With the release of their debut album, Yolk, due in a few weeks time, Japanese Voyeurs look set to win over those who like their rock loud and heavy. Influenced by the likes of Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, their grunge style could conjure up images of ripped jeans and unkempt hair all over again. Preparing for their first Irish gig on May 22, bassist Johnny Seymour shows that this is a band who know what they want, and make no apologies for it.
Japanese Voyeurs formed in 2007, and, since then, you’ve said yourselves that you want to “explore the possibilities of modern music”. How do you go about this as a band?
I guess it’s a case of us coming together with all our influences, playing around and hopefully coming up with something fresh and a bit different. We kind of focus on rehearsing and making new sounds, and just seeing what happens when we get together really.
Has this changed your style in any way since then?
I do think we have changed a lot. We’ve had a few drummers along the way. Steve [Wilson], who drums with us now, joined a year ago: that’s tied a lot of things together and cut off any loose ends. We had a lot of songs that were more punky to begin with, but we’ve become doomier over the last while really. I don’t know what that says about us!
Nothing wrong with a bit of doom! You’ve finished work on your debut album now. Are you happy with the results?
Yeah, it’s been done for a while now, and we’re all really happy with it. I presume that we’ll look back at some stage and wish we changed different bits and pieces, but, for now, we’re just really excited about it. It’s just under a month before it comes out, so it’ll be really cool to actually have it out.
Your producer, Garth Richardson, has worked with the likes of Rage Against The Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers. How did it feel to work with someone so well-respected in the industry?
That was a real stab in the dark: we put out demos to people we ultimately would like as a producer, and got some responses. It was kind of daunting, but he literally just turned up to one of our gigs and then came to a party at mine. He was jet-lagged the wrong way around, so he was well up for hanging out with my mates; he outstayed us all. That got rid of the boundary of him as a super-producer, and he just became one of the guys.
Did he influence the direction of the album at all?
Yeah, definitely. We spent a week in his house in the woods over in Canada, with all our equipment set up in one of the rooms. We’d play in a circle, all facing inwards, and he’d stand in the middle telling us different ideas he might have. He’d be there conducting us with his devil horns (laughs).
He sounds great. When it came to the actual recording, what kind of processes would you use in the studio to get your sound?
We recorded in a studio in Vancouver, and it’s all really technical over in Canada. Between every take, we’d have to re-tune our guitars and change the drum skins even. I couldn’t always hear the difference, to be honest, but the professionals really insisted on it. I guess it made everything quite accurate and as professional as possible, and that comes through on the album. I’m just a bit more used to thrashing out ideas.
In terms of song-writing, how does your music come together?
Well, me and Tom live together and so we’ll always make up a bunch of riffs – sometimes they’re used, sometimes they’re just ridiculous. Romily [Walden] will hear them, maybe have a verse and chorus written, and we’ll just smash everything together. Our song Milk Teeth, for example, is just a mash of loads of different, mad riffs when you listen to it.
You self-released some of your earlier work, but Yolk will be out on Fiction Records. Have you noticed any major differences since the move?
No, not at all actually. We’d had this idea of major labels being very demanding, but the guys at Fiction are really chilled out. They’ve let us do our own artwork and come up with our own, mad ideas for the videos. There’s no real differences to the past: it’s a credit to them really. When you look at some of the other people on the label, maybe Kate Nash or The Maccabees, we were wondering what it’d be like, but they’ve let us do our own thing: we’ve been lucky.
Have you worked on new material since finishing the album?
There’s always a bunch of ideas floating about, but we’re not good at just writing songs along the way, if you know what I mean. Last time, we rented a room for a block period so we could go whenever we wanted, and we took a few weeks out to give us time to whack out the music and get it all done it once. So, after touring, we’ll probably just do the same thing again.
Speaking of touring, is that your focus for the future?
Yeah, we’ve only ever done two gigs outside of the UK before – I think they were in Germany – so we all really want to get around more of Europe, and maybe America when the time comes for that. I know we’re playing a couple of festivals over the summer, which will be great – it’s going to be like a big holiday (laughs).
You’re playing Dublin on 22nd May, so obviously then this will be your first Irish gig. What’s to be expected from your live show?
Oh God, I don’t know – it’ll probably be quite loud. We always just want to get people jumping around and involved in what we’re doing. We’re fully excited about it though. I’ve never been to Ireland, and since this is our first time coming as a band, we don’t know what to expect. I heard there’s no alcohol going to be served at the gig, but we’ll have to sneak a few crates backstage and make it a party (laughs).
Orlaith Grehan.
