Electric Eel Shock
Echte alen zijn langgerekte of zelfs wormachtige, benige vissen tot de orde van Anguilliformes en zij bevat de veel voorkomende zoetwater alen als ook de vraatzuchtige zeetypes. Aldus de Encyclopædia Britannica. Ongetwijfeld stond het Japanse garage-hardrock trio Electric Eel Shock model voor de formulering van de laatste typering. In deze encyclopedie wordt met geen woord gerept over de elektroshocks die ze kunnen veroorzaken, maar zeker is dat de Japanse variant, dit Electric Eel Shock, je onder hoogspanning zal doen laten staan. Zij zelf staan in ieder geval garant voor een vonkende elektro-executie op het podium. Zoveel energetische, maar positieve gekte is bij mijn weten nagenoeg ongeëvenaard. Op CD is het spanningsveld nog niet overtuigend, maar live geven Aki Morimoto (zang/gitaar), Kazuto Maekawa (bass) en Tomoharu 'Gian' Ito (drums) een nieuwe dimensie aan het woord podiumpresentatie. Het interview ging met hangen en wurgen, want hun Engels was nog oneindig veel beroerder dan mijn provisorisch Engelse knobbel, maar in ieder geval is er aan de band een ding helemaal duidelijk: it's high voltage!
Door: Evil Dr. Smith | Archiveer onder hardrock / aor
Hello crazy sons of the rising sun! I saw you playing with Danko Jones, last year in Amsterdam. It totally kicked ass! You guys act completely nuts on stage. I had a really, really good time with your show. Immediately after the show, I saw Aki sing-a-long with Rainbow's 'Since You've Been Gone' while cleaning up the stage; still with a huge, big smile on his face. Then I knew it for sure: these guys ARE rock n' roll! Do you remember something of that show (or Amsterdam) in particular?
Aki: It was very good gig for us in Amsterdam. All gigs with Danko Jones were, but Amsterdam sticks out because people who work at venue are véry friendly and helpful. I also think they might be big EES fans - we really thank them for support at our recent headline gig there.
Kazuto: Uh… well, I can't remember it anymore. But I do remember that we played there again with Brant Bjork and Nic Oliveri (April the 21st, also in the Milky Way - EDS). That was really great and also a surprise that we played with them, Brant and Nic (from Kyuss and QotSA - EDS) even as our opening bands!
You guys are constantly on the road. Touring, touring, touring and even more playing. EES equals playing live. You toured with bands like Toured with Danko Jones, Turbonegro, Sepultura, Jon Spencer. Can you remember some of the highlights and tell them to me?
Aki: We have not play with Turbonegro yet but today we are in Hamburg at the Turbojugend festival - most of Turbonegro are here but they do not play. Roskilde was very big highlight. It was our second time in Europe we play in front of 2000 people a few days before in London and then maybe 5000 or 7000 at Roskilde. Definite highlight.
Kazuto: The one we did with John Spencer was a secret show in New York City. Because it was a secret show it wasn't very crowded that night. There were four bands that evening: we were the first band, John Spencer the last. They haven't seen us play, because they arrived at the venue only after our show. They played also some new songs, which were quite disappointing. Oh, you wanted to know some HIGH lights? Well, the shows we did with Sepultura in Germany were great, but only our drummer got a very bad backache so we could only play two shows with them. But those two shows went great. No no, our drummer is fine now. His back problem is something of the past now.
Even Ozzy and Bruce Dickinson wear your shirts. Did you meet them on some festival, or how did they knew EES? What's the story behind this?
Aki: I am not sure. These were photos sent by fans that we put on our Internetsite. I think maybe that Photoshop was used ;-). But we saw Iron Maiden at Roskilde - it was great honour to be on bill with them and Metallica.
Kazuto: We fooled you! It was just a trick. Hahaha!
The other side of the touring-virus might be a certain degree of homesick. Or maybe your mommies want you to go home? And what about all those girlfriends you left behind in Japan? Do they think you're faithful to them?
Aki: We have girlfriends on the road and we might bring our mums too on the néxt tour!
Kazuto: We have a lot of friends in the US, the UK and of course in Japan. The last time I was in Japan was last June, almost one year ago. That was only for one month. Before that we were on the road for one year in The States. I don't even have a home in Japan at the moment. My home is on the road. So I don't really miss Japan. We don't even know how long we are going on the road through Europe. We will play until the people are sick of us.
First you released the album 'Go America'; a year later you released 'Go Europe'. So what's next? 'Go Africa'?
Aki: I just want 'Go Fishing'.
I have the both 'Go…' albums. I've noticed the albums are almost the same. The songs are put in different order and there are some (new?) songs on the 'Go Europe' version. It made me think of the old albums of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones: they also got two different versions for the European and US release. Why did you guys do this? Aki: When it came to releasing in Europe, we wanted to re-record some songs and add others etc., because we had been on the road so long, we wanted to have updated versions.
Kazuto: We haven't thought about this. But unlike The Beatles and The Stones, we are not a UK band, or even a US band. So, that doesn't really make sense. 'Go Europe' is a kind of remaking of 'Go America'. It's also a kind of our 'Best Of' album. 'Go America' was only sold at our live shows and at some online shops. Not in record stores. But for our next album we have different ideas.
When is it time for another and COMPLETELY new album? I mean, some of the songs on 'Go Europe' are already three years old. You already have written some new material and recorded it with Attie Bauw, isn't it? Can you tell me something about that?
Aki: Yes we have the new album nearly ready and we hope to do it with Attie in August / September. It will come out early next year.
Kazuto: Our band is playing since 1997 or 1998. We put some songs of our old albums on the 'Go Europe' album. So some of the songs like 'Rock And Roll Can Rescue The World' are already six or seven years old. Attie came to our show in Amsterdam last year and he told us that he was interested in working with us. And we were interested in him. We asked him to do a mixing of one song, because we wanted to know what he would do with our sound and recording. So we sent our recorded tracks to Attie and he mixed one song. He is a very similarly thinking towards our songs and he recommended a studio in Holland, the Wisseloord Studio, for our new recordings. We are coming back to Holland this summer for some festivals and after that we are gonna record our new album, hopefully with Attie as our producer.
For me, the problem on your previous CD's is: it doesn't capture your live sound. Your live shows are absolutely brilliant, but to be honest: on CD you just sound “okay”. Will or can you improve the vibe on your next album? Or am I talking crap now?
Aki: Listen to 'Go Europe' again - we are very proud of these recordings. But we think Attie can help us develop our sound even more.
Kazuto: Our recordings on 'Go Europe' sound very eighties. But I hope that our next album will be even more connected with our live shows.
Is there a leader in the band? Is Aki the Yngwie Malmsteen of the band, or are you guys all equal?
Aki: I start with the ideas for songs, which we write together, and I also write the lyrics. But we make decisions together.
Kazuto: On our very first live show we had another drummer. But already from our second show it was our present drummer Gian who was playing with us. So there were almost the same three members, but we weren't a three-piece band from the beginning. In the first year of EES we had extra band members as well, like an organist, a saxophonist and a percussion player. In those days we sounded more like the Santana. We realised we were with too many so we continued as a three-piece band. We three are equally important for the band. Aki is our leader of our music side. He's making the riffs and the lyrics. I am the managing side. I organise our trips and tours through the world. And Gian is the leader of our food side. He's taking care of our food when we're on the road.
I think you guys love 'namedropping': you guys seem to have good fun in letting everyone know that you are into heavy rock music. You live, love and breath rock music. Just mentioning the album titles of your previous albums: 'Maybe... I think We Can Beat Nirvana!?' and 'Slayers Bay Blues'. Or for instance the song 'Rock and Roll can rescue the world' on 'Go Europe'. In this song you're honouring all kinds of rock artists, from Fishbone to Black Sabbath to Jimi Hendrix and Aki is also singing that he's a faster guitarist than Eddie van Halen. Can you remember your first contact with rock music that shook your bones?
Aki: I think Rock & Roll was in the milk I drank as a baby. It has just always been there.
Kazuto: For me, the first band was the Michael Schenker Group. I also love hard rock like Rainbow and Deep Purple. I grew up in the eighties – I am 36 years now – and a friend of mine introduced this music to me when I was a high school student in the eighties.
Already 36? You're surprisingly good in shape, even more for a 36-year old. But did you also grew up with other Japanese hard rock bands like Bow Wow (Vow Wow), Loudness and Anthem? Can you tell something about your teenager time? Kazuto: Yeah of course: Bow Wow, Loudness, 44 Magnum. But when I was a junior high school student I got first interested in foreign music, not Japanese music. My real first love was British heavy metal music like Michael Schenker and Rainbow. I met some friends who were also into Japanese bands like Loudness and obviously their taste influenced me, so eventually I liked that music too.
Aki: Kazuto and I were still at high school together when we were in our first band. We did mostly Sabbath covers.
What garage rock? Your sound is like a mix between punky garage rock and hard rock.
Kazuto: Actually we didn't. We grew up with only heavy metal music (laughs). Later we got interested in other types of music. We love the sound of garage rock: it's dark, but still very energetic. I love heavy metal music, but I think a lot of eighties and nineties heavy metal music have such a high quality production that it sounds too clean: It doesn't capture the rock and roll feeling. We wanted to have a more dirty sound. So we mixed the garage sound with heavy metal music.
What are the five albums you're playing the most during the last tour?
Aki: I have many CD's playing all the time, but recently it has been difficult because someone stole our bus stereo. And my laptop as well. But I have just bought JR Ewing and Cato Salsa Experience; both are very good. And always Sabbath, always!
You're coming back to Holland, once again. For the fourth time within half a year! Aren't you tired of us?
Kazuto: Well… I'm just a little bit tired now. Our last tour ended yesterday and we have now ten days off. So, after that we are fresh again to give more energetic shows in Holland!
Aki is a real fishing freak - he's even a professional Japanese fisherman - so I know his way to obtain some rest from the hectic EES touring schedule. What do you do, Kazuto, to relax during the tour? Electric Eel Shock is the yang-part of your life, but what's your yin-side?
Kazuto: Sleeping!