First of all, congratulations to your new album!

Thank you. That's actually all live recordings I made between October 2000 and July 2001, and that I edited later. With the current technology it's not possible to save the data of our live performances, and since we're doing different stuff each time, I wanted to preserve some of that.

What kind of soft- and hardware are you using?

At the moment I'm using Nord Modular, a flexible software that allows to reproduce any instrument's sound. I'd use anything if it gives me the sound I'm looking for. You know, MaxMSP, and other stuff you can pick up for free from the Internet. I'm also using microphones. The piece I'm working on at the moment includes recordings made in my bathroom. Sounds funny, really! (laughs)

It seems you're very concerned about environmental problems.

When I try and recollect, for example, what kind of books I bought recently, I realize that many of them are about space, nature, environment, etc.

I don't want to generalize but, can it be that, in electronic music, artists that include messages in their creations are rather rare?

When I started work on "SILICOM two," I originally hadn't intended to include a message. But, seeing all those kids on the streets that buy and consume like crazy, and don't look much further than the tips of their noses, I started thinking. In the depths of their heads they might actually know about the dangers the environment is facing. But only some scientists and intellectuals are raising their voices to protest and make action, and that surely won't get young people up on their feet. So I thought that, maybe things change a bit if it's other young people who can't really do much, such as myself, who seriously appeal to their own generation.

The audiences overseas obviously showed reaction to the line, "My name is the Earth... Now I'm dying because people waste my blood too much."

I guess that's a bit difficult to understand for Japanese when they hear it in clubs. But I thought that it's OK when they just hear that lamenting voice talk. I'm not in the position to claim something, so...

Many artists participated in anti-war events after the terrorist attacks. Did you do something like that?

No. I'm definitely against war, of course, but since I didn't know more about the backgrounds of the incident than what I got from the censored news reports, I didn't want to do something as someone who only knows a part of the truth. I'm going to Israel in March, and I hope I can participate in something after seeing the situation with my own eyes.

I see. Quite a steady attitude...

Generally, I don't like to move without a secure foundation under my feet - which affected also the work on my first "SILICOM" album. Once I start moving, I'm doing a lot by instinct, though. I don't like playing my music to other people unless I'm convinced and satisfied to a certain degree. I have stocked mountains of material, but nobody will get to hear that. I wasn't actually sure at all about the first album, and I really doubted that it was good enough to release. But Takagi (Takagi Masakatsu, SILICOM's visual half) and other friends attested me that it was alright, so I decided to give it a try.

What modesty!

I'm playing around with the tracks until I'm satisfied, but, for live performances I have to say that I'm scared to play something more or less perfect. A live performance has to be rough, vage, unfinished. To play something perfect, doesn't that mean to play something that was carefully prepared at home? I don't feel comfortable when all breaks are exactly where they belong and, busy with the hardware on stage, I just put the breaks wherever I want. The folks on the dancefloor might wonder, "hey, why the hell does he put a break here???," but I think that's what a live performance has to be like.

Now I understand... Most laptop live sets are little entertaining, but yours are much different. The tension of your 'work' on stage sweeps also over the audience.

I'm not too familiar with MIDI, and what I'm actually doing is count bars to get the timing right. I go like, "and-2-and-NOW..." (laughs). Of course, it's important that I have my fun, too. The reason why I'm making music in the first place is that I want to have fun, so I'm just making the sound I want to hear. In my live shows I'm imagining what I'd like to hear if I were in the audience, and just create that myself. In this sense, it's always a quite physical affair.

You're also playing acoustic instruments - do you handle laptop computers the same way?

Yes, kind of. In live performances there are parts I leave to the computer as a powerful tool. It's as if there was a second person in my 'band.' Like, "if you're doing that, hear what I'll do now!" You know, the more tools you create, the more confusing it gets. There are situations like, "let's see, what can we try today...," and sometimes I create the same names for all files on purpose, so I'm most likely to pick the wrong one every time. I'm mixing the systems of random choice in computers and in humans.

By the way, I heard you're also playing in a reggae band?

Wanna hear our CD? (...and he plays the CD). It's an international band, and it's 100% played live. I met a guy from the States once, and when he told me he was playing bass, I answered that I was making music, too, so we ended up forming a band with me doing the rhythm programming and Takagi (Masakatsu) playing keyboards.

SILICOM and reggae band... do you feel alright with this combination?

Well, it's a bit strange indeed. But we're all friends, and we have a lot of fun playing together. We 're doing pure pop music sometimes - you can hear me singing in the chorus!

Really? And why reggae?

That's just because each of us liked reggae and ska when we met. We wanted to play something like 'our music.' Our band name, "Bersatu" means 'unity' in Indonesian. We're all concerned about environmental issues, and we thought it would be great to make some straight music with simple lyrics that even a kid could sing. And we're really hacing fun doing that!

I see. The sound is different from SILICOM, but there's kind of the same thing behind it...

You were born and raised in Osaka - do you think this environment has an influence on your music?

I'm actually creating the SILICOM music with a view to playing it at club Rockets in Namba. A friend I met at university took me to an event called 'i-like,' which is hosted by Yoshiki and Keita, two friends of Tanaka Fumiya. They were playing tight, simple, and very minimal music the whole night! That had a strong impact on me, and I thought it would be fantastic to play my own music there once. The result is what you can hear, for example, on the first SILICOM album. Even now Rockets is one of the conditions for new pieces I make, and I was really happy when they played some there the other day. The place isn't exactly packed, but I think the events they're doing are on a high level.

You're also frequently appearing at events in Tokyo. What's your impression here?

When I played here first I was surprised about the crowds in the clubs. In Osaka there's always just a handful, and those are mostly friends. This is the main difference. I wonder if that's because there are so many sensitive people here...

What about your performances overseas?

The audience overseas is looking and listening very carefully, even though they don't know us at all. After the shows they come and tell us what they think, and that's great! Here in Japan, aren't most people's views spoiled by the media? Since we started appearing in magazines, our audience has suddenly increased, and people that didn't even show any reaction when we sent them demos before tell us now, one year later, that "it was good!" Such things didn't happen in Paris or Turkey and, frankly speaking I'm worrying about what is happening to people's powers of judgement in Japan.

That's right, you won't find people in Tokyo doing something like SILICOM and a reggae band at the same time...

Well, it's kind of a survival game there, isn't it ? (laughs) Musicians here are aware that they can't live on their art alone. In both SILICOM and the reggae band we're simply trying to examine our own fonds. I like as well to sing and play acoustic guitar - for me it's the same. It's just that, when it comes to playing music in clubs, SILICOM proved to be most effective. For each live performance I'm trying to find the most adequate and best possible style, whereas the question what actually is 'good' is another problem. I'm quite flexible there, because I think that has nothing to do with genres.

I'd love to check out how this comes out when you're doing reggae. Is there a chance to see you play?

I'd love to, but first I'd have to bring all members together from overseas. I wonder if there's any chance to release this CD...

What kind of event would you like to do if you had the chance to play live in a perfect environment?

It would be great to play while using environmental noises, for example in a museum or another regular place that should also include a lot of nature. People could listen while taking an afternoon nap in the gras... Raves and all that 'drug culture' are not my thing, so I'd prefer something that makes people feel the greatness of nature, in comparison with their own insignificance. The show with Robert Henke (a.k.a. Monolake) last year ("Communicate Mute," July 2001) came pretty close to this.

Can you tell me a little more about that?

At the event last summer we installed four microphones in the garden of Honen-in in Kyoto, and connected them to the speakers. The sounds of the insects during the show were different from those during the rehearsals, and the cicadas' concert was so beautiful that we thought we could impossibly beat that, and we'd better forget about our own music! There were sounds coming from the speakers and others coming directly out of the garden, whereas I think that the sounds produced by nature are by far better than anything that comes from my computer. My goal was it to make people realize this, and in this sense the event had its pros and cons. I was using a software that I had developed, which automatically integrates sounds picked up through microphones. The audience was limited to one hundred people, who gathered in a tatami room. Among them was a little child, who suddenly asked, "hey, why are you all sleeping?" That was also picked up by the microphones, and it was fantastic to hear it come out of the speakers!

Sounds wonderful... So, as a conclusion, how would you describe the ideal conditions for you to create music?

First of all, there has to be a lot of nature, and it has to be an environment where, for example, my best friends can live. It could be in the city, but I need some more green, and plenty of time. Somehow nobody really has time, so I'd love to sit back relaxed and let my music evolve with the time flow. I think that would also directly influence the outcome. Now I'm given the chance to play my music in clubs, so I want to give those that come and see me play what they want to hear, but, in a positive sense, I also like doing something contrary to their expectations. After two active years we're now labeled with a certain image, but in summer I'm planning to try and destroy that by doing something different.

You're one with many different faces...

That's simply because I'm doing it for fun, without sticking to a particular style. In the end it's all about sounds anyway. I wonder whether it's because of that strange kind of specialization that everybody's getting so careless about their surroundings - environmental problems, for example. People should see better the whole picture. I wish I could get into a position where I can contribute to this and make people more aware.