The brainpan and the breadbasket

>> With their new CD, locals Mishima focus in on their thinking-person's sex-pop

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

The first time Mirror readers were introduced to Mishima was the release of their 1998 debut Wake Up to Make Up. Back then, these slippery eels railed against the pigeonholing of "yet another '80-style post-punk band." Truth be told, the disc was rife with testaments to Pere Ubu's cacophony, Gang of Four's lefthanded groove and Robert Smith's cure-all croon.

Flash forward three years and Mishima are on the cusp of releasing their second record Red Is the New Black and Blue, and are still as opinionated as ever. With three years between releases, they've managed to craft a perfect pop album--and they know it. Instead of just making a good record, Mishima show the brass cojones to make an important record, a record that offers no apologies and is a bucking bronco of a ride all the way through. Songs like "Playboy Century" or "Static X Static" are well crafted and fully realized but maintain a newfound panoramic vision rarely attempted in pop music any more. Mishima are now enjoying first-time worldwide distribution and are just about to embark on a two-month tour of North America.

The Mirror caught up with Mishima's lippy punks, Nick "the Prick" Robinson (synthesizers) and Rory Kenny (vocals, guitar) at their favourite watering hole. After more than a couple of pitchers of amber nectar to help loosen the screws, the boys spilled it all.



Mirror: You're about to go out on your first big tour. What are you expecting?

Nick Robinson: Well, I don't think we'll have any fruit baskets waiting for us at the clubs.

M: But you'll be doing your first indie-rock tour--

Rory Kenny: We are not indie rock and we don't like indie rock. We are totally beyond that. There's no such thing as indie rock bullshit happening right now. Indie rock to me is about bands that shun away from whatever is popular and that's bullshit. Indie rock is just eating its own shit right now.

M: Hold the phone there, champ! What I meant was, you aren't exactly playing the enormo-domes.

NR: Our label is booking the tour, so in that sense it is an indie tour but it's not like we're playing with that many indie-rock-sounding bands. On a tour like this, the best you can hope for is people coming out and just hearing the songs off of the record while we enjoy a cheap vacation in the States. Don't get me wrong, I think the record is fucking amazing and I think everyone should be into it but the fact is, you have to establish a grassroots following first. I don't think the Mishima sound is something you can just dive into.

M: It doesn't really pander to radio-friendly pop sensibilities.

NR: I think there is a pop instinct that runs through the whole record. That was the intention of this record. The last record, we had a whole bunch of parts jumbled together and just figured we could put it together. This time around we wanted to challenge ourselves and write more focused songs. Some people will hear one song and be really into it and then hear the next song and not like it all.

M: It does seem to consciously combine rock with art.

RK: There is a big scene happening in the States right now on an indie level without being indie rock. They don't compromise the sound for the sake of irony. It's new, it's rock, it's art and it's emotional. They don't shy away from being adventurous as well as being accessible.

M: So do you feel an affinity with the new face of indie rock?

RK: I don't feel any affinity with shoegazing bands that compromise good music for the sake of being ironic.

M: Due to top-40 fluff, pop has been regarded as a dirty word lately.

NR: Pop music has always been edgy. Listen to "My Boyfriend's Back," that has tons of edge but people have forgotten about that. There is a darkness to pop that people don't remember or you just don't hear that much on the radio now.

RK: People think "pop" and they think of the Moffats, Britney Spears and N' Sync. What about bands like Blonde Redhead? That's pop to me. I think that to make good music, you must learn from pop's past and still know how to make it adventurous.

M: It seems like you went out of your way to present pop in a new way on this record.

NR: We try to present it as challenging as we can with it still remaining comfortable for us.

RK: In our songwriting there is a lot of nuance and chaos. What we hope people will walk away with after hearing the record is the pop sensibilities.

The sound is found

M: It seems that on the first record you were still looking for your sound, but now you've found it.

NR: This was a real thought-out record. We argued over every note for over two years of working on this.

RK: We knew what we wanted this record to sound like and with the help of our producer, Ian Blurton, we got what we wanted.

M: Do you find that a lot of indie rock is directionless?

NR: Quite the opposite. I think indie rockers like to pigeonhole themselves. If you do this paint-by-numbers style of music, then audiences will smell that out and think you're a fraud.

RK: When we started, we looked at Mishima as an experimental art band, but we found it was just too easy to fart out a bunch of arty, noisy rock songs. We realized that was just an easy way out. A lot of indie rock is about funny fascist rules. We found out a few years ago that that's not what we are about at all. We hate that element in music. When people become politically inclined to hate a lot of music based on rules and ideology, then it's just bullshit. That's what music should break down, not promote.

NR: If you like certain things in music than you will eventually find yourself being exposed to other elements in music, if you can just learn to accept them.

M: Montreal seems to be getting quite a reputation as being a hotbed for bands right now.

NR: Montrealers don't really set out to be a specific kind of band, so they end up being a lot more interesting.

RK: Look at where we are. There is no industry here, so most people don't even know what is going on in the industry. People tend to do what they want here and take their time on it, with not much concentration on success. Montreal bands all piss in the same toilet and tend to like local bands that vary from each other. Look at godspeed you black emperor!, Tricky Woo or the Dears--people are just a little bit more open here then, say, Toronto.

M: But on the other hand, it has gotten pretty clique-ish and elitist.

RK: Well, there are a lot bars that cater to specific musical cliques. They all have their own level of pretension, but if you're open enough to new things you can ignore the pretension and hang out anywhere and learn from it. That's what makes Montreal so cool, as long as you remain open.

Sex-press yourself

M: I always thought of you guys as too sexy for most indie rockers.

RK: Indie rock has always shunned away from being sexy. I would like to explore having sex with every other guy or girl in the world. I think a lot of indie rockers just can't properly express being sexy. As far as we're concerned, we don't have a problem with that because that is part of who we are. If rock can hit on sensuality, then that's when I think rock gets intelligent.

M: What are the lyrics in "Static X Static" about?

RK: It's kind of like fucking a mirror. It's a double fantasy about a guy who is fantasizing about a girl who is fantasizing about him. The character in the song gets so into the fantasy that he believes he is a dildo powered by nuclear energy.

M: You don't really find these Burroughs-esque fantasies in rock. Is there a place for the thinking-man's rock band?

NR: If we wanted to just do an art project, I don't think we would pick the medium of rock 'n' roll to do it. We would've just written a book. We really like rock.

RK: We're not kidding ourselves and trying to be just a rock 'n' roll band. We are just liberating rock from a lot of bad elements.

M: So there is no political rhetoric attached to Mishima.

NR: Our only politics are to bend people's politics and fashions.

RK: If people come to a Mishima show they should just leave their politics at the door. Leave politics to the politicians.

CD launch with Blurtonia and the Fembots at Cabaret on Wednesday, Feb 21, 9pm, $7