japanese bands from around the world now compared to when EZO was around. I really feel we're in a new generation now. People all over the world follow Japanese artists like BABYMETAL. Not only for metal, but also things like anime and even the Japanese culture as a whole. Back then, there wasn't as much attention towards Japan. I envy that in a way. It's a completely different age and method, but I think there is much more content being delivered from Japan to the rest of the world now. Of course, it's important for artists to get out there to the US or Europe to succeed worldwide, but you can also deliver information from Japan now. We have the internet and platforms such as YouTube allow people to spread information without leaving the country. We're in a completely different age and the methods of presenting yourself out to the world have changed completely.
- Please give a message to your fans around the world.
Hiro: I felt a culture shock when I relocated to the US, and I was able to learn a lot of things out there before returning to Japan. Things were more laid back in the States compared to how it was in Japan. In a similar way, I really would like people from outside Japan to engage more with Japanese music. There are a lot of great aspects in Japanese music, like the preciseness and details, which are features Japanese people are good at expressing. It's a different vibe from what you would find in the States and Europe. There are a lot of great bands here in Japan that have these essences that are so detailed. I would really like everyone to listen to these bands and enjoy more of Japanese music.
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