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-sounding 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.
