Returning to Australia this week Japanese three-piece Boris, will play Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart to play their classic cult album, Flood plus other popular tracks from their decorated career. The band formed in the early ’90s with a sonic template of influences like Melvins and Earth. By the time of their 1996 debut, Boris had already hit its stride in creating unique ground-rattling heavy, melodic music.
How has the tour been going so far? Has there been many funny moments or anecdotes from the road?
Our US tour was very successful. It was the best tour we’ve ever had. We had one show at a festival in Mexico where, because of the high altitude, the air was so thin, so I felt dizzy a few times while we were performing. We’re going to perform live this weekend which we are looking forward to.
Do you enjoy traveling and visiting different cultures as a band on tour?
It’s very important for us to come and go across borderlines. In each country, of course, there is a different world of music, just like in each of our songs. Traveling around the world is very similar to making
You have released many albums since 1996, what are your favourite elements of Flood? And why did you choose that record to play from beginning to end on this tour?
Because we’re not happy about the fact that Flood and Heavy Rocks were not released internationally, we thought it would be good for our listeners if we played music from those albums abroad, so they can be heard live. The inspiration for this idea was when we played Flood last year in Japan at the Leave Them All Behind 2012 festival, which was really good. When we go on big tours, it’s usually after we’ve released a new album. So, we always have to focus our set list on songs from each new release. We’ve been touring overseas many times since 2005, but we haven’t played much from our albums released before that time. Flood and Feedbacker are long songs, so it’s difficult to put them in a set list at shows. So, we thought it was time for us to do a show that was focused on Flood, and include material from our past and our future, including new songs.
Your songwriting is very free with no apparent boundaries. Do you apply this philosophy to other areas of your life?
Because we’ve toured lots of countries, we have become very different in general from normal Japanese people. I’m a vegan, but being such a strict vegetarian in Japan is very difficult.
What was your first jam together as a band like?
It was like a punk band for high school mates, and it still is now…
You have mentioned that you try to leave your own personal identity and ego behind when you play as a band. How do you try to accomplish this?
First of all, we listen to music without a preconceived idea. We play the song in the way that it is asking or demanding us to play it. Then, we play the song for many different audiences. The experience of being watched by others is another way for us to take form, from the outside.
You have no fear when recording albums. Does your free approach help you make your imagined ideas a reality?
We don’t want any limitations on our consciousness, because each person’s body itself is like a solid form of limitation. What we can do is physically and inherently limited as human beings, so we want to be truly conscious about how widespread our sound is and what the further possibilities of our sound could be.
Atsuo once said that ‘comfortable’ is boring. How do you make yourselves feel uncomfortable? Do you think honesty is crucial in rock music?
I don’t think that I wanna be honest to myself. I wanna be honest about what makes me feel good. Making music is all about pursuing “the pleasure of music” for me. As a band, we think that sharing the pleasures that only we can hear is the truest expression of music for us. Just being comfortable is, in our minds, the state of being stupefied, or stuck in a routine. In that kind of situation, the pleasure will be stupefied or become boring if it’s just continually repeated. If we don’t notice that our feelings haven’t moved forward, we can’t act to find a new pleasure. If that’s the case, we can’t keep working on music that we consider is good. Well, basically, it’s easy for me to become bored with anything.
If you could sit down with developers and create a Boris videogame what kind of game would it be?
Wata would be in charge of such a game, so please ask her about it when you see her.
What is your favourite cartoon theme song? and why?
To talk about this topic, we don’t have enough space and time.
Are you working on an album or collaboration at the moment? Will you be releasing new music this year?
We’re still working on it. We’d like to release something this year. But the contents are still secret.
If you could work with any artist from the past or present who would it be? What would the album sound like?
We’ve never said that we’d like to collaborate with anyone. For any collaboration to work, it’s important for it to happen naturally. Besides, we think that talking about this kind of thing in the media will negatively affect our future. We’re usually asked this same kind of question in a lot of our interviews, but we don’t know why. If I could use this space to promote how we feel about this topic, could you please let other interviewers know that this kind of question is something we don’t ever want to talk about? Please? Thank you.
I’ve heard you mention fujoshi and other parts of modern Japanese culture. What is your favourite part of Tokyo and Tokyo culture? and why?
Japanese culture is interesting, but that doesn’t mean it’s something we like or dislike. Because we visit many countries, I can see the peculiarities of Japanese culture from the inside and the outside. It’s too twisted. Japanese culture is a peculiar environment because it is protected like a barrier by the Japanese language, which is like a magic mirror in that we can see things from the inside, but not from the outside. The result of this is a lot of shameless horseplay. It’s very interesting, but I’m sorry that I can’t answer this question more concretely.
What is it about very loud music that draws crowds towards it?
It draws people to it, because it’s something real
How did you feel when you first heard the Melvins?
I didn’t understand how important their music would become for me at that time, however, I cared about it a lot and listened to it repeatedly.
What is your favourite part of touring Australia?
Whenever we can go to a zoo or protective area for animals. It was interesting to see kangaroos, because they seemed so unmotivated where they were. The wallabies were always hiding behind them, as if they felt shyer and inferior to the kangaroos.
Boris 2013 Australian Tour
Wednesday June 19- Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Friday June 21- Manning Bar, Sydney
Saturday June 22- DARK MOFO, Hobart
Monday June 24- Rosemount Hotel, Perth
