Q076: When people of one culture adopt the forms of another culture, they almost always do it partially - selecting things that fit their needs and the absences in their own culture. (When westerners try to learn about Buddhism or martial arts, they usually only select things that fit their needs and leave a lot out). Would you feel comfortable with saying you've adopted aspects of the 1960's rock culture, to suit your needs, or do you think of rock as universal and international? Was there ever a time when it felt foreign or exotic? Is there anything you feel you've left out of this "adoption?" Is there anything you actively WANT to leave out? Do you study about the socio-political context of rock in the 1960s in America or England...?
A076: For me, and for those Japanese of my generation or older, rock was an imported culture. For this reason, many Japanese expended time and energy in creating exact copies of it or in 'deliberately' trying to create original forms of rock. My take on rock is that it is a form of popular music that began in the US and was brought to a peak of completion in the UK. But at the same time it is equally true that since rock is not just a surface style but a 'spirit' or attitude, it absorbed influence from many other sources and thus transformed itself in innumerable ways. This is its great difference to jazz. And it is this that meant that many countries or regions gave birth to their own forms of rock, krautrock in Germany being a good example. At this point then rock ceased to be a US or British monopoly and changed into a kind of music of the world. When we first thought about covering the Occitanian trad folk song "La Novia" we worried that because we ourselves were not Occitanian, trying to cover their traditional music would be a sterile exercise or a kind of fakery. But fortunately what we play is rock not trad, and rock possesses a power like that of a black hole capable of suckin in and absorbing every other form of music. We realised that this power could transform even Occitanian trad into rock, and that was why we went ahead with the cover. And now does anyone who hears the AMT version of La Novia think that it sounds fake? For better or worse rock has the power to absorb and fuse together every form of music. Has there ever been music like this in its mutant and freakish nature? I believe that rock has now completely severed its connections with its roots and its original socio- political contexts, and has become something unique of itself. Rock has become something that anyone can play, regardless of musical training or technique. Its style now exists only in its absence. For me, this is why rock has become something that I only judge on its coolness or uncoolness. No matter what form it takes, if it is cool, then that is enough.