Noise: SFBG Music Blog - Best Boredoms interview ever: Eye gives up the goods on eve of Fillmore show

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The Boredoms' Eye Yamantaka is ordinarily a man of few words, but the Japanese experimental music veteran let the flood gates fly open via my e-mail interview. No snores here - just expect to whet your appetite for the Boredoms' Tuesday, March 18, show at the Fillmore. Ex-Black Dice drummer and current Soft Circle impressario Hashim Kotaro Bharoocha provided the translation.

SFBG: The new album is amazing -- it sounds like positively symphonic! What was the idea, goal, or focus?

Eye Yamantaka: Recently I have been getting into symphonic progressive rock. I
want to buy music like that, but I don't know who's making it. I'm also a fan of progressive heavy metal from Scandinavia. On the album, I am taking a minimalist approach by manipulating sounds on the turntable (I am using church pipe organ music by Jon Gibson).

The sub-patterns from the church organ sounded like human voices to me, so we had that scored, and had an actual choir sing it. We weren't doing anything on Christmas Eve, so we decided to do a show that day, and the choir fit the night perfectly.

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SFBG: I remember interviewing Eye and Yoshimi years ago in the late '80s in San Francisco. How would you say the band has evolved since then? What has your muse been telling you? Where have your
interests led you?

EY: The band went through significant changes on SPR and GO!!!!!! We started to take a minimalist approach from SPR, but after this album we took that approach to the extreme. I think that those records were a rebirth point for us. After those records, we got rid of the guitar and bass in the ensemble, and I started to DJ a lot more (I was DJing a lot more than performing with the band). We started to think in terms of performing as if we were a record player, rather than playing as a normal band.

From then on, the ensemble was made up of four elements, which was the turntable and three drum sets, and we started to play in a circle, facing each other. This configuration allowed us to be more like a vessel, in which
sound could be poured into. Typically drum tones are perceived as being individual dots, but we started tuning the three drums as if they were guitars. This made it possible to perceive the drum tones as lines or dimensions. So we started exploring drum orchestration, which is the use of percussion instruments as string instruments.

When the three drum sets are being played together, sub-patterns start to emerge. This is a technique often used in minimal music. We started to explore the voices of the drums (sounds that are not actually being played on the drums become audible, and the drum can sound like human voices or other things), so that it would sound like dripping nectar.

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After that, we perfected the approach of performing like a record player, but we didn't want the performance to turn into a theatrical show, so we started searching for a new medium. Masuko from DMBQ created the Sevena, which is an instrument made up of seven guitars attached together. He became a sub-member of the Boredoms, which really helped to lead us in a new direction. We have the second version of the Sevena now, and if we use two of these instruments at the same time, we can play 77 to 84 strings together.

The important thing to note is that this is not a guitar but a percussion instrument. It is played by hitting the strings with a drum stick. When you need to strike all the strings at once, we use two long sticks that are about 1 meter in length each, and hit all the strings horizontally. The first version of the Sevena combined seven Telecasters
together, and the second version combines seven steel guitars that can be separated. The second version is installed onto a cymbal stand when you play it. Both of these instruments are connected to a mixing
console, which Masuko operates, and the sound goes through a Marshall amp.

SFBG: How would you describe the archetypal Boredoms fan?

EY: Our fans are from a wide range of age groups, and are very diverse.

SFBG: Your live performances are always wonderful and they've been especially powerful of late. What do you try to convey to the audience?

EY: I hope that after the show, the audience feels like they want to play drums with us.

In Italy, May 2007.

SFBG: Is the performance improvised or planned out carefully? Is there such a thing as too much drumming?!

EY: It's hard to delineate clearly between improvisation and composition, but we are playing songs, so it is not completely improvised. But there are parts that are improvised to a certain extent. I actually prefer it when there is too much drumming.

SFBG: What place does drumming have in Japanese culture? Would you say the instrument or rhythmic music has special signifcance for you as individuals or as a band?

EY: Drums are very important in all cultures. I think that drums are the root of everything. The human skin is similar to the a drum head. In everyday life, our bones are hitting our skin, as if we were
playing drums.

SFBG: What role does nature play for the Boredoms?

EY: The jungle that is closest to us is our own body. I am interested in awakening the wilderness within us, using technology.

SFBG: What does the band do when they aren't performing?

EY: When the band's not performing, I DJ and mow the lawn.

At ATP, 2006.

SFBG: What do "roots" mean to you? Hence what does "Super Roots" mean?

EY: I used to feel that my "roots" were like a second home. In recording sessions, we would construct songs from ideas that we came up with accidentally on the spot. So it used to be a rough, primitive
process that focused on the sense of pleasure we got through recording, and there was a strong element of us just playing around.

But after a while, I started to feel like that is actually the source of everything, our home. So that is why I named this series SUPERROOTS.

SFBG: What will the current live show be like, and why is it "in the round"?

EY: When the Boredoms perform, we get in a circle and face each other. We call this circulation intersystem. It's not like watching television, which is more confrontational. In this configuration, the energy of the performers and audience circulates smoothly and proliferate, so the the experiences and relationships are shared, and naturally the audience can participate. When we are surrounded by the audience it is easier to play, and it creates circulation energy.

Like a vinyl record, it is important that there is a space in the middle with nothing in it.

SFBG: What was the concept behind the concert "77 Drum"? How did the "Sevena" guitar come about? Is there anything special about the number seven to you?

EY: We came up with the idea for this concert when we toured the US in 2005. We were offered to do an exhibition featuring the music and art of the Boredoms. The idea was to have an art installation of 77 drums, which was an extended version of the three drums we use in the Boredoms. We were planning to call the exhibition "Parking Drum Ritual." I came up with this name because the drums we use, and the cars that are in parking lots are both similar in their appearance because they are shiny.

I was wondering, if there were drums set up in a huge parking lot at a big supermarket instead of cars, what kind of sound would that make?

I had the idea to paint directly onto the heads of the bass drums, and use the drum sets as a sort of canvas. I was planning to install the drums according to color gradation, but if we were to actually play the 77 drums, the gallery would not have been able to fit an audience. We were planning to do this show on July 7 with 77 drums, but we had to cancel that year.

So in 2007, we got rid of the idea to do an installation, and with the help of Adam of Vice Records (who released our last album), and Hashim who was the drummer for Black Dice, we were able to do an open-air free concert that was sponsored by Nike and other companies. The 77 drums were set up in a right-handed spiral like DNA (seven symbolizes a rightward spiraling motion, and the term "Boa" symbolizes a serpent), and we performed at 7 p.m. on July 7, 2007 (7/7/07).

The videographer says he sat next to drummer no. 77, who he recognized from Lightning Bolt.

It was great that we were able to do this concert with free admission by the river of the Brooklyn Bridge at Greenfield. It was similar to a traditional Bon-Odori festival in Japan, where the audience isn't just watching the show, but are actually taking part in the festivities. The first drummer at the center of the circle was from the Boredoms, and the drummer on the outermost rim was the 77th drummer. I had the drummers play cymbal rolls starting from the first drummer in the center all the way to the 77th drummer, and also had drum patterns
starting from the first drummer to the 77th drummer. It was important for the movements to start from the inside and move outward in a clockwise motion, and expand and spread from the center to the outside. This symbolized the basic life principle that everything exists within you.

It was the most intense sonic experience of my life, and when the sounds of the 77 drums were in sync (concentration), and when they were doing free drumming at the same time (proliferation), I got goose bumps.