Lock and load for Brisbane alt. garage rockers Koko Uzi when they provide backup for Regurgitator’s ‘Quarter Pounder’ show in Brisbane.
A musical militia who take their name in part from bad-ass Japanese warrior women, Koko Uzi have a very simple mission: rock hard and rock loud.
That’s just what they’ll do as one of the support acts for Regurgitator when their 25-year anniversary tour hits Brisbane at the end of October. Here, the ladies introduce themselves and let us know what’s in-store for punters when Koko Uzi storm the stage.
Introduce yourselves – who's who and what do you do?
Alana Koko (Alana Manix) on drums and vocals; Mi Mi Uzi (Michelle Bowden) on the Burns guitar and theremin; and Li Uzi (Lisa Kunde) on bass and vocals.
The name Koko Uzi – how did it come about and what is its significance?
Li Li spent a few years living in Japan and heads back there frequently.
The name comes from going down a rabbit hole of stories about Japanese art then discovering the hidden stories of women samurai, or ‘Onna-bugeisha’. They were bad-ass warriors who used weapons to protect the home and family in time of feudal war.
Their story was erased from history. From this, we took the word ‘ko’, which has a few different meanings in Japanese, but two of them are ‘female’ and ‘threat’. Uzi, the gun, is a mean weapon but has a cool sound. Visually and sound-wise the two words, Koko Uzi, looked and sounded cool together and represent our sound.
What has the band been up to in 2019?
Gigs, gig and more gigs with some cracker bands, and three Girls Rock! camps. We hit the ground running, getting a gig before we had a band let alone a set, about a year ago.
Thanks to Ash at Girls Rock! and Dotty Phillips who organised the post-camp gig at Backbone. We are all up for anxiety-fuelled challenges, because we just don’t have enough of them in the other aspects of our lives.
How are you all feeling about playing with Regurgitator on the Brisbane leg of their 'Quarter Pounder' tour?
Um, f…ing excited. It’s great they have invited a bunch of different independent Brisbane bands to support them. We have a lot of respect for Regurgitator as an integrous band who have been considering gender inclusivity as an important factor in line-ups for a long time.
We’ve only been playing a year; we haven’t had time to record so we don’t have runs on the board, so to speak. It’s amazing to be included on this heavy punching line-up.
Do you like their old stuff better than their new stuff?
Haha, is this a trick question?! Regurgitator are a very clever and creative band. We love their old stuff as it’s firmly embedded in our psyche filed under ‘90s.
It’s difficult to believe the band has been around for 25 years. Their latest album, ‘Headroxx’, ups the ante on their earlier stuff by combining art and screen projection. The lyrics to ‘Don’t Stress’ need to be implanted in all of us at some point.
We love 'Pogogogo'. Alana’s kids loved that show. Alana loved the show more. For a band to translate ‘I sucked a lot of cock’ into ‘I sucked a lollipop to get where I am’, is f...ing genius.
What do you have planned for your set?
Lots of loud noise, anxiety-fuelled mayhem and fun.
What is a Koko Uzi live show like?
Fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take playing music seriously. We show up, enjoy ourselves and hopefully people dig it.
The go-to guitar pedal to get the big fuzz sound in your music is?
We love big FUZZ. It’s Mi Mi’s Uzi’s, neon blue super furry, original '90s Russian stonker, Big Muff ,and Li Li Uzi’s, original '90s Rat pedal.
At the start of the year the band were involved as music mentors for Girls Rock! Brisbane; how did you enjoy the experience?
We’ve all been involved with Girls Rock! for a few years now. We signed up separately to it and then discovered we were all going, which is a cool common value we share.
We get as much out of it as much as the campers do. It’s a safe and inspiring space to spend a week with other women who are our peers to pass on knowledge to a group of incredibly creative and bright young people who identify as female or non-binary.
It’s so much more than learning how to play an instrument. It’s about creating a space that encourages freedom of expression rather than based on appearance and dominant cultural norms about what it means to behave as 'feminine'.
It promotes self–worth, empowering young people to have a voice, take up space, and not feel they need to apologise for being who they are as individuals. It’s also about breaking the patterns of females having to compete against each other in order to succeed in life, let alone music.
Mentors role model kindness and compassion with each other and create a safe space for young people to learn they don’t need to isolate or bully in order to successfully create. The campers always come first with the mentors, as it’s for them, not us. It’s an incredible programme. It’s amazing to witness how creative young people are when given the space to be free.
What's coming next for Koko Uzi over the next few months as we head towards 2020?
Writing new songs, gigs, recording and touring.
Anything else you’d like to add before you’re dismissed?
Hmmm, reckon we’ve covered everything! See you at the gig. We’ll be up front for Shonen Knife and Regurgitator.
