JAPANESE action-comic punks Peelander-Z pull audience members onstage, lead games of human bowling, and spit catchy anthems about mad tigers, tacos, and more. They're back, and Peelander Yellow is ready to eat your smiles!
We're so excited for another Savannah Peelander show!
Peelander Yellow:: Yes! We played last year's festival, the Stopover. First time we played Savannah. So happy...people very crazy. Exciting, good time. We loved it, and so exciting to be there.
Yeah, people are still talking about that show down here.
Ah, so you were there! So you understand our way. We are not human beings; we have to eat, we have to make you smile...for our project. We are not human beings, we eat happy smiles, at Savannah, and at Jinx.
Is that some of the reasoning behind the name the Happee Spring Tour?
This tour...I mean I finished South by Southwest this year, we did six shows, and we did [unofficial SXSW event] Peelander Festival. We did a kid's comedy festival, Mad Tiger. Maybe someday in future I want to bring family to festival, or to Savannah. This is my dream: I want to do tour everywhere with family. It's kid's show that's calm—calm down, very low sounds, then, 'hey everybody, this time we're gonna do loud, crazy time!' We do loud, crazy time in Savannah. I don't want to kick you, but I want to kick everybody and have a good time! We go on tour until May 16—long tour.
Peelander-Z's been together for 17 years this year, right?
You can say 17 light-years. 17? Wow! I'm getting old!
When you tour, is it different every time? Do you have a very planned, choreographed show or does it vary?
I'm kind of the same, but same song, and same moves, but different place, different bar, different venue, different city, different state. So I want to consume all the air!
The people I pick [to come] up on stage change: somebody has crazy pink hair, we give them pink bass. It looks like basketball, moving, changing. We are gonna get to that place and join together. That is the Peelander style. Rainy day, maybe we want to do something rainy. Somebody has doughnuts, we going to eat doughnuts with them. We are very flexible. We want to make happy everybody in that moment.
Why did you select yellow as your color?
How did you get your skin? Same as you. Everybody asking the meaning of Peelander planet—what is the meaning of Earth? No meaning. Pink, green, purple...same as everybody. Same as I was born. I like orange, I like bananas, so yellow. Everybody was born with something. Yellow! Amarillo!
Your last album, Metalander-Z, was influenced by '80s metal; it must be so much fun to play. Why did you choose to go in that direction?
I like metal music and that's why. We made a CD...a spacey album, a kid's album, and a metal album, and the new one's coming. We recorded in Austin, live album. It's going to come and you can buy from my hand at Savannah this tour.
I'm thinking I want to make new something album.
You think you'll make another metal one? Or try something different?
Maybe hip-hop? Woo-hoo! Maybe blues? Maybe dancing, maybe club music? Maybe 8-bit gamer music? Maybe only talking? Maybe movie? Maybe make a restaurant! Yeah. Tofu restaurant.
That sounds delicious. Everything you do, no matter the genre, still sounds like Peelander, which is awesome. How do you manage that?
I'm not good at playing music so just kind of do two, three, chords: buh, buh buh! I try to make everything simple—sometimes, somebody playing, I can't do that. I can't do anything crazy—I can do that, you can do that. All the music, way sounds, music, staging: I try to make everything simple. Same as life. If you have a program, let's make simple everything, easy to go.
When do you think the new album will come out?
We're recording this year or next year...not sure. When people say, 'Hey! We need a new album!' we're going to make it.
Anything you'd like to tell people in Savannah who haven't seen Peelander-Z before?
This tour, we're bringing [Peelander] Purple. Last tour he was not there. He wants to eat everything! Say hi to Purple, shake hands. Don't worry, he never bites! He has a purple bass, too! Yeah, okay, so just come to the show. You have to see—bring your eyes—and you have to bring all your friends over there and dance with us over there. We are Peelander-Z!