Tot Onyx is the solo alias of Tommi, a Tokyo-born and Berlin-based sound artist and performer who loves to work with metal objects and her body. She is one half of Japanese experimental performance duo, group A.
Formed in 2012, her former band’s exploration into breaking the preconceptions of live performance, by incorporating use of the body, live-painting, noise and poetry was met with great enthusiasm and excitement from small art spaces to established festivals such as Berlin’s Atonal. Adept at bending expectations, both live and recorded, the band’s formative early work echoes the experiential vocabulary in which Tommi continues to develop today. A practice in the rejection of tradition and cliché, which in Greil Marcus’s words, “share the principles of negation, rebellion, destruction and détournement”.
Tommi’s foundation in graphic design and photography is expressed through frequent collaborations with multi-media artists and videographers, which is crucial to her experimentation in both sound and performance. Following group A’s collaboration with dance companies such as Christoph Winkler and Dana Gingras’ Animals of Distinction, Tommi continues her solo work with a focus on such creative performance.
FACTS
1. Enxin/Onyx is a joint project between Nicky Mao (a.k.a. Hiro Kone) and Tot Onyx.
2. Neither of us knows the correct pronunciation of our band name.
3. Just like in my previous band, group A, we talk mostly about politics and rarely about music.
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
The endless areas I can find in the performance aspect that have not been explored in the past (at least to my knowledge) or have been explored but forgotten because the majority of audiences tend to prefer conventional forms of performance.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
When i was living in London, my friend suggested that we’d form a punk band and i’d be the front person singing in Japanese. We were young and were hanging out together everyday anyway so there was no reason for me to say no, although i had never written songs or sang on stage before.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Derrida, Luciano Cilio’s dialoghi del presente, Crass’ Penis Envy, Merzbow’s Storage, Skinny Puppy’s Remission.
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Cops. Unfortunately. It’s a city full of cops. They only exist to disrupt our peace.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
Hind Rajab Platz (when there’re no cops) or my room.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I think I would die quite quickly. Not in the sense that music is my passion, but in the sense that no music means no sound, and no sound means you cannot feel distance in the way we do in this world. When I had the chance to experience an anechoic chamber, it was one of the scariest experiences of my life. It was like a torture to me and I almost had a panic attack. I’m claustrophobic, so I think that has something to do with it.
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listen?
I bought a track “The folder of oppression” by Abdullah Miniawy on Bandcamp.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I’m getting interested in the acoustics of spaces, so I’d like to work with some of my favourite buildings in the world. I also have a list of abandoned buildings and factories that I want to visit, so to combine the two, my answer would be my favourite abandoned places. Hashima (Gunkanjima) would be a dream place to explore for sound and its history.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer, at this point in my life, I think I can say that every one of them is memorable. Whatever happened during the performance, it only happened at that time in space with the people who happened to be there, and it’s not possible to recreate the same situation ever again. It’s like life, it’s never perfect. But there’s so much to explore, that’s why I keep doing it. As a spectator, my best gigs so far are The Horrors, Peter Brötzmann and Valerio Tricoli.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Certainly to some extent, without it I wouldn’t be making the sound I’m making now, like none of the gears I’m using would even exist. But I’m not good at it in general, I think I’m more of an intuitive person rather than approaching it with an understanding of physics, for example.
Please tell us a little bit about your new joint album “In Rupture”
This album was made at a rather critical time in my life when I was growing as a person, especially through experimentation in practicing the political beliefs that I have established over the last few years. At this point, i’m not sure how much of this can be heard in this album, maybe it’s not reflected so well in the sound. Perhaps that’s because i’m still going through the period, and I hope this perception will be different when i listen to the album in the future, looking back on the time.
