I really think the young people of this age are so lucky, because it's possible for them to taste many kinds of sounds freely after they first meet Rock'n'Roll, without any chains of the world. Although I'm still a 27 year-old inexperienced guy, I can say confidently that the world which surrounds Rock'n'Roll listeners has been changed a lot in these last 10 years.
You may laugh at what I'm going to say, but the very thing which I was most excited about when I came to Tokyo to enter university, was that I would be able to go to Tower Records everyday. They had just arranged the CDs department at that time, and my top interest was when the records which I used to listen to and learn a lot from music mags and radio were pressed out on CDs. After that, a lot of records which were popular but in out of stock were pressed out CDs and they filled the blanks of my own Rock'n'Roll chronological table little by little, and I was thinking "Tokyo is such a great city!"
As time went by, too many kinds of bands or musicians music came out in the CD department, and it became more difficult for me to buy all of the ones which I was interested in. And this fact made me think to myself like this, "We have too many songs and CDs which weren't given enough air time to the listeners in Japan, don't we?" I'm not saying that the minor music groups are better than major ones. I've just realized the fact that there are so many musical works which have qualities all their own but are unknown and not released in Japan. Around that time, my own Rock'n'Roll theory started to collapse. My sense of value had been changed a lot through this. I mean, these stereo-typed thoughts such as, first you have to listen to the Beatles if you want to start your music life, or you should listen to this before listening to that, I realized that the policy which I used to believe in was just meaningless respect.
What I want to say is that the young people of this age may not be even going through this sucky process at all to get into music. Once they decide to listen to Rock music, they can find any of those sounds which are from the 60's to the 90's at any large record shops. All they have to do is just go to the listening booth and nose out their kind of music. Although their CD racks may look like having a ridiculous line up from older listeners' points of view, today's kids have just enough circumstances from where they can build their own music world. And no one can step into their sense of value and tell them different. The reason why I'm writing these things is because we often have the situation that the listeners have already known about the bands or music before we give them information about new stuff. The information which comes and goes between them moves so quickly and it makes me think the age where we don't have to rely on TVs or radio is coming. I think that's why new comers from the UK or the US have become popular earlier in Japan than in their own countries.
And this band, Out Of My Hair, is also one which lit the fires of today's listeners. The smash hit of their single CD "Mister Jones", recorded NO.1 CD single sales of the year, crashed the top topic in Japan in late 1995's, Blur vs. Oasis. That news came as a thunderbolt to the Japanese music world. Fortunately I had already bought that CD at that time, but other staff of RCA Japan were too late to find it and unfortunately they couldn't get one. How tremendous it is!! It was so rare in those days that a CD of that kind recorded such a big amount of sales. To tell you the truth, I listened again to that CD carefully after that news.
Well, the information about them which I've got so far is this. The front man, Comfort(Vo), was singing to his own guitar accompaniment in 1991, London. Gradually his friends started to join and became a band. Two years later, they broke up the band once and in 1993, Kenny(Dr), Sean(G), John(B) joined and settled on current Out Of My Hair. The basis of the band is a guitar accompaniment, their acoustic sound has its own unique sense. Sounds of sorrow and fragility, but having an openness as well...I think this is the real ability which attracts people. Like you can tell as you listen to their music, the sound which has grown by interplay between each member is really polished up and has a high quality. It would be more exact to say that their sound is a sublimation of the world of Comfort which he built in his mind almost perfectly. Although it seems like it has a one-man style appearance, his sound has the warmth of humanity somehow. In fact, my image of him was a kind of monomaniac person like Brian Wilson at first. But in fact, he may has a poetic mentality like Don Juan. Because I can't imagine any pictures of realistic things from his sound, for example the process of how CDs are pressed out, the level meter of the PA system, or the atmosphere of the studio. It's hard to say, but I feel a naturalness through his sound, as if I'm in a forest and laying in a hammock.
Well, I wonder if it's just irrelevant or not, but anyway, this man is quite interesting. For example, I heard that his name "Comfort" is the one which came to his mind suddenly during on interview and so he changed his name to it. And if once he starts to talk about the image of the band, he goes like, "Well, let's say that I'm in a room with a lot of people and laughing... but I don't try to assimilate them, just keep myself to myself...Then, suddenly someone passes by in front of me, and in that moment, a true bond would be born between us, and then..." I know how it shows his narcissism as he's expanding his image of a dream. On the other hand, he says, "My goal is to get No.1 in the CD chart. And all people of this world would start to love this band." I really want to talk with and ask him a lot! In Japan, their CDs such as "Mister Jones" and "In the Groove Again" are sold out and out of stock. As a result, their debut Album "Drop The Roof" had been released in Japan 2 months earlier than in UK! I've rarely heard this kind of situation.
Out Of My Hair, the band which attracted lots of listeners who were seeking the one and only type of music according to their sense. It's obvious that this band is sending out such universal lights. I've never been to their shows, but I heard that Comfort has such a charismatic power on stage. I can't wait to see them and find out how magical and awesome their show is...!!
Hiroaki Tanaka/ the editor of Rockin' On
October, 1995
~Big thanks goes out to fellow OOMH fan, Yuiko, for taking the time to translate this liner note!
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