Rockin’ On interview, October 2004
I see. By the way, in the future, whom are you going to play with?
That’s a question I often get asked, like ”If you can choose anybody you like, who are you going to play with?” Then I‘ve been doing it … which is the band I belong to. There’s no substitute for the long period I’ve spent with somebody. I’ve spent my time playing the guitar, together with Flea, for years and years. So, it’s impossible for me to substitute somebody for Flea. Playing with Flea is an ideal situation for me. Of course I really enjoyed working with Brian Eno. If I have next opportunity to work with him, I would love to do it in any form. It’s just that, um, that’s an experience to learn for me. Knowing the way other people do things, I’m able to acquire something, for instance. However, to create my real music, or to create music from the bottom of my heart, I couldn’t do it without those whom I love, people who are closest to me, and people who have been playing by my side. Oh, but I hope one day I may be able to create something with Guy Picciotto (guitarist of Fugazi). He has great talent as a producer too. I think it might be interesting to collaborate with him. And these days I often listen to hip-hop. I found there’re some people to do something interesting in the field. So I imagine how it to be if I create something of that sort. For instance, I like GZA (Wu-Tang Clan) very much and I get interested in how it to be if I collaborate with him. Um … Nothing special … I’m just fan of him. I have feeling that we’re definitely able to create something interest if I collaborate with him, but I don’t have to do it no matter what. If I want to create something interesting in hip-hop’s style, I will do it in my band (laugh).
Well, I hear you will release another three albums in the course of this year. Would you give us brief comment on those albums?
Ok, I do. I’ll explain one by one. The album that will be coming out after DCEP is named Inside of Emptiness, which is a very loud album. It contains the song that we made the best of distortion, and lots of having a sense of speed, lots of dirty that I’ve ever made. About my capacity as a producer, I think I was able to acquire skill fairly well because all musical instruments seemed like unite in one sound. For me, as a recording musician, that was the direction I had been trying for. So I was really happy when I was able to reach there. I felt “Finally, I’m able to control and to understand all elements in recording studio”. And the album contains not only loud songs but also soft songs. But even soft songs have vibration of loud. Maybe it’s my favorite album that I’ve ever made. So when I begin to talk about it, I’m able to carry on speak well of it (laugh). Really I feel proud of it. And the next album that I collaborated with Josh, which title is A Spher In The Heart Of Silence. It begins with electronic music taken about 10 minutes. When Josh and I first held show at Knitting Factory, we played the tune. Um … what to call it? Let me put it this way: it has the atmosphere of Steve Reich’s works. A Spher In The Heart Of Silence is also unique album. Though it has a flavor of electronic music, it contains 2 tunes on the piano, which are very organic and have natural sound. In fact, I believe that I was able to make individual sound for each album without curbing the live aspect. You can feel the live aspect in our albums, and can have the feeling that “as if it’s going to break up, but that won’t happen”. And the album that will be coming out at the end of this year, which is I sung playing the acoustic guitar. It was recorded on an Ampex 8-track tape machine that I bought from Vincent Gallo, and was recorded at my house, as Jimi Hendrix recorded Electric Ladyland, or King Crimson recorded In The Court Of The Crimson King. And Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta played the guitar on some songs, and also the album contains a song with upright bass. To me, it’s a personal and special album. Sounds are very warm. In that sense, I guess it’s a perfect album that I’ve ever made. Yeah, (at the moment) Inside of Emptiness and Curtains are my favorite albums.
---Yoshiyuki Suzuki
