This interview was done for Concussion Magazine back in 2009… a little dated but considering “Bambi’s Dilemma” Melt Banana’s last full length record was just released upon this tour, and the band has been doing nothing but touring the world since, well, Melt Banana Lite and a single or two to stand corrected. Really just hammering and hammering shows out all over the world, playing with Lou Reed and destroying eardrums along the way. This is what I said about them in 2009:

WORDS and PHOTOS by DONNIE ©2009 all rights reserved (punks)

Japan is a wild place where wild minds are at work at all times. We have all seen the world of crazy shit coming from Japan in our lifetimes, clothes that enrich your body with vitamins, super sensitive and cute little robot dogs and cats, sake. Some good ideas, some bad ideas but mainly on the cusp of the next latest and greatest innovations. I never fucked around too much with the Japanese music-core scene cause it honestly just blew me out, I could barely grip it. Is it funny? Is it frightening? Do you really like it? You gotta be the kind of guy who likes to eat snails I think, a fine conessuire if you will, a real level 10 music geek with a plus 5 set of headphones. I find that the musical styles developed in Japan have been a reflection of the taking it to the next level of crazy shit philosophy and have given rise to new sounds and dimensions in modern music. Not too shocking of a concept. Melt-Banana is a band from Tokyo Japan that began roughly 15 years ago in classic style with the union of some college friends and a love for non-linear punk rock music, they are the predecessors of this new dimension. The band started out with furious, less-than-a-minute song records that merely brazed the surface for what was to become some of the most angular music ever made. Melt-Banana have recently released their newest record called Bambi’s Dilemma, the heavily awaited follow up to the 2003 release of the highly acclaimed Cell Scape which I found cell to be dark, violent and extremely powerful, easily one of the better records I have listened to over the past few years. I of course love eating snails and actually do own a plus 5 set of headphones so it was a complete winner to hear this radically frustrated vocalist marching over an onslaught of blistering guitar effects and super fast hyper bass and drums, it was perfect to me. Melt-Banana had grown up and the hell-ride song structure had become no less violent and powerful but incredibly more sophisticated and focused. I think that Melt-Banana has settled into is one of the rarest forms of musicality where style and taste meet a brick to the head and you’re left just seeing stars.

The band was touring independently supporting Bambi’s Dilemma, their own label Azap Records and converting new fans who get caught in the crossfire, I call that friendly fire, stupid lucky bastards.  I am lucky to reach Yasuko through email and arrange an interview with them at an upcoming show in Visalia. The show is all ages, five bucks and in an outdoor downtown plaza. I meet with members of Melt-Banana in an alley.

I am speaking with Yasuko singer who goes by Yako in email and Agata guitar player.

DL: So, I wanted to talk a little bit about your new record Bambis Dilemma and how you felt about it s your last record.

-slight Japanese conversation between Agata and Yako, it makes me a little nervous-

AGATA: revolver, on our tour, said it was more of rock album compared to the last one.

DL: more of a pop-rock album or more in the full spectrum of rock?

YAKO: ahh, more like straight rock kind of.

DL: Cell Scape is a very powerful record, very dark and especially heavy with guitar effects, much of this carried over into Bambis Dilemma but it seems to have a much lighter tone all around. Was this intentional?, to do a lighter album after Cell Scape?

-yako seems a bit blown away, maybe to heavy a question here considering language and all, she laughs…

YAKO: as a result it became like that.

DL : it evolved that way?

YAKO: usually when we make an album we don’t decide any concept or any theme, we just play how we feel at the time.

DL: you guys started AZAP records. Was it as a means to become independent?

YAKO: when we started it up we didn’t try to be independent but working with a record label, with the people, we found out that we wanted to know everything, what is happening around us.

DL : so was that your motivation to start AZAP?

YAKO: uh, yeah yeah I think so. It was lucky we are working with a company called revolver and they gave us the opportunity to have our own label and immediately we did it, it was what we wanted to do.

DL: What are some of your influences?

YAKO: personally when I was a child I was playing Marimba. My mother wanted me to learn a musical thing and when she asked me what I wanted to do I tell her the drums, I don’t know why. My mother said “no no, that’s not for girls”

And she tried to find something else, and she picked Marimba and that was a good choice.

DL: cool, what about bands?

YAKO: we usually get influence from the bands from who we play.

DL: even before you were a band? Wasn’t there like music or a record that made you think, I want to be in a band?

YAKO: There was no real one album that made me feel like I wanted to be in a band but when I decided to start a band I wanted to DO something, and the music is very close to me. When I was younger I was listening to 80s American pop music but after that I listened to mostly punk music because I enter the university where I have many friends who listened to that kind of music.

-Question turns to Agata guitar player-

DL : at what age did you start playing guitar?

AGATA: like when I first touched a guitar?

DL: like your first guitar?

AGATA: about Jr. high School, um eighth grade?

DL: what guitar was your first guitar?

YAKO: Ah! You made it! He made his first guitar

AGATA: first I wanted to have a guitar because my friend had one and I made my own guitar. string was rubber and body was box, like cereal box! I don’t know!

-they both start laughing hysterically, Agata seems embarrassed and proud at the same time-

DL : that’s very interesting.

AGATA : but my first real guitar was acoustic my grandmother had that was uncles guitar so I asked her to give it to me.

DL: you have a very non-conventional guitar style; many heavy riffs but always accented with layers of effects, were you always a sonic guitar player?

AGATA: basically I was never interested in playing like this (he makes a goofy I’m playing an air ukulele move, he becomes animated) I was learning piano when I was a kid and I saw so many good piano players I did not think I could be better then that technically, I also had many friends who were really into playing guitar and always playing experimentally.

Melt-Banana at first might seem like an experimental type band but the astute listener will find that each record has crept closer and closer to the real prize behind the curtain. A sonic form that I don’t think they may have realized in the beginning times of the band. The sound has gone through a right of passage and taken on its adult form. I have read many other writers trying to put a tab on what Melt-Banana is, I have always hated when jerks like that try to capture the sound on paper, it doesn’t work. Words like avant guard, hyper punk even experimental are in no ways accurate descriptions for the music being made here. The only way I can really describe it is futuristic, wild and beautiful.

DL: do you feel more evolved as a band now?

-They seem confused by my question. Fucking language always gets in the way.-

DL: well how much time do spend making a record now.

AGATA: well if we spend $100 then we really only spend $20 on the actual making of the record.

-It’s obvious I shouldn’t have said the word spent, a Japanese to English street translator would have been nice.

DL: OK, I meant time, time not money, how much time does it take to make the record.

AGATA: well really we spend about $20 worth of it in time making the record; the rest is just having fun.

DL : that’s good that your enjoying it and that it’s not torture.

AGATA : we have learned many things from before which makes each record get made quicker, we can reach the end result faster because we know what we want to do and how to do it.

DL: So the production of the record is easier for you? I can see the greater amount of production in your later records it so much more apparent then in your early records.

-Yako gets a little territorial, she is not about to be dubbed a productionette me thinks.

YAKO: production is an important part, an important thing but not as important as the whole, ah, umm, musical thing? AAAA! It’s so hard to explain.

I can tell she is having a bit of trouble trying to explain in, she doesn’t have to cause I get it. Melt Banana isn’t one of those put a quarter in the slot and listen to the nice music kind of bands. You literally need to almost bite into a leather strap, yes it’s that awesome.

DL: it seemed like each record gained more tracks and complexity within each song, there is a definite progression in the growth of your music.

YAKO: each time we try to be different from the last. It would be easy for us to make the same sounding songs as the last record but if we did not try to make different we would not be satisfied.

DL: have you ever had any really horrible shows in California?

YAKO: about 8 or 9 years ago we toured in the United States and we had this show in Fresno (fresno!)

DL : Holy Shit, I know Fresno! Whoa!

Who the fuck put Melt-Banana in Fresneck?

YAKO: the organizer of the show was really worried we would not show up being from Japan, he did not believe it would really happen that a band from Japan was coming to play so he booked a mariachi band. He felt bad and told us he did not know if we would make it but asked if we still wanted to play, we were like “well we are hear so let’s play” so we played with the mariachi band.

Seeing Melt-Banana play in Fresno with a mariachi band, seriously what would be a more awkward and beautiful situation?

DL: I wish I had seen that.

YAKO: Yeah! There were still many people there and there were 8 people who came to see us so we felt like we needed to play.

 We talk briefly about the set, I ask if they are playing “cat brain land” from Bambi’s Dilemma they laugh at me slightly embarrassed. I like the song though. I settle back and get ready for the show. Kids in Visalia are hyped up and jockeying for position in the crowd. The band cuts deeply into the set by opening with “spider snipe” the first track from Bambi’s Dilemma. The kids go crazy and haircuts start flipping all over the place. They start pushing themselves onto the stage area and into some of the band’s gear causing some difficulty. The band seems a little surprised but welcomes the energy and chaos. Yako grabs a chair and stands on top, she signals Agata and they fire into the next song. Rika grips the bass like an M-60 and proceeds to mow down the opposition, girl-ish smile the entire time. I love this band. I love that kids  know words to the songs and want to have their vinyl copies of Cell Scape autographed after the show. They line up afterwards to have photos taken with Yako and the band, it’s cute. Total my space shit.  I want to say something like Melt-Banana is the new hidden beast in Japan, the new kaiju, but really all I can say is that they are the best band I have listened to in many years and it humbles me to know that there are people out there willing to stake their whole existence on being pioneers, never quitting, never satisfied. I tip my drink you folks and say thanks for not being afraid.

-DONNIE ©2009