[stextbox id=”custom” caption=”Background Information” color=”000000″ ccolor=”ffffff” bgcolor=”dedede” cbgcolor=”cc0000″]ENAPOu (pronounced “en-er-poh”)
Occupation: Creative
Blood: A Type
Website: http://poni-camp.net[/stextbox]

Get to know ENAPOu

ENAPOu is a guitarist and singer, currently with Poni-Camp, formerly with Japan’s ground breaking all female punk band Lolita No.18, occasionally playing with Duncan’s Divas and oh-by-the-way performs with international superstars Puffy AmiYumi. Also known as a voice talent or Seiyu as they are called in Japan, ENAPOu was in the BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad and Oden-kun animes.

A major Snoopy fan, she used her skills as an illustrator / cartoonist to create all of Poni-Camp’s artwork. She was kind enough to e-mail some responses to RiceburnerFM’s questions.

RiceburnerFM: How did you come up with your band’s name Poni-Camp?

ENAPOu: I am calling myself PONI, so basically it means PONI and the Friends (Ray and Nobu)! You know, it’s like “Billy’s Boot Camp”, PONI instead of Billy … maybe not!

RiceburnerFM: You played for years in an all-girl band, Lolita No.18. Now with Poni-Camp, you play in a band with two guys, RAY on Bass and NOBU NAKAJIMA on drums. When it comes to the creative process, how is it different working with males instead of females?

ENAPOu: No difference in the creative process, it’s just, with girls no make-up would be fine, but with guys I put more and more make-up on (haha). Also a male drummer tends to be louder, so I ended up playing louder, too! So our rehearsal is always roaring!

RiceburnerFM: Up and coming bands are breaking into the mainstream media via high profile commercials and video game soundtracks. Would you have any concerns with using Poni-Camp’s music in such a manner?

ENAPOu: If it would be used in TV commercials for our favorite products and/or games (Pokemon Platinum is her favorite), I would be just happy!

RiceburnerFM: What one word best describes Poni-Camp’s sound?

ENAPOu: Pop-Punk.

RiceburnerFM: Japanese bands often perform at anime conventions in the USA. Is that an opportunity that Poni-Camp would like to pursue or would you rather reach fans in the American market on your own?

ENAPOu: I would be delighted to play at the Anime convention if they have my favorite Animes! We want to play at music festivals (like SXSW) in the US as well.

“a male drummer tends to be louder, so I ended up playing louder”

RiceburnerFM: What is the make and model of your favorite guitar and why? Also have to ask if they are a sponsor of yours.

ENAPOu: Gibson Flying V is my favorite. That’s because it’s so cool looking! But I wouldn’t like Flying V with the head being too pointy, or the ones with 6 tuning pegs lined up on one side. The symmetry one which I’m using now is the best shapewise. Unfortunately, Gibson is not sponsoring me… hope they would!

RiceburnerFM: How is touring in Japan different from touring in the US?

ENAPOu: We have done a trans-American tour going around 43 places in 50 days, and the biggest difference I felt was since America is sooo big, it took soooo long to travel by car! I was like looking at the schedule and “Oh lucky me! There are day offs!”, and found out those are the days spending whole day to go to next place, so I thought that was disappointing first. But once the tour started, we found huge thrift shops once a while and did some shopping, and also we were driving through the desert, and places I never seen in my life, so that was so fun! But the driver got mad with us since everytime we saw “thrift” sign on the roadside we yelled “STOP!!” (haha).  Anyway, I never spent more than a half day to go anywhere in Japan, so it was surprising how big the America is!

RiceburnerFM: Are there any social issues that Poni-Camp is involved with?

ENAPOu: When PONI-CAMP do a gig, the band and the audience together take all the oxygen in and exhale a lot of carbon dioxide, so I think we are possibly having a bit of influence on Global Warming (haha). Also, we drink tons of beer at the after party of each gig, so we are definitely contributing to the beer industry, and we love the American beers too! Rolling Rock, Budweiser, Coors, Miller … I like any American beer! So maybe we are helping the global economic recovery, right!? (haha)

RiceburnerFM: You were on the Puffy AmiYumi float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2005. Ever do anything like that in Japan?

ENAPOu: I’ve never been playing in anything big as the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, but played my guitar with the Puffy AmiYumi in the All-Star Baseball Game ‘06 in Sun Marine Stadium Miyazaki, and Tokyo Girls Collection ’08 which is the biggest fashion show in Japan. Also I’m going to be playing in the Harajyuku Style Collection fashion show on March 21st (2010), so I am looking forward to that!

RiceburnerFM: What is next for Poni-Camp?

ENAPOu: Want to make many new songs and make a new album, and we want to go to play some shows in the USA!

RiceburnerFM thanks ENAPOu for her numerous contributions to music / pop culture and for graciously taking time from her very busy schedule to answer a few questions for her many fans.
Riceburner.FM invites you to check out her music … Poni-Camp CD: /(U.U) is Available on Amazon.com!

photo and video courtesy Poni-Camp

RiceburnerFM review of Poni-Camp’s /(U.U).
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RiceburnerFM also thanks Yuki Mogaki of Morrison & Co., Ltd. for his help with the translation and the pronunciation. For the record, the original information on the pronunciation is as follows “Her name “Enapou” should be pronounced like “energy”, just replace “-gy” with something between “paw”, and “Poe” (like the writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe)”.