Category Archives: Articles

Uwanosora “Kadoya Hirohide & Someya Taiyo in Conversation” (2019)

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This is a great heart-to-heart discussion between Uwanosora’s Kadoya Hirohide and Lamp’s Someya Taiyo. It was originally included in Uwanosora’s “7 Years Live” pamphlet from 2019, only a couple of months after the release of their third album, Yogiri.

Their conversation discusses not only the album, but also the pair’s struggles with songwriting, Someya’s qualms with some of Uwanosora’s music, Kadoya’s concerns about “selling out,” and what the two would do in the face of Planet Earth’s imminent destruction.

Text: Yoshikawa Kohei
English translation: Henkka
Uwanosora: Linktree
Lamp: Linktree

Note: You can buy Yogiri on CDJapan.


Uwanosora

Someya Taiyo: What’s your favorite Uwanosora song?

Kadoya Hirohide: Hmm…

Someya: For me, it’s “Poolside ni te.”

Kadoya: Maybe “Namida no Forkball.” (laughs)

Someya: Oh… Okay… (laughs) The last bit in that song—in terms of my musical sensibilities, there’s just no place for jokey bits like that in my songs. The fact that you enjoy that kind of thing, it sort of makes you a bit old-fashioned.

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Lamp “Someya Taiyo’s Musical Roots” (2025)

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This is a fantastic, extensive column about—as you already gathered from the title—the roots of Someya Taiyo, as written by the man himself.

Learn here how he first came to love music, what his early influences were, how Lamp were formed, and how he feels about making music today. And if you happen to be hiring, there’s even his Curriculum Vitae for your consideration. I’d say he has at least “passed the audition.”

Text: Shibasaki Yuji (Japanese text)
English translation: Henkka
Lamp: Linktree

By uncovering the musical journeys of various artists, this project aims to highlight the joys of pursuing music and to reveal fascinating new sides of these artists.

This time, we dove into the musical history of Someya Taiyo, the guitarist of Lamp, a band who have continuously—since their formation in 2000—released new music, and who are currently attracting attention both within and outside Japan.

In addition, at the end of the article, we have published a playlist of songs that form his musical roots, along with track-by-track commentary from Someya himself.

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Lamp “Tokyo Utopia Tsuushin” column (2011)

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Back in February 2011, Taiyo Someya wrote a four-part column for HMV ONLINE to commemorate the release of Tokyo Utopia Tsuushin. In it, he details the early history of Lamp and their journey towards the release of what was at the time their latest album.

Original text: Taiyo Someya (parts one, two, three & four)
English translation: Henkka
Lamp online: website, label, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Instagram

You can buy Lamp’s music directly from the band, both physically and digitally, on Bandcamp.

lamp_top1

tokyoutopiatsuushinWith Lamp’s previous album, Lamp Gensou, they quite literally to its name gave us an album full of fleeting, illusional beauty; a sound world drawing a line between music you’d normally expect to hear in this day and age; an innovative masterpiece in modern pop music. Hachigatsu no Shijou, a limited edition EP released in mid-2010, had summer as its theme, and on it they once again portrayed the fleetingness of the seasons in its lyrics, along with sound imagery that made for a perfect companion to the words. It showed us the world of Lamp richer than ever before, opening new possibilities for them as a band.

Now, Lamp are releasing their long-awaited new album, Tokyo Utopia Tsuushin, recorded alongside the Hachigatsu no Shijou EP with about a year and half of work behind it. It’s something that needs to be called the “rebirth” of Lamp; a condensation of tighter rhythm arrangements and even more of the characteristics that make up the “Lamp sound.” It features their usual brand of beautiful lyrics that capture places in time: the cold and the warmth of winter; nostalgic sensations we’ve all once experienced; a man and a woman in an imaginary place, in an imaginary town. Those lyrics are placed on top of a new sound, making for an 8-song masterpiece of the highest order. The sounds on it show an exceedingly distinctive brilliance among the current music scene; a kind of originality that — even looking back — is something only Lamp could’ve produced. It’s something on a whole new level altogether. —HMV

No matter how you slice it,
they’re a band just brimming with the
freshness of someone who does their own thing.
And that’s regardless of the maturity that’s
instantly audible in their musicianship.
There aren’t many people like that out there.
That’s what makes them so great.

Tomita Lab (Keiichi Tomita)

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