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Although
initially, some people latched on to the lyrics of some
of their songs, there is much more to the band, "Cibo
Matto", than meets the media coverage. This band's
music contains some really tasty bits of Jazz, Hip-Hop,
Brazilian music, African Drumming, and Disco samples shimmered
together in a big melting pot. The music crosses over the
usual boundaries and creates an international musical experience
that is unique unto itself. At times the listener is challenged
to accept such a variety of musical influences in a short
period of time. But their music is mixed with a high level
of quality, good humor, and fun. Cibo Matto is composed
of five main members, Yuka Honda, Miho, Timo Ellis, Sean
Lennon, and Duma Love; with special guest appearances by
their network of musical associates and friends. This is
a lively group of people with far reaching conceptual ideas
that are reflected in lyric, mixing, production, and performance
of their music. Cibo Matto can not be easily defined or
explained, instead their music must be experienced to be
appreciated.
 Yuka
Honda came from Japan to America's Big Apple in the mid
1980's. She began her career in the American music industry
soon thereafter. Yuka came to America by an invitation from
her friend Dougie Bowne of the "Lounge Lizards".
When Dougie had come to Tokyo while the Lounge Lizards were
touring, he and Yuka met. Once in America, Yuka began cutting
her teeth in the New York City music scene by playing in
a broad range of bands. Her musical bio makes up a small
volume of "Who's Who" in the New York underground.
She has jammed with Dave Douglas of Masada to develop a
feel for avant garde jazz. To name just a few other bands
she worked with, Yuka played hip hop with Sha Key, jammed
with John Zorn, and played acid jazz with the Brooklyn Funk
Essential. She developed her style and musical skills on
keyboards and then created more advanced musical ideas using
the sampler. From the start, Yuka wasn't afraid to try something
new, and she has always been open minded to experimenting
with different musical styles. Through use of conceptual
sampling, Yuka began to create her own interpretation of
music that blended her diverse musical background into a
sound she can call her own.
 By
the time Miho came to America in the early 1990's, Yuka
had already started digging a small nitch in the New York
music scene. Miho had met some minor success in Tokyo while
singing Hip Hop in a Japanese band named "Kimidori".
She developed her ability to get the dance floor grooving,
while working as a club DJ in Tokyo. In addition, she learned
about different styles of music while working in a record
shop in Tokyo. She left Tokyo to study at an English school
in the United States. Like Yuka, Miho has eclectic tastes
in music. Miho wasn't viewing music as having to be one
way or another, and was searching for something she could
call "Cool!"
Although
they grew up in the same area of Tokyo, Miho and Yuka's
paths did not actually cross until Miho had already been
in the United States for about one and a half years. They
started their musical careers together by doing informal
improvisational musical presentations at a small club in
New York. They were not an instance success, but the people
around them encouraged them to continue with their music.
They lived a modest lifestyle, and they shared each other's
interest in musical exploration. This love for music probably
was what gave them the staying power to survive their early
years together. Whatever dreams of grandeur that may have
been deep inside their hearts, it was secondary to their
desire to have fun and play music. They were open to other
musicians and took every opportunity to make new friends
and join in improvised jam sessions. They're fun loving
personalities helped them to develop their names in Big
Apple's network of underground artists. After meeting, Miho
and Yuka began getting together to develop informal musical
arrangements, in the comfort of their living rooms.
Cibo
Matto didn't spring out of nowhere, it evolved over time as
the two friends continued their musical careers together.
Before settling into the current forum of music collaboration,
Yuka and Miho formed a loose punk jam band know as "Leitoh
Lychee". In Leitoh Lychee, Miho sang and played a violin
through a distortion pedal and Yuka played the guitar. While
hanging out writing music or after a night's gig, they often
wandered over to one of the many great New York restaurants
to relax, talk, and enjoy the food. New York is a place where
any time, day or night, food from a diverse set of cultures
can be found. Like their eclectic tastes in music, they shared
the same eclectic taste in food. Slowly there developed a
fusion between Yuka and Miho's friendship, their shared love
for food, and their desire to make music. Out of this fusion,
the band Cibo Matto was born ("Cibo Matto" can be
roughly translated to mean "Crazy Food" in Italian).
As
the "Leitoh Lychee" project fell by the wayside,
Cibo Matto was born. Although they spent a lot of time making
avante garde arrangements of other composers songs, Miho
and Yuka began writing their own songs as well. Their creative
process evolved from musical passages and samplings that
Yuka would piece together on her keyboards and sampler.
Miho would listen to Yuka's musical ideas and she would
begin constructing lyrics and vocals. They listened to each
others ideas, and exchanged opinions on where the song should
go. Cibo Matto does not reach a final version of a musical
composition, instead their songs are living organisms that
continue to change and evolve with every performance of
the piece. Since they shared an interest in food, Yuka and
Miho initially took pleasure in creating a smorgasbord of
musical arrangements that contained lyrical symbolized associations
with culinary delights.
 With
only a short time in the United States, Miho found herself
struggling to express herself lyrically in English. Through
the use of food as symbolic metaphors, she found a way to
communicate more complex emotions and ideas in a vocabuary
that she had already encountered. The younger people in
Japan's larger cities have a wide variety of restaurants
and tea houses to choose from. In particular, the boom of
the Japanese economy during the late 1900's provided a wide
array of choices of international cuisine to explore. Little
restaurants spring up and people rush to find out what new
recipes they will encounter there. The little cafes often
are very short lived, and a new place opens where the old
business was before. The wide variety of food available
in Tokyo offers all the finest treats that Asia, Europe,
and the Americas have to offer. The Japanese people place
a great deal of importance on the presentation and visual
arrangement of food dishes. Miho's cultural background provided
her with a vivid representation of food that she translated
into musical themes and lyrics in her singing.
Yuka
is responsible for the musical composition of the songs
that Cibo Matto writes and/or arranges. Using the keyboards
and sampler, she works on a song for weeks to bring together
a variety of ideas on melody, beat, and movement. Yuka blends
the ideas of melody that she performs on keyboards and tinkers
with the various ideas and passages. As the idea becomes
more defined, she reduces her reliance on the technology
of the sampler and turns the concept into a more pure performance
piece. Yuka prefers to not use a sequencer in developing
her music, and plays the sampler more like a live instrument.
She views sampling as an art and uses an unwritten code
of ethics in her selection of borrowed works. Along with
Miho's input, Yuka builds a musical idea over time into
a song. When Yuka and Miho fell into the inevitable periods
of dry creativity, they recorded samples from TV programs
they were watching, old albums, or whatever sounds might
float into the room. After a long incubation period, Yuka
and Miho bring a variety of musical ideas into one song.
When
first starting out, Cibo Matto played anywhere they could
find a gig. They paid their dues in tiny New York clubs,
small art galleries, and any place that would let them set
up and jam. Slowly they began to build a small following
and an ever increasing repertoire of songs. The idea of
the band was started as something just for fun, but as their
following started to grow they became more earnest in their
song writing. Miho and Yuka enjoy taking material from already
popular songs and completely rearranging them into new musical
ideas. They sing the songs that they perform in languages
that include English, Japanese, French, and Spanish. Like
their love for gourmet food, their musical styles take on
a very cool international flavor. One of their first singles
included an arrangement of the grunge band Soundgarden's
hit song "Black Hole Sun". Miho sang the arrangement
of the song in French. Cibo Matto enjoys doing covers of
top 10 hits, this provided a recognizable theme for audiences
that were seeing and hearing the band for the first time.
They released the songs, "Birthday Cake" (an original)
and "Black Hole Sun" on their first 7-inch single.
Slowly they received some bits of airplay on small radio
stations and began to receive some wider recognition in
the New York area.
 Talk
of Cibo Matto had spread outside of the New York area, thus
Cibo Matto recorded their first mini CD on the Japanese
recording label known as "Error Records". The
self named mini album "Cibo Matto", was released in Japan
by the Error label. This CD was released in 1995. The CD
included material already prepared in the United States
for demos and their two independent 7" singles. The
mini CD included performances by such guests as Sebastian
Steinberg of "Soul Coughing", Russel Simins of
"The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion", and Dougie
Bowne of the Lounge Lizards. Included on the Japanese release
of the CD were 5 songs. "Birthday Cake" and "Black
Hole Sun" are songs that had been previously released
on their first 7-inch single. "Know Your Chicken"
was a live version of a song that would grow to be an early
Cibo Matto signature piece. The mini CD included a version
of their song "Beef Jerky" that was initially
recorded as a demo. Finally a abstract art piece with a
far east sound titled "Crumbs" closed the mini
CD. From the publicity of their recording ventures and their
growing fan base, Cibo Matto managed to sign a record contract
with "Warner Brothers' Records".
 You
were born in the 60's
We made a war with the Vietnamese
We loved LSD, We died easily
Can we just say c'est la vie?
SHUT
UP AND EAT!
Too Bad No BON APPÉTIT!
SHUT UP AND EAT!
You Know my love is sweet.
Birthday Cake - CIBO MATTO(Copyright © 1995 Soul Urchin
Song)
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