Boris x TOKIE Special Interview - extra talk

Changes in the Production Environment with COVID-19

—Anything changed for the production environment due to COVID-19? Such as an increase in working remotely?

Atsuo: We did remote recording originally, and now we started mixing remotely also. We had “NO” and “W” both mixed at a studio in Osaka, then listened at home and talked online (using Zoom).

—Has it become convenient?

Atsuo: Maybe? I could hear Takeshi snoring.

Takeshi: (laughing) I was awake during the mixing but fell asleep when playback started. When I woke up, "Oh, It’s finished!" (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

Atsuo: I kept saying "Heeey!" but you just wouldn’t wake up (laughter).

Takeshi: More than I had anticipated, recording remotely turned out to be doable! I was worried about sound quality with remote work, but it turned out to be a groundless fear.

Atsuo: We are listening to clear sound at the studio so we feel a large gap between listening at home. It changed to being able to listen to the music in an atmosphere we were already used to from the beginning. Talking about Boris's work method, we originally work a lot at home and do recording by ourselves, so maybe nothing changed that much.

—How about you TOKIE? Anything changed from COVID-19?

TOKIE: I am more of a live musician, so tours getting cancelled and so on were a big blow for me. However I could spend time on irregular work like these recordings and so on.

Atsuo: It’s beyond irregular for TOKIE to be in a music video like this time.

METALCHICKS + Wata + TOKIE = HEAVY METALCHICKS？

—Speaking of involving various people, Sugar Yoshinaga from Buffalo Daughter produced your latest album, ”W”. Did you leave everything to her?

Atsuo: We gave a brief direction of the direction to go in and asked Sugar to do as she liked from there. While trusting her with it, when we’d say we’d like to “throw the ball over there” she’d aim in the same direction but take it further to a sound we couldn’t have reached by ourselves.

—Sugar plays guitar on the record as well?

Atsuo: Yes, she added guitar, synthesizer and vocals to it. It started to feel like we were listening to Buffalo Daughter during it, didn’t it? (laughs)

—Yeah, I’m sure I was listening to "W" but there were moments when I thought, “Wait, is this Buffalo Daughter?”

Atsuo: Especially when Sugar is singing I think you may feel that way. The "W" is also the initial for Wata’s name. We asked Kotao (Tomozawa) to do the album cover art, so it feels like linking together many connections we have made with artists up until this point.

Boris / W (CD)

—Kotao joined for the "tears e.p" jacket and music video too, right? Plus one more person, Yuka Yoshimura, joined for the "Reincarnation Rose" music video as the drummer?

Atsuo: We went to see METALCHICKS (Two piece band made up of Sugar Yoshinaga and Yuka Yoshimura) after the EQD party in 2018. We were just saying, “Let’s have Wata and TOKIE join METALCHICKS and call it ‘HEAVY METALCHICKS’," and that led to this music video (laughs).

Takeshi: We even joked, "Let’s go on a US tour as HEAVY METALCHICKS!"

Atsuo: EQD spoiled to us so we always said anything we wanted to them (laughs).

Takeshi: EQD would always humor us in response, whether it would be feasible or not, like, "That’s a good idea!"

Wata: We even took it as far as, "How about getting a tour bus?" “A tour bus... Hmmm.”

Takeshi: Going by tour bus sounds like fun, but some people are worried about privacy.

Wata: Yeah, regarding bathing and such.

Atsuo: Or being seen without make-up and so on.

TOKIE: No make-up, no life.

Everyone: (laughs)

Atsuo: Anyway, when the pandemic subsides and we can actually go on tour for real, TOKIE will be busy in Japan, so on the other hand it is this circumstance with COVID-19 that allows TOKIE to spend lots of time with us.

Translated by nyd/Greg Mudarri