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Noise Is Pop Music! TV = Sleep! boredoms interview
I hate conducting interviews. I hate writing features too. Concocting introductions to features does not exactly knock me out either. I was going to introduce this feature by simply stating 'The Boredoms need no introduction' and leaving it there, but I was worried some whinger might get me 'sacked' and I'd lose the privilege of writing features about interviews with people who don't speak English very well for a magazine that doesn't pay me anyway - Lord knows I can't do with losing such God-given opportunities... Anyway, I can't imagine the Boredoms do need much introduction - certainly not the ubiquitous Mr Eye, whose, um, 'achievements' over the past few years have been little short of Herculean. (He is currently - or more likely was by the time you read this - on a duo tour of China with John Zorn: what a prospect...) And fie! to dullards who claim his so-called achievements amount to little more than the disconnected hooting, howling and shrieking of a hyperactive sociopath with arrested development - I'll wager my collection of bootleg Jerry Garcia DNA samples that most of his detractors have yet to see their names appear on anything more ambitious than an anorak's name tag... The Boredoms (as a practising group) have been around since '86. Their history is about as confusing as you'd expect; not simplified by most of their records lacking dates, rarely giving the real names of musicians (DEAD TECH II lists the following 'personnel' for 'Hawaiian Disco with My Bollocks': Onanie - voice, Pisshole - guitar, Humanshit - bass, Assoul - drums) and occasionally being released in miniscule quantities on nonexistent labels (gold flexi-disc in an edition of 25 made at home on a second hand disc-cutter, anyone?)... Band members all seem to be simultaneously involved in at least one other project: Yoshimi in UFO or Die and Free Kitten; Hira sings in Hanadensha; Yamamoto in Omoide-Hatoba (as is/was sometime Boredoms drummer Chuu); Eye - well, best not to think about him...Sometimes these projects cease, then they recommence; sometimes they might as well have never existed in the first place. Recordings appear with little rhyme or reason (note the number of variant versions of SOUL DISCHARGE); track titles change from one release to another; 'songs' appear on numerous compilations, each time with a (possibly) slightly different mix ('Space Disco' by UFO or Die being the main culprit, with a good half dozen manifestations thus far)...Making sense of the 'ancillary' discography is the stuff of nightmares, so don't even try... For the record, Boredoms currently are: Eye Yamatsuka - 'vocals'; Yamamoto - guitar; Hira - bass; Yoshimi - drums; ATR - drums. Sometimes the 'legendary' God Mama manifests itself...And just to confuse matters (no!) their old drummer Yoshikawa (whose bizarre lifestyle & antics are discussed in detail in Public Bath's SHOW-KAI magazine) is credited on CHOCOLATE SYNTHESIZER... The following interview took place before a concert at London's Garage on July 5, 1995. Present were Hira, Yamamoto, Yoshimi and their tour manager Junko. (Eye was 'too tired' to participate; a bummer as I'd intended to ask him to baby-sit for us - that'd stop the brats demanding cartoons all day...) Sometimes Junko translated. After transcribing the tape I realised the 'interview' wasn't 'about' anything as such, so decided it was more entertaining to read as a straight q&a rather than a 'feature'. RESONANCE has generously agreed to give a free lifetime subscription to anyone who can 'prove' I made the wrong decision... We'd started off by talking about rare Boredoms material - I was wearing an old Boredoms T-shirt (their second design, done by Yoshimi - 'That's really rare!' they enthused) - and ended up returning to the subject with alarming regularity...And I, um, 'forgot' to ask Hira about Hanadensha or Yamamoto about Omoide-Hatoba, so all court writs c/o LMC please... For the sheer hell of it I've credited most of their responses to 'a Boredom', unless I felt like doing otherwise. SJ: I can still hardly believe you're signed to WEA - do they make any demands on you? Do they want you to do specific things? B: No! Nothing! SJ: Do they think you're weirdos, like a comedy act or something? Ya: 'Comedy act'? Yo: We don't know. SJ: Well, what's their reaction when they hear new tapes? Yo: We have one big fan of Boredoms at Warner Brothers; everything we hear is from him - so we only hear the positive things! Ya: He's noise militia (?). SJ: (Assuming the reply was "he's a noise musician..") What? He's in a band? B: (Laughter) No, no, no... SJ: How's your music written - do you start with lyrics, words, riffs, drums...? How does a typical Boredoms song start? B: Spontaneously. SJ: A lot of the material sounds very planned, some sounds pretty free form... B: It's not really free form. We decide - under the Boredoms law - the way to do it is spontaneously. SJ: Do you do a lot of editing or messing with the tapes afterwards? B: No - the sound on the records is 'happening'. SJ: The first Boredoms stuff is from around '82... B: '86 is really the start of the group - the early stuff is what Eye was doing by himself, it's not really a band. SJ: There are quite a few references to 'punk rock' on the early records - was it an influence or inspiration? Was it just a joke? B: Yeah, he (Eye) was probably influenced - it wasn't a joke. He probably also liked the sound of punk. SJ: So, are you into chaos? B: We're not into really into the chaos but we like the word chaos. SJ: You like the idea of chaos? B: Not the idea, but just, like, sounds... SJ: Do you think you were influenced or inspired by other Japanese underground artists - say, Merzbow, Null or Haino? B: It's about the same time we came out, the noise musicians & the Boredoms. We probably inspired each other but there's no direct connection. SJ: So all the artists essentially evolved separately? B: Yes. It's probably around 1979 that it first began... SJ: So what do you think was the most important factor in actually uniting the new Japanese underground? The DEAD TECH sampler? B: DEAD TECH, maybe... Like we say, it's around '79 or '80 but it could go back to the '60s even - like Keiji Haino has been on the music scene for a long time... SJ: Yeah, his first recordings are from around '71 or something aren't they... How do you account for the current popularity of the Japanese underground? Why do you think it's suddenly become so popular, especially in America? B: We don't really know - we've been doing this for a long time, but suddenly American people decided to look into the Japanese underground. It's also probably at the same time that noise musicians can travel because they're, like, one or two people - it's much easier. Also, some of the Americans who are into Japanese noise started coming over to Japan too. SJ: So when did the Boredoms become a 'proper' group - when did you start to play live? B: 1986, after ONANIE BOMB (the first album). SJ: What was the reaction when you started to play live? Did people hate you? Were they bored? Ya: Bored, ha. B: It wasn't really bored, it was more like surprised, they didn't know what to do. A kind of no reaction! SJ: Were there many venues you could play in at the time? B: There were a few very tiny clubs we were playing in. It was probably a year or a year and a half before many people came. When Yoshimi joined - in 1988 - we started to get bigger audiences. SJ: Do you think Eye's Hanatarashi is a reaction against the organised music of the Boredoms? Does he do one thing to balance against the other? B: Well, he was doing Hanatarashi first and then he decided he wanted to do a rock group. (Some talk about UFO or Die here that still confuses me. I can't quite figure from my 'research' if Yoshimi had already joined the Boredoms before playing in UFO or Die with Eye or vice versa - neither this interview nor any of the others I've read have made it any clearer...) SJ: On the first Boredoms LP and the second Hanatarashi LP there's stuff like "KILL THE ALL NOISE ARTISTS!', 'Fuck to: Swans, Sonic Youth & Noise Musicians'...Are those Eye jokes or was he serious at the time...? B: Yes, he was just joking. Do you own that vinyl? That's very rare too... SJ: Is it true there's 'rivalry' between Osaka & Tokyo 'noise' artists or is it just a stupid rumour? B: No, no. You know, they sometimes play together. Also, we're not noise musicians, we're (unintelligible) but not the noise. Ya: Chaos... SJ: Uh, well, the word I'd prefer is underground, but... B: We think you should put it down on your papers that we don't really think we should be together with the noise music. We're more into the traditional music. Hira: Folk. SJ: Pop music, ha ha. Hira: Folk music. SJ: What? Okay, Boredoms is folk music. I better remember that... B: We are traditional... SJ: Where do you prefer to play - in Japan? B: Yes. SJ: Do you think you play differently & people react differently when you play in different countries? B: (Laughs, talk amongst themselves) It's a little bit different in each country. SJ: In what way? B: (A lot of laughter and talk among themselves; Yamamoto keeps saying 'Haino'. After some chaos it transpires they're talking about a bum gig in an American backwater... ) It's a (unintelligible, sounds like 'beard') - it's not even on a map! 23 people came. Four of them bought T-shirts. They were chillin' out... SJ: How many shows do you play in Japan in a year? B: Last year we did a Japan tour, so we did 15 to 20. Normally we do four or five a year. SJ: What, fifteen to twenty dates four or five times a year??? B: No, no, no! Last year we did the tour, so it was fifteen or twenty shows in total. Normally we only play four or five shows in a whole year. SJ: I thought you'd play more... B: Well, we're also doing a tour here and other places...We did a Japanese music festival in Vienna with Merzbow and Haino. Last year we did Lollapalooza in America. SJ: Who was that with? B: Beastie Boys. George Clinton. L7. (Other groups, unintelligible...) SJ: Was that for the whole tour? B: Just half, about a month. SJ: That's long enough for Lollopalooza... Has this one been a full European tour? B: We did the Roskilde Festival, a couple of shows in Holland, Switzerland...We've done about six dates, then we go to the US and do eight more shows. SJ: And Warner Brothers pays for it all? B: In the USA but not here. (Though signed to WEA in Japan and the USA, they have no European label...) We got a big guarantee from the Roskilde festival so that covers the European dates...We make most money in Japan for doing shows. SJ: When you record an album do you spend a lot of time in the studio? POP TATARI & CHOCOLATE SYNTHESIZER have lots of parts that sound like you spent a long time working on them... B: It's done very quickly... SJ: How quickly? Hours? Days? B: CHOCOLATE SYNTHESIZER was four days of recording in the studio, and one week to mix, but only Eye does the mixing. SJ: Do you think Boredoms is becoming more of a musical group? Less chaos and more folk? B: We have been a music group from the beginning, so... SJ: You're as musical now as when you started...? B: Yes. SJ: You're not more of a folk group now? B: Noise is music. Typical music (?). Popular music. Pop music. SJ: Yeah, noise is pop music. What's a typical Boredoms day? B: All day sleeping. Sleeping in a bus. All day long. Eat. Shopping. And sleeping. SJ: Watching TV? B: No, no, not really. Because once we start watching TV then we want to go to sleep, so we're more into the sleeping. SJ: TV = sleep, that's a good one. What kind of shopping? B: Stupid shopping. Toys. Plastic junk. Records. SJ: What kind of records? Have you been buying records today? Hira: Psychedelica. Yo: (laughing) Psychedelica! SJ: What kind of psychedelic records? Old psychedelic stuff? What do you like? Hira: Pop. SJ: Pop music? You don't listen to psychedelic music? Hira: (sort of embarrassed, sounds like 'Psychedelic underground') B: Anything. SJ: You don't have any favourites? B: (laughter) (sounds like 'John Wayne'.) SJ: What? John Wayne? (much laughter) Hira: (mumbling) Cold Sun. SJ: Huh? B: (Everyone repeats 'Cold Sun' several times until Junko spells it out for me.) SJ: Cold Sun? I've got that album - it's great...From '67, a Texas group... B: Very stupid psychedelic. SJ: (Ignoring last comment) It's on Rockadelic... Hira: I don't know, it's an old band. Rare. SJ: Were any of you involved with Eye in Audio Sports? B: That was like, he just joined them for a while - he was like a guest musician. It's Onda's project really. SJ: (To Yoshimi) How did you hook up with Julie (Cafritz) and Kim (Gordon) for Free Kitten? Yo: That was about three years ago, four years ago, on the Sonic Youth tour. One time we were in New York and they said to come over and practice or something. I go to New York if they're recording an album, like last year. This year we did a UK tour and three or four dates in the USA on the East Coast. J: If she's not around, Kim and Julie can just do it themselves. She's a member but they can do it without her. SJ: Do you think Japanese music sells more in America and Europe now than it does in Japan? B: Number wise, Japan is probably the biggest market. It seems like there are more people interested in America, but it's probably not too many. SJ: Do you get much press in Japan? B: Yes. SJ: They don't just put you in the corner? B: Sometimes they do... SJ: Have you had any royalties from Warners yet? B: We're not so sure. We're not getting anything from America because they're paying for the tours. Japanese, yes, but Japanese royalty is very very small. SJ: Like everywhere else...Do you think the underground is becoming part of the mainstream now? You get signed to Warners, Sonic Youth get signed to Geffen... Ya: We don't think we are underground. SJ: No? Okay... Ya: Superground... SJ: Do you think Japanese society needs to change? Do you think extreme music reflects something unacceptable in the culture or society? B: Japanese society - we don't mean anything to them, so...I'm sure most of the Japanese people doesn't even know Boredoms... SJ: So, underground music - sorry, I know it's not underground music (laughter) - so this modern pop folk music isn't a reaction like it might have been in the '60s...? J: It's more like a friendly type thing. Yo: Friendly? Ya: Zen spirit. SJ: Zen spirit? Let me get this down, it's pop folk Zen spirit music... Ya: Soul. SJ: Soul music... Ya: Oversoul. SJ: I think I've got it all now. Pop folk Zen soul... Yo: Traditional. Ya: Superground. SJ: All right, I give up... (I take out my copy of the ANAL BY ANAL EP but they refuse to sign it. Endless talk of rare Boredoms records & merchandise.) SJ: What about the Surfin' Bird 7" flexi-disc? Hira: (morosely) Five hundred dollar...(I assume he's referring to its 'market' value...) Yo: I did that on the home disc-cutter. SJ: It was cut at home? J: Yeah, she made it. SJ: Have you done anything else on it? J: At her home, but nothing for sale. Yo: It's already broken... SJ: So much for that then. Yo: It's a $15 cutting machine. SJ: It cost $15? Incredible... Yo: The person who sold the machine to Eye thought it was an old record player! (Some guy from a fanzine about skateboards and cakes): What's your favourite cake? Yo: (draws a picture of a sort of German bath bun - something or other küchen, I forget exactly...) Skate and cake: I heard you got kicked out of a venue in Japan... B: What? Why? Skate and cake: I heard you got kicked out... SJ: They stopped you from playing? B: (Much discussion) Oh, that's the US. That's US! Skate and cake: Oh is it? B: That was in New Music Seminar in New York, and they cut our power off. Cause we played at some kind of, like, disco.... The concert was great: you probably missed it. A friend who saw their last show (I didn't) said this was 'less dynamic', but fuck him, what does he know? I haven't seen anything so gut-wrenchingly heavy since full-power Swans almost a decade hence, and coming from a 'non-noise' band, Eye and Yoshimi's five minute screaming duet was pretty outrageous by any standards. I guess that must have been the Zen sequence... stefan jaworzyn, resonance 2/97, 1997 | |
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