Rockin’ On interview, October 2004
On this album, you mentioned that you were influenced by early PIL. How do you appreciate Keith Levin as a guitarist?
Of course, Keith Levin is my favorite guitarist. I suppose that you can hear that my performance of “Dust” especially shows his influence. In my opinion, Keith Levin is an important guitarist as undeniably capable as Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. I wonder few people talk about Keith Levin. And there’re very few people trying to take over something he was supposed to do. On the contrary, there’re too many people influenced by Jimmy Page or Edie Van Halen.
Moreover there’re million people those who want to follow their play. Hardly anyone tries to follow the direction that Keith Levin has been up to. I think that on Automatic Writing, I was performing the individual sound of mine. In parallel with it, it’s true that I have feelings for his performance, such as timbre or freewheelingness. And then Joe produced very strong and heavy groove of dub so that we were able to take his performance as the foundation. This is why our experiment was able to become freely. How can I explain … to me, the most sympathetic thing to Keith Levin’s playing is the aspect of quest for. I feel he uses the guitar not for just playing the guitar or performing solo play but as a means to quest. In short, I’m interested in his questing mind for sound. So, I think on the Ataxia's record, it receives influence from his attitude of quest for sound. But I’ve always been doing such things at rehearsal. When I jammed with Flea for Chili Peppers, we sometimes ended up all day playing the sounds like PIL. But that doesn’t happen simply because of an accomplished album.
Well. How did you name the band “Ataxia”?
At that time, I was reading a book written by Iannis Xenakis. He was a Greek, an architect, and a composer. There’s “Ataxia”, the Greek language, in the book. Ataxia means disorder. I think “Ataxia” is nice to look at, also I like its vocable. And the meaning of “Ataxia” is the same meaning as the tittle of Joy Division’s song. That’s what pleased me because Joe, Josh, and I are big fans of Joy Division. I think “Ataxia” is a symbolic word for three of us.
You and Flea have loved and have respected Fugazi. When did you first make friends with them? And how have you been keeping on close relationship with them?
Flea is friends with Ian Mackaye. While I was quitting, Chili Peppers held show with Nirvana in Brazil. At that time, Ian was there as a roadie. What’s the name of that girls band? … It’s L7. Ian joined L7 as a roadie. After a few years, it was the first show, since I came back to Chili Peppers in 1998, held at club in Washington, DC. Ian came the show to see. He’s really good person and friendly. So, I asked him about songs because I loved Fugazi very much. When Fugazi went on tour in 1999, I visited their backstage room. All members were pleasant people. I felt they were very welcoming to me with opening arms. The atmosphere in backstage-room of Fugazi was completely different from other band’s backstage room that I had ever visited. Since then I would often go to their show. When they held show at somewhere about me, I always went to see their show and would go together after show. We swapped phone numbers, so we kept in touch with them after they finished the tour. When Chili Peppers went to DC, members of Fugazi came our show to see. >From that time, I would often jam with Ian, not for recording but for fun. Interacting with them is really wonderful thing in my life. I think Fugazi is not just one of the most amazing bands in musical history but also they’re great people or they’re in high-level of humanity. I have never met such a down-to-earth people before. They inspire me in music as well as how to live and what I ought to be. On that point, the presence of Ian is very important to me.
What did you find from experience in recording of DCEP, produced by Ian Mackaye?
Jerry Busher is one of my favorite drummers in the world. One day I sent four demo tracks to him, and he gave some ideas for drum part to me. Besides, I would talk with Ian about the recording of my album in DC. He had been encouraging me, and would say to me “Feel free to come here.” I had been interested in their work at studio. And I had been wanting to go there. So, I dashed off there at my earliest convenience. On the day I arrived in DC [Day 1], I went to eat together. On the next day [Day 2], I rehearsed with Jerry. I listened to drum part, and his play was really wonderful. Towards the end of rehearsal, Ian came and gave some ideas to us, which was indeed wonderful too. On the day after next [Day 3], we went into recording studio, and at the next night [Day 4], we finished off. We recorded four songs and mixed them in only two days. I’m satisfied with the result and I really enjoyed working with Jerry and Ian. The atmosphere of that studio was relaxed. Though we told jokes in a friendly atmosphere, I felt they sincerely worked. The best thing about working with Ian is that I was able to confirm that my direction was not wrong. There was not very difference between The Will To Death and DCEP in working process because I’ve been strongly influenced by Ian, even I was recording The Will To Death in my hometown. All ideas, like ending up recordings in five days and making up an album within $10.000, came from conversation with Ian about a year ago. At that time, I began to feel senseless about many steps in the process of currently record making, and I prefer 60’s style and punk rock style of record making to current style. I definitely think the reason why I come to have such direction I take now is that I’m strongly influenced by Ian.
