Japanese rock band Survive Said the Prophet (SSTP) appeared at FanimeCon 2024 as the headlining artist of this year’s MusicFest. Ahead of their performance, the four-piece band went around San Jose, visiting Japantown, checking out a few art galleries, and even eating grasshoppers with local Mexican food. Asia Blooming also sat down with Survive Said the Prophet to discuss the band’s 10 years together, music, and first ever U.S. tour this July.
Over the past 10 years, the band has evolved, and today SSTP is comprised of Yosh (vocals), Ivan (guitar), Tatsuya (guitar), and Show (drums). Looking back at how the band came together, what drew the members to the band is authenticity. “I met Yosh a long time ago when we were working together as part-timers,” started Ivan. “When he would come to me and talk about the future of the band, I could see he was someone who takes his words seriously. I think that’s what made me want to dedicate my life to the band.” Show shared that he felt “the atmosphere” of SSTP was different from other bands and that the band’s pure love for music compelled him to join. Meanwhile, Tatsuya previously was part of a different band that toured with SSTP. From an outside perspective, he saw how human the band was through their ups and downs. Seeing the way how SSTP approached disagreements and resolved their issues attracted him to the band.
“We’re four Japanese boys who grew up in different ways,” stated Yosh. “We’ve focused on how we can help each other grow. It’s been something that we teach each other because obviously, you can’t focus on everyone or yourself all at once. We’ve been really good at catching and uplifting each other. I think it also has to do with a few of the members being fathers and wanting to pursue this lifestyle while being fathers. We’ve grown and found ways to balance, so I’ve been very proud of that.” He continued, “You’re not sure if the fire’s going to keep burning until you get there. It’s been 10 years and we find that we still genuinely love music. We want to keep going at it. It’s been cool that the way we approach music and take it seriously hasn’t changed after all this time.”
Diving into the band’s latest full length album, Hateful Failures, from 2022, it’s a release that was created during the pandemic and filled with complicated feelings. “We were going through a really rough time, and we weren’t really nice to each other. There were talks about maybe not continuing the band. It was a mixture of emotions rooted in the word ‘hate.’ To be honest, I still can’t wrap my mind around Hateful Failures because it was a chapter of my life that I think I would like to keep in the past,” said Yosh. “Before the pandemic hit, we were unstoppable. We had all the songs ready, our next tour was ready, and we were on top of the world, but then it was taken away. That’s just the way we reacted to the situation.”
The album explores love, hate, and the feelings in between, with the idea that the opposite of love isn’t hate; it’s indifference. Show pointed to “Prayer,” as a song that delivers a message about the complexity of love: “Even if you say you hate someone, there’s still some love there. You can’t take that love away.”
Writing music for anime isn’t something that Survive Said the Prophet was interested in doing from the get go. Yosh said, “I remember specifically requesting not to do anime for a very long time because I didn’t want to be an anime band.” Persuaded by a trusted person at the label, the band made their foray into anime, working on music for Banana Fish. However, it wasn’t without challenges, as they were only given a month or two to write the music. The band said traces of the stress and anxiety from the experience can be found within the music. “I’ve unintentionally put sounds that reflected my own stress but also coincidentally described what the main character was experiencing,” started Yosh. “For example, the very beginning of ‘found and lost’ is a police call that features a code used when referring to rape, and that ended up matching what happened in the show.”
Through working on music for the series, Yosh found that he could take themes or goals from the show and relate it to his life, injecting his own feelings and experiences: “Of course, I thought about gangsters, New York, and two boys falling in love, but at the same time, I was thinking about what was happening in my own life like how Ivan and I were fighting at the time. The second line of the song, ‘It’s not that I wanted to find an answer. All I wanted to do was just go on this journey with you,’ related to both our situation and Ash’s from the show.”
“When working on ‘Red,’ that was actually the peak of when I felt done with anime. It was just really a dark time, when I was really depressed and sad. There was no inch of happiness in there [the music], but it jut really fit into Banana Fish. From there, I just let myself create more naturally and organically like putting my feelings in a diary and it just really related with the characters. It helped me switched my perspective on how to write music for anime.”
Yosh admitted though that while making anime music was beneficial for the band, it was a door he shouldn’t have opened for himself: “I can’t close that door now. I see and think about things differently, and I appreciate it from time to time.” Writing “Mukanjyo” for Vinland Saga really changed things. “I feel like Vinland Saga really reached the audience that I wanted to reach; it just did so well in the States, compared to Japan I think. I’ve always wanted our music to be recognized overseas. For that to happen through Vinland Saga is a really cool experience for sure.”
Coming up in July is Survive Said the Prophet’s first U.S. tour, and the band is pumped to bring their music and energy to American audiences. Ivan shared the band’s excitement to tour the States: “We’ll make sure we bring every bit of us to the stage. It’s going to be our first time, so we really hope to share our energy with the crowd. We’re also looking forward to learning new cultures and meeting new people across the country. We’re very honored to be holding this tour.”
To celebrate Survive Said the Prophet’s first ever U.S. tour, Asia Blooming is hosting a giveaway on Twitter and Instagram for one lucky winner to receive a signed polaroid from the band! Entrants can enter the giveaway on either Twitter of Instagram. Enter on both Twitter and Instagram to increase your chances of winning!
To enter the Twitter giveaway:
- Follow Asia Blooming on Twitter: @AsiaBlooming
- Retweet the pinned post
- Bonus entry: Tag a friend in a comment for additional entries. Each comment with a tagged friend is one extra entry.
To enter the Instagram giveaway:
- Follow Asia Blooming on Instagram: @AsiaBlooming
- Like the pinned post
- Bonus entry: Tag a friend in a comment for additional entries. Each comment with a tagged friend is one extra entry.
Only U.S. participants are eligible for this giveaway. Also, giveaway-only accounts are not eligible. The giveaway closes at 5:00pm PT on June 17, 2024, and the winner will be contacted shortly after. Good luck!
