Quiet Color

by Tim Howard

It’s hard to know how to introduce Pseudo Nippon. His music, a dynamo mixture of jarring, merry synths, mumbled garbage, Japanese scales and voices and a drilling sense of integral melody, is that rare, special kind of mess. His music videos and youtube channel are wild, loud and strange, and onstage he’s all out wild energy. His bio on his myspace is written in his own Japanglish, telling you all kinds of things that would make you think it’s all just an act; a stage persona that goes no deeper than the music.

But he isn’t a one-line comedy act, and while humor’s very important to his music, things go a little deeper than that. He’s funny, but only through his absolute sincerity in his music, his character and his crackpot mysticism. He greeted me with a finger-touch, ET-style, wearing a colourful sheet tied over his body in a mimic of Japanese traditional dress. Barefoot, shaven-headed, softly spoken. It’s not what I expected at all.

Given a glass of water with a garlic clove suspended in it, I was told to drink and meet him in the ‘Temple of Shed (a garden shed decorated with sheets) for a ‘reading’. Calling on the spirits of Jebubu, Fishlady and Boy who is Boy, he told me that every Christmas Day I must wear a potato in my armpit in order to feed the alligator spirit and honor my ancestor.

All I could do is sit, listen and nod my head, later realizing that in this simple move he cemented his character as something apart from his music, in turn making me the interview’s subject, not him.  Asking him about his music would, at first, lead to more revelations about the religious path of Jebu, the meditative, calm state of Universal Pork Tai Chi, overfishing and consuming too much bad beef.

Quiet Color: So… I was going to start elsewhere but now I think a question about how you discovered Jebubu seems right.

Pseudo Nippon: How did Mr Jebusan find me?

QC: Sure – how did he find you?

PN: Thing is, ahh, I have time when I fight outside and inside. And they conflicting. And what is really there is not two polar opposite. It is pure god. And pure god is what I call Universal Pork Tai Chi. And once universal pork tai chi came into my mind, I became aware of Mr Jebusan. So Mr Jebusan find people through Universal Pork Tai Chi…everywhere.

QC: Now… the way you appear when I’m talking to you now is very different from how you appear in public, or for the video for Cosmic Evan… so would you say that you’ve a persona that you put on?

PN: Cosmic Evan video is directed by Mr Kevin Gaffney, and he is love make up. So I wear make up for that video.

The music is for… entertainment. It is not for ear to go “Aha, aha! Nuance! Infinity!”. It is music to go “Hya! Hya! Hya! Entertain!”. So video is entertain, and entertainment is joy. And joy is first step for people to reach newer level such as… Jebu.

QC: So right there’s the link between your music and Jebubu.

PN: Yes.

By this point I was already well under his spell. I’d come with prepared questions about his music, especially his EP and his upcoming album (both on OIB records), but these questions were becoming increasingly waylaid. He talks about modeling the ‘World’s first Pantshood’ for the Cosmic Jebubu website – religious wear – offering to make me my own pantshood in the process. He talks about the story behind the t-shirts sold on the site; the struggle between his long moustache, worn in tribute to Mr Jebusan, and the other, evil moustache which is a mark that wearers eat too much beef.

Here was the window to take control again. Beef: something he clearly feels strongly about in the track Beef Egg Revenge. Yet this leads to how ‘Big Man Moustache’ doesn’t understand the subtlety of the ‘beautiful, thin beef from Nagano.’

I start to get the picture. It’s not that he’s reluctant to talk about his music; more that the character of Pseudo Nippon, all consuming and unbreakable, is not just a front for the music. The performance doesn’t end when he walks off stage; when the track finishes. It ends if or when he wants it to.

QC: So you’ve decided to stick with OIB for your album release?

PN: I been with few little people who do little weird releases, like compilation or floppy disk [last year's limited edition release by Colour Ride]. I like that. Floppy disk is very nice release because it is one minute long, because no more space on floppy disk for any longer music sound. So it is one minute. But OIB are very nice people and they say, “We bring out little vinyl, so 7″ for song.” I have many song for many time, but now I have record a whole new album. Twelve new song. And it come out end of this year. I give you copy! You listen to it, it is very nice song!

There is song…. There is song about Universal Pork Tai Chi; there is song – two song about Temple of Shed. There is song about Jebubu and the whale. This song about responsible fishing.

At moment we have many problem in the world; environment, over fishing, unnecessary fighting and more over fishing. And Jebubu answer is that you can only eat part of a whale. And then you stitch it up, and put it back in water, and you have eaten a bit of whale, but the whale survive.

QC: Right.

PN: So that responsible fishing.

QC: I’m not sure that’s the universal view but it could work…

PN: Yes! Could work! Jebubu think it work.

QC: Ok. Can I ask you a bit about the process of making your music? I mean, there’s a lot of electronics, and living in a shed must be…

PN: No, no, very tricky without electric power. But next album is farming album. Second album farming album.

QC: And you’ve started work on your second album?

PN: Yes, it is in my head! It is farming album, and all of it is used through farm.

QC: And you play… animals?

PN: Ha! I play vegetable, and beef, and animal. Yes, and second album all farming, no electronic.

QC: And this peaceful nature – overfishing, farming, Cosmic Evan’s calls for “Gimme the peace!” is a part of your music? A theme of sorts running against the hectic music?

PN: Yes. It is all about entertainment. And through entertainment and joy and happiness and energy we become to see other. This big rush. We calm, and we see the great feeling of the spiritual realm. You know when you go with many friend to place, camping and there’s lots of music festival. And you have great time and…intense joy! And on Monday morning you drive home, you don’t say anything.  But you feel spiritually sound?

QC: Oh, sure!

PN: That is how we enter beauty and spiritual peace; is through enjoyment and joy. And intense happiness.

QC: And for you, you find this onstage?

PN: Stage – onstage – it is pure energy as I can be, as hard as I can be, and as fast as I can be. And through that we all come together at the end, and we are Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup-hup! Hup! [to illustrate this he provides ‘ninja' arm movements] until we’re gone and feel good. And stage show we have two dancer, man called Wiggly Worm, and man called T-Rex. And they wear religious outfit, and they try to be as energy as they can, as hard as they can, and as fast as they can.

And then it is fun show.

QC: And you’ve some shows lined up in Wales I see.

PN: Yes, we play festival in Wales with many good band. There many good underground circuit band play from London play festival. There band call Gum Take Tooth, they have very nice live show. It is drummer, and every drum go through drum synth until it is very fast dancey noise. And they very good band. But there many good band in London at moment. I think we have, er, many influence from America, like skuzzy rock all over place now in London. But we have many good live band, like Bo Ningen, or friend from OIB called Nullifier. They make song called Animal Kingdom, and it make me so, so happy. Very beautiful, nice sound.

QC: So you’re saying music’s a happy place to be

PN: Yes, very much so.

QC: And composing your own, you’re not one who finds it a wrench to record? Does it just pour out?

PN: I try and make music sometime in a slump, and no good sound. Not one good sound. Then other day when I feel energy behind me. And it thrust into me, and it come out the front and then nice song there. But process: I make album recently, and one song took four year to make, and eleven song took three month to make. And then two week, three week record lyric.

QC: …and some of your noises don’t sound too easy to come by… Do you have any exciting and unusual equipment that you use? Do you collect kit to do it?

PN: No, no, no, no. Many people think to be great, to make interesting sound, you need all best equipment of new, and you need best equipment of ‘90, and you need best equipment of ‘80, and you need best analogue…

QC: Best kid’s toy keyboards, too…

PN: Yes! Yes! My ethic is not what equipment or how good equipment, it about how you know equipment, and I don’t think best gear from the decades will help you. It is about you have one thing, and you know it inside and out. And then you can get next thing, and you can know that inside and out. I feel it is much more about how you use your gear and understand.

QC: Like say you buy a stylophone and you spend all your time with that stylophone before you move to… I dunno… bongos I guess.

PN: Yes, exactly!

QC: Not that you’d strictly use bongos…. Or stylophones for that matter.

PN: I like sound of bongo!

QC: Ha! All right then!

PN: I want to make album, Bongo & Bass.

QC: Third album title?

PN: Third album! You has come! Mr Timto has come with third album idea!

QC: I think this is the beginning of something brilliant.

PN: It is nice!

QC: But the sounds on your current releases, though, you’re saying they’re made on fairly standard things? Because I’m guessing it’s not just made on a laptop…?

PN: For some thing, it is laptop. Some thing, it is sample, and something it is… ah…. Just like… it is sound just like… just like this [he waves his hands in the air in a complex, meditative gesture]. Like that.

QC: I… I see.

PN: Would you like to hear new song?

From a well-worn Mac Mini he plays me some new tracks from his forthcoming, and begins talking about making the music fuller by stripping it back, not filling it up and his enduring love for the ‘happier’ sound of Eastern scales on scatty sounding synths.

A tiny kitten sits nearby “philosophizing”, and Pseudo expounds some of his philosophies on listening to other music.

I think the better way of music appreciation is enjoy as many bands as possible. And once you say, “I don’t like this music, I don’t like that music,” then you cutting yourself off. And I think you take music and understand its quality. And everybody got own quality, and you enjoy it for that quality.

QC: They’re all basically linked, too. Like getting turned off by ‘40s jazz guitarists but loving Prince or Metallica. I mean, why not both?

PN: Yes, yes! This is… this is what I talk about with Universal Pork Tai Chi. People say ‘do this, do that,’ and we have to live life with many structure; it just part of world. But people who dislike many thing are just trying to find place. And that’s how you do it, by defining place with thing you like.

QC: And that means you’ve got to dislike, so that people who say they only listen to metal are kinda nest-building in a way; they’re building their cocoons or… or their own Temple of Sheds.

PN: Definitely. And it is product of pressure, and it is pressure which music critic – no offence – make. I not say there no good music, no bad music, but every person put thing out you try to find quality of each. I just say… more you like, the happier you are. Less you like, more confined you are. Simple.

QC: I think you’re probably right there.

PN: Yes!

QC: Well, thanks for today. It’s been… I think the best word is ‘experimental’.

PN: I hope so! Thank you for visiting!