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WHEN A MASTER TELLS YOU SOMETHING YOU LISTEN IN SILENCE AND RESPECT… AND IF THIS MASTER IS THE JAPANESE PSYCHEDELIC ROCK SCENE’S GUITAR MASTER, YOU BETTER LISTEN WELL!

Michio Kurihara’s name might not mean anything to you, but it’s quite possible that you have met his splendid guitar playing through the music of Ghost, Damon & Naomi, Marble Sheep or Boris. Kurihara has been a long time collaborator and member of these bands, becoming a basic stone of their sound tower’s. This year, it’s time for Kurihara himself, with his first solo album “Sunset Notes”, released on 20/20/20. On “Sunset Notes” cosmic guitar sounds meet melodies which hits you like the first rays of the morning sun to create a sincere journey throu a musician’s inner world, willing to share it with us. Bant talks with Kurihara, about his ambitions, his music and his new album.

When I was in middle school I used to play around with a classical guitar that was lying around the house. But I didn’t know any chords, so I’d just hold down the strings any old way to get a sound of it. I’d be overjoyed when chance conspired to get a harmonious sound out of the guitar. Later, my brother who is two years older, started a Beatles cover band and I was really struck by the gorgeous and loud sounds he could get out of his electric guitar. But at the time I listened to nothing but classical music and had never heard any pop records, so I also remember thinking at first that his music was just a racket!

I bought my first electric guitar when I was fifteen, a cheap Japanese Telecaster copy. And of course I started a Beatles covers band with my friends. Their songs were really hard to play, but I discovered the joy of making music together with other people. Even now I love the physical act of playing the guitar, it brings me so much joy. It’s an instrument with a lot of depth to it, and I still feel it as a real challenge, but the enjoyment factor has really increased for me recently.

How many guitars do you have back at home? Do you go around looking for new guitars when you are on tour?

I own around ten guitars, but only four of them (including my main SG) are currently in a playable state. I do look around instrument shops when I am on tour, but I’m really fond of my current guitar so I’m not actively looking for a replacement. My eyes are more likely to be drawn to unusual effects pedals.

You are a master known with Gibson SG... But how did become close friends with the SG? When did you buy your first SG? Do you remember your first thoughts when you played the guitar?

I bought my first SG when I was around twenty, a Japanese copy. But when I was seventeen, a very kind friend of brother lent me a 1970s Gibson SG. I got really excited by the gorgeous sound of it! Since then I have been stuck on SGs. I guess the only answer to the question why is that they just seem to suit me. And perhaps because so many of my favourite guitarists have used them. My main guitar at the moment is a 1968 SG Standard that I bought over ten years ago. Its sound has definitely got better the more I play it, which makes me happy. Perhaps it’s the love I’ve showered on it over the years… Or so I like to think.

You are mainly influenced by western music. But can you talk about your Japanese influences?

I like Japanese gagaku, traditional folk songs, and school songs, many of which were written a long time ago. Just like traditional music from elsewhere in the world, there are many wonderful traditional musics in Japan. I often heard this music when I was a baby, so it is something that has exerted an unconscious, natural influence upon me.

You played with many Japanese legends such as Marble Sheep, Ghost, White Heaven, YBO2... Can you briefly talk about these bands?

YBO2: I was only in the band for the first six months after they formed, but it was during this period that the fundamentals of the YBO2 style came together. YBO2’s leader Masashi Kitamura taught me a lot about English trad folk from the 60s and 70s and about lots of other great music. It was a huge loss when he died unexpectedly last year. But I feel that his ideas about music and different approaches to it still live on inside me. I owe him so much.

Marble Sheep: I was also in this group for a short time after it was formed. Back then the sound was more primitive and free than now – I remember it as being a lot of fun to play. Marble Sheep still seem to be playing gigs overseas, particularly in Germany.

White Heaven: This was a long-lived group which lasted for around ten years (though there were two years when I left). I learnt a lot and the flowering of my own playing was something that this group gave to me. It was a great group. Unfortunately we split up in 1997, but the same spirit is currently carried on by The Stars.

Ghost is perhaps the most well-known of these bands. How and when > did you start working with Ghost? How did you meet Batoh?

I first met Batoh around 1988 when he replaced me in Marble Sheep. I recall that Ken Matsutani, the leader of Marble Sheep, introduced us. My first impression was that he was really tall and kind of overpowering. (laughs) But once I got to know him I realized that he was very hardworking and good-humored. In 1989, even before I had played live with them, I played on one track on their first album (the track “I’ve been flying”). The first time I played live with them was probably around 1994, I think, at a temple near Tokyo. I didn’t play at every gig back then. I became more involved with them from the time of their 1997 US tour. In recent years Ghost’s line-up has settled down - before that it would change with every tour, sometimes every gig. I think that their sound as a group has become more polished too.

Can you describe Ghost's position in Japan? Is it a well-known band or is it more like an underground legend?

I don’t really have much of a grasp on how well known Ghost are within Japan, but my best guess is that we are probably not that popular. We play considerably more gigs overseas than we do within Japan. That maybe has to do with the fact that it is Batoh’s policy to play in venues where there can be a fusion between the music and the special atmosphere of the place, and that there are few venues in Japan that fit that description.

But recently we have been making a conscious effort to play in Japan, so I feel that audiences are becoming more familiar with us. Last year, for example, we played twice (!) in the Tokyo area. Both times were in converted venues in big old stone warehouses on the coast – and I think we really managed to pull off great performances that created a fusion with the atmosphere of the place.

I’ve never really understood the definition of the word ‘underground’ – all I can say for certain is that Ghost are not ‘overground’ music. (laughs)

You also work with Damon & Naomi. How is this experience for you? Is this your only not-Japanese collabiration? And being from another country can you feel big differences?

Yes, this is my only collaboration with non-Japanese. But in the music we make together, I have never felt that there is the least incompatibility due to our different nationalities. At the beginning I wasn’t able to speak much English and that made verbal communication with them sometimes difficult, but in our musical communication there has never been an issue. For me at the time that was a mysterious experience. I remember thinking that the power of music is so strong, so great.

Meeting and playing with Damon & Naomi has been a huge thing for me. I’ve toured more with them than with all the other groups I’ve played with, and I’ve spent more time playing and talking with them. And of course I’ve learnt so much from them. I believe that they’ve helped me move from being somewhat introverted to becoming more positive and more ready to open my heart to the external world. And that change is reflected in no minor way on my solo album. I owe them such a debt of thanks!

Sunset Notes was originally released in 2005. Finally this year, the rest of the world has the chance to meet your own personal music. And we are very pleased by it! Is this your first solo work? How and when did you decide that time had come for a solo record? How was the preparation? As a teenager would you always dream of releasing a solo album?

To begin with, I’m so happy that people outside Japan will now be able to hear my solo album.

“Sunset Notes” is my first solo album. Though I have to admit that in the past I entirely lacked the desire to make a solo record. Then in the early summer of 2004, the label (Pedal Records) suddenly sounded me out about recording an album. To begin with I half thought that they were joking, but then they called again and said that though I’d played in lots of groups this would be a great chance for me to play exactly what I wanted. And that doing so would actually be a good thing for the groups I play with. I realised they were right and decided to do it. The label had absolutely no idea what kind of album I might come up with so, thinking back now their offer was an experiment and a big risk for them. So that’s how the album started – very lax, I know! But I’d like to express my thanks to them for giving me this chance.

From around August that year I started working on the songs, though I didn’t yet have any idea of the overall feel of the album. The first songs I wrote were “Time to go”, “The Old Man and the Evening Star” and “Twilight Mystery of a Russian Cowboy”. Once I had those three pieces, I got a more concrete feel for the album as a whole. Then as I wrote each additional song my image of the album gradually expanded, and by the end of 2004 I had finished almost all the recording. It was a very natural process.

The time I spent preparing for the album and recording it was relatively short, but that meant it felt more like a natural process. There was something a little miraculous about it. And of course I had lots of help from friends who played on the album and helped me with the notes and the translation – it’s thanks to them that I was able to get so much of the world I wanted to express into the finished record. If those that hear it find that it engages freely with their own imaginations and they can enjoy it like a short journey, then I’ll be happy.

There are different styles on the album... Reflecting your different interests in music. About these interests... What kind of musical genres in guitar style has inspired most? For example "Twilight Mystery of Russian Cowboy" resembles Spaghetti Western Soundtracks and Surf music... Are you into this genre? If so can you name a few favorites.

In very general terms the genre that has had the most influence on me as a guitarist is sixties and seventies rock. Apart from that I also like baroque and English trad guitar. Rather than having an influence on my technique, it's the feel of this music. Unfortunately I have never listened to much surf music or spaghetti western (in Japan, we call them ‘macaroni’ westerns) soundtrack music. I’ve occasionally seen those films on TV (and in combination with the images the music is fantastic). As for surf music, I’ve heard a little bit of Dick Dale, though I don’t own any records in either style.

So “Twilight Mystery…” is an attempt to fuse together my image of surf music and spaghetti westerns with my image of Russian folk music. If you read the note for that song, I think you’ll get a sense of the idea of ‘play’ and fun that I wanted to communicate to the listener.

I have to admit that I was pretty shocked with the opening tune "Time to Go"! It really has a sound of the 70's Turkish psychedelic rock... Reminding me names like Erkin Koray, Mogollar, 3 Hurel... Can you say a few words about the story of this song?

I was surprised to hear that it sounds like Turkish psychedelic music, A miracle maybe, since I have never heard any music by these Turkish bands. As I mentioned earlier, “Time to go” was the first song that I wrote for the album. First the melody for the main theme came to me, then I added the chords, and the whole thing came together amazingly quickly. Not like I was being influenced by something, but rather that the song seemed to write itself naturally. When I was writing it, the feel I was aiming for was something a little nostalgic but vast, warmly positive and with a sense of simplicity. When this song came together it decided the feel of the whole album to a certain extent for me. There’s an image of a toy gyroscope that comes up in the song. For me, the gyroscope is a symbol of something of positive because of the way it’s stable so long as it is spinning around (in motion).

Every song has short writings to it... Written by you. These writings and songs, and the photos the adorns the cover seems to reflect your inner relation with nature. Could you say that nature has a important influence in your music?

Perhaps it has been. I believe that everything that has touched my heartstrings (sound, landscape, emotion, etc.) is reflected back into my music. Though wouldn’t everyone who makes music say the same thing? Many things have moved me: the rustling of the wind through the leaves in a forest, the murmuring of a stream, the echoing drone of cicadas in the summer mountains, the innumerable stars glittering alongside the Milky Way in the night sky, the memory of a rainbow beautiful enough to bring tears, the frozen yet honest feel of the air in the early morning on a clear winter’s day… etc. It would be an amazing act to be able to convert those special, sensual feelings into sound. I don’t know how successfully I can do it. But if someone hears my solo album, reads the notes and looks at the photos and they find themselves able to recapture some fragment of those feelings that have once touched them (a landscape, or the feel of the air, or some memory from childhood they have half-forgotten), then I will be more than content.

The Stars came together about two years after White Heaven broke up. During those two years, the leader Ishihara-san was constantly looking for members to put together a new group. Finding the very talented bassist Kamekawa (from YuraYura Teikoku) was particularly important in terms of The Stars’ musical progress. Around about the same time I was also invited to join the group. Apart from the bassist all of the other members had played with White Heaven, so inevitably a lot of the flavour of the old group got carried over. But then in 2002 Arakawa joined the group on drums, and his drumming is uniquely sharp and that really changed the sound of the group.

Over the course of two full albums, our direction as a group became much more stable. And in the last one or two years, I feel that the group has really taken off as a live ensemble with a lot of tension in the sound. The Stars haven’t played outside Japan yet, but I’d really love more people to hear us play live. I can only pray that we get to play abroad in the near future.

You recently worked with Boris. A more noisy album. How was the experience? Do you follow or like the other Boris albums? And the you enjoy listening to noise and more experimental stuff? Names like 00I00, Merzbow, Boredoms, Boris etc...

This February I played my first gig with them as Boris with Michio Kurihara. When we were recording the album, we were sending tracks back and forth and overdubbing parts, so we had never actually played together in the same room. That process itself was fascinating and I’m happy that we were able to make a great album. But playing live with them, I realised that their sound is totally different to other groups I’ve played with, with lots of low-end, a huge sound with a unique quality to it. The bassist Takeshi used three monstrous bass amps – and normally he says that he uses four! But their sound isn’t painful on the ears, rather the physical impact on the body of all that oscillation and amplitude seems to be central. Nor is there anything violent, it’s much more like being enfolded in sound, and there is something extremely musically harmonious about it. But since there is such a difference in the wavelengths of our respective sounds, it creates a very interesting ensemble feel. I think they are a great group and utterly unique – and it was wonderful to get to play with them. I enjoyed it a lot, and I’d love to play with them again.

I have listened to their albums. They were all good but I enjoyed “Pink” the most. And the one that’s just called “boris” in lowercase, that was interesting too. They have many beautiful albums, like film soundtracks.

I don’t listen to much noise or experimental music normally. In the past I’ve seen Hijokaidan and Incapacitants and Merzbow play. Of those three, Merzbow was interesting… how should I put it? It felt like rock.

What are your recent projects and what's next for Kurihara and what have you been listening to recently?

At the moment I’m recording a new album with Damon & Naomi. We’ve already finished the guitar parts. It’s going to be a great album with a very different mood to the last one. It’s due out in the autumn, so look out for it!

I’m also recording a new album with the singer Ai Aso, playing on a few tracks. This should be released in the summer. And I’m in the midst of rehearsals for live work with Ghost and The Stars. Ghost will be playing their first European tour in May, which I’m really looking forward to. Two years ago I was supposed to play in Istanbul with Damon & Naomi, but then there were problems with my schedule and in the end I couldn’t make it. So I really hope that Ghost can play in Turkey this time round. If it doesn’t work out, then I will definitely find a way to play in Turkey with one of my groups in the near future.

Some music I’ve enjoyed recently is J.S. Bach’s “Das Wohltemperierte Klavier” for piano. The performance by Sviatoslav Richter is beautiful. I’ve also been listening to the early albums by Peter Hammill’s group Van der Graaf Generator. Somewhat unbelievably I hadn’t realised how great this group was until recently. And recently I heard the Czech composer Smetana’s symphonic poem “Vltava” (from “Ma Vlast”) for the first time in thirty years. It’s great, of course… I’d remembered almost all the melodies. I ended up buying four different versions by different orchestras and conductors. (laughs) The performances are all totally different, but each has its own flavour. That’s one of the fascinating things about music.