Guitar Wolf

Mon 28th Nov, 2011 in Features

Guitar Wolf is returning to Australia after their short East Coast tour back in 2006. Fans are eager, tickets are selling fast and this time the tour is almost all around Australia. The live shows are always crazy with microphones blowing out fire, amps that are tearing buildings down, and for the first time we get to hear songs from Uchusenkan Love.

FL caught up with the band’s leader Seiji (and a translator) to chat about the tour, Link Wray and the power of eroticism.

How are you feeling about playing these ‘new’ songs live ?
I’m always spreading my antenna toward the sky to catch the telepathy from the universe. I received the particular one from the Andromeda this time. The album was created based on the experience. I’m excited to be able to play the songs for you in Australia with big love like a giant spacebattleship.

You guys are doing two shows at the Tote in Melbourne, can we expect something different from each night’s setlist?
Of course. Look forward to the two nights.

Is there something special about Melbourne? Why do you play so many shows over here, whenever you are on an Australian tour?
I like Melbourne because it is crowded with many people. Such cities go well with Rock music. Tote is one of our favourite clubs in the world.

What’s the most important thing (apart from your instruments) that you have to take on every tour with you?
A long tour is very hard in many ways. We are going to Australia after a month long EU tour. We need to use our energy efficiently. A long tour requires us different power; power of alcohol, power of the universe, power of the pyramid, power of the teenagers, power of the middle-aged women in Osaka, etc. etc. The most powerful ones are power of anger and eroticism. What’s the power of eroticism? That’s a secret. Actually it’s a power every one of us has.

Link Wray is still ‘waiting’ to be inducted to the Rock and Roll hall of fame, while he is already a part of the Rockabilly Hall. Do you think that will he ever make it to the R&R one? Does Guitar Wolf have any interest or some sort of a desire of being part of those ‘exclusive’ clubs?
Link Wray is my No.1 guitar man. Without him, I couldn’t be here playing the guitar. I have given up the guitar many times to be honest, but his Rumble showed me the way to go. Rumble is so simple but unbelievably cool . He saved my musician life. All I want to achieve is to write cool songs and play cool shows all the time. That’s all.

The rockabilly and rock scene has been pretty strong in Japan for quite a while now. What do you think about the genre now days? Will rock and roll still rule and keep on reigning in Nippon? Or is it laying off a little, and people just tend to go out to Yoyogi for some fun and dancing?
Uuuummm,,, I don’t know. But there should be no problem as long as Guitar Wolf is in Japan.

After Wild Zero came out, we heard some rumours that a second (documentary)movie is happening. How is the sequel coming along? Is planet Earth still in danger of a Zombie and an Alien invasion?
Yes, you should be alert all the time. The earth is the target of their attack. The zombies and aliens are watching us. I’m thinking of time travel back to the era of Samurai, so we can fight against the Samurai zombies and the UFO of that era. The problem is our producer needs financial support. Is there anyone interested in investing?

What would you be doing if you weren’t playing in Guitar Wolf?
I would be a spy who was specialised in manipulating the secret gadget . On the first day I went to the spy company, they dressed me in the black ninja costume with a sword and a shuriken, throwing star. It wasn’t my style. So I quit. Back then, there was no spy like 007 in Japan.

I visited Japan back in June, and even though I didn’t go north from Tokyo, the outcome of the earthquake and the tsunami from March was still present in people’s everyday life. Fukushima is still in the news all the time, and you can feel this certain grief in lots of people. May I ask, how the disaster in March changed Guitar Wolf and your lives?
I don’t know how to put the experience into the words. All we could do was just to watch. Since then, there have been many changes. Many live shows were cancelled to save electric power. But all we can do is Rock. It might be a part of reason why we scheduled many hard tours in Japan and abroad in later this year to show our way to move on. People are vulnerable to the amazing gigantic power of nature. All we can do is to try to do our best every single moment.

Thank you for your time, can’t wait to see you guys play at Tote in Melbourne. Doumo arigatou gozaimashita
I can’t wait, either. Don’t forget to get a rabies shot before the show.

Fasterlouder presents Guitar Wolf ‘Spacebattleshiplove’ tour:
Friday 2nd December – The Tote, Melbourne
Saturday 3rd December – Woodland, Brisbane
Sunday 4th December – The Tote, Melbourne
Wednesday 7th December – National Hotel, Geelong
Thursday 8th December – Jive, Adelaide
Friday 9th December – Amplifier, Perth
Saturday 10th December – The Sando, Sydney