Interview: Japanese Wallpaper and Fooling Around

Afterglow caught up a few months ago with Australian singer Japanese Wallpaper to discuss his new single, “Fooling Around,” why he loves his hometown of Melbourne, and his experience on his first international tour.

Written by Frances Garnett
Photo courtesy of Broadsheet and Brook James

Gab Strum, who performs under the name Japanese Wallpaper, has been making music ever since he started experimenting with Garage Band when he was 13 on a family vacation. Although he just finished his first comprehensive tour of the US, he’s been touring around his native Australia for several years and had his song “Breathe In” featured in the 2014 movie “Wish I Was Here.”

His latest single, “Fooling Around,” fits well with his dream pop roots, blending ambient hums with sparkling synthesizers, creating the feeling of nervous butterflies you get when trying to share your feelings for someone.

With two new albums already in the works, he plans to release one early this year. Afterglow had a conversation with Strum at the end of last fall before an Austin show about his new single and what’s next.

First of all, I have to ask, how did you come up with the name Japanese Wallpaper?

There’s just this website that, like, invents band names for you, basically, and I didn’t really want to use my own name because I was pretty young — I wasn’t sure if it [music] was something I’d want to be known for, I guess? So, I just literally went online and it was the first thing that came up, so I stuck with it. But I think, in a weird way, it’s come to fit the music. I’m not sure how, but it doesn’t feel way off, you know?

Yeah, I was looking you up and it said that your genre was electronic but also “dream pop.” How would you describe your music?

I guess I don’t really think about any music in terms of genres, it’s like if it’s a good song then you listen to it or something, but I feel like it’s kind of electronic music for people who don’t like going to clubs? And, also, I feel like it’s veiled in a bit of an emo thing because I grew up listening to emo bands, and every time I sit down to write a song, it turns out having 20 percent of a Death Cab or Blink-182 thing about it.

So, how do you approach songwriting? Where do you start?

Usually, I’ll start just messing around with sounds on my computer, and I’ll find an interesting sample or something and try and just build a loop around that and just sit with that, and I’ll listen to that for ages. And then once I have a bunch of those developed, I kind of go through them and see which ones still feel exciting a few weeks later, then just start fleshing them out, turning it from like a 10 second loop into a full song.

How do you approach your remixes?

It’s such a case by case thing because it depends on what the original song sounds like. Sometimes it’ll just be like, “Wow, this vocal sounds awesome, and I’m just gonna build something around that.” Or sometimes, there’ll be an idea in one of the instrumental parts that I want to highlight, and I guess, depending on what that is, I’ll build the track in a different way, or in a way to focus on the thing that I like.

Do you ever think about your audience when you’re creating music, or is that something that’s an afterthought?

It’s kind of an afterthought for me. I guess, just in terms of where I live in Melbourne, it’s not a particularly young area or anything, and I don’t play hipster shows either so I’m not often around my audience or exposed to them or something? And the other thing is, when a lot of the people who are listening to your stuff or whatever are on the internet, it’s hard to kind of conceptualize how those numbers translate into people. So when I am just at home or hanging out and working on stuff, having an audience isn’t really part of my lifestyle or thought process, so I just kind of make things for myself and then it’s always, like, a miracle when someone listens to it, I think, yeah.

So, you have a lot of things on a lot of different streaming services. What’s it like having people comment on your work? Is it strange?

It is kind of strange. I don’t really read the comments, though. I feel like that’s not really part of the process, or that’s not something that an artist should have to do. Yeah, I just doesn’t really come into my thought process at all, to be like, “I wonder what this random person from this place I’ve never heard of has to criticize about my records.” Like, I’ve been doing this for four years, and I’ve released eight songs or something, so it’s not heaps of music. And for me to get to a point where I’m happy enough with something to release it, I know that I back it enough that I think it’s good, and everything after that is just a nice bonus for me, I think.

That’s good! That’s healthy thinking.

I think so. Otherwise, you can just go crazy.

Yeah. And how long have you been out of school?

I’ve been out of school for two years.

So, you’re probably spending your time very differently now. Is it nice to have that time to spend on your music more?

Yeah, it’s awesome. I guess I started making things as just a nice hobby, or a way to distract myself from high school, but as soon as things got busy with music, it got kind of crazy to keep everything up at the same time, so I’m definitely very relieved to have that part of my life behind me. Although, that said, I'm studying full time at university now.

Oh wow!

Yeah, I'm not good at giving myself a break. It’s fun, though. It’s good to have something else going on and a structure; otherwise, I wouldn’t have any structure. I’d wake up at 11 o’clock every morning and work on music to 3 a.m. and just do that forever. But it's great to be, like, “Cool, I have to be somewhere at this time and there are people there.” It’s good to break you out of your habits.

I could not imagine touring and studying at the same time. Wow, that's very impressive.

It's good. It’s nice to have something else to focus on when you're on tour as well, because there’s so much waiting around. Like, from the outside, it looks all exciting, and, I mean, it is really exciting, but the flip side is that you have like 10 hours a day of just waiting until you play the gig, and then it’s good to have something to fill up that time with.

What are you studying?

I’m studying music.

That makes sense! So, is this your first international tour?

It’s the first proper international tour. Last year, we came over actually to Austin for South by Southwest, did a show in LA and New York after that, but this is the first kind of comprehensive tour, I guess, where we go to lots of different places and doing it in a bus and all of that stuff.

How is it different, touring around the States compared to Australia?

Alright, it's just the opposite. In Australia, there’s only really like five or six capital cities, so the tour would be typically six shows spread out over weekends, so you’d play two or three gigs and then you go home for the week, and then you fly — and everything’s so spread out that you can fly everywhere. So, it's kind of like just a nice holiday, whereas this is like everyday for a month you’re driving. And there’s also so many more places to go and opportunities to play shows, so it’s actually really great to just get better. Usually we find that by the end of an Australian tour, we’re starting to feel well-rehearsed and like it's all happening, and then there’s no more shows to play. So, here it's nice. The idea of just having a month of this in terms of just getting better at what we do is pretty exciting.

Is there a specific city you’re excited to see?

I am the biggest Death Cab for Cutie fan in the world, so I'm really excited to go to Seattle. When I was in London last year, I did a Beatles walking tour on my phone. I don't know if there's a Death Cab equivalent in Seattle, but if there is, I’ll definitely be doing it. Other than that, I’m really looking forward to going back to New York. I’m also really excited to go back to Atlanta.

So, about a month ago you released a new single, “Fooling Around.” Talk to me about that. How did you get the inspiration, and how is it like to see it fully fleshed out?

That’s a song I wrote a couple years ago. So, it’s been around for ages, and for a long time it was just kind of in the two-heart basket for me because I felt like sonically it’s a bit different to the stuff I’ve put out before that, and a lot of the instruments are things I’ve never recorded before. Yeah, it took me a while to figure out how to make all these new ideas fit into the sound that I've already established for myself. So, there were like 70 different versions of that song, and each time one had kind of different things, and it took me ages to get it to a point where I was happy enough with it that I could put it out. But I always knew that there was something about it that I loved, and I didn’t want to give up on it, I guess? And I finished it in Atlanta, actually, with this producer called Ben Allen who worked on a bunch of records with Cut Copy and Washed Out, and a few bands like that that I really like. And I had all these different versions of this song that I'd been working on for two years, and I couldn't really crack it. And we spent two days with Ben and it was finished, and it was just the most amazing thing. So yeah, I'm really happy with it, and because I've had it with me for so long, it feels very surreal for it to be out in the world. But it seems like people like it, so I’m happy.

And you started out playing piano when you were 6 years old, right? How do you think your background as a pianist has influenced your work now?

I mean, there’s a very practical way in that a lot of my music is created with synthesizers and stuff, so having piano skills kind of opened up that door for me into all these new sounds that I wouldn't otherwise know how to make. But also, it's nice to be able to remove yourself from the computer for a while and just be able to write music sitting at an instrument. If I didn’t know how to play an instrument, I wouldn't be able to do. So, I think it's nice to have that knowledge of it, to be able to incorporate it as another kind of way of creating stuff.

What else do you play again?

I guess I’ve picked up a few other things, but my main two are piano and bass guitar.

Do you prefer working in the studio or being on stage, or are there things you like about both?

Being in the studio is my favorite thing. It’s how I spend most of my time, so yeah, I love that. When I started touring, I felt really kind of confused by the whole thing, and by the expectation that someone who was really good at being on the room with headphones on staring at my laptop for 10 hours was also going to be really kind of extroverted and really good at being a charismatic person on stage, and it was really annoying to me that there was that expectation and that that was something I have to figure out. But as soon as I did it a little bit more and got used to it and just came to enjoy it and not be scared by it, I’ve really come to like touring as well.

And is there a dream place you’d like to play, or someone you’d like to play with?

Honestly, I’ve always dreamed of doing a tour like this, because when you’re an Australian band all of this stuff feels very far away, and it takes a lot to get over here. This is kind of it for me. I’m stoked! Ever since the very start of all this, I wanted to come tour the States.

Do you like collaborating with a lot of different artists?

Yeah, that’s kind of my favorite thing at the moment. I’ve been working with a lot of different people, kind of more as a producer than an as artist, I guess? Yeah, that’s something I never really thought I would do but I’ve learned to love it.

That’s so cool, though. You must feel like you belong to a nice community.

Yeah, I think that’s a really special thing about Melbourne is that there’s a really great community of artists and songwriters and just people that care about music. So, it’s a really nice place to live and to grow up in.

Nice! I’ve never been to Melbourne, but I’ve always wanted to go.

Yeah, it’s pretty great. Often I feel myself getting a bit frustrated with Melbourne, but as soon as I’m out of it for, like, two days, it’s like, “I want to go back!” because it’s my favorite place, which it is. It’s great!

Do you have a favorite song that you’re going to play on the tour?

Yeah, at the moment I’m kind of really excited by some of the new stuff, like the unreleased album songs that we’ve been playing. And it’s nice to finally see, kind of, them out in the world in some way and see if people respond to them on the gigs, so yeah, that’s been my favorite thing at the moment.

Do you think you'll eventually get around to releasing them?

Yeah! Next year it’s all happening. I’m really excited.

Do you already have an album in the works?

Yeah, it’s all finished! I’ve got the second album in the works. Yeah, I finished it a couple of months ago, and now it’s just kind of, like, I’m waiting. Waiting for the right time. But, yeah, it’s pretty close I think.

How do you know when the right time is exactly?

I guess now it’s kind of up to other people, like the label. So, I’ll see. Yeah, I think it’ll be early next year [2019], though.

My last question is: how do you want people to feel when they hear your music?

I want people to feel maybe comforted or just better about something that they’re not feeling good about. I think that’s the really special thing about all music, really, is that rather than the artist kind of setting up a specific feeling, it’s just kind of a really special thing when a song can slide into someone's life and how, you know, their experiences, and I guess that happens in a unique way for everyone. So, rather than for someone to feel a specific thing, I just kind of want that to happen.

Interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.