BeatCrave Exclusive: Polysics Interview
Self-described Japanese “technicolor pogo punk” group Polysics have been creating high energy music for the past eleven years by mixing rock with synthesizers to create a unique blend of post punk and synth pop. The band is comprised of Hiroyuki (Hiro) Hayashi on guitar and lead vocals, Kayo on keyboards, Fumi on bass guitar and Masashi Yano on drums. Check out BeatCrave’s exclusive interview with Polysics as we sat down to talk with them about their “out of control” live shows and latest album, “We Ate the Machine.”
Your band name, Polysics, is a direct reference to the Korg Polysix, first synthesizer that was owned by Hiro. Do you guys use that same Polysix anymore in any of your music?
Hiro: The keyboard, the Polysix – I like the sound, so I’ve been using it long time. Currently, we’re not using it because it’s broken. So we put it in the shop and are fixing it right now.
So, it’s important learning to improvise when you perform live?
Hiro: It’s very important, the live part influences [our work]. After we play a concert and [we] feel like “Okay, this was too much, or this part would be better if we change to this.” So then we after have the concert, we sometimes change the music.
You’ve said before that you guys like to “think about event ideas that will be fun” when you play. What influences or informs your ideas and processes when it comes to making music?
Hiro: Basically, I bring the rough original core of the music, and then the members get together and make music. After we get together and we make the song, we actually break the song to pieces again (the already made song) and then we edit again and then we find out maybe we can add more here or add more there. The editing part, is the fun part of making music. Before, after we made a song – that [would be] it. That’s the end of it. Now, we actually make one song, break it into pieces and then we add or we edit. Then we can spice it up and [add] our originality.
Was there any concept or theme behind your latest release “We Ate the Machine?”
Hiro: Polysics is a band. We have a thing: that we always are presenting something new [that we're] doing. These days, we hear electronic music and rock music together – mixture music. We’ve been doing this style for eleven years. It makes us feel like “Oh it’s not so new anymore” because everybody’s trying to [make music] like Polysics. Then we think about “So what can we do new these days? Can we present something new?” And then we thought, “Okay, let’s eat the machine.” These days, when I see the interviews from other bands and they say “The machine is the new member of our band” or “We use a machine to make a song” – we’re not the same level. We actually ate the machine. That’s our level.
Okay, so it’s more of a process of taking it in and producing it back out there through you.
Hiro: Exactly. I think it’s just that the music, we’re just saying “Only if you eat [the] actual machine can you find out this music or create this music.” Only Polysics can do this right now.
What influences each of you, both musically and visually?
Hiro: 80s pop culture – I get influenced by 80s culture.
Fumi: I like 60’s style, same with the music. I listen to a mixture stuff. It’s always different.
Kayo: I’m not sure if this is the right answer, but I come from overseas, and seeing concerts and tours, I got influenced by other people and that reflected back on me how Japanese I am. I used to color my hair, but now it’s original, my hair color, and I have heavy bangs. I feel like I’m more Japanese than before.
Yano: Drumming, and visually as well as fashion, I try to make it very tight. I am influenced by famous Japanese drummer Yukihiro Takahashi from YMO.
You guys really seem to go all out and get pretty crazy when you play. People have even described your shows as being “out-of-control.” What can people expect when they go to a Polysics show?
Hiro: You can expect a change in the music at the concert. It’s really high speed and high energy. And no ballads!
What’s the most out-of-control show(s) you’ve ever played?
Fumi: So many of them! Sometimes I almost like, black out, but I’m still performing. Then after that I realize it, already two or three songs are done. You feel like you black out sometimes. We have those kind of shows.
Hiro: I felt exactly like that because I was so out of control at the Troubador show in Los Angeles last time. It was totally out of control!
So what’s new for Polysics?
Fumi: We just released the album (We Ate the Machine), but already we’re making a new song right now.
Hiro: Our new songs that we’re making at the moment, they will be a little different from this album, We Ate the Machine.
Any future projects and/or musicians you’d like to collaborate with?
Fumi: We collaborated with DEVO in Japan and toured together, but we would like to do that again in the United States.
Are you planning on recording at all while you’re touring or doing anything this time around that may end up on future albums?
Hiro: This is only just sticking with touring, so we’re not recording or anything. Every time when I come to tour on the road, I come up with new ideas while I’m in the van. So I’m sure I can create some new ideas for this tour again that will be on the next album, too.
“We Ate the Machine” is the eighth full-length studio album release from Polysics, and is out now on Myspace Records.
