Speed Guru: Interview with Makoto Kawabata

About 25 years ago I had a musical epiphany; I was browsing in a local record shop when my eyes alighted on a groovy looking CD by a band called Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. and the album was called 'Pataphisical Freak Out MU!'. Now, this was in the days before smart phones and having the whole of the internet at one's beck and call so I relied on good ol' gut instinct and bought it. Little did the me of 25 years ago realise the depth of the rabbit hole this would lead to; not only the incredibly prodigious output of AMT but the associated bands and solo projects (I won't even go into the even deeper rabbit hole of Japanese Psych/Noise and the owning of more Les Rallizes Denudes bootlegs than is good for one person!). Needless to say I often raise a glass to the younger me and praise his nous and good taste! The driving force behind AMT as well as numerous collaborations and solo outings is Makoto Kawabata; guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and veritable force of nature. He kindly took some time out from his (exceptionally) busy life to answer a few questions.

I suppose the first question should be - how do you do it! It appears as if you are constantly touring, playing or recording. Do you have 'down time' ?

hahaha, I like to "kill two birds with one stone" and do many things at the same time. So I have a fair amount of time to myself. I live on a mountaintop, so I can go hiking, and watch movies, read books, also cook. Then I started training because of the pandemic. I am not young anymore.

Looking back over your musical career you have covered a lot of ground, musically speaking; Psychedelia, space rock, electronica, jazz, folk - do you have a favourite genre to play and to listen to?

I can't answer this question because I don't listen to music in a genre.

I like music that I find "cool" and "great." I don't care about musicality, performance style, era, ethnicity, religion, gender, or anything else.



One of the things I love about AMT is the riffing on the titles of "classic albums" e.g. Electric Heavyland, Dark Side of the Black Moon, Son of Bitches Brew - is this a form of homage to those artists/albums?

Sometimes it is a homage or parody, but not always. We try to use English titles in the sense that as many people as possible can understand them. But I am not a native English speaker and it is not easy to give titles in English. Since my music, as well as AMT, does not have a specific message, the title is like a symbol, so I thought a parody of a famous title that is easy to remember was a pretty good idea then.



You've spoken in the past about your 'cosmos', could you explain what this is?

I call it MY COSMOS for convenience, but it can be any name. I have heard ringing in my ears since I was a child and thought it was a message from U.F.O.. I used to look at the sky and look for U.F.O.. When I was 11 years old, I was struck by the electronic music of Stockhausen, which I heard on the radio. It was then that I realized that my tinnitus might also be music. Since then, I have come to listen to tinnitus as music. Then I began to hear it as music, just like tuning a radio. And even now, music is heard all the time, and I am like a radio tuner, receiving it and trying to reproduce it as audibly as possible for people to hear. I call MY COSMOS the original place from which the music originates.

It strikes me that a great deal of the most interesting and immersive music has originated in Japan, certainly a lot of my favoured listening has; I'm thinking Les Rallizes Denudes, Eddie Macon, Ghost, Flower Travellin' Band, Uptight - I could go on! Is there something inherent in Japanese culture that produces such an impressive musical heritage?

Western music, especially rock music, has been imported since the late 1960s, but we have heard it simply as "music" without any regard to its historical, ethnic, or social background. Our greed for listening to any kind of interesting music, not limited to rock, led us to listen to jazz, contemporary music, ethnic music and any other music at the same time. I think that because we grew up with this kind of music, it sounds different to people in the West, the birthplace of the music we have been listening to.

I believe I read somewhere, sometime that your grandfather was a Noh performer - did this have an effect on the younger Makoto?

My grandfather died when I was a child, so I was not directly affected. However, when I was a child, I listened to my father's Noh chanting records at home with him, so I think it has seeped into my blood.

AMT has always struck me as being more of a family than a band - members come and members go but the ethos and values always remain the same. Is the 'replacing' of a band member an organic thing or a carefully planned strategic move?

One of the decisions made when AMT was formed was that no official members would be chosen. This is because all of the bands I led in the past had to stop our activities due to frequent member changes, and eventually disbanded because of this. No one is an official member of the AMT, including myself; the AMT is a vessel, not a substance. It is a house, not an inhabitant. So the recording members are not fixed. However, as we perform live, the regular members are naturally determined, and as a result, when a member is replaced for some reason, it is considered to be a member change. Even if there is a change of members, we do not recruit new members. We always meet or appear with someone spontaneously.

The list of people/bands with whom you have collaborated is an impressive one indeed! Have you ever refused a collaboration request?

I’m interested in playing at least once with anyone. However, often there is not enough time and it is difficult to make it happen.

One project I am very much looking forward to hearing is the Triggered Sun album (coming out on Zen Feedback) - how did this come about?

Bassist Ozaki used to be in a group called GEZAN, and they became a very popular group, but when we met after a long time, he asked me and AMT drummer NANI, "If I want, can we play together?" The answer was of course yes. I thought it was interesting that he would want to play with me, an underground musician more than a quarter of a century older than him, even though I was in such a famous band. Later, I heard from people that Ozaki left GEZAN and returned to his hometown. I suddenly remembered his words and contacted him. Then, NANI and I came up with a sound together, and the result is Triggered Sun.



Speaking as a non-musician I find the whole idea of improvised music totally mind-blowing. Do you have a set idea of how a particular improvised piece will go or is it 'going with the flow'.

For me, improvisation means composing, arranging, and performing at the same time, and is not a lazy virtuoso performance like so-called free music. As mentioned earlier, I always hear music from MY COSMOS, and I concentrate on the act of "listening" every moment in order to reproduce it. When playing with others, the sound coming from MY COSMOS changes even more moment by moment, so I have to concentrate on "listening" even more and more. As for the performance, it is sufficient to have the technique and equipment to instantly reproduce the sounds (scales and tones) heard. When we acquire more technique we they need, we have a tendency to want to show it off, which inhibits the reproduction of the music we hear. So I always keep "selflessness (滅私 messhi)” in mind. So for me, music is not self-expression at all. For me, the most important thing is how not to put my personality and will into the music. And a musical performance is never the same at a given time, place, and person. That is why even the slightest difference in tempo has meaning, and music itself is essentially an improvisation.

Any artists/albums/projects we should be looking out for in 2024?

Osaka, where I am based, has recently seen the emergence of very talented young female musicians one after another, which is very inspiring. female SSW also acoustic guitarist Hatashita Mayu. female noise musician (She calls herself a Noise Painter) Hako (箱) female noise musician (also drummer) Kadoya Kurumi female electronic musician (also DJ) Juri Suzue And I knew it was a female american noise musician (actually uncategorizable!) Victoria Shen, aka Evicshen. I met her in Rotterdam in 2018 and invited her to Japan to perform with me three times since then. With novel ideas created from her boundless curiosity, she gives me unimaginable performances every time. I can't take my eyes off of her and wonder where she will go from here. I am convinced that God has given her not only one but several talents.

Who are you currently listening to?

Hatashita Mayu (Live recordings I recorded privately) And I really like movie soundtracks, but the minor movies I like from the 60's and 70's have not been released on vinyl, so I listen to them while watching videos or DVDs. In terms of composers, Kaburaki Hajime, Watanabe Takeo…

Many thanks to Makoto and thanks also to Andy from Riot Season for helping to set up this interview

Acid Mothers Temple are touring the UK and Ireland this year:

9-May-2024 BRIGHTON The Hope and Ruin
10-May-2024 LONDON Dingwalls
11-May-2024 CARDIGAN The Cellar
12-May-2024 DUBLIN Workmans Club
13-May-2024 LEAP, WEST CORK Connolly’s of Leap
14-May-2024 BELFAST Ulster Sports Club
15-May-2024 GLASGOW Mono
16-May-2024 DUNDEE The Church
17-May-2024 NEWCASTLE Lubber Fiend
18-May-2024 GLASTONBURY King Arthur
19-May-2024 RAMSGATE Ramsgate Music Hall
20-May-2024 CHELMSFORD The Hotbox
21-May-2024 HITCHIN Club 85
22-May-2024 CAMBRIDGE Portland Arms
LINKS

Makoto's blog

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