Eddie Japan

Call the music of Eddie Japan pop, call it rock, call it Hungarian folk cabaret, just don't call it "indie." Though Mr. Japan (aka David Santos) has nothing against the DIY spirit, he has come to associate that ubiquitous term with, as he puts it, “crinkly, small-ish music.” The music he is creating is decidedly larger. “It's timpani big,” says the songwriter. Taking cues from present artists like The Divine Comedy, A Girl Called Eddy, and long-time hero Morrissey as well as past icons like Scott Walker, David Bowie and Phil Spector, his music is lush, a bit melancholy, and unapologetically grandiose. “I hope these songs conjure a different mood, maybe a different time and place,” says Santos. “I hope they show up to the party a bit overdressed.”
With the help of multi-instrumentalist Chris Barrett (Paula Kelley, Logan 5 and the Runners) on trumpet and keyboards, Santos has assembled a band of top-notch Boston players that also includes Jim Collins (The Buckners, Gene Dante) on bass, George Hall (Dogzilla, Seks Bomba, The Weisstronauts) on guitar 1, Bart LoPiccolo (Scatterfield, Din) on guitar 2 and Jason Baldock on drums. And the name Eddie Japan? According to Santos, “Two words that roll off the tongue pretty well. It's my small effort to bring just the slightest bit of flamboyance to the locals.” When asked whether the moniker constitutes a solo or band effort, Santos replies, “It's both.”
David Santos has been singing and writing songs for various outfits since his high school days. “I started in a band called Pax Romana in the late ‘80s. We were very young, and very earnest, but we somehow managed to share a bill with The Pixies at the original Living Room in Providence,” recalls Santos. Other bands followed, including the country-tinged Mercury Quartet in the ‘90s. After a ten-year hiatus, Santos decided it was time to do something musical again, “before rigor mortis sets in,” he jokes.
In those earlier days, Santos sang and wrote only the lyrics. Eventually, he learned to write songs on guitar (left-handed and upside down!) and played rhythm while singing with Mercury Quartet. “But guitar playing really affects my breathing,” says Santos, “so I thought it would be best to let someone else handle that this time around. And it seems to me that in this indie rock era, singing is somewhat of an afterthought – that to have any sort of credibility, one has to be glued to an instrument. But there’s nothing wrong with being ‘just a singer.’”
And Santos is a singer in the truest sense. His vibrato-laden tenor has invoked comparisons, at least in timbre, to Roy Orbison, David Bowie, and even Patti Smith. But he says there was a period when the strength and character of his voice were not always pleasing to him: "When Cobain came along, I thought, 'How am I going to go out there with these songbird vocals?' I even started smoking to try and scuff things up a bit. Brilliant."
But those youthful insecurities passed and now Santos hopes the influences he has accumulated will meld with his maturation as a songwriter to produce something original, if not something with an elegance rarely found in the typical rock club: “I think what I’m trying to achieve is the musical equivalent of a flower on the lapel.”
These efforts may not fit comfortably into the Boston music scene, but Santos isn’t overly concerned. “Of course I hope people like what we have to offer, but at this stage of my musical life, my goals are largely personal. I'm just thrilled to be playing with these fantastic musicians. If I can hold their interest and express myself in a way that I find pleasing, then I’ll be more than satisfied. I guess that's my definition of indie rock."
WHAT THE COOL KIDS ARE SAYING:"...my word, you are better than i expected...wow, you know how there is so much mediocre music on myspace, but yours seems to be of such a high calibre indeed :) i like it, echoes of morrissey and bowie...lovely....methinks you should get your music out there on a bigger scale my dear." :) -- Ms. Rebel, United Kingdom"A pleasure to be working with this relatively new Boston pop band. Lead singer David Santos gets my vote for vocalist of the year..." -- Pete Weiss of Verdant Studio and The Weisstronauts fame
"...impressively developed pop." -- Cheap Thrills, Boston (cheapthrillsboston.blogspot.com)

View Eddie Japan's EPK