Japanese electronica/rock duo Michiyuki Kawashima and Masayuki Nakano AKA Boom Boom Satellites are in something of an interesting position when it comes to promoting their latest album Exposed to Australian audiences (check out the ITM review). While the duo have been more than prolific in their home country over the past eleven years – indeed, Exposed is their seventh studio album – to date their exposure to international audiences has been comparatively slight, despite remixes for the likes of Garbage and Josh Wink and most interestingly – appearances on high-budget anime soundtracks such as Appleseed and Vexille, French icon Luc Besson’s Yamakashi as well as many other examples. “It seems our music call forth a visual image in the mind of audiences,” as Boom Boom Satellites themselves explain it.
Over the past decade the duo have shifted considerably in sonic approach; while early albums like Out Loud and Umbra saw them fusing contorted, processed drums with jazz horns and dub influences, 2005’s Full Of Elevating Pleasures and the ensuing On album saw them increasingly moving towards straight-out rocky electronica/synth-pop, a stylistic trend that continues in earnest on Exposed. To celebrate Boom Boom Satellites’s debut to Australian audiences, ITM speaks to Kawashima from the duo.
How did the two of you first start working together as Boom Boom Satellites; was it primarily first a live or studio-based project?
Originally we were friends at university, and both used to play in different bands. At that time, I wanted to do a rock band whose style takes in an element of club music, which was hot especially in the UK then. For that reason, my band didn’t have a drummer, but instead we had been performing along with rhythm machines and samplers. And I asked Nakano to help out – that’s how we got together. Then, we recorded demo materials at home or sometimes at rental studio, and did gigs at club once or twice a month… just like the other amateur bands normally do.
Are you conscious that each of you bring different ideas and influences into the creative partnership when working together as BBS?
We are not that much forcing ourselves to do so (ie. bringing different ideas intentionally). When we create a song, we often start with the beat and bass track, and the form gradually changes through various trials and errors we both make. Through that process, we both quite naturally bring ideas of, for example, replacing the beat/bass track, developing the entire structure so that it better fits to the melody line, etc.
Listening to your music (I’ve been collecting your music since 7 Ignitions), I’m always amazed for the amount of different stylistic references that pop up, ranging from jungle and dub through to punk/metal. Are there are particular influences (not necessarily musical) that you detect exerting an effect on your music?
There are quite a lot of things that influence our music. If not limited to musical… I would say the influences come from our lives themselves. News, current music scene, general atmosphere in town, and everything we see, hear or sense during our lifetime. All these are essential to the creation of music for us as a way of communication (with people including fans).
Were there any things that you particularly wanted to do differently on Exposed, compared to previous BBS albums?
One thing we have sticked with to a certain extent is the range of BPM. Our music tends to have various elements of different kinds of music, but sticking to BPM has increased a sense of integrity, and we think that contributed to keep the album colorful but consistent.
The track Fiends from this latest album Exposed makes an appearance on the soundtrack to the anime movie Vexille, and you also earlier on provided a lot of the soundtrack to the first Appleseed movie. Are you anime fans in particular? Do you have anymore soundtrack work planned in the future?
I actually have been an anime fan myself, and have been watching TV/film anime quite often. As you know, Appleseed was the very first anime for which we wrote songs by request (from the movie director) though, even before, some of our existing tracks had been picked up for movies several times, such as Luc Besson’s Yamakashi, a manga originated Japanese movie Ping-pong, and several other movie trailers too. It seems our music call forth a visual image in the mind of audiences. Vexille is also the one we have contributed songs for, and we have found it a great experience to get involved in such project from its early stage – no matter how it is challenging at the same time. That said, we are pretty much interested in making sound track album in the future as well, whether it’s for anime or other motion picture. We also think the effect that music can add to visual production is significant.
Compared with the jazzy/dub influences of early BBS albums such as Out Loud and Umbra, more recent records like On and Exposed have increasingly showed rock elements coming to forefront in the form of guitars and lead vocals. Is this a direction that you’ve consciously been pursuing more and more?
We have already started making a new album following Exposed, and we don’t think about the nature of our music. I mean, dance music which might at the same time look like a rock band, would materially change. But it does not necessarily mean that we are binding ourselves in a rigid concept, and we rather think it would become important how we can be flexible to keep changing our music.
You’ve certainly developed a reputation for impressive music videos; something that continues with Intergalactic’s dazzling laser show. Is this an aspect of the band that you’re highly involved with?
Of course, yes. We recognise that our music videos are a part of our creation, so, we always closely communicate with video directors from the very beginning its concept-making stage.
It seems incredible that Australian audiences haven’t had the opportunity to experience your live show yet – do you have any plans to tour here at any point soon?
Unfortunately, we have not visited Australia yet, and no schedule of touring has been confirmed yet. But, as you know, we could achieve a release of Exposed in Australia and hope that fact would bring us a chance to visit there! We wish to make an Australian tour very soon!
How would you describe the BBS live show for Australian audiences who haven’t experienced it? Given the sheer amount of production detail packed into the tracks, I can imagine they must be quite a challenge to perform live?
At the gigs, we become a three-piece rock band of bass/computer, guitar/vocal, and a live performance drummer. And we create heavy dance music in which human played sounds and computer manipulated sounds melt into one. As we see the live performance is a completely different thing from sound production (for albums/singles), we have an arranged live version of each track and also write songs to be played specially for gigs only. This point – performance at gigs does not necessarily be the instant replay of CD album – would be one of the things which differentiate us from the other bands.
What other sorts of activities do you have planned for the rest of 2008, or is it too early to tell?
Summer festival season in Japan will start quite soon. We are planning to appear at festivals held in various regions here while we will also go forward recording of new album staying in our studio sometime. We want to deliver it to Australia as soon as we finish up, so in the meanwhile, please enjoy listening to Exposed!
Boom Boom Satellites’ Exposed is out now through Amphead Music.
