Acid Mothers Temple | Interview | Makoto Kawabata
Acid Mothers Temple & Melting Paraiso U.F.O has always held a deep dedication and devotion towards improvised music.
From psychedelic freakouts to Stockhausen-inspired noise, from minimalism to 70’s prog rock; to go from Black Sabbath all the way to Terry Riley, Acid Mothers Temple is your best gateway drug.
How are you currently coping with the pandemic? What’s the situation in Japan?
Makoto Kawabata: Of course we cancelled all overseas tours in the last 2 years. In Japan, the pandemic is much less than in Europe and the USA. Also there is no law for lockdown in Japan, because we don’t have an army… so the government only asks people to put on masks, keep social distance, et cetera and they issued state of emergency several times, but we have been able to play shows / gigs with some condition from July 2020 to present. I live in a Buddhist temple on the top of the mountain. Only 6 old farmers live around here. So it looks like natural quarantine. I don’t see neighbors often, but I see deers and raccoons, and also many wild animals everyday. I set up my recording studio in my temple. So I recorded a lot of new stuff, and overdubbed and mixed many previous recordings that I couldn’t before the pandemic, because I was too busy and I started playing acoustic guitar solo. When I drink in my dining room or kitchen, I start to play acoustic guitar by improvising. In November 2020, one promoter offered me a solo show at a small venue. He said there are no amps there (usually all venues have a backline in Japan, so musicians don’t need to bring backline), so I decided to play an acoustic guitar solo. Many people loved this show, so I continued with an acoustic guitar solo. It’s a totally new thing even though I have played electric guitar since 1979.
Acid Mothers Temple had some short tours in Japan in the last 2 years. When the Tokyo Olympics were held last summer, we organized “Acid Mothers Olympic 2021” at 5 venues in 4 cities, an insane production as the Tokyo Olympics. We played music and also original athletic sports, like guitar archery, drums rhythmic gymnastics, bass ball, guitar tennis, et cetera on the stage! [Laughs]
What is the story behind working on ‘Demi-Demoniac Daemoog’?
Our booking agent Tom Relleen offered us to record with a wall of Moog synthesizers in London when we had a European tour. I think Moog Lab organized this recording and prepared all the synthesizers. We recorded all the tracks in two days at the recording studio in London. They have accommodation upstairs, we cooked by ourselves and drank after recording. We mixed all tracks at the studio, but we couldn’t get this master tape.
Tom said Moog Lab may release it afterward, but there was no more news. Finally Tom got the master file, and gave it to me. There was no more news about this recording since then too… and Tom passed away in 2020, I can’t know any more information now, so I decided to release it with my judgment.
Was there a certain concept behind it?
No, they said only “play these Moog synthesizers!”, so we think this album should be “Acid Mothers Temple meets Moog synthesizers”. We didn’t want to play like so-called “Moog records”, for example “Moog plays Bach”… so we didn’t want “Moog plays Acid Mothers Temple”, we wanted “Acid Mothers Temple play Moog”. On the first day, we (mainly I and Hiroshi Higashi) tried to find any interesting sounds from the wall of Moog synthesizers. First we recorded all synthesizer playing, then we recorded basic tracks by the band with all instruments by improvising. On the second day, I started to edit basic tracks and also Moog recordings. Then I placed edited Moog sounds on edited basic tracks and overdubbed some instruments and voices, so we had done this recording in two days in London. When I decided to release it on AKTI Records last Autumn, I overdubbed some instruments, and mixed again.
Lately you’ve been doing a lot of remixes. Would you like to talk about what’s different? What were you trying to achieve?
The drummer Satoshima Nani grew up mostly with dance music, he didn’t know much about rock music. He haven’t heard The Sex Pistols when he was a drummer of the punk band. I really like his musical ideas. He is one of the geniuses in the next generation of Japanese underground scene since the 00’s. He led his band Zuinoshin (at that time, people called it “post-Boredoms”) and Bogulta (until present), he is really talented! Nani and I have played as a duo called “Human Shower” since 2008 to present. The first 12 years we played only improvised music and words (by Japanese) both. Then Human Shower changed to a multimedia performance unit in 2020. We made a remix CDR from an unreleased first album recording source. I was not interested, then I got an idea for a remix by AMT members. Each members’ viewpoints to each song are so different, it’s really interesting for me. Because all recordings of Acid Mothers Temple have been mixed by only me. It’s the first time for other members’ mixing.
You also recently released ‘Why Have Unknowns Disappeared?’. Tell us about it.
It’s one of my brand-new solo works. This is a kind of homage to a “20th century composers’ music” that I have loved since I was 10 or 11 years old. I discovered so-called “20th century contemporary music” before I discovered rock.
This is my musical basis and root since I started my music in 1978. I have already played my music for 44 years, it’s time to come back to the roots. Many musicians played like this… like back to blues, classic, jazz… so this album is like that. I can’t employ an orchestra, or even a chamber ensemble, but I have a guitar-synthesizer, I could get fake orchestra sounds by it.
How do you manage to work on so many new projects? What are some of the latest projects that you would like to share with our readers?
You know I’m like a radio tuner for sounds from my cosmos. When I can hear music from my cosmos, I play this music for people with my hands. If I can hear music from my cosmos, I should play, and if I need to form any new project for it, I should form it. Every project was formed by just necessity to play music from my cosmos.
What are the latest projects? [Laughs]
Acid Mothers Temple & Infinity Rising Zero: this is a new project with a name of Acid Mothers Temple. Kawabata Makoto (guitar & synthesizer), Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer), PIKA (drums, voice from Afrirampo) and Satoshima Nani (drums, programing). This project is featuring Nani’s musical ideas. Techno meets Acid Mothers Temple. The basis is around techno music, but adds twin drums and guitar, also Acid Mothers’ symbolic Hiroshi’s synthesizer. We’re looking for a new way of “trip music”.
Eros Errors: originally Taigen Kawabe, voice and bass of Bo Ningen’s duo and I started in Spring 2021. Nani joined as the drummer, the band changed to trio. We have totally different musical backgrounds and also are from different generations. We try to fuse everything with our own minds even though we are too different from each other. I like special fusion music and recording stuff, each member mixes from the same recording source, it means we have 3 different mixes each time. We respect and try to understand each other’s backgrounds in this project. It’s a totally new way of the band. We don’t need any correct answers, the difference is our answer.
What are some of the most interesting records in your collection?
My favorite record of all time is ‘Musik Des Mittelalters / Studio der Frühen Musik’.
I also enjoy the great field recordings of Japanese traditional folk music collections. Japanese traditional folk music collection (ほるふ民謡全集) 2LP x 7 box sets. There are no recordings by any professional traditional folk musicians, only by local people!! This is a really rare case in Japanese traditional folk music. In most cases, professional musicians (even local professional musicians) play these kinds of records in Japan. I have a big collection of religious folk. These kinds of records have too much pure oddness by fanatics. It’s really strange and crazy music for me.
‘Live 88’ / Katsurei (割礼) Katsurei is a Japanese psychedelic group since mid 80s to present. Shishido Koji whines that only one founder member, vocalist / guitarist, is my old friend from the mid 80s. At that time in 1988, they were a trio, their music is like folk with fuzz guitar, and they played so slow, too slow….maybe the slowest in the world! [Laughs]. I really love their music, probably one of the best bands in the Japanese underground scene. They are still active and play several shows in each year and have released albums often.
I have too many records, sorry I don’t remember what else to recommend.
Is there an album that has profoundly affected you more than others?
These are my best recommendations of all the time.
– ‘Musik Des Mittelalters’ / Studio der Frühen Musik
– ‘Trout Mask Replica’ / Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band
– ‘The Album’ / ABBA
What are some of the most interesting artists coming from Japan? Would you like to expose some underground artists that deserve wider attention?
Hako (箱), the female young experimental musician (probably from Kobe). I saw her twice, her performances were so unique and original. She plays electronics, some instruments and voice. I couldn’t imagine what her musical root is… her music is totally mutant for me. About her name Hako… I think her real name is Hako too. But Chinese characters were changed to 箱 (same pronunciation “Hako” but meaning “box”), because she said there is famous experimental musician Haco in same area. So she tried to change so people wouldn’t be confused.
Would you like to comment on your playing technique? Give us some insights on developing your playing technique.
Just listen, open your ears. Throw away your personality. Your personality makes only vanity and desire for playing… If you can open your ears, music can teach you what you should play. You need technique only for playing music that you listen to. It’s enough. If not enough, you should practice then.
Let’s end this interview with some of your favorite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?
Recently I have been listening to many soundtracks and 20th century contemporary music even while driving.
– Electronic music / Iannis Xenakis (especially I love ‘Hibiki-Hana-Ma’)
– Penderecki: Symphony No. 3 / Threnody / Krzysztof Penderecki (especially I love ‘Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima For 52 Stringed Instruments’)
– Aus Den Sieben Tagen / From The Seven Days / Venu Des Sept Jours / Karlheinz Stockhausen
– “日本の映画音楽 (Japanese film soundtrack) 1962-1977 / V.A. (including many great compositions)
– Intonos / Tenores Di Bitti (I love Sardinian polyphony so much. This group is my favorite.)
– Die Kleinen Und Die Bösen / Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (this is one of my favorite post-punk albums since at that time, a really good fusion of the band with electronics. Recently I started to listen to it again, really good old for me!)
– La Fete Sur Le Parvis Nostre-Dame / La Maurache (this is a French medieval music ensemble, but this is my favorite acid folk for me.)
Klemen Breznikar
All photos: Acid Mother Temple in 1996
Acid Mother Temple Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / Bandcamp
‘In C & La Novia’ by Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O
Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – ‘High on New Heaven, Live in New Haven’ (2015)
‘When Evil Worlds Collide’, Acid Mothers Temple & Space Paranoid @Galeria Zé Dos Bois, 03/11
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