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Melt Banana silly interview

It's been a while i'm a Melt Banana enjoyer, more than ten years now. I first discovered them when i was animating a webradio with Caro, an old friend. I was working as a waiter in a bad restaurant, was experiencing a lot of harassment from coworkers and experienced a burn out. The only things i was happy about that time was that I stood tall against my boss who was an incredible jerk (all my bosses call me arrogant and i think this is one of the best compliment a boss can tell), and i was happy to dive into Bambi's Dilemma, finding randomly Cracked Plaster Cast when Youtube algo was great, in 2012.
Since that discover, Melt Banana became really quickly an obsessive listening, trying to grasp the magic between those guitar lines, the beauty in all the screamed lyrics. And the fun, all that fun that was sweeting from that energy, giving power and joy to my body while digesting that harassment and the months of stillness that came after me quitting that job.
Everyone who knows me heard at least one of my tunnel about my love for that band and how i'm glad i was able to see them live. Then i started creating fan covers, a lot actually, some i played live during gigs. I reached Melt Banana a couple of time to tell them, discuss, and recently asked them if i could do a little interview for that silly blog. So here is a silly interview of Melt Banana. Thank you again so much for accepting it and answer to my questions.

Rose : First, thank you for taking the time to read and answer my questions !
When we listen to your whole discography, it's obvious your overall sound changed, instrumentaly and vocaly, turning raw noise hardcore songs into epic electropunk songs. What make you decide to take that turn ? Is it more artistic, practical, a bit of both or something totally different ?

Yako: I'm not sure. We never really thought, "Let's change our sound." We just followed what felt exciting to us. One of the biggest changes for us was becoming a two-piece, but that wasn't because we wanted to become a different kind of band. It just let us do more of the things we wanted to do and made the music even more fun for us.

Agata: It wasn't like we had some artistic concept and decided to change direction, and it wasn't like we changed just because we became a two-piece, either. So I don't think it was really either of those. I guess we tend to let things evolve naturally rather than following a fixed plan.
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Rose : Yako, your writing is always full of really radical pictures and depictions of emotions, of funny songs and burst of energy. It's really inspiring and i don't see a lot of people writing songs like you do. Can you tell what are your main inspirations for writing like that ?
Do you feel an evolution in your writing since the start of your career in Melt Banana ?
Do you write also stuff that are not songs ? Like poetry, essays, fictions...

Yako: Thank you! I'm really happy to hear you say that. I think my lyrics come from all kinds of things I experience and feel in everyday life, mixed with all sorts of things that inspire me, like music, anime, movies, games, and lots of other stuff. But I don't usually see or hear one specific thing and think, "I'm going to write a song about that." It doesn't really work that way for me. I've never really thought about how my writing has evolved. But maybe it's become harder to write lyrics that I'm truly happy with. I think I keep expecting more from myself. Everything I want to express goes into our songs. And I'm always happy when people imagine their own stories or meanings through our music and my lyrics. I think that's a really wonderful thing.
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Rose :What is on your individual playlists these days ?

Yako: Some songs from the Made in Abyss OST" by Kevin Penkin. I was really into them for a while, and recently I've started listening to them again.

Agata: Hmm, I don't know. I listen to music pretty randomly, so it's hard to say. The last song I listened to today was "Heroes" by David Bowie. Oh, and one song I've been listening to a lot recently is Mirage Lunaire" by Luca Cavina. Luca is the bassist of the Italian band Zeus!, and I was surprised when I heard it because I didn't know he made this kind of music.
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Rose :You have a song featured in the anime Ninja Slayer. Was it made explicitely for the anime or is it a song you had already recorded ? Is it the first time you do some collaboration like that with anime, movies or videogames ? Would you do more of that in the future ?

Yako: The song was "Halo of Sorrow" and we recorded it after we got the offer, specifically for the anime. Before that, we also wrote "Hair-Cat (Cause the Wolf is a Cat!)" for the animated series Perfect Hair Forever. Looking back, both projects had incredibly tight deadlines. I think we finished writing, recording, and even mastering "Hair-Cat" in about a week. We didn't have much time for "Halo of Sorrow," either, so it made me realize how intense the production schedules in the animation world can be. As for doing more projects like that, I think it really depends on what it is. If it's something we're interested in, we'd definitely love to do it.
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Rose :Do you have a favourite noise ? Is it loaded in your live controller ?

Yako: My favorite noise is pink noise. I have it set up on my computer, and I play it through bass amps in some songs. I also love those little electronic bleeps.

Agata: I like guitar feedback, and other kinds of noise too, but I tend to like higher-pitched sounds for some reasons.
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Rose :Here on this blog, i try to defend public domain and free access to knowledge, culture and creativity. You do a lot of covers during your live sets, and you also recorded some (i think about We will rock you, Devo songs, Surfin USA, or even Sea by Vampillia remixed by Agata...). What is your relationship with covering music ?
And by extension, do you have an opinion on the actual system of copyright ? Do you feel it protective for you ? Can you explain how it works in Japan ?

Yako : In the early days, we were completely focused on creating our own music, so we never even thought about playing cover songs. But when we toured with Mr. Bungle, we saw them playing all kinds of covers, and they looked like they were having so much fun. That inspired us to start doing covers too.

Agata : Copyright is a tricky thing. Creative works are not just data. They come from someone's time, effort, and feelings. So I don't think it's right for someone to take something another person created and use it in a way that the creator never agreed to. Unfortunately, not everyone has good intentions, so we do value copyright in our own work. At the same time, I understand the idea of keeping culture open and shared. I think finding a balance is important, so creators are not ignored or exploited.
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Rose : It feels like you have written about/feature every type of animals in the world in your songs, cover art, titles, field recordings. Is there an animal you don't like ? A favourite one ?

Yako : I don't have any particular favorite animal, and I don't have any that I particularly dislike either. Well, I guess monkeys and apes aren't really my thing.

Agata: I don't really like those black-and-white striped mosquitoes. I actually like the sound of their wings, but I get a pretty bad reaction to their bites, and sometimes just seeing one makes me feel itchy. I guess my favorite animals would be cats and dogs. Before I met Yako, I wasn't really interested in animals, but she got me into them, and now I really love them.
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Rose :You are perfecting a noise hi energy hardcore duet show with your last decade of touring. Toward where would you like it evolve after that ?
Do you like composing with drum machines ? Would you put more sweet sweet distorsion on them in the future ?

Agata : I really don't know. I still feel like I'm in the process of learning how to properly play the songs from "3+5". But I guess we might want to make something simpler in the future. I enjoy making music with drum machines too. It's fun because even if you can't play drums, you can still create rhythms. But I'm not sure if I'll add more distortion to the sounds in the future.

Yako : We're pretty spontaneous, so we actually don't really plan things out in detail for the future. We usually just follow what feels exciting to us at the time.
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Rose : In your geocities website FAQ, you say that synthesizers are not gay (unless they are shoulder synthesizers where it can be a bit blurry). Do you still think that ? What about drum machines ? And what about making feedbacks with a guitar?

Yako : That website isn't on Geocities anymore. Haha. I don't really think about it that way anymore. I think any instrument can be interesting if you use it in a unique way.

Agata Synthesizers were the first instruments I bought myself, so I definitely like them. But if I had to choose between the two, I think I prefer making feedback noise with a guitar.
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Rose :What is the best thing in the world ? And the best song ? Can you find a link between those two things ?

Yako : That's a difficult question. I don't think there is one single thing that can be called the best in the world, and I don't think I can choose the best song either. The world is constantly changing, after all.

Agata : I probably can't come up with a good answer to that question. Neither can Yako, probably. The best thing in the world and the best song are different for everyone, and they even change depending on how each person is feeling or their situation at the time. That's probably why people keep searching for the best things, and why Yako and I keep making music.
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Rose :Is there an effect pedal you still don't understand ?
If you had to keep only two effect pedals with you chained in a specific way, what would it be ?

Agata : Probably compressors. I understand how they work, but I don't really know how to get the sound I want from them. If I could only keep two pedals, I would choose the DD-6 and the Whammy, in that order.
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Rose :As a big pigeon enjoyer, i couldn't not see your song "Pigeons on mY eYes (GO TO bed)". Can you tell a bit about that song ? I can't grasp the lyrics. Also nice static and pedal switch click in the end.
Would you like to be turned into pigeons for few days ?

Yako : This song is about staying awake even when you're exhausted and too busy to sleep. By the way, in Japanese, when someone gets sleepy and their eyelids feel heavy, there's an expression that says "pigeons are landing on my eyes." I really like this phrase, so I used it for the song. Also, I am not sure about turning into pigions. Maybe falcons. They can fly fast and far.
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Rose :Your last albums have no intros or outros. Is there a reason for that ? Can you talk a bit on the process of creating those long noisy, glitchy, weird landscape you made in your previous albums ?

Yako : There's no special reason, really. It's more like, if we happen to find something that fits while making an album, or if we feel the need for it at the time, we'll add it.

Agata Yeah, there's no special reason. If anything, it's just because we felt like nothing else was needed. Those relatively long tracks on the previous albums were created naturally during the process of making the albums. We often record sounds just for fun, aside from the songs we usually play live. We use soft synths, turntables, samplers, theremins, etc. Most of those tracks came from experimenting with new things.
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Rose :Is there something you would like to see happen in the next year ?

Yako : I want to go up the Tokyo Skytree!

Agata : That's a difficult question. I don't really have anything specific in mind, but I hope something interesting happens to us, like something I could never have imagined.
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Go check Melt Banana schedule of gigs so you don't miss them ! There lives are INCREDIBLE. And check there last album 3+5 !!
Thanks again to Yako and Agata for accepting this interview !

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