UMIKO Kotori – An Xperience Interview

UMIKO Kotori – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

Photo Credit: Narimantas Šerkšnys

RRX: So how do I pronounce your name?

UK: My name is Elena, my stage name is UMIKO Kotori.

RRX: OK, so you’re using a stage name for your music.

UK: Yeah. I’m known by the stage name and also as a composer here because I managed to do different projects with theater and sound design. I work for commercials and animation. In Lithuania, we have a small scene, now it’s bigger. With this thought about the scene. I feel like I’m getting old, you know? I’m like an old person, oh these times are better. We have a lot of new people coming in with new ideas after the Soviet Union blockade. We didn’t have much for 30 or 40 years, we couldn’t go anywhere. I remember times as a kid, my grandparents and my parents were fighting for freedom all the time. Now I have a kid, she’s 11 and she is living a totally different life than we were.

RRX: That’s good.

UK: Yeah, I really feel the difference, you know? Technologically and otherwise. There’s a lot of good players and the culture of music.

RRX: I often wonder, because we have listeners now in all seven continents.

UK: Yeah, that’s amazing.

RRX: It’s been six continents forever, but Liam (Sweeny) who you were introduced to … he interviewed someone from McMurdo Station in Antarctica, so now they’re listening down there. Now I feel complete!

UK: I really like penguins and polar bears. That place is like, wow, how do people live there?

RRX: (Laughs) It’s like this phenomenon; we got all these people listening from all over the world but how do you find us? I don’t even know how you found us, but it seems like the right people are finding us.

UK: I was thinking … I don’t have much to lose, I want to search out independent music reviewers and just hit them up with my message. I was researching bit by bit, not like hundreds of stations got my emails and now I’m just gonna wait for results. No, I’m trying one step at a time and see what’s happening, and I really like to connect with people. I’m not a machine that can shoot up with action all the time. So, for me, it was this move. I found it on the internet, I was researching. Even with ChatGPT; I was asking, “Can you tell me good independent alternative radio stations?” It gave me three and I think yours was the first one! I sent one to America, one to Japan, and one to Australia.

RRX: That’s so cool and we are really digging your music.

UK: Great! Because I sent you an album that I really worked hard for. It was “Sorry to Be You,” that grunge album with the second part of electronic beats and a bit of rap, or something like that. But I was really excited about that album. I was writing it through a big Marshall 24 lamp 8 speaker body bass amp and I even recorded guitars through it. It’s really huge. I call it the refrigerator.

RRX: Wow.

UK: I was having a lot of fun actually doing this album, and I didn’t get to play it a lot, you know? I was very happy that it caught attention from your radio station.

RRX: We’re very much into it. You told me that you do a lot of different kinds of styles. I think that’s cool too. I’m a songwriter too, and when I listen to a song that I’ve written, I like to listen to it as if I’m someone else hearing it for the first time – what would they feel or think?

UK: The process has some sadness, also. When you release a song, it’s like you’ve lost something. It’s like you come to the studio and you feel empty. When you put it out, it’s kind of beautiful. With bands, I got a bit stuck in this kind of confusion because, yeah, the shows are great, but you get bored by the idea. You play it a lot, if you have a program for a year or two from one album’s setlist. You know that album by heart so much that you may want to vomit from that. You know?

RRX: You get sick of it. Someone might be hearing it for the first time but you don’t want to even play it anymore.

UK: I was thinking how to avoid this because I was jealous about the experience for myself. I want the show to be fresh to me so that I can have this inspiration from what I’m doing. If I’m playing the same thing, I get tired really quickly, and I don’t see a point in that.

RRX: Yeah, I can relate to that. I know like the final product is really like your thing and making the music but where do you want to go with this? Do you have an endgame? Are you trying to accomplish anything or just make music?

UK: I’m eager to see where it goes. I want to smoke with Snoop Dogg in the end! Just sit, smoke with him, and talk about … I don’t know, it could be about the air!

RRX: That would make you feel accomplished right there. I hope it happens for you.

UK: Thank you. I don’t know what my relatives would think about me after that, but the point is maybe the vibe in the end. What can I accomplish from this? Sometimes, I think about … what are the things I am envious of in the world? When I see the envy, I see something there that I can strive for, and maybe I’ll reach that goal. When I see people in a beautiful house somewhere, with pools and stuff … I’m like, man, well… great for you. But when I see a lady’s feet in the beach sand and the waves in all those photos from vacations where the ladies photograph their feet. I’m like … uhhhhhhh, I hate you for nothing.

(Both laugh)

UK: Maybe my goal is standing on the beach for as long as I can and then maybe go to eat. I don’t know. I think for me it’s like a panda goal. To be a perfect panda in your life with no stress. That’s why maybe I want to go and smoke with Snoop Dogg in the end. Because it’s like a manifestation – I have no stress!

RRX: That’s right. As you mentioned, you’ve done tours. Well, if things take off, obviously you gotta come over here to the States (as everyone calls it when you don’t live here). That’d be kind of cool, right?

UK: That would be cool because when I’m touring I’m a fun person to meet. You have to be brave to go alone, but if you have good humor by your side, you can meet a lot of great friends in the end. I was traveling and touring in Germany, Portugal, and around here … so I met really great people in the end by accident. I really love those trips; the shows were great, everything was great. I know what I’m doing on the stage, I’m not questioning myself there. I’m having fun, but the trips …they give me something that I would like to write a book about. Some meetups are really special, and they lead you through life later on. It’s really interesting, it’s part of touring for me. I really would like to tour in America … because I’m a big fan of America’s stand-up comedy, and I really appreciate a lot of things that you guys brought into this world, music-wise also.

RRX: Absolutely. Well, it’s been a pleasure and we’ll be in touch.

UK: I hope we’ll meet each other in life someday.

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