Band of the Week: Fujiya & Miyagi

Hometown: Brighton & Hove, England
Album: Lightbulbs
For Fans Of: The Beta Band, The Blow, Kraftwerk

“I don’t write a narrative, like how Lou Reed might,” explains David Best, lead singer of Fujiya & Miyagi—a British band, not a Japanese duo—his accent thick and charming via telephone. “My writing style is more fragmented and cut up,” he says, resulting in bouncing “vocal gymnastics” that transform single words and random phrases (like “collected a capellas,” “photocopier,” and “three-thousand piece puzzle of raspberry ripple ice-cream”) into sparse yet captivating hooks, caressing the cerebellum while sparking feet to shuffle across dingy dance floors, the disco ball reflecting puddles of spilled beer while extinguished cigarettes sail across the soggy shoe muck and hollow proclamations of a Saturday night. 

Best's band is behind the braniac beats: Lee Adams' typewriter-punch drumming fortifies the backbone of Steve Lewis’s potent programming and slick synth work and, balancing background atmospherics, Matt Hainsby's smooth bass lines are always colored within the lines. Fujiya & Miyagi’s degree in minimalist danceability may be enough to get any wallflower to shed their petals under the fleeting weekend spotlight, but it's Best’s studious fascination with phonetics and swollen syllables that keep this bare bones, electro-pop four-piece standing tall among book spines and hushed conversations of a library rather than stacked alongside belligerent brown bottles of liquid courage. Still, his lyrical simplicity has raised a bit of suspicion. “With a lot of really big groups, their lyrics seem quite vague, which means that everyone can have their own interpretations because they’re not really saying much,” he laughs. “If you try and use words in a song differently... or if you are quite specific, the preconception is that you are not serious about it, that you’re just having fun or trying to show off.”

And yes, while Fujiya & Miyagi are having fun—touring the world, enjoying complimentary American audiences (compared to the “British snobs” Best says scantly admire the group), and recording a more adventurous follow-up to 2008’s thin yet memorable Lightbulbs—they share a plight with many middle-class bands trying to make a living in a strapped rock 'n roll economy. “When I was in my teens, whenever a song I liked was on an advert, I felt a bit sick,” remembers Best, whose 2006 single “Collarbone” was used in national ad campaigns for Jaguar and Miller Lite. He didn't like it, but understood the necessity. “Once you’re in a group, you realize the realities of earning a living—because if you don’t, you are not going to get to do the next record. You want as many people as possible to hear your music,” he says. “I mean, I’ve given enough of my money to Coke—I want some of it back!”

Listen to Fujiya & Miyagi's "Photocopier" from Transparent Things: