The members of Cero have just finished recording their radio show, ¡°Night Drifter,¡± when I meet them at the InterFM897 studios in Tokyo¡¯s Shinagawa Ward. When I walk into the studio, one of the group immediately points out my T-shirt, which has an air-brushed depiction of a beach at sunset with the word ¡°chillwave¡± spray-painted across it.
Chillwave was a style of music popular on music websites at the start of the decade, and one of many micro-genres that enjoyed the fleeting attention of indie music aficionados. The group¡¯s members list off a number of blogs, bands and buzzwords from the era, but the most striking thing about our conversation is that Cero, a band that has charted on Japan¡¯s painfully mainstream Oricon album charts, is incredibly knowledgeable about niche music cultures ¡ª a rarity among Oricon¡¯s usual acts. Then again, the band used to be one of those niche takuroku (bedroom recording) acts not too long ago.
¡°But now that we have the budget, we¡¯re slowly shifting our style,¡± vocalist Shohei Takagi says. ¡°Our latest album was inspired by R&B, soul and jazz, and I even rap a bit on it.¡±
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