Interview with YôGô Trenô: a Japanese in Rome

YôGô Trenô at 4 years old. Always a train in hand (St. Peter's Square in Rome)

Rome always offers the opportunity to meet interesting people.

A month ago, during an event at Termini Station in Rome, I met a Japanese composer, YôGô Trenô (train).

During the dinner we started talking about his history and his vision of music, struck by the strangeness of his name.

He revealed to me his immense love for trains, almost at the level of sonic fetishism: he is able to distinguish the types of trains by their sound, as well as Japanese ones from Chinese ones.

He records these sounds, samples and makes electronic music out of them.

The train has always been my favorite way of transport, since the days of traveling in Europe during the summer, when I was a boy, with my two best friends: the famous InterRail, with which hundreds of young students toured the whole Europe for two months at discounted prices.

Then in the last years of my life in Malaysia, I started flying almost monthly, without feeling the nervousness I had at the beginning.

But the train remains the most fascinating, with its fast-flowing photographs of landscapes like colored lines of beauty.

So I was intrigued to get to know YôGô Trenô better.

The minds of the Japanese, for me, remain mysterious and sometimes incomprehensible, but what makes it even more incredible is the “Romanity” that has now contaminated him.

However, everyone that produces art deserves to be heard.

Each of us can be a source of inspiration.

 

Termini Station. ROME, May 2020

Welcome dear YôGô Trenô. First, tell me a little about yourself. Where were you born and how was your life before arriving in Italy.

Thanks for giving me this chance. I am YôGô Trenô, a Japanese composer/musician of train music. I grew up in Japan, but I was born in Rome, so I had wanted to come to Italy from a long time.

I studied harmony, counterpoint, and classical music composition.

Ten years ago there was a great earthquake, a tsunami and a terrible nuclear accident. At the time I was working as a composer of J-pop music. In my opinion, that great nuclear accident was caused by Japan's economic mismanagement. I thought I had to stop composing just for this economy which I think is wrong. I thought that I had to and wanted to live in a sincere way, consistent with myself; I therefore decided to come to Italy, also to look for my origin.

 

When was the love for music born and what were your studies?

When I was a teenager I was fond of classical, pop, techno, Johannes Brahms, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ken Ishii, etc.

 

Tell me about your passion for trains...

It all started many years ago, when I was young: my greatest passion was the train, which can defeat nature, thick snow, water bombs...

During the Second World War, the Osaka subway saved many people from the bombing. The train was a superhero.

 

The first time we met you told me that you can recognize by sound if a train is Italian or Japanese, or Chinese. This thing deeply fascinated me. Explain me...

I think “how sounds are heard” is different in every culture. For example, when I hear the station announcement that says “Warning: train COMING to platform 4”, I always think about Inari, which is a type of sushi.

Returning serious, when I listen to the sound of the train engine, I remember the Shō, which is the wind instrument of traditional Japanese music.

If an Indian composer listened to that sound, he would hear it as the drone of traditional Indian music. If an Italian composer listened to that sound, he would hear the bagpipe of traditional Italian music.

I am a musician born in Rome and I grew up in Japan, for me this sound in this way, in your opinion how is it?

I want to compose music with this in mind.

Another thing that completely fascinated me is when you told me that the sound of the trains in your city remind you of the lullaby your grandmother sang to you as a child. How?

Strictly speaking, it reminds me of an illustrated book that my grandmother has read to me many times: the title is “Choo – The  Engine on the Run” written and illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton.

This story instilled in me a longing for a distant land, challenges, loneliness and so on.

 

Tell me what your projects were in Rome and where you played.

Always at Pigneto, mainly at “Fanfulla”.

 

What are you working on now and what is the dream you would like to realize on an artistic level? Even in the not near future.

My work is still linked to Japan, from which I receive the scores. I arrange the arrangement, correct it, process the Midi data and write the description: “At bar 123, I changed from C to D#. Because the rule of harmony prohibits this movement, etc.”

And then I send everything to Japan. On an artistic level about a year ago I started a new project called “Binario 1 est” with a dear friend Zhang Li. He is a Chinese video maker, and he also lives in Rome. I make the music and Li makes the video.

I feel there is great potential in this transcultural project.

 

Last easier question. What do you like most about Rome and what do you miss most about Japan?

I love the chaos of Rome. I like hearing “Late Announcement”.

I feel free and relaxed. When I go back to Japan, all programs go as planned. Trains run at the appointed time. I feel nostalgia for the “Late Announcement”.

I miss being able to eat Inari sushi!

 

Termini Station. ROME, May 2020

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6IOee19TKE
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/yogo-treno
Official Website: https://yogotreno.wixsite.com/yogo-treno
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inarizushi
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sho_(strumento_musicale)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6fRevdXaK48

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Italian version