The
storied Japanese noise-rock outfit Boredoms isn't a band in the conventional
sense. It's a revolving-membership collective that initiates and plays music, and
it's generally spoken of in reverential whispers more often reserved for
matters of pressing religious or spiritual import. Boredoms started up in the
mid-'80s, under the stewardship of lead singer/yowler Yamatsuka Eye (who
frequently changes his name), and over the past few years, they've built up to increasingly
vast extremes of sound and spectacle. A special concert last summer involved 77
drummers playing in a park beneath the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, with a
crowd of thousands craning to get a look at the band as the sun went down. A
more recent tour included shows played in the round, with a central stage to
prop up the band, as Eye banged on a singular seven-necked guitar contraption
called the "Sevena." The A.V. Club talked with Eye and his Boredoms bandmate Yoshimi
during a tour stop in New York.
[A
note on the translation: Most answers, except where marked with specific names, are
syntheses of comments by Eye and Yoshimi together. While Eye spoke more than Yoshimi,
the questions were asked in English, both bandmates spoke, and then we got a
single translation when they were done. Special thanks to translator Hisham
Akira Bharoocha for his help.]
The
A.V. Club: When you aren't on tour or recording—when you're at home
alone, on your own terms—how often do you play music?
Boredoms: There are all kinds of
instruments at the house, and we basically like playing around with all kinds
of different things. We live in the countryside, so we get inspired by the sounds
we hear in the neighborhood, like the sounds of frogs, or there's a sheep
across the way that we can hear. Sounds from nature are inspiring for us.
AVC:
Frogs?
Boredoms: Many frogs, like an
orchestra. They're big. Right before there's a rainstorm, all the frogs go
crazy. [Eye raises his arms and makes a series of loud, intense sounds.] It
sounds like Napalm Death, an onslaught of a drone of frog sounds. Usually what
happens is, there are all these… In the fields of rice patties, there's a
leader frog in each one. The leader will start making the sound, then all of
them will start making their noises. It starts to build up, and once it builds,
it becomes a rhythm. Then it all stops, and the next field will start with
their leader, and all of them start to make their sounds together. It's this
weird sequence that happens.
AVC:
Is that how Boredoms work as a band?
Boredoms: We're really interested
in sounds where all these separate things start happening and then start to
make a harmony together. Maybe it's not exactly like frogs, but it's related in
that all these things come together and create one sort of wavelength.