I was attracted to James Blake's sound production and low note count.
What kind of music do you listen to when you are at home?
Salt Mound:. I listen to all kinds of music. . I listen to pop music and Billy Irish . I also listen to ambient music. I don't know much about it, but I just listen to what I like.
Nishimoto:I think that is the best way to listen. I can't read English either, so I don't know what to call the artists. But the music is good, so I buy the record and listen to it. That's all I need to do. As long as I like it.
Salt Mound:Recently, I've been listening to an album called "MINAS" by an artist named Milton Nascimento, which my engineer zAk told me about a year ago.
Nishimoto:What is the work like?
Salt Mound:Shiotsuka: It's kind of a pastoral kind of album. Milton Nascimento admired the Beatles, and it's kind of a mix of Minas music and the Beatles. I was told that Boredoms listened to it in the 90s and was influenced by it. It was a shock to me after a long time. I also had a spiritual feeling.
Nishimoto:Is it old-time music?
Salt Mound:Looks like it was released in 1975.
Do you get inspiration for your Hitsujibungaku compositions from listening to these works?
Salt Mound:. what do you think? I don't really listen to rock bands much. I heard James Blake when I was in junior high school, and I was just about 15 years old when the first album came out. I really admired the lack of sound and the way they created their sound. I don't know if that has been reflected in my band activities or not.
Nishimoto:That album was super shocking. Many dubstep DJs were playing James Blake songs.
Salt Mound:From the second album onward, the music became more and more colorful. I don't really want to say that the old days were better, but I was really attracted by the small number of songs and the unique darkness.
Why are you attracted to dark music?
Nishimoto:I wonder why. I was into ambient and electronica for a while. It's very pleasant, isn't it?
I wonder if there is some part of you that is touched emotionally.
Salt Mound:. there's some kind of color that I associate with the song. . If I like that, I like the song. There is an Argentinian artist in folktronica named Juana Molina, who has a wizard-like sound, and I like her too.
Nishimoto:Do you like the ethnic look?
Salt Mound:Yes, I like it , I like it.
Nishimoto:I also like to listen to field recordings of ethnic music. There is a really cool guy named Kinki Kong. He travels around the world by himself and records the sounds of various tribes and releases them. He came to Japan once, and it was really cool.
Salt Mound:It's really great that you are digging so deep.
Nishimoto:People who write songs and play in bands are far more amazing. I sometimes see live performances on instagram, and they are cool. I sometimes see live performances on Instagram, and they are so cool, like the acoustic ones. I also watch a lot of music videos, and I think I've seen "1999" about 1,000 times.
Salt Mound:Really? You're looking at me so hard (laughs). Thank you very much.
Nishimoto:But I like "soda water" the best.
Salt Mound:That's interesting, you have a sensitive heart (laughs).
Nishimoto:The title of the song is "Soda Water," but the lyric "soda water" appears only once in the song. I was really struck by the dramatic nature of the song.
I regularly hold an event called "Zutto Tomo" with my friends, and when I play hardcore or grindcore as a DJ, I play "Soda Water" in the background, and the audience says, "The last Hitsujibungaku was the best. The audience said, "That was great, that last bit of Sheep's Literature. I listened to it again today when I left home (laughs).
Salt Mound:I see you like it that much! I'm really glad . Thank you very much.
What is the position of the song "Soda Water" in your opinion?
Salt Mound:There is a drama called "Houkago Soda Biyori" (After School Soda Days), which was produced by a film director who is a good friend of mine. The song was composed while I was making the accompaniment for the drama. At that time, that was all I had to do for one summer. It was the first time I had ever worked on a musical accompaniment for a movie, and it was a lot of fun. I drank a lot of cream soda that summer. I created the song based on those memories and my interpretation of the message I got from the play.
Nishimoto:So it's a song of memories.
Salt Mound:. yes, I would. I put a reverse delay on all the guitars to give them a shuffling feel. I express the pleasant feeling of summer in this way.
Nishimoto:There's also the one where Tommy the BOY is yelling in the back of the room. Drama. I really like that one too. I met Tommy the other day and had a little chat with him. He is proud of the fact that we were the first to handle Hitsujibungaku literature.
Salt Mound:I like to listen to music at Tower Records in Shibuya, but I don't go there often these days.... When I was only about 20 years old, I heard an artist named Mitski there, and I thought it was cool that there were a lot of screams in his works, so I decided to make "Drama".
Nishimoto:At first I thought it was the drummer yelling, but when I found out it was Tommy, it became clear to me.
Salt Mound:It's like it's so dead that you can't even tell if it's a scream or not. It sounds like a guitar distortion.
There is a band in Barcelona called MOURN. They are a punk band around the same age as us? They seem to like Talking Heads a lot .
Salt Mound:There is a song called "Your head is made of candy" , and its music video is really cool. Drama" was also influenced by that song. It has a punk feel, and Tommy's distortion voice really works, and I really like the song.
