Since their debut EP, Introduction, released on the Walter Frosch-associated label, The Supermarket, it didn’t take too long for me to become a fan of ZART’s dreamy soundscapes. During the preparation for this interview, I was strongly convinced that I posted the single, Sleepwalk, in an article as part of a playlist. In March earlier this year, the duo released their debut album, Forced Recollection, on Oh, Sister Records, and it’s a collection of wonderful songs which I find myself listening to quite often. The song, Dissipate, would also appear on the Summer 2026 playlist.

The duo recently announced a tour of Japan in September and I was intrigued by their plans, especially as they have only played a few dates in Switzerland since their formation in 2024. It’s always great to see bands from the music scene venturing outside of Europe, and off the top of my head I have heard about some examples such as Penkowski in China, Leopardo in USA, Coilguns in Mexico and Giant Moa (in collaboration with La Groupie) in Japan.

I wanted to know more about how ZART organised their tour in Japan, which as an outsider seemed quite DIY, and with my limited band experience, I saw how complicated it was just to organise two dates in neighbouring Germany with the Supersonic Travel Agency. In any case, I had a lot of questions that I wanted to ask the duo about their preparation and organisation of their upcoming tour in Japan.

I would like to thank the duo for their replies and wish them all the best for Japan.

Tell us about ZART - who is in the band? Where did the idea come from to form ZART? How would you describe the project?

ZART is Dominic and me, Svenja. It wasn’t really born from a specific idea, but rather started as a shared hobby between us. We’re both huge music lovers and, for the most part, have very similar taste. Dominic has played in punk and hardcore bands since he was a teenager. I, on the other hand, spent my teenage years going to countless shows (...still miss you, ABART ♡) and writing poetry, but somehow never ended up making music myself or starting a band with friends.

Anyway, Dominic suggested that we learn how to play synthesizers together. It was a new skill for both of us, since he had always played guitar or bass. Because we didn’t live together at the time, Dominic ended up spending most of his time actually playing around with the synthesizers, while I was still reading this insane manual trying to understand how they worked. By the time I was still stuck on electronic circuits and all that, Dominic had already made a song.

So I threw the goddamn manual away and started focusing on writing lyrics and vocals instead. That’s how DREAMSCAPE came about. It’s the very first song we ever made together.

Which brings me to the answer to the next question: ZART is simply what it is. It wasn’t created with a mission or concept. It’s about spending time together and creating music, both consciously and subconsciously, without following any strict guidelines when it comes to genre. For Dominic, it’s a way of exploring new musical landscapes, while for me, it’s become a space where I can live out catharsis - expressing bottled-up emotions, feelings, and thoughts.

(Photo copyright: Anna-Marie Lewandowski)

How did you decide to organise a tour in Japan?

Again, it was something that just kind of happened. We were planning a trip to Japan when Dominic suggested that we could try to book a few shows along the way. So I casually started sending emails to venues that lined up with our train route through Japan.

Had you already planned something similar before?

No, we had never planned anything like that before, as we only started playing live shows this year.

What sort of preparation was required? How was the organisation of the tour for you? Did it require a lot of effort?

I first did quite a bit of research to understand where we might actually be able to book a show. Then I saw that a great artist from Zurich, Caterina De Nicola, was about to tour Japan. I ended up reaching out to some of the venues she was playing that lined up with our route through Japan. So, shout-out to Caterina De Nicola :) and definitely check out her amazing work!

The main challenge in organizing the tour was figuring out how to play our music with as little gear as possible. We had luggage restrictions, didn’t want to spend a fortune on extra baggage, and, since we’re travelling around Japan by train, we needed everything to be easy to carry.

Other than that, organizing the shows didn’t feel like too much extra effort. A trip that far requires quite a bit of planning anyway, so the tour just became part of that process. We definitely learned some new technical things along the way, though - for example, that our European wireless in-ear system won’t work in Japan. So we had to find another solution for that.

How was the contact with the venues?

It was really good — quite different from Switzerland. I think I only reached out to about six places, and four of them got back to us with bookings. That surprisingly high positive response rate actually made me curious about why it seemed so much easier to book a show there, so I started reading about the live music culture in Japan.

One thing that stood out to me is how many smaller live houses operate: rather than having just one or two acts play an evening, it’s common to have several bands (5-8!) from all kinds of different genres on the same bill - almost like a micro music festival every night. Each band brings its own little community, so the audience is essentially built collectively over the course of the night. That also means booking a band that doesn’t have much of a local following yet is less of a risk for the venue, because they’re not relying on that one band to fill the room. I found that really interesting because it creates an environment where smaller and newer bands actually get a chance to play - and probably explains why it felt so much more open to us as a band from Switzerland with basically no reach in Japan yet.

What sort of logistics are required? (eg For the instruments and merchandise). Would you be performing as a duo or as a full band?

We’re packing as minimally as possible so we can fit all the essential gear alongside some merchandise without having to carry too much around with us. At the moment, we’re performing as a duo, which definitely makes the logistics a lot easier.

What are you looking forward to the most? What are your wishes for the tour?

We’re super excited to experience Japanese music culture firsthand, especially because it seems so different from what we’re used to in Switzerland. The idea of spending an evening watching so many different bands across all kinds of genres just sounds incredibly interesting to us.

One of my personal hopes is that our show at Pepperland goes really well, especially because of Iseo Nose, the founder of Pepperland, who has been booking bands there since the late ’70s. He was born in 1947 and still personally writes all the emails! For some reason, I really don’t want to let him down, haha. I feel this strange sense of reverence towards someone who has dedicated so much of his life to music and is still so passionate about it. Even though he probably won’t even be there.

More than anything, though, we just hope to have a great time, meet lots of interesting new people, and connect with others who share the same passion for music.

What do you have planned between concerts?

Food, record stores, art islands, maybe the Subaru factory, hi-fi and music gear shops, vinyl listening bars - and then probably more food. Mostly, we just want to immerse ourselves in these huge cities, explore as much as possible, and get completely overwhelmed and overstimulated in the best way possible.

Any advice for bands?

If you can save up some money, just do it. It’s surprisingly easy to organize yourself, even if you’re all DIY like us and don’t have a booking agent. Do some research, reach out to venues, and see what happens.

Links:

Related articles:

The Supermarket

Oh, Sister Records

Three bands that tour a lot and/or mentioned in the intro

Interview with ZART: tour preparations for Japan

Playlist - Summer 2026