We at the AU review love a good Japanese band - and when they happen to be an all girl group, we seem to love them even more. The latest cab off the ranks in this category are The Suzan. We sent the up and coming band, who just released their debut album Golden Week For The Poco Poco Beat in Australia, a few questions to find out what they're all about!

How did The Suzan form?

We (Rie and Saori) started to make demos at our house in the end of 2003. And (before we knew it) we've got (a) contract with Japanese indie label called Rose Records. And the owner of the label told us to play gigs. So we invited our friends Nico and Ikue.

What does your name refer to?

“SUZAN” is our nickname. In fact, it comes from our family name ”SUZUKI”.

You've describes your sound as an "eclectic mix of Western styles". Who are your biggest influences?

It’s The Beatles. The Beatles' songs are involving many genres, so we also try to make songs of wide range of genres.

It has traditionally been quite difficult for Asian bands to achieve mainstream success in Western countries, however many Japanese groups (like X Japan, Vamps and Puffy AmiYumi) have been garnering a lot of critical and commerical success lately - Are you hoping your band follows a similar path to success?

No we don't follow that way. They have been so successful and garnered by people who love Japanese animation or Japanese "Visual" artists. We want to be loved too, but we want our songs to be listened by people who don't even know Japanese culture very much at all -  this has been a real success for us.

Your songs are sung in English. What is the writing process like for that? Do you write in Japanese first and then translate, or do you have different methods depending on the song?

We write lyrics in English from beginning. We keep writing down favorite words and sentences and sometimes choose a word and decide theme for a song and then put those words or sentences on the melody or beats of the song.

Did you have a particular vision for your album Golden Week For The Poco Poco Beat? Are there any dominant themes or messages you want listeners to take away with them after listening to the record?

There are not dominant themes or messages for the listener, each song has different taste and style. We would like listener to pick a song for a moment from the album - it's like choosing you clothes everyday, and enjoying every moment!

What was it like working with famous DJ A-Trak and Bjorn Yttling (from Peter, Bjorn and John)?

Bjorn is really talented and great producer as you can imagine.

As working with Bjorn was so exciting and very much interesting. He gave us various ideas while recording.

He made the sound by hitting the lid of the pan and the garbage box instead of drum sounds.

We were so surprised at his flesh ideas.

Also as stripping out some bars and sounds on several songs, he brought out essential parts and sounds of songs and made songs high-qualified.

A-Trak is also very talented and outstanding DJ in the world and also our label, Fool's Gold owner.

We haven't worked with him on creating music yet, he understands our situation and is always supportive about us.

Where has been your favourite country to tour so far? What were some of your most memorable experiences onstage?

It’s US. when we played the gig at Broooklyn Bowl in this CMJ week, Audienes sung “Home” along us!! And we also met Kanye West at that time.

(Our) most memorable experience was the gig at Leipzig (Germany) about five years ago. It was so exciting and really crazy. We had encores many times though, we didn’t have so many songs to play for encores. At that time, maybe we only had 10 songs set. Therefore we played same set list a couple of times! ! And finally audiences memorized chorus of the song and we sung together.

Are you planning on coming to Australia anytime soon?

Hopefully next year!

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Golden Week For The Poco Poco Beat is in stores now!