http://www.interq.or.jp/www1/nashiko/repo/dm_rs.htm
(the one that culen posted not too long ago)
i got sufficiently bored. or inspired as it were. the first part is with shin, the second part is with manabe. takes place not long after smile was released. this is just a fragment, more will be added as it is completed.
[b]interviewer: this time, i get the feeling there's less of a manufactured sound as far as the drums, maybe like an elementary sound, wouldn't you say? [/b]
shin: this time, our (sound) engineer and guitarist manabe, and our producer zin yoshida did it. zin said, this time i'm gonna do it. he's not a professional engineer but he engineers all of salon music's work himself, and i really like that sound. but even though we keep telling him 'you should do it!', it's really hard to take the role of both engineer and producer, so he doesn't like to. this time, we've had a best-of compilation already out at the beginning of the year, so it's like he felt the pillows have ascended to a new level.
[b]interviewer: the band doesn't feel this way? [/b]
shin: no, not really. we just do what we feel we want to do. even though we've put out a best-of, we've still touring, so it's not like we can take a break. though, the tour's been really great. along with the songs we've already made, we put in a new one too.
[b]interviewer: i felt like the end of smile had a very live feel. were any of the songs born out of a live show? [/b]
shin: i wonder. i don't really know. people tell us a lot of things about ourselves. but it's not like we deliberately decided to have a live sort of sound. but, this time sawao took the jacket photos himself, and the engineer was the same way. so the core is very pure, i think. that's what we've attempted. and i think the drums sound great. i really like the analog feel.
[b]interviewer: so it's been two years since the last album... [/b]
shin: i don't like it but we really didn't take a break. last year we put out a maxi single, plus we did an anthology album... so it's not like we've been practicing up for two whole years to put this out. these are just songs we did right after the best-of album... of course there's songs we've made since then, but they don't have lyrics, and when they're complete they're just new songs. so i think the pillows are really taking off now.
[b]interviewer: now that you've completed the tour, do you feel bored by the older songs?[/b]
shin: i wouldn't say that. when yamanaka gets into it, the lyrics really make the song. but i wonder if it's not just that our songs lately have infectious lyrics. even in our older songs, i think sometimes the lyrics just came out together...(?). that's fine for us. but it's not like that's our album concept. we don't really have any sort of concept, if we can make something good, that's all that matters. more and more our songs are becoming spontaneous.
[b]interviewer: how is it as a drummer? did you ever feel like, 'i want to hit the drums this way'?[/b]
shin: not really. the drums are also spontaneous. i just do whatever i can do.
[b]would you say that your drums are becoming 'tighter' year by year? i get the impression that you are a person who says a lot with few words. [/b]
i don't really think about little things. there are many things that just become strange if you start to think about them. like 'i want to hit the drum here, and then rest for two beats'. (laughs) would you say the song gets better if you do that? well, there are many times when i don't do that. (laughs)
[b]to play naturally according to the song is an important thing i think. but it's not something we can do. people's ego's get in the way. [/b]
i suppose. i occasionally listen to the old albums and reflect on them. and it's like, 'what kind of side dish drummer is this? it's godawful!' (laughs)
[b]so, it was very typical of the '(grateful?) dead sound' of the 60's for the whole set to have a ringing feeling. [/b]
hmm. yeah, i guess when you hear the drums you get a 60s feel. of course, it's not mono, it's stereo! i really like 60s music, but that doesn't mean i like the drums to have a 60s sound too.
[b]what kind of sound do you like?[/b]
i always thought the huge sound of the police was cool. i like a more rattling sound. like the ramones. it's hard to say. i don't think the ramones have the best sound. i just mean the drums are what sounds great. toto is great. even when he(?) was really pounding, TLC was great too. considering the sound of the drums, that's great too. but when you consider the whole, from the start i've liked punk rock, so i like the [i]wham[/i] sound of the guitar. if you can still hear the drums through that, that's good. so... i like the sound of 'smile'. (laughs) i want people to hear that (laughs). but when i'm performing, i'm not really thinking about the sound.
[b]so, what do you worry about most? [/b]
i would like to be able to not make mistakes. particularly in recording, to make not even one mistake (laughs). but i think it's okay to mess up a little when it's live.
[b]do you use a metronome when recording? [/b]
about half the time. when it's a new song, and i can't grasp the tempo, the metronome makes it easier. i'm bad at shuffle so it helps then too. when i do shuffle, i always end up going real fast, and it turns out poorly. (laughs)
[b]you say you're bad at shuffle, but there's definitely shuffle in this album. [/b]
yeah, there is. it's not to say it's a rhythm i don't like.
[b]when i hear the pillows' shuffle, i think it's very pillows-like. [/b]
i think so too.
[b]it's a unique groove, isn't it. [/b]
so my weakness shows (laughs).
[b]more like it adds to the flavor. [/b]
well, if it was no good, it wouldn't be recorded. but i'm very aware of that weakness (laughs).
[b]it's been 12 years since the pillows formed. in those 12 years, has your philosophy on the drums changed? [/b]
i wonder. i don't really remember about things back then. but something's certainly changed. yeah... more and more i've had this feeling like, 'it's the song, after all.' drums shouldn't impede a song... if it's a weird song then it's okay. but we're making good songs.
[b]to make good songs is difficult. i think it's wonderful that you can just declare that. [/b]
but you know, i just have that confidence. i sound like an awful guy, saying things like that. (laughs) but we can't help but make good songs. (laughs)
[b]that feeling of perfection is passed down to your work. [/b]
yeah. everything surrounding the band is wonderful.
[b]shinichirou-san, what year did you start playing the drums? [/b]
twenty years ago. i'm celebrating my 20th anniversary. (laughs)
[b]it's enviable, that you're still having fun playing the drums and playing with your band even after 20 years. [/b]
it's true. but i wouldn't have thought so at the time. i thought i'd be totally bald when i turned thirty. i'm blessed, i still have hair.
[b]having played the drums for 20 years, is there anything you do in particular to try to keep it fresh? [/b]
alcohol. (laughs) but, i don't dislike to practice. of course, i don't like it when i'm not feeling up to it physically. i practice however i feel like, so it's like i'm just having fun. and if that was my only hobby i'd never stop practicing. what i really don't like is photo shoots, and interviews. (laughs)
[b]i'm sorry. (laughs)[/b]
it's okay (laughs).
[b]so, the thing that i think is the most amazing, is that year after year your drumming just seems to get more youthful. [/b]
that's also been said of the band. we don't really understand it ourselves. i think it's unusual to be told something like that. but certainly my physical strength is decreasing, and we don't feel like we're making a point of creating something youthful. i think we make a genuinely enjoyable sound.
[b][i]shinichirou's setup[/i][/b]
this spring i started using the tama star classic (bass drum 22" x 16", tom 13"x10", floor tom 16"x16"). up until now i've had the maple shell, but this time i changed to birch. the way the fatness of the body's sound comes out is very pleasing. by the way, i've also started using a cover kit* - for some reason i used to be under the impression that lacquered drums have a better sound. but when they're not lacquered, i know i can use this.
the snare is a tama bronze (14"x6.5"). lately at shows i've been using the hand-hammered model. but i really love the normal model too. the sound is the same, but the hammered one looks cooler, so i use it a lot.
the head is an evans genera g1 coated snare head, the tom head is a genera g2 coated, and on the bass drum it's an EQ4. the cymbals are meinl cast bronze classic, powerful crashes 16" and 18", medium ride 20", powerful hi-hat 14". the foot pedal is a tama iron cobra. i use both tama H2145B and pro-mark 'the natural' 5a drumsticks. (both are hickory). my seat is custom made. originally i liked the beginner-oriented seats that are thin and hard, but because it was a commercial (off the shelf) item i was worried my legs would not be stable. so i asked tama and they attached two (seat pads?) for me.
* i believe this refers to coverings you can wrap around the drums so that you can change the color of your drumset.
