INTERVIEW AN INTERVIEW FROM FRENCH MAGAZINE " D-SIDE " (December 2000)
| D-SIDE | How did you happen to be signed on Prikosnovenie?
Were you contacted by them? |
| chako | Prikosnoveine asked us to join their omnibus
project. After we joined the omnibus, we thought that it was a good label. |
| D-SIDE | Your albums and your tackled themes generally
assume a certain spirituality. Do you agree?
What is the general theme of "Kismet"? What is the origin of this beautiful word? |
| chako | Yes, the theme of our album is spirituality.
The main theme of KISMET is about the memories
of various people we met while performing music, and a mysterious coincidence which lead us to meet with them. Produced between the 20 and 21st century, this album is an integration of these mysterious and wonderful feelings. The Japanese title of this album was decided as "EN". In old Japanese tradition, there was a custom to treat "EN"(relation with other people, a mysterious fatality which bring people together) as a very important power. I feel that in everything I meet every moment, there is a meaning behind them. I feel a misterious EN with the French people who will hear JACK OR JIVE's music. So, I talked over with my friend and had him translate this word into the English word which had closest meaning. |
| D-SIDE | "Mujiyo" was about Europe, wasn't
it? What does fascinate you about our continent?
Have you ever played in Europe? |
| chako | Yes, the first song in Mujyo is about Europe.
Mujyo means 'everything is not the same'.
When we made the album, Europe was undergoing a great change, such as collapse of socialism in Rumania and fall of Berlin wall. We picked up the change in Europe as a symbol of Mujyo and put "a march for new European" in the very first of the album. The wonderful part of Europe is that Every country has their own culture and takes care of it. So we like Europe. We performed in Germany in 1992,1994,1998 and 1999, four times. We are planning to perform with VJ group(Optical Sisters) in Frankfurt and Nurnberg in beginning of February. |
| D-SIDE | "The Earth" may have been your
only peaceful & serene work ever.
However
"Kismet" may come back to more introspecting and melancholy. Do you agree? How would you explain that? |
| chako | "THE EARTH" is an integration of
our work until now. It has a violent aspect
along with the peaceful aspect, so it might not be calm. As you mentioned, "KISMET" is the first work of our new orientation. The album has a quiet aspect, but for me, it has a feeling like sharpening the spirit of one who listens to. |
| D-SIDE | Your CD cover artworks follow the same evanescent
pattern, a kind of logic unites them. Could you tell us who and how do you work on it? What do you think of 4AD and Vaughan Oliver? Are they an influence? |
| chako | We ask Inoue Seizo, a traditional kimono
artist, to hear our music, and he makes the
artworks for the album. He understands our music and ourselves very well, so we rely on him. I (chako) do the layouts. By using the same pattern, I thought it will be more impressive. I really don't know much about 4AD nor Vaughan Oliver, so I won't comment about them. |
| D-SIDE | Who from any artistical form do you consider
as an inspiration or aninfluence? |
| chako | I was influence by the punk movement. I had
sympathy not to their style, but to their
thoughts , throwing doubts to the public. There is no particular artist which I was influenced from. |
| D-SIDE | Chako said once that your way of singing
was self-learnt. Would you say that
your
voice is the reflection of your inner self and that it evolves with and within you? You seem to explore it deeper and deeper. |
| chako | That's exactly right. I'm happy to hear that
from you. I self learnt not only the way
of singing, but to perform instruments too. The techniques of singing and and playing the instrument is not really essential. I'm interested in expressing the persuade of spiritual matter, by sound. I know that if I improve the techniques, I can express more, but I don't think that I can enhance my inner self by 100% by doing so. So, I look for something to be concerned of in daily life and turn them into sounds. |
| D-SIDE | As Chako's voice quite prevails in your work,
does it come first in the composition of
the songs or does it come after the music? |
| chako | The back line of vocal is made first, and
then we go to the song. In some cases, song
is made early, and in other case they are made last. It depends on my feelings. |
| D-SIDE | Your music is highly optical. Would you do
a score for a movie if you were asked to?
What do you think of David Lynch? Your music sometimes evoke "Twin Peaks" atmosphere and even its soundtrack. |
| chako | All the time, I'm thinking of creating a
music for a movie. I think that my music
matches with optical images, because when I compose, various landscape and people appears in my mind. It is strange to see someone I never met in state of mind like that. We collaborated in live performance with VJ group (Optical Sisters) because we are interested in images. It was an epochal attempt for us. I cried wen I saw David Lynch's "Elephant Man". I was overwhelmed by his sense to handle those delicate matter in a monochrome screen. We met with Peter Greenaway once and talked about music and movies. From then, I had a confident feeling that I want to make a music for a movie. Could you tell us a bit about Jack Or Jive on stage? How much are you? Instruments used? |
| D-SIDE | Could you tell us a bit about Jack Or Jive
on stage? How much are you? Instruments used? |
| chako | We receive what projector give us, but we
never required or specified the amount of
money. What we want is a small gratitude. We only use sub instruments such as cymbal or banboo flute in the live. Generally, we use DAT to play the base part of the sound. |
| D-SIDE | Could you say a few words about your solo
projects? What difference do you make between
these? What do they allow you to do that can't be done under Jack Or Jive? |
| chako | Basically, JACK OR JIVE is performed by two
of us. I sing and play the instruments and
MAKOTO does the mixing and support of sound making. We seek together, choosing and editing the song. Solo work is much more personal. I emphasized the feminal aspect which I don't express so much in JACK OR JIVE. There is only one album, and I named it "ebb & flow" with a feminal image. I did all of the solo recording by my own feeling. |
| D-SIDE | It seems that many french bands are quite famous
in Japan. What is your favourite french artist? |
| chako | I don't hear ROCK and POP music so many.
So I don't know well about French bands.
But I like to hear the IRIS series of Prikosnovenie which they sent to me. |
| D-SIDE | How do you explain that, conversely, Japanese
bands are not so famous in here? Apart from Ryuichi Sakamoto and some very underground and exprimental artists like Merzbow or K.K. Null, you're certainly the most famous one in France and maybe elsewhere. |
| chako | In Japan, independent music scene is the
most exclusive. In 80's, influenced by foreign
music scene, many kinds of music were played in Japan. But after that, the whole music scene seems to be overwhelmed by excessive commercialism and I feel that musician's hope is exploited by commercialism. It is getting harder and harder in this country for a musician who is truly unique and has a unshakable will, to live as a musician. I think that the number of musicians who don't like the commercialism will gradually grow. |
| D-SIDE | What is the outcome of Jack Or Jive today
after 10 years of existence? |
| chako | We met many people during this 10 years.
Through those people we met, our mind deepened
and learned many from them. Along with that, I'm confident that our music have deepened too. |
| Special thanx translate by Yakamoto |