Salarymen

Congratulations on the debut album! ‘Take It Or Leave It’ explores the emotional push and pull of a long-term relationship — how did your own dynamic as a duo shape the writing of this record?

As you grow together in a band, you sort of have to develop two different personalities. You have your "business" mindset, where you become accustomed to constantly receiving feedback and criticism on your work (and giving it in return), and then you have your "normal" mindset, where you totally switch off, forget about the music and just be best friends. Over time, that line becomes blurred and it can strain your relationship (which I'm sure every band member in the history of the world has experienced at some point), so that dynamic has definitely shaped the record. But we're still best friends!!! Don't worry. :)

‘Let Me Go’ combines indie rock with elements of French disco and psychedelia — what drew you to this sonic blend, and how did Harvey Geraghty’s cameo on keys come about?

It's just impossible not to dance to this combo!! Some of our favourite artists like Tame Impala and Mildlife get pretty funky with the percussion, so we felt inspired to basically build a song from scratch starting off with nothing but Bongos! They're super addictive. We approached Harvey as we knew he shared a lot of the same influences (and he's just an insanely good keys player). He really added a soulful groove to the song.

The album touches on identity, compromise, and self-preservation — was there a particular moment or turning point that inspired these themes?

There wasn't a singular moment. In fact, this theme sort of emerged after we wrote all the songs. Sometimes, you just let your creativity flow and the story writes itself. We looked at all the songs collectively after they were mixed, and these were the most common themes across the body of work.

The hand-drawn manga album artwork is a standout — can you tell us about the collaboration with Teasheen Chua and the inspiration behind setting the scene in a ramen shop?

We've always had a deep connection to Japanese culture (hence our name!), so it just felt right to pay homage to some of our favourite anime series. In the artwork, we're depicted as two lovers in the process of reconciling after an argument via the special healing powers of a 3AM ramen!! (Of which we've had plenty over the years). We reached out to Teasheen with a far-fetched idea and she absolutely nailed it. It's totally beautiful and we love supporting other artists.

You’ve toured internationally, played festivals like SXSW and The Great Escape, and shared stages with Royel Otis and Ball Park Music — what’s been the most surreal or defining moment of the last year?

We can't go past playing at The Enmore Theatre with Ball Park Music. That's a venue every music-obsessed kid hopes to perform at one day, and it was a huge bucket list moment for us. Selling out our first-ever UK show at Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh deserves a special mention too.

No two songs on the album sound the same — was it important for you to defy genre boundaries, and how did producers Antonia Gauci and Tony Buchen help bring that vision to life?

Absolutely. We like so many different styles of music, but there's a certain pressure to try and box things into a neat, little consumable box these days. If we took that outlook, we would have compromised on the fun and creativity of making an album, and it would have prevented us from making some of our best songs. It was the first time we recorded in a proper studio, so having someone like Antonia there to push us in the right direction was amazing. And Tony totally put his own spin on each of the songs, helping us trim the fat and highlight the best parts.