Exploring Cinema Pop: NSTINDANCETON
The music quartet NSTINDANCETON is bringing a new sound called “Cinema Pop” to the music industry. They’re a group of singer-songwriters that individually possess unique talents (playwriting, singing, styling, and conceptualizing). When combined, they make a truly dynamic band. Their mission is to bring Cinema Pop to an international level and play all around the world. Read the interview about the ambitious quartet below:
Can you start with a brief introduction to NSTINDANCETON?
Charlie: We are a quartet consisting of myself, Keaton, Robin and Harold. We’re all vocalists and play instruments as well. Originally, Keaton and I were friends from junior high school. My sister Harold joined later, followed by Robin who I used to sing with in college. All the guys are 24-years-old, and Harold is 22-years-old. I’m the leader of the team.
Where did the unique name NSTINDANCETON come from?
Charlie: We came up the idea by making up a word that starts with “NS” (Japanese words never start with NS), so that we could stand out. Back then, Keaton had never been in a relationship, so we wanted to put his favorite actress Kirsten Dunst into our group name.
Keaton: She starred in Spider Man.
Charlie: She isn’t super pretty, but she’s cuter when you get familiar with her. Then we changed the sound a little bit, and created NSTINDANCETON.
How about your individual names?
Charlie: Charlie, Keaton and Harold were taken from the most popular comedy film actors in the U.S.: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.
Harold: We love entertainment and making people laugh, so we decided to use those names.
Charlie: Robin came from Robin Williams.
Can you explain the idea behind Cinema Pop?
Charlie: There is a place and setting for every film. Actors make the place and setting real with their performances. If the actors change, the movie changes as well. Our songs have stories and settings too, and we combine our composition and performances into the songs and create a new sound. We call this sound, Cinema Pop. We think there is a lot of possibility in this style to create new worlds, and we want to bring our listeners into these worlds.
For example, we made a song based on a story about “an island where birthdays happen everyday.” We even wrote a detailed story. We combined the setting and our performance together and named it “Birthday Town.” The setting could be made for a book, movie or even into a comedy. We always collaborate with something and create music. Other musicians might do this subconsciously but we focus on this process a lot.
What’s your specific process of making music?
Charlie: Keaton makes a story and writes a script. That’s why he is also a playwright.
Keaton: I make the foundation and we build music from it.
Charlie: We can all compose and write lyrics. Actually, Harold is the best at this. So after we get the story, we just add more ideas and create something new.
“Our ultimate goal is to make a ship that looks like a music dome … This is our collective dream.”
Can you tell us each individual’s field of expertise, starting with Robin?
Charlie: He loves making and singing songs and is in charge of directing the group’s vocals. He is also good at sales promotion and negotiation. He even goes out, sings and sells CDs by himself.
Harold: He’s cheerful and makes friends very quickly.
Robin: I’m a people person. I even go to elementary schools and nursing homes to sing and make songs with kids. When I traveled to Goto Islands to get my driver’s license, I made friends with the locals and performed at cafés and the high school. I’m also obsessed with fashion, so I do styling for the group too. Similar to a professional stylist, I shop at stores, or make clothes myself. I really like O.N.S and I worked at the Harajuku Store for 4 years as a sales assistant. I did the styling for today’s shoot as well.
How about Harold, Keaton and Charlie?
Robin: Harold has a very artistic mind and she’s sensitive. She is amazing at writing lyrics.
Charlie: She’s also good at composing music. She researches hard and observes lyrics from Japanese pop music carefully to analyze why they’re so popular.
Harold: I’ve liked listening to lyrics since I was little. I always thought about the differences between the lyrics of Miyuki Nakajima and Yumi Matsutoya when I listened to them in the car. I started analyzing lyrics and writing all of them in notebooks. Now I’ve developed 5 categories for Japanese pop music and I write lyrics based on the categories. It’s difficult, but fun.
Charlie: Keaton is good at conceptualizing stories for the music, so he writes scripts for us.
Keaton: I’ve always liked books and movies and I write stories inspired by my favorite ones. I have written over 100 books now.
Harold: Each one is a short story, but they’re extremely interesting.
Charlie: He can apply various literary techniques. One story could be a novel, and the other could be like an interview. That allows us to have many kinds of worlds.
Keaton: I liked reading books, and I got several awards for essays and poems when I was a kid.
Charlie: I like coming up with new ideas. I used to invent new plays for my friends.
Robin: We were both in the same music club in college. Every year we had a concert for an audience of 200. The one he arranged was the most popular, his idea was extraordinary and extremely fascinating.
Charlie: We have specialists for singing, fashion, lyrics, and conceptualizing, and I manage all of them. Each one of us has a unique talent and we integrate each other’s talents to create. This is how NSTINDANCETON works.
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What’s is your biggest goal as NSTINDANCETON?
Charlie: Our ultimate goal is to make a ship that looks like a music dome. It will be a ship where we play music, while other entertainment activities are going on. This is our collective dream. It’ll be like putting Disneyland on the sea. We want to achieve this goal by the time we’re 45. Till then, we want to become notable artists so we can make that dream happen. We are working hard so please stay tune.
See the NSTINDANCETON website here:
Check out their Soundcloud page here.
NSTINDANCETON performs live in Shibuya on June 10th.
Photo by Yosuke Suzuki（Erz）
Original text by Akihiro Tajima
If you liked this story, check out more in our Urban Transplants issue.
