Travis Japan

“I haven’t been downtown in years,” my mom whispered as we walked through Downtown Los Angeles. A few weeks earlier, I had asked her to interview Travis Japan with me. We bonded over the J-Pop boy band through preparing for this day: researching their story, listening to their fun, upbeat music, watching their infectious music videos, and creating questions in Japanese together. We walked into the bright penthouse ready to interview them as new fans of their work, and we walked out as people rooting for their success.

Travis Japan is a seven-member group made up of Chaka, Umi, Shime, Noel, Shizu, Genta, and Machu. You may recognize them from America’s Got Talent, where they made it to the semifinals in the 2022 season. They also had a short stint on the America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League spinoff on Mel B’s team. On AGT, their dancing and performances were electric and celebrated, and you couldn’t help but be charmed by their personalities and bits with the judges.

When my mom and I caught them, they were coming off the tails of their first world tour, where they stopped in Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seattle, LA, and New York—a seemingly large jump from where they were just two years ago on the AGT stage, before they were signed to Capitol Records and the release of their first studio album, Road to A. Their YouTube presence is significant—with over 460,000 subscribers and over 500 videos. They upload frequently with tour vlogs, fun quizzes and games they do with each other, live performances, and perhaps my favorite, solo dance clips and impressive group choreography. Their stage presence and dancing talent are evident in these videos, and you get a quick sense of their energy.

When asked what advice they would have for themselves before their 2022 debut, Machu replied quickly, “To keep dancing and singing and learning English.” Perhaps not something that would have been as important back when I was growing up and visiting Japan every summer, but now, J-Pop and other international groups like theirs need to feel comfortable with English to make it outside Japan. Thinking about their international reach, we asked if they approached each country and their fan base differently in these shows, and they emphasized that the group's first priority is for everyone in the audience to have fun. They try to connect using the country’s language and communicate where they can, but fun is at the heart of what they do. This is clear in their music videos like “Sweetest Tune” which has amassed 6.9M views on Youtube, or “Crazy Crazy,” their newest single. They mix English in the lyrics, making it easy for anyone to sing along, and the music videos are an aesthetic playground of colors and dances, as well as an opportunity to show the seven members’ personalities.

But there is also a serious side to their work and career goals. With no shortage of J-Pop bands and groups in the industry, Noel said, “We need to create a new genre of music [...] we need to step forward as J-Pop.” This kind of undertaking reveals the inner motivations and responsibilities the group has stewing underneath the warm, funny, bubbly exterior. And it’s what we appreciated the most about Travis Japan: they work hard, and you see a real friendship among them. We asked them how they’ve cultivated such deep bonds within such a large group of seven, and they told us that they lived in LA for seven months together a few years ago. Umi was quick to say they stayed in a four-bedroom home, learning English, training in dancing and vocals, and sleeping two to a room (but rotating the single bedroom to stay fair). This experience seemed to shape them and solidify their relationship as a group.

With their sophomore album, VIIsual, (coming out on December 4th) they make a play with the Roman numeral for seven, a constant theme with the band. When asked what they want fans to take away from this album, Umi (who came up with the album title), talks about how they want their fans to get to know them as individuals and their personalities better. And for those who aren’t fans yet and don’t know them, they want the album to feel accessible. “If you want to know each of our personalities, you have to buy this one!” Umi exclaimed.

Impressively, they are releasing the global edition of their album at the same time. According to Chaka, having to switch between recording in Japanese and English seemed like the most challenging part of this project. But this work ethic embodies the one word Umi used to describe their group: samurai. “[A] samurai is so strong… We are so strong to practice dancing, singing, [speaking] English… We have to practice every day. We have a heart that’s so strong.” My mom chimed in at that moment and said cheekily, “The seven samurai.”

With seven men and two albums down, Travis Japan is just beginning.

As we say in Japanese, “Ganbatte, Travis Japan!”