Put down your phones and embrace your inner beast is the message that rock n’ roll machine Guitar Wolf bring to Australia on their latest tour.
The Japanese rock trio are all about the immense power of volume. They have recorded the world’s loudest album, and their shows have caused more ringing than a telethon.
After forming Guitar Wolf as a creative outlet for three bored shop workers in Harajuku back in 1987, the band have now recorded 11 studio albums. They return to Australia for the sixth time with their latest limit-pressing record, Beast Vibrator.
Singer/guitarist Seiji explains how the album came about. “One day, when I was walking in the street on the earth, I was getting angry all of a sudden. Everyone around me was looking down while they were walking. Too many phone junkies spend too many hours looking at the phone. Then I thought, everyone! Don’t lose the wild instinct! Shake your body like a beast!”
Guitar Wolf mix ancient Japanese symbolism with messages beamed from outer space – all passed through the purifying filter of rock n’ roll.
“Don’t lose the wild instinct! Shake your body like a beast!”According to Seiji, Wolf Lore – a scientist from their home planet – summoned the singer because he had been “poisoned by the earth”. The frontman describes this planet as, “…a rare planet in the universe. It looks like the face of the wolf, located 6.9 billion years away from earth.”
In a modern day Moses on Mount Sinai moment, Seiji returned to deliver his message via a midnight lightning strike on Mount Fuji; a guitar strum cracked the crater and released the magma flowing inside, and Tour Magma was born. Guitar Wolf returned to “bring you rock n’ roll, love, and courage”, and to persuade us all to embrace our inner beast.
At heart, the band embrace the lifestyle and look of rock – right down to selling their own line of leather jackets.
Seiji admits, “I don’t have much profound thought.” However, he is aware of the force of music.
“Not only R&R, but the power of music is great. Hip hop, and/or any music is good. I’m not trying to send a message. I’m just singing songs. What I want to achieve is writing more cool songs and playing more cool shows. That’s all.”
Tour Magma is the sixth time the band have played on Australian shores. Seiji says that “all the previous tours were great”, however “when we played here for the first time, there were only three people and it fired me up all the way”. The band rate timeless rockers AC/DC as their favorite Australian artists. The famous aussie rock icons and the Rolling Stones are the two acts they would most like to record with.
Guitar Wolf have just returned from their spiritual home in Memphis where they played Gonerfest. Seiji gushes, “It’s one of the best festivals in the world. I feel exquisite joy to play live in Memphis, our home town.”
The town and the festival have played a vital role in the fortunes of Guitar Wolf. While on their first American tour, the band were seen in Memphis by garage rock guru Eric Friedl of the Oblivians. So impressed with the band, he started up his own label Goner Records to self-release the trio’s demo tape, their debut LP Wolf Rock!, in 1993.
While the main musical inspiration, and incendiary guitar moment for Seiji, was hearing Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’, the band have carved their own unique niche – even creating their own genre, labeled ‘Jet Rock’.
The frontman has described his aim to have “loud noise like a jet plane” and surmises the bands’ recording technique with “everything must be in the red”.
“What I want to achieve is writing more cool songs and playing more cool shows”Guitar Wolf’s 1999 album Jet Generation is claimed to be the loudest album ever recorded. Upon being given the masters, their label Matador Records were told by the studio technicians that the recording levels “exceeded the theoretical maximum possible on compact disk audio”.
Seiji is proud that across the band’s 26 years, and despite the advancements in technology and recording techniques, “our approach to the recording or playing live hasn’t changed much”.
Guitar Wolf’s lengthy career has also offered them a unique perspective on changes to the music industry. Seiji observes, “It seems to be true that things go around in a 10-year circle. About 10 years ago, there were a lot of great powerful rock bands that had sprung up all over the world. Now, 10 years later, I’m feeling the same air. I don’t know of the other music genres but for sure in the world of R&R.”
As well as releasing 11 of their own studio albums, the band were also paid the ultimate compliment when some of the underground rock luminaries, including Jon Spencer, J Mascis, and Jim O’Rourke, made the tribute album I Love Guitar Wolf: Very Much.
Seiji describes the honour. “It was a great surprise and I was grateful at the same time. All songs are so great. I was almost going to cry.”
As if being the loudest band in the world wasn’t enough, they have also saved the planet from aliens and UFOs in their first feature film Wild Zero. The band now have their sights set on the sequel.
Seiji elaborates, “I’ve already discussed the plot with the director. We are going to time travel to the old time of Japan and slash the samurai zombies. The director is looking for the sponsors.”
Read our live review of Guitar Wolf @ The Espy here
