take me apart

capsule in H magazine vol. 60 (April 2003)

“We had a computer in the house before the average family could afford them and when I look through old photos, there are tons of me sitting in front of it. I was a scary kid, always looking at a black screen with green-colored text.” The person who said this is Nakata Yasutaka, who handles everything from sound production to artwork for his unit capsule alongside vocalist Koshijima Toshiko. Having spent his boyhood surrounded by machines, it was only natural that he became fascinated with technology, and by his junior high years he first started recording at home by combining his long-studied piano skills with his computer hobby. “Instead of being inspired by artists, I started making music because of computers, so in that sense I have more reverence for scientists, like Edison and so on (laughs).” Because of this background, he appears to be very unfamiliar with music, but capsule’s second album CUTIE CINEMA REPLAY, due to be released in March, is filled with diverse influences ranging from French music, to bossa nova, breakbeats, electronica and more. As its title suggests, it’s like the soundtrack to a cute and kitschy ‘70s French film. “I started getting into interior design towards the end of high school. As I get closer to how I want my place to look, the music I want to listen to in my apartment has changed, resulting in the sound on this album. I was trying to create songs that would make me only think of nice things while I’m in my house. Kind of like escaping from reality (laughs).” Does that mean the album’s visuals are inspired from old European movies that had lots of cute interior décor? “I do really like that kind of stuff, but I don’t know anything about it; to me, it’s just fashionable. The film that’s influenced me the most is Laputa: Castle in the Sky (laughs). I like vintage computers, right? So I was looking at the back of the DVD case for that movie recently and I realized why I like it so much. 'A tale from an age when machines still enjoyed being machines’ was written there. During the intro sequence, there are a bunch of objects from Laputa flying around, and then a scene later on where they fall. I like that sort of dreamy yet realistic world.”

Discs (And a Book) I Picked Out for Their Designs by Nakata Yasutaka from MARQUEE vol.40, translated by ystk-archive

Left to right: ABC Song, Second-Hand-Dreams by Messer für Frau Müller, Golgo 13 Vol. 9 “Headhunter” by Saitou Takao

My favorite song by CAPSULE is…

There are several I’m quite fond of, but I listen to “Retro Memory” particularly often, and it’s on my driving playlist. During the winters in England it gets dark and gloomy at around four o’clock in the afternoon, but this song comforts me as I go home. It’s a song that can bring everyone a little joy.

A few words for CAPSULE’s 25th anniversary

We met twenty years ago. During the past few years, the timing just hasn’t been right for me to have a prolonged stay in Tokyo, but when I could visit they’d come see me even though they were busy. I hope that we’ll keep having this ability to meet up every now and then and talk about what’s changed or what hasn’t, with this strange sense of distance. Both of you are my dear friends whom I can’t separate from my own music. Nakata-kun, Koshikoshi, let’s go eat chicken on a stick. And chicken skins — with salt.

Toshiko has a lot of siblings (though I can't recall the exact number; she's somewhere in the middle). Her dad forbade them from watching TV or listening to music as they were growing up; he passed away when she was around eight years old. She once said she hates coffee jelly. At that music festival where she met Nakata, she was singing in an acoustic music duo called "chick" with another girl. After high school she was working as an office lady for a construction company before she decided to do capsule. She got her first cat in 2002 after she moved to Tokyo, she found him by a dumpster! In her early twenties she collected toy cameras; she also later had a false eyelash collection (these are only a few of them). Nowadays she follows Ten from NCT and Rose from BLACKPINK on Instagram and went to an IKON concert a few years ago, so it's safe to say she's a bit of a Koreaboo lol.

She had two concert DVD releases by that name: the first was from her 2008 tour and was held at SHIBUYA-AX, the second was held in 2009 and had the title appended with “@ STUDIO COAST” (name of the venue it was held at). You can view the setlists here and here.