You may not have ever heard of these two girls from Scotland, but Strawberry Switchblade made a HUGE impact on Japanese pop music and culture in the ’80s, and their style of music is exactly the aesthetic which modern-day Synthwave musicians emulate. Resembling something like dime store doll versions of Siouxsie Sioux, these two girls harmonized wonderfully to make cheerful New Wave pop music, infusing bubblegum sweet melodies with lyrics of melancholy. That android from Robot Carnival immediately comes to mind when I see their self-designed clothes, a polka-dotted amalgamation of Victorian and Flamenco styles. When you watch them, you can see their impact on ’80s J-pop and Harajuku fashion echoes their cute, punk rock doll aesthetic to this day. I see where Strawberry Switchblade heavily influenced the J-pop singing duo Wink in the ’80s. I can definitely see how their fashion aesthetic was a precursor to the “goth loli” fashion which sprang out of Osaka 20+ years ago.
While I was building the KUKQ playlist I mentioned in my previous post, their video for “Since Yesterday” kept showing up in my recommendations on YouTube. I finally clicked on it and loved what I heard. Then the more I thought about it, I unlocked a forgotten memory. I remember hearing a song by them on KUKQ when I was in high school, which was probably this same song. I fell in love with the cute female vocals and wanted to learn more. I think it was probably a Saturday afternoon when I heard the song on KUKQ, and I remember the DJ saying that they were big in Japan. I called in and talked to the DJ and told her how I thought that the band was so cool, and how I wanted to hear more from that band. My mom and sister were in the car waiting for me since we were leaving to go somewhere, but since I didn’t write down the band’s name and I never heard them again on the radio, I forgot all about them until recently.
Their song “Since Yesterday”:
“Poor Hearts” (I particularly love the chiming guitar in this song, and it reminds me of a cross between Siouxsie & the Banshees and Kitchens of Distinction.
“I Can Feel” is quintessential Synthwave.
A brief history on Strawberry Switchblade:
Interviews on Japanese TV:
Super neat stuff. I bought their CD, and hopefully it will arrive sometime this week. You can see how deeply they inspired the J-Pop band, Wink.
Here are a couple of interesting history videos on Strawberry Switchblade.
