When East meets West anything can happen...on this occasion the collision produced The Molice. We can be thankful for that...

The Molice are a three-piece rock band from Tokyo Japan. They ‘hammered out’ their own sound while playing in Tokyo’s numerous rock venues and on tour in North America, Europe and Asia. Their East meets West hybrid sound is winning over audiences around the world. Think Shone Knife meet Green Day, but incorporating musical juxtapositions such as classical, dance, and a wee bit of post-hardcore thrown in for good measure.Lead singer Rinko sings primarily in Japanese, but this does not detract from anything that the band do sonically. She could be singing backwards in Portuguese for what difference it would make. The band’s lyrics are often romantic, but sometimes venture into sci-fi, inspired by movies such as Blade Runner and Fahrenheit 451. We recently tracked them down to their US hideaway to dig a little deeper…

You’ve been around since 2007 now, but what was the original driving force to form a band?

Rinko:

The driving force is that my music never stops. The music comes to me one song after another. But the truth is, when we formed this band, I only intended to be active for one year.

Who were your early influences and who would you say are your contemporaries now?

Rinko:

Do you mean the early days of the band?

Yes

In my early days, I was influenced by classical music, like Beethoven, Falla,Mozart…The Beatles, Elvis Presley, 50’s Rock’n Roll music and others influenced me when I was in a junior high and high school.

We are not really influenced by contemporary music.

Yuzuru:

I love all kinds of rock bands, funk music, techno music, etc., but if you ask me what started it all, I would say the Beatles.

Some westerners might ask why you choose to sing in Japanese, but you are from Japan. Are they just being weird? Isn’t this just a natural thing to do?

Rinko:

I was born and raised in Japan and have been exposed to music from many different countries in Japan. Sometimes there were musicians who sang translated Japanese lyrics instead of their own language because they had come to Japan. I felt uncomfortable with that and I am strongly influenced by Japanese poets.

Not poetry for songs, but poetry for poetry. Japanese poetry is very beautiful. For these two reasons I decided to sing in Japanese. Yeah, this is just a natural things to do for me.

Bands like Shonen Knife have made a good career for themselves without having to compromise and made it onto some big American TV shows, do you think music has now become truly universal?    

Rinko:

Anyone can now use the internet to reach the world. In this sense, music has become universal. I don’t think so, however, when it comes to whether Japanese music is appreciated abroad.  I have my own theory about that.

Compared to sports, music seems to be lumped together as the same music even if it is clearly a different genre. Music sung by pop idols and the music of Fugazi are also lumped in the same category.

For another, Japanese music is (dare I say music?) different from the rhythms of the rest of the world. I think this is a very big problem. For these two reasons, I feel that Japanese ‘music’ is still not universal.

By the way, Shonen Knife was my dream and my goal. I admire them very much. I wanted to be a world musician like them. So I was really happy when Robby, the owner of the same label as them, invited me to join them.

Yuzuru:

Everything changes with the times. Once upon a time, no one imagined that Japanese anime and game music would become universal. Nowadays, anything can be universal, whether we want it to be or not. In that sense, music has become universal. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing for music. What is clear is that musicians can do nothing else but continue to make music that they believe in, no matter what the times are like.

Do all the best bands just have three members?

Rinko:

I don’t think it is necessarily so. I love the Police, but I also love the Beatles, The Pixies, Fugazi, Funkadelic…

Unfortunately, we could not find a bassist. That’s just the way it is…

Your music is powerful, yet there’s a romantic energy in Rinko’s vocals, where does that come from? Are you just a big love bunnies?

Rinko:

The romantic energy comes from the fact that I believe being sexy is very important. I think sexy means rhythm. I think it is how you perceive rhythm. Which rhythm is going through the body.

I feel that being sexy is a necessary element in any genre. I feel that is true whether it is painting or calligraphy.Maybe that aspect is reflected in my singing. Like Elvis’s FEVER. Of course I always want to deliver love.

What other theme’s do you like to explore in your music?

Rinko:

I always get song ideas from the universe. I try to put a beautiful melody to it. Rhythms should be sexy. And I make my own music with gratitude and respect for the music of our ancestors. This has not changed a bit since I started making music. What I want to explore in my music these days is the beauty of classical music. Like Stravinsky, for example.

Yuzuru:

I want to touch the other side of the world. My dream is to be able to do that through music. It is also very interesting to me how the foolish human race was able to create the miracle of music.

How do you feel your Japanese heritage influences your sound and views on the world? 

Rinko:

Festival is called “Matsuri” in Japan. Japanese Shinto style. I feel it’s my musical roots. And also The concept of ‘countless deities’ is unique to Japan. I also feel that in some situations in my life. In other words, there are many gods. The god of mountains, the god of rivers, the god of stones, the god of trees, and so on, It is like the world view of the anime “Princess Mononoke” created by Hayao Miyazaki.

Also, many cultures come to Japan. The Japanese adapt and change them to suit themselves. We are very lucky to live in a country with so many cultures. It broadens my horizons.

Yuzuru:

I was born in Japan and Japanese is my mother tongue. I think, imagine and create in Japanese. Growing up and becoming an adult in the cultural sphere and tradition of the Japanese language has had a decisive influence on my thinking. This is our inescapable destiny and our individuality. I would like to hear what linguists have to say about the meaning of thinking in Japanese.

What’s the music scene like in Tokyo these days? Not too overrun by K-Pop?

Rinko:

I don’t watch TV at all, but K-pop seems to be quite prevalent. Then again, the same music seems to be favored in Tokyo (Japan) for decades. Not much has changed. The people are changing, but the sound is the same.

This is my opinion.

Yuzuru:

Perhaps Japanese people were drawn to K-pop for its freshness and professionalism while Japanese music was preoccupied with raking in money as an industry. The Japanese music industry should realize that they can no longer collect money for themselves. Japanese music should be freed from it and reestablished as one of the world’s frontier strange scenes.

What do you think of Baby Metal?

Rinko:

I don’t know them very well so I can’t give you my thoughts.

Yuzuru:

I have never heard their music, but I thought their sense of combining metal and a pretty girl idol and the way they named their group was very Japanese. I am very interested to see what people around the world think of them. Is it their musicality, their sense of style, or their uniqueness? I would love to hear your view.

(As you ask…it’s definitely their uniqueness. When they played the Download festival a few years ago, everyone was so very sceptical and thought that they were some kind of ‘joke’ band, but three songs in and there was 50,000 heavy metal kids going crazy to their sound. The female lead vocalist flanked bye the two dancers certainly bring s something different western audiences. Persona;;y, I love them).

You have a distinctive style in the artwork for your songs, who creates these? What influences are at play here?

Rinko:

I do the artwork. I am influenced by many artists. I like and am influenced by Milton Glaser, Saul Bass, Dick Bruna and Ben Shahn. I am also influenced by many painters.  In fact, I studied picture books from around the world when I was in graduate school. So I am also influenced by picture books. Especially Charles Keeping, Leo Lionni, Crockett Johnson and Arnold Lobel.

Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls is a big fan, how does that feel to have a heavy-weight American rocker on your side?

Rinko:

I am very happy. We have become like a family and I have forgotten that he is a heavy-weight American rocker. But when he invites us to his concerts and we go to see Goo Goo Dolls, we think he is a great artist.

He played bass on some of the songs on our album. He also joined us in the chorus. It’s a great honour and Robby doesn’t change his attitude. He treats everyone the same. Isn’t that wonderful?

How would you say your sound has developed from the early days until recent tracks like Pre/Post Re-Sing and Prototypes?

Rinko:

In the early days of the band, I wanted to make music that was a mix of the Pixies and the Police. I wanted to create music that was simple but had a unique world. These days I feel like time is flying by. The world moves very fast. I feel that the world has completely changed from what it used to be. And it keeps changing. I feel the need to release what I feel at the time more quickly than the way I have been creating. I think it is more important to capture the moment, even if it is rough, than to be coherent.

More and more music we are creating through improvisation. It could be said that we are becoming more free in our music making.

Yuzuru:

The underlying musical tastes have not changed. As the years have gone by, I have been able to produce a variety of sounds. Having many tones is important for a musician. We have steadily acquired it. Simple ideas are expressed in a variety of tones. That is our music.

As a three piece, there’s obviously room for a collaboration or two. Have you got anyone in mind or happy just doing your own thing?

Rinko:

I welcome any form of music that improves the music. However, there are some bands that are thrown off balance by the inclusion of guest musicians.That is unfortunate.

Yuzuru:

We are happy to play our own music by ourselves. At the same time, we are very interested in collaborating with various people. We would like to work more with people from many different worlds, such as video production, sound engineering, show management, etc.

You moved to Buffalo, NY before the pandemic? Why there? Have you now returned?

Rinko:

It was Robby who invited me to America. The Goo Goo Dolls are a group from Buffalo. He had his recording studio there, and we have been recording there, releasing, and going on tour.

That was before the pandemic. We have been in Japan since then, but now they are getting ready to go out into the world.

When are you coming back to the United Kingdom?

Rinko:

We often talk about going back to the UK too. We would like to go back to the UK and do a tour soon if possible. Maybe we can do it in the next year or so.

We were also booking our own tour in the US for 2019. If you can recommend anywhere in the UK, please let us know. (We should talk further on this one!)

Yuzuru:

I really want to perform in England! Please invite me! To be honest, we would love to play in the UK and other European countries as well. We hope to find good connections.

Are you worried that AI will replace all musicians eventually or can computers and robots never really replicate human emotion?

Rinko:

Before we knew it, the world of AI was in full swing. It always happens before you know it. So is a pandemic, and so is war.

So AI may replace all musicians. For myself, I am not worried. I am still making music in obscurity. In the music world, there are some concerns.

In terms of business, it will be difficult. It will be difficult in terms of business, because it will be easier to make music. But I even feel that people are losing their emotions these days. Maybe AI will be able to include “emotion” that appeals to those who have lost their emotions.

Yuzuru:

Humans are still beings that do not know themselves. It seems like a strange joke that humans who don’t know themselves would try to make copies of themselves; AI will only surpass humans in what they know about themselves. But I can’t imagine what will happen when AI starts copying and surpassing parts of us that we don’t know much about ourselves.

Ruin may occur, humans may decline, humans may discover their own excellence, or AI may more astutely copy human stupidity.

I myself am not interested in music made by AI at the moment. I prefer music made by stupid human beings who waste time and money and waste time and money.