[Trama]

What was the original impetus to do these shows?
Mike [Kubeck, booking manager for SuperDeluxe]. I would never do this: he's been bugging me for a while about it. I think he's the only person in Tokyo who asks me to play shows. It was his idea, and I don't know why I said yes. I think I thought it would get me off my ass – especially because the last year, I haven't been able to do very much of my own things, because I've been doing other people's records a lot, so I thought this would get things going. That was a stupid thing to do.

I'm interested that you're doing Happy Days and Bad Timing but not, say, Insignificance…
I'm sure people would probably be happier if I was doing more of the song things, but I kind of want to keep that separate, because I'm almost done with the next song record – after 12 goddamn years.

This is songs with lyrics and everything?
Lyrics and singing and rude, rude subjects. I've recorded, like, five of them already, and I just won't finish them… I don't know. Probably this year, I'll finally put it out, and then I really want to do the band show, really properly. The band show will probably be fairly loose – which is how I usually do it, actually. I don't tell the band which song we're going to play until we're about to play it on stage; I don't do setlists or anything like that.

With a band?
They have to know! I've only had two bands. Basically, when I finished Insignificance, I was producing all the time, and the way that record was received just didn't give me any inspiration to keep doing them. And it was also released on 9/11, which was fun. But that band – those were people I'd played with for years, especially Darin Grey, the bass player, and [drummer] Glenn Kotche. Then I introduced Glenn to [Wilco frontman] Jeff Tweedy, and he became GLENN KOTCHE. Basically, I was spoilt, because for ten years I could never find another drummer who was Glenn Kotche – because there isn't. And Tatsuhisa's the first drummer that I've met since Glenn Kotche that I can play with. I'm not talking about improvising and things like that: I'm talking about actual song material. He has the thing that Glenn Kotche has, that all other drummers don't: they understand that when they're playing songs, they're playing songs on a drumset, not playing drums. And that's a big difference – it's a subtle difference pretty much no drummers understand. I can't play with those people, I just can't.

So who's in the band?
It's Tatsushisa, and Ishibashi Eiko, and Sudoh Toshiaki. It's the same band as Eiko's band. Sudoh, I've also known for years and years. He used to be the drummer in Melt-Banana.

One of many…
Well, he was the first. He was the original drummer, which is how I know him, because I did their second album. What was it, '94, '95? I've known Sudoh all those years, but he's an amazing bass player – he's great. He's like the other Darin Grey. So I started playing with Tatsuhisa and Sudoh, with the idea of starting to do that stuff again, and then I decided that I wanted a piano player this time. Usually on the records I would play all the keyboards, so I can't do it live, so they suggested Eiko, and then that also became Eiko's band, which also became Maeno Kenta's new band. That different band has different names for everybody, but it's actually all the same people.

Moving on: when you read magazines like The Wire, they often make it seem like there's a specifically Japanese sensibility that musicians have. Do you think that there's any real difference?
Oh, sure. With that kind of stuff, it's swing, just a sense of swing. [Looks coy all of a sudden.] Don't print this. [REDACTED]
So the musicians you've gravitated towards here, are they kind of the exceptions?
Yeah. I'm not saying some musicians are better, it's just their sensibility is... I don't like Musicians, you know what I mean? They like their instrument – I don't understand that. I don't understand liking your instrument, it's just a pain-in-the-ass thing you have to use in order to do what you want to do. Having an interest in your instrument – I don't understand it, it just makes no sense to me. Why don't you just stay home and caress it and stuff? Why are you playing for people?

Are there people you've played with here who you really felt are doing something that people aren't doing in the West – in a positive way?
Sakata. For sure, Sakata. Absolutely, Sakata. Sakata's amazing. Sakata's really great. I don't subscribe much to that whole East/West thing. Well, [Keiji] Haino, of course – but Haino's Haino.

Is it a challenge playing with him?
No, I've never had a problem. I have a problem when he points the amp at me on purpose. I remember that show – that show really hurt. I didn't hear for three days after that show. Right before we started, he just turns the amp to me and gives me this smile. ‘Oh, you asshole!*

You're not wearing earplugs, I take it?
No, I can't play with earplugs. Wow, that was… No, I never have a problem playing with Haino. I don't want to say it's easy, but it's like, you know, it just happens – it's no problem. Playing with someone like Loren Mazzacane is difficult, because all of a sudden you're in Loren Mazzacane [country], you don't know where the hell he's going – he just suddenly veers off-course, and… he's always right. But it's like, ‘You're off on some tangent now! Where did that come from?’ Which is of course exciting, but you really have to stay on your toes, playing with someone like him. Sakata too, sometimes: he decides to just drop and go off…

Gets out the bells and starts singing…
Well, that's actually… you always expect that. I always expect the bells and singing. It's more like, ‘When is it going to come? Is it going to be the first set or the second set?’ Nah, especially with his clarinet playing, you really have to be on your toes. Haino, not so much. Haino throws curves, but they're a different kind of curves – they're easier to follow, in a way, because you're not playing with him in the same way you play with other people. You're kind of more accompanying, with Haino. I mean, some people don't play with him that way, but I play with him like that: I'm like, ‘I'm going to make frames or change the lighting’ – that's kind of how I think about it. Haino's very special, and Sakata's very special. … I also think he's [Haino's] changed a bit in the past few years. I think he plays with other people differently than he used to.

Interview by James Hadfield