10-04-2025
The band that turned a pandemic lockdown into a Tokyo dream
Theo Poyer and Margot Magnieres fell hard for Japan on their first visit. It was March 2020, their first trip outside Europe, and they were loving being here — until things got a little too dramatic.
'We got one of the last flights back to France before everything was closed,' Poyer says, recalling the chaotic early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'After that, we just wanted to go back.'
Five years later, the now 30-year-old musicians — who, along with Poyer's younger brother Elliot, make up the band Tapeworms — are back and seated comfortably in a Shimokitazawa cafe.
Before relocating to Tokyo in September 2024 on working holiday visas (Elliot, 27, stayed behind in their hometown of Lille), the trio finished their second full-length album, 'Grand Voyage.' Out April 11, it's a dreamy, electronic-leaning collection that nods to early-2000s pop and the hyperactive sparkle of 'picopop' — a Shibuya-kei offshoot known for its faster tempos and more pronounced electronic sound. The album finds Tapeworms imagining themselves as pop icons from the confines of their bedrooms.
'We saw a direct connection between the COVID era and being stuck in your room, projecting yourself as a pop star,' Poyer says. 'That was our relation to music at the time, just having big dreams.'
It's also an album of wanderlust, created in an era of lockdowns, when leaving your apartment felt like an act of rebellion. With Japan being a must-see destination on many travelers' wishlists, 'Grand Voyage' winds up being one of the first albums to capture a broad, post-pandemic fixation with the country, filtered through sonic references and pop culture nostalgia.
'When I was a little kid, I saw an old Godzilla movie — one from the Showa Era,' Poyer says, referring to the postwar period leading up to the 1990s. Magnieres got her first taste of Japan through anime ('Cat's Eye,' more specifically), which is practically a rite of passage in France. In their 20s, the two discovered Shibuya-kei stalwarts Cornelius and Pizzicato Five, and something clicked.
During the post-interview photo shoot, Margot Magnieres won a giant 'Toy Story' alien plushie from a crane game on her very first try. |
JOHAN BROOKS
But Tapeworms didn't start out sounding like a Tokyo daydream. When they formed in 2016, they leaned hard into shoegaze. Their early releases were all fuzzy guitars and dreamy distortion, clearly indebted to acts like My Bloody Valentine. Back then, they described their lyrics as 'adult themes seen through child eyes.'
'I think the first album was more shoegaze-y, live music in sound,' Poyer says of 2020 debut full-length 'Funtastic,' which still had hints of where they'd end up. 'I think we all wanted to take that and explore more elements of electronic and pop music. It took us a long time to get to that place, we were so used to just playing together. Then we had to focus on the production side of things.'
Magnieres says the idea for 'Grand Voyage' started forming during that first Japan trip, but it was the pandemic that transformed the bedroom pop-star fantasy into a central theme. Stuck at home, they became obsessed with the Sega Dreamcast cult classic Roommania #203 and early webcam shows like Jennicam, Jennifer Ringley's 'lifecast.'
'It was really inspiring to us, and really lined up with our theme of being stuck in your room with your dreams,' Poyer says.
'We tried to create an intimate atmosphere to it,' Magnieres adds. 'We wanted to display a narrative, including about dreaming of going abroad and actually doing it, and making it a bit blurry.'
To do that, they had to pivot — hard — away from their live-band roots and embrace studio craft, which proved to be a learning experience for all involved. One of the toughest lessons? Knowing when to stop.
'It pushed my skills,' Poyer says, recalling the challenge of figuring out exactly how to do what everyone wanted to, as well as becoming confident in his abilities to achieve those goals.
Margot Magnieres says Tapeworms tried to "create an intimate atmosphere' on their most recent album, "Grand Voyage." |
JOHAN BROOKS
Their new direction was also firmly rooted in Japanese pop music history. 'We came at it from the perspective of shoegaze first, starting with Cornelius,' Poyer says. 'Then we started getting used to more pop, and even the French-inspired style of Pizzicato Five. That opened the door to picopop.'
Tapeworms delight in discussing picopop, one of the genres popular in the Japanese underground of the early 2000s that includes Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, the Usagi-Chang Records catalog and early productions by Yasutaka Nakata. Tapeworms nail the style on their latest album through songs like 'Window Seat' and 'Pitch Pop,' while Magnieres says the narrative behind Yann Tomita's 1995 project 'Doopee Time' helped Tapeworms pin down their own story.
Other inspirations included Miki Nakatani's 1999 album 'Shiseikatsu,' produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto and featuring heavy use of samples from everyday life such as dishes being put away. Hideaki Anno's 1998 film 'Love & Pop' was another touchstone — Tapeworms even named a track after it on 'Grand Voyage.'
And Godzilla is never far from Poyer's thoughts — 'I've used 'Godzilla' soundtrack samples in our songs for a long time. Like, deep in there,' he says.
So yes, 'Grand Voyage' is a dreamy, danceable album, but it's also a time capsule. It's a reflection of how the world romanticized Japan in the pandemic era: full of allure, mysterious charm and an archive of yet-to-be discovered cultural exports that hit hard when you're under lockdown thousands of kilometers away.
And then, like the record number of tourists drawn to this country, Poyer and Magnieres made their way back here once restrictions were lifted. In an early blog post about their decision to stay a year, though, they're clear-eyed: they talk about how Japan can feel 'stuck,' mention the 'failure' of the Tokyo Olympics, the weak yen and the realities of working random jobs on a visa. Still, they've made the most of it — and they're trying to lure Elliot out for live shows in September.
Tapeworms are already working on new music, too, shaped by life in Tokyo — because their grand voyage isn't over yet.
