Tabata Mitsuru

Tabata Mitsuru is a man with a history. He's been in more important bands than most people have been in bands, period: bands like Zeni Geva, Noizunzurie, Wabo Chao, and Acid Mothers Temple And The Cosmic Inferno. That's on top of working with people like Jun Togawa, Steve Albini, Tatsuya Yoshida, Keichi "Mandog" Miyashita, Eiko Ishibashi, and others too numerous to mention. Oh yes, he also helped found The Boredoms...

For someone who could comfortably rest on his laurels, he remains incredibly productive, as the following conversation shows...

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JR: How many bands do you have right now?

TM: Around ten, maybe ten or eleven. Wait, regular bands, or main bands? Let me think...Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, Amazon Saliva, Wabo Chao, Noise Clinic, 20 Guilders, The GxCx and Tabata Mitsuru, Alien Social Dance Party...

JR: Does it ever get to be too much?

TM: Well, some bands are improv only. But if every band had full songs, if I had to practice...

JR: I've seen Wabo Chao billed as both Wabo Chao and Miyashita/Tabata/Fujikake. What's the difference?

Miyashita + Tabata + Fujikake (aka Wabo Chao)

TM: Not much. We tried to go as a jazz trio, but there's not much interest in that kind of thing in the underground rock scene. The music doesn't change from one name to the other.

JR: You've had a long career, what was your first band?

TM: In High School, I had a band called Sanagi, which means coccoon. After that, there was Noizunzurie. Noizunzurie is probably best described as Public Image Ltd. playing Japanese traditional music. We had two albums: we had Jun Togawa as a guest vocalist on one song. I was 18 or 19 at the time. I was the seventh guitarist to join the band!

After that band I met (Boredoms leader) Yamatsuka eYe. There was a band called Amaryllis that Noizunzurie had a good relationship with, and they knew eYe. There was kind of a fashionable building in Umeda that had a courtyard, both Noizunzurie and Amaryllis played there along with (eYe's band) Hanatarash. They were the worst band in Japan! (laughs) They had a bad reputation. They couldn't play anywhere, they were banned.

Later he (eYe) asked to form a band. He wanted to make a joke punk band, like the Toy Dolls. He was thinking about making a pop band, like the Buzzcocks. That's where The Boredoms got their name, from that Buzzcocks song (NOTE: "Boredom" is on the Buzzcock's first single, "Spiral Scratch.")

I left after the first single. Noizunzurie was recording a new album, and they asked me to leave The Boredoms to focus on them. When I formed Amazon Saliva with Hide, he didn't know I had been in The Boredoms. "Why did you leave? That was a big mistake!" (laughs) But nobody can predict the future...when I left, I couldn't have guessed what they would become.

I had to be more focused on Noizunzurie. They were pretty controversial. They had songs about disabilities, handicaps. At the time it was bad, but I guess it's not so bad now, since there's a Noizunzurie song on the new Jun Togawa box set ("Figure And Ground") about someone pretending to be a deaf and blind mute.

I'd love to reissue those records, but I need the master tapes. Makoto (Kawabata) has said he's interested in putting out a box set, but we need the masters!

JR: Why did you leave Noizunzirie?

TM: Well, the vocalist got fired, and the leader wanted to move to Tokyo. At the time I wasn't interested, and I stayed and joined a band called Leningrad Blues Machine. At first, we had a vocalist, we sounded kind of like the Birthday Party, gothic, new wave sounding. When we got a new drummer, we started doing more improv, since he came from the jazz and fusion scene.I think that was my first time playing without structured songs.

Members were always coming and going, kinda like (Jefferson) Starship. (laughs) I've left a few times, the band has had a lot of breakups! (laughs) We're a jam band now, we're still going, but there's no original members.

JR: When did you change your mind and move to Tokyo?

TM: I was working in a bar, I wanted a change. Kyoto is good now, but it was really incestuous at the time. I think Kyoto is better than Tokyo now! (laughs) But at the time Kyoto was horrible. I dunno, I was young, 23 or 24. I needed a change, I wanted to see the world.

Zeni Geva's "Freedom Bondage"

(Tokyo based Zeni Geva guitarist) KK Null called me one day, he was trying to find the bassist for Leningrad Blues Machine. I said, "why not take me instead, Zeni Geva can have double guitars!" After I joined, we'd have a bass player occasionally, it sounded OK. The drummer was from Hanatarash, he's now the singer in a band in Osaka called Vermillion Sounds. When he was in Zeni Geva, he was still in Osaka, we'd have to commute back and forth every time we played! He left the band suddenly, and we needed a drummer, so KK called Tatsuya Yoshida, he's just on "Maximum Money Machine." After Yoshida left, we had Yasuko, she played on one single ("Bloodsex,") but she didn't want to tour America, so we called Eito. That was roughly at the same time we hooked up with (record label) Alternative Tentacles.

JR: What about Noise Clinic?

TM: Noise Clinic is me and my friend Tait. He lived in Santa Cruz. There's not so much improv, mostly I just follow the chord progression.

JR: 20 Guilders?

TM: We're a duo, everything's half and half. The original plan was to play the hit songs that we grew up with. We played "Hold Me Now," The Thompson Twins song! "I Don't Like Mondays," that kind of thing, the songs from when I was in school. But Junzo is eight years younger than me, he doesn't want to do that, his songs were things like INXS. Those are too difficult to play folk style! (laughs)

JR: How did you meet Masataka Fujikake (Zeni Geva, Keiji Haino, Wabo Chao)?

TM: I put up a flyer in Disc Union, and he answered. When I asked what kind of music he liked, he said southern soul, Curtis Mayfield, that kind of thing. I thought "that's best for Zeni Geva!" (laughs) I didn't want someone who responded with Slayer, or King Crimson: I wanted to get a different approach.

JR: What kind of music did you listen to in school?

TM: The Pop Group, Talking Heads, Inu. I've never mentioned this in interviews, but I loved The Stranglers.

(Brightens up as he remembers) SS! SS was one of the best bands in Kyoto! They played like a 45 RPM Ramones! Maybe a 78 RPM Ramones! (laughs) Waaaaaaaa-OneTwoThreeFour!-Waaaaaa! (laughs) Pop songs, three chords. There was another band called Nashi, I think they were the fastest band in the world. This was before hardcore punk came.

JR: Every time I've seen you, the style has been totally different. Last week, you were playing with Keichi Miyashita (Mandog,) and your guitar sounded like anything but a guitar.

TM: That's MIDI. I use that because I want to play different kinds of instruments, but I'm lazy! (laughs) When you work alone, you kind of have to. If a soundtrack composer needs an acoustic guitar, he can call a session guy. I can't do that. If I clone myself, maybe that would be better!

We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun

I started working with MIDI in Zeni Geva. We were doing overdubs in the studio, but we couldn't do it live. If I hadn't started then, I probably never would have gotten into it.

There's a Grateful Dead song called "Space." On some of the bootlegs, you'll hear a lot of MIDI, a lot of improv. Some musicians really hate MIDI.

JR: Does the technology ever get to be too much?

TM: Some of my friends think like that. (laughs) Kind of a purist attitude. Actually, I kind of like the idea of hooking up electrodes to my brain and playing everything that way! If that ever did happen, we'd start seeing pure originality. We'd get some beautiful sounds, you wouldn't need technique.

I have kind of a complex about (technique)! If I see a band with a fucking great guitar player, I do the opposite style. "I dont wanna be like that! I'm gonna go crazy!" (laughs)

The other night, I played a show with Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha, LSD March, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.) backing up a poet. It was difficult, I tried to play intensely. Everybody said it was great, but I was too wrapped up in the moment. It wasn't my style, but what IS my style? No style is my style! I don't have really have roots in that way.

JR: Do you feel you play better when you're in an uncomfortable situation?

TM: No difference! (laughs) The music's not mine. It just comes from me, and the audience judges. I read the interview you did with Makoto, I like his idea of "copyleft." Because it's left me, it's not mine! (laughs) I don't know where the music comes from, I just react to the musicians I work with.

JR: Do you ever feel intimidated by working with so many talented musicians?

TM: No, it's like we're a football team. The band works because everyone's in the right position. If the position is wrong, it gets messy. It takes some time to find the right places for everyone.

Live In Europe 2001

JR: What kind of music would you like to try?

TM: I want to make horror music. I have the idea to make Horrorbient music! (laughs) I haven't had time yet, though, I'm too busy. Maybe I can try it after I finish the tour. I really want to try something that is pure sound, like a cold sound. I'd love to do a soundtrack.

I was listening to Goblin before I was into Led Zeppelin! I was also caught up in the music from films like The Omen.

JR: How much planing do you do before improvising? Do you have a general idea, or go totally free?

TM: If I plan ahead of time, it's always bad! Every time.

JR: Do you have a favorite guitarist?

TM: Well, Makoto Kawabata, Keiichi Miyashita, whoever I'm playing with at the time! They're the best in the World, that's why I play with them.

JR: Are you every unhappy with your performances?

TM: I don't know, I never listen! (laughs) I go by my feeling. Some shows are fucked up, but even when it feels wrong, everybody tells me it was great! (laughs) What's on the tape can sound good regardless of the atmosphere in the club. Sometimes the atmosphere is awful, I'm thinking "this is fucked up, I just want to go back to the hotel!" (laughs) But the sounds are good. I can think "today was no good," but the audience liked it.

That said, sometimes a bad audience can really hurt a show. Zeni Geva had a show in Slovenia right by the border with Italy, and a bunch of completely fucked up punk rock guys, along with these Italian death metal guys, they basically had a riot during the show. These guys kept hitting my pedals, screwing up the microphones. That show sucked.