endzweck



I'm really amazed by "The Grapes Of Wrath" and I was wondering if the title has anything to do with the novel by John Steinbeck, which has the same name is about the depression in the 1930s.

yoshi: Yes, I named it from the novel. I used to read England and American litterature in my university, and I like those works called "Lost Generation" (Faulkner and Hemingway). Steinbeck is a little bit later, though. Our lyrics themselves are not really connected to the novel, but I just like the human senses written in the novel, like constructive thoughts, positivity, and optimism.

At the moment there's another depression and at least in Europe people are afraid to lose their jobs, especially if they work in the automobile industry. What effects do you see in Japan?

yoshi: So in japan, too. It's said to be a "once in a hundred year" panic. uchuu: Now we can hear such kind of news everyday, like millions of workers were hired in car industry. takashi: Yes, it's so severe at the moment. Until a few days ago we had a camp in the park, centre of Tokyo, for homeless people that lost their jobs from this depression. It was like refugee camp.

What jobs do you have and is it true that Japanese people have to work 6/7 days a week and 10 hours a day?

yoshi: I work in a bookstore. I'm the head of the store, so I work 9 to 10 hours a day, and day off is only once in a week. But it's not hard for me, 'cuz my job itself is not so difficult, haha. uchuu: I'm running a small company. While managing label, I'm also doing press of CD and DVD. And recently, I've started print of t-shirts. Please order to me when you need, haha. yama: Many japanese do work such long hours in fact. We japanese tend to think that spare time as bad thing, I mean, our value of the 'significant time' is different from other countries. I myself work in a vegetalian cafe in Tokyo. In Japan, the restaurants for vegetalian are very rare, almost inexistant, so if you come here and have difficulties to find good vegetalian food, please come to my cafe, "Eat More Greens". takashi: I'm doing computer programming and I usually stay in the office about 12 hours a day. During the last year I studied in graduate school, so I used to work from 9am to 6pm, and then go to school at night. Now I've already earned almost all credits, so I will return to 12 hours working. But I've set aside Saturday and Sunday offs for my band and my wife.



Are you already working on new material and when can we expect a new record? Is there a general paradigm you dicuss with the new record?

yoshi: At first, we will release a 4-way-split cd with 3 japanese bands. Those bands, besides Endzweck, are very 'rock' bands. The songs for this were already recorded in February. And we also recorded some songs for a compilation cd in last January. The cd will be out in some days. We have no plan for our next record at this moment.

What topics do you talk about in your songs and which things should the lyric reader think about after listening to your record?

takashi: I write about my everyday thoughts, generally about 'despair'. Focusing on someone, a person and how he/she look like happy objectively. However, if he/she despair of his/her future, he/she could not live life after all. The key of our life is how to feel happiness and how to overcome the despair. On the other hand, focusing on the whole human, I mean people, society, and substantial cases of the world,anti-war, and anti-racial discrimination. How to face those problems? When our listeners face a big problem, I hope they have the power to believe in themselves, not throwing up their hands, but believing 'i can solve it, definitely'.

How come you have a German name and what is the story behind it?

takashi: I loved to play in my father's study room in my childhood. My father once studied philosophy in his university. He's kind of strange, and he used to give me some philosophical questions to just kid me. Thanks to him, I myself used to think what is the meaning of life?" and often read his philosophical books. Immanuel Kant, the philosopher, thought about "what are there ahead of human reason and morality?". And in his argument, the word "Endzweck" was used.

What other bands or label from Japan should people give a chance?

yoshi: ummmmm, too many to count! Please check the 'top friends' on my myspace page. uchuu: I'm managing a label, so I feel keenly that lotta more bands should get chances. Anyone who reads this interview, please dig, like from friends search of myspace. yama: The drummer(uchuu)'s label "Cosmic Note" releases a lot of nice bands' material, covering various genres, from young to leading bands. And while calling in foreign bands to Japan, "Alliance Trax" also releases good records in cooperation with "Deathwish Japan".



Is it hard for you to find places to play and how do the preparations for a show and the show itself differ when you are not playing in Japan. Is there something different when you play shows in other countries?

uchuu: Luckily, all our foreign shows were booked by our friends that live there, so we don't need to find places to play in overseas. Even in Japan, when we go somewhere far from Tokyo, we find some differences there, not only in their lifestyle, but also in the way of holding a show. The ways of foreign contries are totally different from our country, so it always pleases us really. I hope to take good parts out of it and bring them back to Japan to make the best use of them. yama: I feel some differences in people's reaction to our show in other countries countries. In Japan, kids tend to wait until someone to do the mosh, on the other hand, in America, kids do not care about others, you know, he'll dance, even though he might be the only one.

You tour a lot and have many labels which distribute your stuff, when can we see you in Europe again and where can people get your records?

yoshi: We are afraid but we do not have any plans of touring Europe at the moment. We got very our nice friends in "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" on our last european tour, so we wanna tour together with them again! And also I wanna play in the countries we could not play last time. It's difficult to buy our cd’s from overseas (except THE GRAPES OF WRATH (on I For Us) and STRANGELOVE (on Goodlife). I hope they will be available easier one day... I'll let you know when it work, anyway. Thank you for the interview! uchuu: I'm very glad that we tour Europe, it was so much fun. I want to go back again right now! But regarding our job schedules, it's best possible to tour overseas once a year. Now I'm making a website where foreign people could access and buy our cd’s and merchandises. It will be completed by this year, I hope. takashi: If you want to get our cds, ask your local record shops or the friends doing distribution. Otherwise, use web distribution, please. If still you can't...amazon.com. Umm, but japanese cd’s are very expensive. Contact I For Us Records, anyway!