Asobi Seksu interview: The quiet life

"Really?" says the Japanese-American singer in Asobi Seksu. "Well, I'm sorry, I can't tell you if the film was actually made in Walnut, but it was embarrassing to admit I lived in such a place. Our house was in Mockingbird Lane, which didn't do me any favours either. But then I found out that The Munsters' house was 1313 Mockingbird Lane. My credibility shot up after that."

Chikudate now lives in New York, the base for her band these past seven years. In that time they've been keepers of the shoegazing flame, creating the sound of 1,000 guitars in defiance of the prevailing wind. But the monotony of layering sheets of textured fuzz on top of one another began to turn them mad. It was like lugging a heavy load up great yawning flights of stairs; the job never seemed to end.

Well, now it has. Chikudate and the guitarist, James Hanna, have finished impersonating Stan and Ollie – at least on record, for the time being anyway. The live shows – including their return to Scotland this month – will still involve an unholy racket, because fans will demand the old songs and Hanna, according to Chikudate, "cannot leave a room without making a big, big noise". But the faithful will also hear new numbers, from third album Hush, which will not make the venue sound as if it's caving in, and where they'll be able to understand what Chikudate is singing about.

"We'd been on the road for two years with the last album (Citrus] and that was really a lot and one day James announced he was sick of the guitars," she explains. "Although I felt the same, I was a little shocked: he wanted to get rid of all of them. I knew this was a big, big deal for him, to attempt to practise some restraint, because he loves hitting people over the head with guitars. That's no bad thing, but he reckoned it was time he matured, at least a bit.

"When you hear the new album, I don't think the change is quite so dramatic, but it's definitely a different sound. For these songs, we started in a quiet place and built the tracks back up. Of course, that put a new emphasis on the lyrics, and as the singer I was a little nervous. But then I thought: 'Maybe before I was hiding under the big snuggly guitar pillow.' It was definitely time for me to come out!"

Asobi Seksu is colloquial Japanese for "casual sex". Chikudate, who has lived all her life in America, sings in English and Japanese. But her exposure to Japan had been limited to a couple of gigs until a promotional visit last year. "That was a fascinating trip but was also quite strange because I was a little shocked at how Japanese I became. I slipped into the mannerisms so easily, and that way of needing six or seven sentences to say something when in English one will do. James was freaked out. Also the reaction I got from the Japanese was baffling. I mean, it was amazingly flattering, but it felt like everyone was culturally claiming me. I was overwhelmed."

Chikudate gives the impression of being a delicate flower, easily buffeted by fans and guitars. She couldn't resist checking the pop chatrooms for the buzz on Hush, and admits to being devastated by the first posts. "These guys were mad at us for having moved on. I felt terrible. It broke my heart."

But she's stronger than that. "Maybe your biggest fans are the ones most resistant to change," she adds. "There are some people, bless them, who would probably want us to make Citrus 2, and 3 and 4 and 5 as well. But we can't do that." It might seem ironic that, with shoegazing more in vogue than at any time since its early-1990s heyday, Asobi Seksu have chosen this moment to broaden their horizons. But, like Laurel and Hardy, their timing is perfect.

• Asobi Seksu play the ABC, Glasgow on Saturday. Hush (One Little Indian) is out next Monday, www.asobiseksu.com