Considering the fact that the Tokyo-based duo 1LDK is composed of two outsiders to the city and the country, they picked an apt name: their moniker refers to a specific kind of small Japanese apartment, one that an expat might just find themselves rooming in. The group’s music, an updating of spangly 2000s indie dance sung in English, Japanese, and Chinese, has all of the dazzle of Shibuya at night, rooted in the musical traditions of their adopted home and woozy in its sense of placelessness. We sent some questions over to the duo—the Beijing-born Yiqing Yan and the Amsterdam-born Yoong—read their responses and listen to their self-titled release below.

Could you tell us a bit about your new EP?

1LDK: It’s a collection of the first songs we made and came together quite organically. We never really talked about making a record but we always ended up coming back to the studio to make more songs.

Your name comes from a term for a common Japanese apartment layout. Where are you living right now? Is it a 1LDK?

Goos lives in a 1DK (no living room) and Yiqing says she lives in a 1LDK, although some friends say there’s no real living room.

How did the two of you meet?

We met in front of a club called Sexyland in Amsterdam. It was an ambient event organized by French art students and we were talking about Amsterdam playing too much techno.

You are both outsiders to Japan. What do you like the most about the culture? What Japanese music has been inspiring you lately?

Goos: I really love Shibuya-kei, this collage-y style of pop music from the 1990s. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kahimi Karie lately.

Yiqing: I like that only when you start meeting OGs from different scenes in Tokyo you start to really feel the depth of the city. It feels very attractive to me in that way it stays quite exclusive and it’s often very different from the sides people normally experience.

How do you navigate swapping between English, Japanese, and Chinese lyrics in your music?

Yiqing: I like when words are scattered all over the place and somehow still hold a story together. Japanese is for storytelling, Chinese for being intuitive, English for being sad and emo. I do have different ways of phrasing the story I want to tell—really depends on how I feel at the moment—but my narrative stays the same.

What kind of tunes have been going off in your DJ sets lately? Are there any deep cut 2000s dance tracks that you can share?

Goos: I’ve been listening to a lot of early Sascha Funke and Paul Kalkbrenner but I don’t think people here enjoy early 2000s German tech house that much so I can’t say that these tracks have been ‘going off’.

What’s your go-to spot for late night food in Tokyo?

Goos: Eating before going to bed causes indigestion so I don’t recommend doing that but I have fond memories of going to Sushizanmai in Kabukichō at 4 a.m. after we played a host club.

Yiqing: There’s a Thai place, also in Kabukichō, it's quite entertaining to eat there ‘cos it feels like a club. You get in the section, order a piña colada and some pad thai.