Back to People main page.

November 15th, 2007 -- Anime cover band Ikeda Katsu has made their mark on the New England anime scene!

Ever wish you could hear your favorite anime or video game theme song live? Search no longer because hailing from Massachusetts comes Ikeda Katsu! Forged together by six friends determined to bring the rock back into the anime convention! 

ASW: First off, introduce yourselves – how many of you are there? What do you all do in the group?

IK: Hi there, this is Aimee, Nick, Sean, Matt Murray, Joyce and Mark and we are Ikeda Katsu. There are six members now, all of us take up multiple roles. Aimee does lead vocals , keys and melodica. Nick does lead vocals, ukulele, and guitar but is our main drummer. Sean does lead vocals and lead guitar but equally an excellent bassist and ukulele player, Mark is our rhythm guitar but he also dabbles in Bass and Matt Murray is our Bass player who dabbles in guitar (and drums). Joyce does mainly violin and but also can play the piano.

ASW: How did you all meet each other? How was the band formed?

IK: Its kind of awesome how we came together. Try to follow this: Sean and Mark are brothers, Nick is there cousin, Aimee and Nick have been dating forever, Matt Murray was actually a childhood friend of Nick and Sean that came back into there lives at adults, Joyce and Aimee go to school together and are best friends. The original band had just Sean, Mark, Aimee and Nick and another member. After rotating drummers and bassists, Sean finally ran into Matt Murray and we settled into a sweet groove. Joyce was the final member. Now we are complete!!

ASW: What does the group name 'Ikeda Katsu' mean?

IK: Aimee made it up. One day Sean, Nick and Aimee where riding in a car together and we were tossing out names. All kinds of crazy ideas flew out. Aimee then said "why not Ikeda Katsu…"Ikeda" is Sean and Mark’s last name...who are half Japanese and "Katsu" because Nick likes Katsu". Plus it sounds cool and rolls of the tongue well. A few months later, Aimee was taking to one her Japanese friends at school and she said that name translates to "fried Ikeda" or "Ikeda win", again confirming our excellent choice.

ASW: How long have you been playing music?  How long have you been going to cons?

IK: Nick had been performing since he was a kid. He started going to college to become an opera singer and has been playing guitar and ukulele for many years. Sean was originally a bass player (he’s really good) but metaphorzied into an awesome lead guitar player and ukulele player in the five years or so. Matt Murray was in a few bands before Ikeda Katsu mainly taking the reins as a guitar player for many years. Mark joined the group as the player with the least experience but has become one of the strongest guitar players in the group. Aimee has a Bachelor’s in Music and is working on her masters in Music Teaching. She is actually a classically trained vocalist like Nick. Joyce has been playing violin and piano since she was a little girl in China. She’s about to graduate this year with a Bachelor in Music teaching and performance too and also plans to go for her Master’s in Music.

We have been playing cons since this spring. We have played at Connecticon 07 and Another Anime Con 07. We did two shows at each con. We actually performed a live skit at Anime Boston 07’s masquerade called "Life After Mario Sunshine" in which we performed a live- five part ukulele medley of the music from Mario 1. We recently performed at Tokyo Kid on Oct 28^th for their Cosplay/ Halloween event. What comes next is TBA ^_~.

ASW: What is your process like from picking out an anime / game song to cover, to making a full arrangement involving the group?

IK: First of all, the band listens very closely to the music. Sean and Nick focus on listening for the rhythm sections for Mark and Matt. Aimee, Joyce and Sean usually make up their own parts, unless there is specific lead part which is usually dived up between Sean and Joyce, depending on the song or if there is a specific keyboard line. Sometimes we use midis transcribed in Sibelius but we also use scores and tabs if available, which we later arrange for our group. The problem with those is that unless they are original scores, they can be inaccurate, so at times we modify parts to make them more interesting and or accurate.

ASW: You guys just played a show at Another Anime Con. How did that go?

IK: It was awesome. The staff was so sweet and they really made an effort to make us feel comfortable. Both shows went well but the Saturday one was excellent. On Friday, we were a bit rushed because we had a specific time for set up and after unloading and setting up, we were exhausted. We gave them a high energy show though. We all get so pumped on stage. By Saturday, we were rested and ready to rock. This show was one of our best ones, though there were some technical things that did hick up here and there. We had the audience singing and dancing along the whole time. It was great!

ASW: Let's backtrack. I first discovered Ikeda Katsu, along with many others at Anime Boston this year during the masquerade. Your skilled and hilarious "Life After Mario Sunshine" performance really shocked the world! How did you get the idea to cosplay as Mario cast members and play ukuleles?

IK: Well, we all really wanted to do something big to first get us noticed. We have been together for about 8 months by then and since we most of us go to Anime Boston every year, we figured we could shoot two birds with one stone by participating in one of the events and also showing up some of our real skills. The idea for the skit was developed by Aimee but the arrangement was done by Nick. The reason Joyce was not involved was because we had started working on it before she had actually joined the band. Sean, Mark and Nick all play ukulele (Sean and Mark are actually half Japanese from Hawaii) so it was easy for them. Matt and Aimee had to learn from scratch but it wasn’t too bad (with three great players). We all made our costumes ourselves, but Aimee’s took weeks to complete. We had to establish a good line of communication with the Masquerade coordinator, Jeni and her tech staff, who where was wonderfully supportive. 

That 3 min skit took months and months of planning and collaborations. The awesome end result was all due to a lot of people working really had to try something new. We were so glad that it went as well as it did. Walking around the hall was almost as fun! People were freaking out when they saw a "Mario Party" walk by. It took 30 minutes to walk from the hotel to the masquerade hall because we where stopped for pictures so many times. We all actually won a staff cosplay award for the cosplays. It was so much fun. Who knows what could be up for 08…

ASW: I ask this of all our interviewees – What's the craziest and awesome thing you've ever seen at a con? Each of you!!

Aimee: "When I did Iron Cosplay at Anime Boston, I had three people in my team and one was a ten year old boy. Since we had to dress someone in a cosplay and he was the smallest, I asked him if he would not mind dressing up as a girl and to my surprise he was all about it! My team ended up winning because of that kid!"

Nick: "It was so cool to look out at the audience at Anime Boston when we did the Masquerade…I’ll never forget it."

Mark: "My Brother dressed as Mario Fighting Dr. Cube’s in the hall at AB"

Matt: "Walking around the hall, as a Mario party and only being able to walk 10 feet before being stopped for a picture".

Joyce: "When we went to 4chan panel, we saw "The Internet" strip tease. It was so crazy and kind of scary."

Sean: "Having a young child attached herself to me squealing "Mario!!!". It was so odd"

ASW: Now to put you on the spot – What's the craziest and awesome thing you've ever done at a con? 

Mark: "Playing the Mario ukulele skit at AB"

Sean: "Fighting Dr. Cube"

Matt: "Doing the photo shoot at AAC with our friend Rich."

Joyce: "Playing in front of an interactive audience…it’s so different from a formal recital."

Nick: "For me...walking around in my 30 pound Celestine costume. It was so heavy I could only wear it for 30 minutes (standing) and I was constantly worried of heat exhaustion. But it did look awesome."

Aimee: "At AAC, during one of the songs we play, my job was to get the audience riled up using a huge sign to cue audience participation. Well, as the show began I realized that I had no idea where our sign was. I then decided to just start a Naruto character conga line. By the end of the song, we had live 30 people following me around the room dress in all kinds of cosplays. They were singing and dancing and just having a great time. It was so cute!!!"

ASW: What are your upcoming plans as a group? What else can we expect from Ikeda Katsu within the next year?

IK: We have a lot of plans in the working. We plan to have a "season two" set ready by next spring. You can expect songs from animes like Bleach and games like Halo. We can’t wait. As whether you will see us in the Masquerade at AB again, we will see. We will definitely be at Anime Boston (we go every year), that’s for sure, but in which form you will have to stay tuned. As soon as anything is a go, we will post it on our myspace page. If it all goes as planned, we will be all over New England this next upcoming year. So keep an ear out for us and check our space frequently. We are also in the works of creating an official website so look for that in the next few weeks.

ASW: Thanks and congrats!

IK: Thank you for interviewing us!!^_^!!

Back to People main page.

 Ikeda Katsu band members at Another Anime Con.

"Life After Super Mario Sunshine" performance at Anime Boston 2007.