If you haven’t heard of Boris yet, I’ve failed. But let me try to explain.
Boris is a genre-bending metal band from Japan. I say this because they classify themselves as metal, but I call them “Anything that sounds bad ass with a fuzzy electric guitar, and some other trippy shit as well.”
Boris exploded into my world shortly after I began making sound machines in the form of their full length “Pink.” A friend suggested them after I turned him onto Mono, another dramatic Japanese band. He thought I was describing Boris. I immediately bought Pink and IT CHANGED MY FUCKING WORLD!
It starts with some mellow psychadelic guitar work, and tasty dub flavored echo drums. Then at the perfect moment, THE HUGEST GODDAMN GUITARS I’VE EVER HEARD BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF! The song goes up and down, featuring nice long, melodramatic solos, and a general slo-mo headbang kind of feel.
Then they hit you with the title track, which is a fucking punk rock hand grenade, all fast guitars and cymbal crashes and HOLLERIN’! On and on the album goes, in the best possible sense of the phrase. Touching on doom, punk, grunge, ambient, drone, psych, and never letting me go.
I was hooked. For the last few years I’ve been snatching up as much Boris as I can, a quest I doubt I will ever complete, as they are in the habit of releasing an album roughly every 90 minutes, and some of them available only in Japan on green vinyl at shows in limited runs of 300.
Early in my career as Supreme Commander at Dwarfcraft Devices, I reached out to me Japanese dealer Kaz (nine volt audio, bitches, go there!)
“Do you have any way of contacting Boris?”
“Yes, they are friends of mine.” ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? THE GODS OF MODERN GUITAR ROCK ARE YOUR FRIENDS? WELL GIVE THEM SOME FUCKING PEDALS IN THE HOPES THAT THEY ARE PLEASED WITH ME!
(Turns out this is not usually a good business strategy, but thats another article)
Turns out Takeshi, (bass/guitar doubleneck) was such a fan of our Eau Claire Thunder, it became his main stage distortion! Wata (guitar) also put the Shiva on her board.
Atsuo (drums) did not send a picture of his pedalboard.
A lot went down between then and now, but we’ve got a real endorsement deal with Boris now, so I finally got some green japanese vinyl.
Interview
1. How are you using the Dwarfcraft Devices? I wonder especially about the Shiva. Is that used for noises, octave fuzz, rhythm, or something else?
Takeshi / Eau Claire Thunder
Not only for lead and rhythm guitar part but also for whole sound texture.
This pedal has very loud and noisy taste but its sound outline and character are very solid, standing out among band ensemble.
One of the most important main pedal.
Wata / Shiva (SheFuzz)
Especially for lead part on quiet songs.
Though she likes very loud noise sound, the tone which she can get an accidental breaking off dry sound with using Shiva is more appealing to Boris.
2. Everybody wants to know about your amps, too. Can you tell us about that set-up?
Takeshi
for guitar: 2x Sunn Model-T, 2x Marshall 4x12Cabinet
for bass: 2x Ampeg SVT-2Pro, 2x Ampeg 8x10Cabinet
To select guitar or bass output on doubleneck then goes to amplifiers. There is a case that using all of the amplifiers with guitar output only. My set-up system is very complicated to explain.
Wata
Orange OR120, Matamp, Orange Thunderverb, Orange Rockverb, Orange4x12Cabinet x2
Output to amplifiers vary in each song.
3. Takeshi, can you tell us the story that double necked Fst Act guitar? It looks like a rickenbacker, but I know it isn’t….
No comment.
4. What tunings do you use? The albums sound very low sometimes, but especially on Pink, we hear a lot of sharp/higher pitched punk influence.
Both Takeshi and Wata tune three steps down on guitar and bass, occasionally they tune 1/2 step up on B string or one step down on A string on certain songs. Playing higher position on down tuning guitar, we can get a different sound, feeling or chaotic texture than regular tuning since its wider sway of strings.
5. The range of tones and noises through the Boris catalogue is staggering. When writing music, do you find new sounds, and write songs around them, or do you write a song, and then find sounds?
We don’t ‘write’ or ‘compose’ music at all, basically to jam in a studio then expand, construct / deconstruct ideas, elements or materials over again. Literally it all depends, some specific word or topic would be an important key to move forward in certain direction. Something like a trip without destination.
6. How do you deal with the anticipation that precedes each new release? Do you worry about becoming stagnant?
In any case we just pursue stimulating things or sound for us, no worries about being stagnant at all.
Also through shows or tours after album release we can raise songs or good memories toward songs with our audience together, which means a lot and is simply very interesting.
Those feelings motivate us to create another works.
7. Do you ever have any free time? If so what do you do with it?
Not so much.
When we are not on tour we keep us busy to work in studio or to design artworks.
Everything that we have, see and experience in our daily life will greatly concern our expression.
8. How do you balance your professional and personal lives?
As answered above there is no borderline between on and off time.
Everything in our daily life deeply links with Boris’ expression.
Of course family thing is so valuable to us.
9. When will you come back the the USA? It’s very important that i finally experience Boris LIVE!
(This is a funny story for you… I was guest listed for a Nine Inch Nails/Boris show in Minneapolis, but the ticket lady read my name wrong. When I finally got in, I saw the last chord being struck, and then 5 minutes of feedback and drone while Atsuo stood on top of the drums waving)
Hopefully in this Fall, we would expect to visit Wisconsin again.
Thank you.
Boris is a genre-bending metal band from Japan. I say this because they classify themselves as metal, but I call them “Anything that sounds bad ass with a fuzzy electric guitar, and some other trippy shit as well.”
Boris exploded into my world shortly after I began making sound machines in the form of their full length “Pink.” A friend suggested them after I turned him onto Mono, another dramatic Japanese band. He thought I was describing Boris. I immediately bought Pink and IT CHANGED MY FUCKING WORLD!
It starts with some mellow psychadelic guitar work, and tasty dub flavored echo drums. Then at the perfect moment, THE HUGEST GODDAMN GUITARS I’VE EVER HEARD BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF! The song goes up and down, featuring nice long, melodramatic solos, and a general slo-mo headbang kind of feel.
Then they hit you with the title track, which is a fucking punk rock hand grenade, all fast guitars and cymbal crashes and HOLLERIN’! On and on the album goes, in the best possible sense of the phrase. Touching on doom, punk, grunge, ambient, drone, psych, and never letting me go.
I was hooked. For the last few years I’ve been snatching up as much Boris as I can, a quest I doubt I will ever complete, as they are in the habit of releasing an album roughly every 90 minutes, and some of them available only in Japan on green vinyl at shows in limited runs of 300.
Early in my career as Supreme Commander at Dwarfcraft Devices, I reached out to me Japanese dealer Kaz (nine volt audio, bitches, go there!)
“Do you have any way of contacting Boris?”
“Yes, they are friends of mine.” ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? THE GODS OF MODERN GUITAR ROCK ARE YOUR FRIENDS? WELL GIVE THEM SOME FUCKING PEDALS IN THE HOPES THAT THEY ARE PLEASED WITH ME!
(Turns out this is not usually a good business strategy, but thats another article)
Turns out Takeshi, (bass/guitar doubleneck) was such a fan of our Eau Claire Thunder, it became his main stage distortion! Wata (guitar) also put the Shiva on her board.
Atsuo (drums) did not send a picture of his pedalboard.
A lot went down between then and now, but we’ve got a real endorsement deal with Boris now, so I finally got some green japanese vinyl.
Interview
1. How are you using the Dwarfcraft Devices? I wonder especially about the Shiva. Is that used for noises, octave fuzz, rhythm, or something else?
Takeshi / Eau Claire Thunder
Not only for lead and rhythm guitar part but also for whole sound texture.
This pedal has very loud and noisy taste but its sound outline and character are very solid, standing out among band ensemble.
One of the most important main pedal.
Wata / Shiva (SheFuzz)
Especially for lead part on quiet songs.
Though she likes very loud noise sound, the tone which she can get an accidental breaking off dry sound with using Shiva is more appealing to Boris.
2. Everybody wants to know about your amps, too. Can you tell us about that set-up?
Takeshi
for guitar: 2x Sunn Model-T, 2x Marshall 4x12Cabinet
for bass: 2x Ampeg SVT-2Pro, 2x Ampeg 8x10Cabinet
To select guitar or bass output on doubleneck then goes to amplifiers. There is a case that using all of the amplifiers with guitar output only. My set-up system is very complicated to explain.
Wata
Orange OR120, Matamp, Orange Thunderverb, Orange Rockverb, Orange4x12Cabinet x2
Output to amplifiers vary in each song.
3. Takeshi, can you tell us the story that double necked Fst Act guitar? It looks like a rickenbacker, but I know it isn’t….
No comment.
4. What tunings do you use? The albums sound very low sometimes, but especially on Pink, we hear a lot of sharp/higher pitched punk influence.
Both Takeshi and Wata tune three steps down on guitar and bass, occasionally they tune 1/2 step up on B string or one step down on A string on certain songs. Playing higher position on down tuning guitar, we can get a different sound, feeling or chaotic texture than regular tuning since its wider sway of strings.
5. The range of tones and noises through the Boris catalogue is staggering. When writing music, do you find new sounds, and write songs around them, or do you write a song, and then find sounds?
We don’t ‘write’ or ‘compose’ music at all, basically to jam in a studio then expand, construct / deconstruct ideas, elements or materials over again. Literally it all depends, some specific word or topic would be an important key to move forward in certain direction. Something like a trip without destination.
6. How do you deal with the anticipation that precedes each new release? Do you worry about becoming stagnant?
In any case we just pursue stimulating things or sound for us, no worries about being stagnant at all.
Also through shows or tours after album release we can raise songs or good memories toward songs with our audience together, which means a lot and is simply very interesting.
Those feelings motivate us to create another works.
7. Do you ever have any free time? If so what do you do with it?
Not so much.
When we are not on tour we keep us busy to work in studio or to design artworks.
Everything that we have, see and experience in our daily life will greatly concern our expression.
8. How do you balance your professional and personal lives?
As answered above there is no borderline between on and off time.
Everything in our daily life deeply links with Boris’ expression.
Of course family thing is so valuable to us.
9. When will you come back the the USA? It’s very important that i finally experience Boris LIVE!
(This is a funny story for you… I was guest listed for a Nine Inch Nails/Boris show in Minneapolis, but the ticket lady read my name wrong. When I finally got in, I saw the last chord being struck, and then 5 minutes of feedback and drone while Atsuo stood on top of the drums waving)
Hopefully in this Fall, we would expect to visit Wisconsin again.
Thank you.