British Indie Rock band Panchiko has returned to their homes to rest and recuperate after a whirlwind set of events that ended with them releasing their first-ever album and touring the USA for a month. Dan Carver was able to interview the two core members of the band, lead vocalist and guitarist Owain Davis and bassist Shaun Ferreday, to talk about Panchiko’s past, present, and future.
Panchiko have a story unlike any other. It began on the 21st of January 2020, where Owain Davies looked at his messages on a now defunct Facebook page… only to find some random Discord user asking him “…are you the lead singer of Panchiko?”
At first Owain was confused. How would anyone know about a project that had been abandoned over 20 years ago? Their demo-track, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L didn’t too do well and mostly fell on deaf ears when it was originally recorded sometime in 1999-2000.
When the band realised this, you’d think there would be a band meeting and a heartbreaking discussion. But the truth was that it wasn’t a conscious decision and the band just drifted apart…
“We just had different priorities that cropped up that we dealt with …” Shaun explained, “…and then that just led to not doing other stuff. I guess we had to do those other paths for a while. So yeah, there was no dramatic, I’m not doing this with you anymore. That’s not really how it went down.”
The demo track lay forgotten for all those years until a copy of it was found by a random person in an Oxfam shop. Perhaps it was the name of the band, which is a misspelling of Pachinko, a mechanical game originating in Japan that is widely used as an arcade game. Maybe it was the drawing of the anime girl that was taken from Mint na Bokura, a Japanese Manga by Wataru Yoshizumi. Or maybe it was the album name itself.
But that person brought the CD and then listened to it, before uploading the entire thing onto 4Chan’s music board /mu/, asking for more information. Whilst many users in 4Chan thought this was a hoax and publicity stunt, Panchiko began to amass a cult following online.
In 2016, a co-ordinated effort by users of Discord and Reddit led to one Discord user finally finding Owain and his Facebook profile, leading to the aforementioned message. It was the day that would change Owain’s life…
“It was a really cold January morning,” he explains… “I got up, it was really dark, and I checked my phone and saw these Facebook messages on a on a page I used to use for music.”
“I was like… whoa, that’s weird. Why is someone contact me on a page that nobody wants to go to?
“So, I went for the thing of talking to them and then they said go check it out, check out Panchiko. I went on the computer, and I typed it in the search engine. It took 10 minutes to press go and read the stuff because I went “do I want to know?”
But curiosity won and Owain found out about the work and determination that Discord, Reddit and 4 Chan had put into finding them, as well as the demands for a clean cut of their demo tape, which had since degraded in quality due to sitting in a charity shop.
Flash forward to 2023 and Panchiko has returned from a whirlwind tour in America, promoting their first album release in 20 years… Failed at Math(s). Their story has been covered in multiple YouTube videos and Panchiko is now a part of Internet Folklore… the story of how the Internet tracked down a defunct band and helped to revive them.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Owain explains after I asked him how it felt for Panchiko to be an Internet folk story, “Like I think it’s a really nice story because I think the internet is a good place, but it’s obviously full of a lot of terrible stuff and people can be really horrible on it.
“But I love it. I think it’s a good positive story about the Internet.”
“It’s just too difficult to process, to be honest,” adds Shaun, “I don’t really understand it because I’m just living a normal life. It’s very odd there’s this whole thing going on around us and it’s very difficult to get our head around it but it’s highly enjoyable as well.
Panchiko’s story is an odd one to process, for sure, but it’s also relatable. How many people started a band in their early days and had dreams of success? How many of those people grew up, had families, got careers… but wondered in the back of their heads, “what if we actually did make it?”
Now Owain, Shaun, and the rest of Panchiko have that answer. In no time at all, the band re-united (except for their original drummer, since they lost contact with him and his whereabouts are currently unknown) and their lives have changed. I asked them what the secret was in handling this rapid change of lifestyle.
“You just say yes,” Shaun says confidently, “although there’s some things should say no to, kids.
“I’ve probably said no too many times in the past. But you kind of get to the point where you realise that offers don’t come along twice for stuff, especially if it’s such crazy stuff. So, you kind of roll with it and try.”
All of this has been a learning experience for the band. They’ve been thrown in the deep end, no doubt about it. They’ve learned how to play a show, they’ve learned more about promotional materials, started doing interviews with publications.
But now the band have returned to their homes, to their day jobs… it’s a rare opportunity of quiet for them to sit down and ask themselves; “what are the goals for Panchiko?” Although Shaun already has his answer…
“It’s just to carry on having a good time with it,” Shaun says, “And just taking the opportunities that we’ve been given, and yeah, just enjoy it. Hopefully, we can still give something of value to people. That’s the plan for me.”
“Yeah, I’ve really loved playing the live shows,” agrees Owain, “There’s such a vibe in the room. I’d love to continue doing that as long as people wanna come out and see us.
“If people are still having a good time, and they get something from our music then I wanna do that. I want people to be happy because they saw something they liked. Like when I saw bands when I was younger.
“But I’d love to continue making music. I would love to live off this. I’d love for us to be able to do a little bit more with our lives than we could before and enjoy it. But the main thing is as long as I do like playing live and if we can engage with audiences still, that is one of the best feelings in the world. and it’s such a great job to do.
“It’s an amazing experience and really brilliant.”
