Melt Banana

Tue 6th Oct, 2009 in Features

Japanese noise-rock outfit Melt Banana will makes its virgin voyage to Australia this month for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. With nine brain-bending albums to its name and a cult following that stretches back to the early – œ90s, the visit is long overdue. FasterLouder hears what we can expect.

What are you most looking forward to about playing Melbourne International Arts Festival?
It will be the first time for us to visit Australia to play music, so we are very excited about it. So we are very happy that the festival gave us a great opportunity to take a part in. I hope many people come to see our show and enjoy our music.

Melt Banana has been around for a long time and collaborated with such an interesting and highly-regarded group of musicians. What is it most that continues to inspire your music and keep you motivated to push those sonic boundaries?
It is hard to name countries or bands that we got inspired by. We listen to many kinds of music and I think everything that we have been listening to gave us some kind of inspiration. It was not only music but also other types of culture such as animation, movie, games and so on. And talking about music, basically we are based in Japan, and I think we also got many good influences from Japanese bands that we have been listening and with whom we have played with.

What’s the worst/best/funniest thing anybody has ever said about your crazy sound?
The worst thing was that some writers wrote about our music like we play the same songs over and over. I think such music writers/editors should change their job. The best thing that made me really happy was how Mr. John Peel at BBC said about our music. The funniest thing was that one Japanese guy said that our music is – œhand clap music’, and I thought it was right in some way.

Why has it taken so long to come to Australia? We’re practically neighbours!
I don’t know! Maybe we just didn’t have a chance.

Are there any plans to travel to other parts of Australia, while you’re out here? (Please come to Sydney – at least!)
This time, we only play one show in Melbourne. No other shows in other places. I hope to come back again to play more shows! Oh, besides playing shows, we have a plan to go to see penguins on an off day, though.

There seems to be such a huge importance placed on your live shows – you only sell merch at your shows, not in an online store or on your website. Is there something special for Melt Banana about playing live?
Playing shows is very important and fun for us because we can show people our music directly – not only to their ears but also to their eyes. And also we can see people how they react to our music. By the way, the reason why we sell merch only at the shows is just because we don’t have on-line shopping system on our website. I always hope to make up the mail order system on our website.

If you had the chance to curate your own music/arts festival, who would you have on the line-up?
I would line up many Japanese bands who I think are good. There are many good bands in Japan, but many of them don’t tour abroad much.

For someone that wasn’t as familiar with your work, how would you describe you music and what to expect from a Melt Banana performance?
“Kyakyakyakaya kyuiiiiiin, gagagagaga!!” And imagine riding a rollercoaster.

What’s the craziest thing that has happened at a Melt Banana show?
A while ago, when we played at a small club in USA, there were so many people in the club, even on the stage. We had to play standing on the guitar cabinet, bass cabinet and drums. It was fun, but it was too hot.

Another time, there were some dogs running around in the club and we were, like, playing music with dogs. And during the show, one of the dogs was standing at the merchandise table, and our merch guy had to fight with the dog all night long.

Having collaborated with so many profound artists, who would you most like to work with next and why?
Banksy. His artwork is great! Our guitar player Agata especially likes his artwork a lot.

Melt Banana play Beck’s Rumpus Room at Forum Theatre on Saturday 10 October, as part of Melbourne International Arts Festival.