Melt-Banana

If you’re a fan of extremely fast grindcore, a lot of noise, and songs entitled Mouse Is A Biscuit, Scissor Quiz and Candy Gun, then you should already own some of Japanese duo’s Melt-Banana’s back catalogue. Beloved by John Peel and Napalm Death alike, they’ve been going for 24 years and will be at the Arts Centre this month. I spoke to Yasuko, the founder of the band, and Agata, guitarist, about what annoys them about each other and why they chose to cover Wordy Rappinghood. Don’t forget your earplugs.

What kind of music did you listen to when you were growing up?

Y(Yako): I grew up listening to pop music, like the music on the Billboard chart.

A(Agata): I grew up mainly listening to rock music.

Melt-Banana formed in 1993. Yako, when you started the band what did you want to achieve with it, and what did you want to sound like?

Y: I just wanted to make something and I didn't have any examples to refer to in my mind. I wanted to play music that people can tell that it's Melt-Banana when they listen to it.

Which other bands, singers and musicians do you enjoy listening to?

A: I enjoy listening to bands who we played with. For example, we toured with Napalm Death and Melvins in USA and Daikiri and Zeus! in Europe last year.

Y: And Torche and Hot Nerds in USA two years ago.


A: Hot Nerds just put out a new album this year and I enjoy listening to it.

You were signed quite quickly, the year after you formed. Did you expect to be able to have a career as musicians and tour the world in those early days?

Y: Not really, at that time everything was new to us so I had no time to think about what I expect.

A: Me neither, we were not thinking about a career at all. We just wanted to play as many shows as possible and wanted to make our album.

You’ve always been popular in England ‒ sizk Zip Everywhere was nominated for MTV UK’s best video and John Peel was a big fan of yours. What do you think of the UK and your fans here?

Y: It's great that people in UK enjoy our music. John Peel was like Santa Claus for us. There still are people who found out about us from his radio show coming to our shows now.

A: I think John Peel changed our life, and we always like UK people.

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You’ve had a lot of different drummers but now you are a duo and use a computer for the rhythm. What difference has it made to your new music?

A: When we write drum part, we needed to think if a human drummer could play or not before, but now we don't need to think about it.

Yako and Agata, you are a great songwriting team ‒ are you also good friends? Do you spend much time together when not working or touring?

Y: Yeah, we are good friends but when we write music we always have arguments. To get the best result, it’s usually needed, you know.

A: Sometimes she makes me very irritated. For example, when I am navigating when she is driving and say turn left, she often turns right. I have no idea why it happens so many times!

What do you miss most about Japan when you are travelling the world?

Y: Japanese breakfast. I always have a traditional Japanese breakfast, so I miss it during the tour.

A: Playing video games in my room.

Agata, you have a very distinctive guitar playing style. How did you develop this unique form?

A: I changed guitar tuning to my own style and also used slide when I started playing guitar in this band. Also effect pedals are more important for my playing style than practicing scale or other guitar techniques.