American artist Cameron Lew’s appreciation for pop culture from Japan’s Showa Era (1926-89) helped shape the music he makes under the name Ginger Root. With his new album “Shinbangumi,” he wants to emphasize that’s not all the project is about.
“I feel like everyone wants to dilute and simplify what you do, and I think the buzzword that came to mind was ‘city pop,’” says Lew, 28, over a call from California. “I wasn’t upset about that or anything, and I am very influenced by that genre of music. But I feel like as a musician, I grew up on a bunch of other stuff that led me to city pop and gave me the vocabulary to dissect why city pop is so important to me.”
Released last month, “Shinbangumi” highlights Lew’s varied musical inspirations and worldview. The glimmering pop echoes of Japan in the 1980s — which came to the spotlight on preceding EPs “City Slicker” and “Nisemono,” collections that helped him gain a following around the world — remain. Now they are joined by songs nodding to the nerviness of Devo, the loose rock-pop of Hall & Oates and even Haruomi Hosono’s ’70s explorations of exotica to create a project that digs even deeper than what came before.
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