The Watanabes - Spoiled and Nostalgic

The Watanabes
Spoiled and Nostalgic

Album US 2016 on Babyboom Records Japan label
Rock and Pop (Folk Rock, Acoustic)

In the 1990s the Walsh brothers were nostalgic teenagers living in a tiny village in rural Norfolk, dreaming away their time in a room together writing heartfelt pop songs on second hand guitars. Twenty years later they find themselves in Tokyo, sharing a room together, sipping on green tea, while writing heartfelt pop songs on second hand guitars. They call themselves The Watanabes. ‘Spoiled and Nostalgic’ was recorded between the summers of 2015 and 2016 at Nanahari in Tokyo, and in sunny Shikoku at Dave's home studio in Marugame, Kagawa. All songs were written by Duncan Walsh and Selwyn Walsh in collaboration with David Naughton, except Tonight which was written by David Naughton. It was produced and mixed by David Naughton and mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios in London, UK. The Watanabes would like to say a huge thank you to the very talented Ayumi Sato and Tomoyuki Yamada for joining us on bass and drums - both on the record and on stage. We were honoured to have Lensei Nishizawa sweetly hitting the keys on piano and organ, and delighted to find some musical space for Brent Betters to fill with his beautiful trumpet. Hitomi Tsuchiya once again did us proud with her wonderful design work, creating the perfect artistic companion to our music, and Hideaki at Nanahari was a warm and accommodating host for our recording sessions. We’d also like to express our gratitude to John Coyle and Hiromi Abe at What The Dickens, Mark Sullivan at Gamuso, Hallie Drake at Crawfish, Tim McSherry at The Ruby Room, Iain Naughton and Andi Brooks for their generous stream of gig invitations, as well as to David Allen, Michael Holmes, Takashi Imai, Marcus Lovitt, Jiye Kim, Gueorgui Tcherednitchenko and Kyoko Obayashi for capturing the band on camera. Honourable mentions go out to all of the other musicians that have made important contributions to the band over the years - either on record or by joining us on stage, or both: Ashley Davies, Flavio Jerome, Tom Hiskey, David Elman, Paul Cook, Nick Duffy, Yoko Ohsawa, Ethan Green, Matt Bigelow, Matt Hogan, HeeYoung Rhee, Stefan Samuelsson and Tadashi Yoshikawa. We salute you. Major admiration and gratitude to Kengo Iwamoto at BabyBoom Records. Our love and respect goes out to our tech guru Chunling Chang and chief scout Jiye Kim, and to every one of our family and friends for their generous support and encouragement. Many, many thanks also to Dave and the Naughton clan: Maki, Kimi, Kaiya and Kan for giving us such a good time in Shikoku, feeding us, supporting us, wearing our band t-shirts, and for letting us be all spoiled and nostalgic in their family home. “The Watanabes are not flamboyant and gay in early 80’s London, they are slightly spoiled and nostalgic in 21st century Tokyo.” Independent Social Power: The Watanabes (Review by JP DuQuette, JAPANZINE 2008)

Musicians

	The Watanabes , *2005 JP album by
	Duncan Walsh acg, voc, acoustic guitar, songwriter, vocals
	Selwyn Walsh eg, voc, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, songwriter, vocals
	Dave Naughton , arranged by, backing vocals, engineer, producer, lead guitar, songwriter, twelve-string guitar
	Ayumi Sato , bass, double bass
	Tomoyuki Yamada drums
	Lensei Nishizawa , keyboards, piano
	Brent Betters , trumpet