Home Base: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website/Myspace address:
www.myspace.com/microbunnymusic
www.microbunny.com

Electronica artist, Al Okada of Microbunny, discusses his new album, 49 Swans.

WMR: Al, I just wanted to give a little run down on a bit of history. Pre-Microbunny was King Cobb Steelie. And we’ve got a little bit of history in the sense that I was booker at a club called the B-Side  back in 2003 I believe, where I had you play a show.

Al: Right.

WMR: So give us a quick rundown on what’s been in the Microbunny world since 2003.

Al: Oh God, well, we put out another record since that time called DeadStars, which we released I think in 2004, and we played a few shows, and then we stopped playing. The singer and myself decided that we wanted to part ways, so we stopped playing for a while and I started looking for a different singer, and I found Rebecca Campbell, who’s singing with us now. And we played a few shows after that in about 2005 and then we decided that we wanted to stop and write completely new material and rethink how to do the band. And that’s what I’ve been doing for about five years – it took a long time. I decided to move away from the midi-sequenced kind of performance which we were doing before, which is a little bit like an elaborate karaoke thing – there’s a sequence and it forms a structure to the songs which you can’t really change, so you have to know the queues and everything for every song. There’s very little room to change things up every night. You can do it, but it takes a long time, you know, you gotta prepare it all ahead of time, so we decided to try to get away from that with this new formation that we’ve got now, so we added another member, a keyboard player, and that suddenly freed us up. We didn’t have to have drum loops and things going playing along with the band, and so now we can change things up quite a bit which is nice.

WMR: Right, and in fact, I was reading about this album that you recorded basically with the idea that it was all analogue instruments.

Al: We tried as much as possible, yeah, if I could afford them, and there were a few that I couldn’t afford – it was too expensive!

WMR: And if there were any kind of sequences, you used equipment that was pre-digital.

Al: Yeah, I tried recording, I tried to keep it to – there’s a lot of samples out there and a lot of it’s created in many different ways, but I tried to stick to samples that are directly from instruments, that are pre-digital-synthesizers, so like actual instruments, and ones that are as close as possible to the real thing if I couldn’t get the real thing – couldn’t afford the real thing – like a melatron.  Its just funny – they cost $6000 or something to get one, and even then they don’t work properly – it’s a giant money pit to keep it going.

I tried to stick to that so it would have a certain sound to it, but then use today’s ethic towards it. It’s kind of like the ethic that I used before with electronic music, but just doing it with analogue instruments.

WMR: Right, and would you say you’re trying to bring in more of a jazz mentality – by the sounds of it, it sounds like you’re trying to open up and free yourself to more improvization – are you working then to translate that to the live show?

Al: We have to some extent – we tried some things and it was just too strange and it didn’t quite work, and part of the thing was the recording process that I had for this record – we tried afterward to try to simulate some of the stuff and I found that some of the stuff you just can’t simulate because it was just some weird thing that happened in the studio – just a complete fluke. So somethings didn’t work, but other things did work. So yeah, we tried to do that as much as possible, and if there’s a structure to it, to try to keep it as loose as possible so that every time we play it, it’s different.

WMR: I used to play in a band where it was kind of similar, and one of the things that people would ask us is “How would you describe your sound?” With this kind of style, I find it’s quite difficult to work at pigeonholing. What would your answer be, in describing your sound?

Al: Well, I’ve tried on this one to be as minimalist as possible. The previous two records were quite dense – there was a lot of stuff going on. I tried as much as possible to make it spacious so that there’s more room to breathe – so I tried to do that.

WMR: Yeah, I’ve listened to the album a few times – it almost feels like there’s a little bit of patience in the development of the songs.

A: Yeah! (laughs)

WMR: And I think that might be interpreted in the space where it takes a little bit more to build.

Al: Yeah, I mean I was very conscious about what I was putting on there. Before I sort of filled it all up really quickly, like the arrangements, but this time I was very careful about what I put in there. Just put a little thing in there and see, do I need anything more? I really thought about it and if there was any question I would always take it out, rather than leave it in there, this time, if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.

WMR: Yeah, I’d say in my interpretation, it felt like there is that patience, where songs took time to develop a little bit further.

Al: That’s good.

WMR: Which I think brought in a little bit more of that jazz kinda feel, I found, more like Miles Davis.

Al: That’s Nice! (Laughs)  It’s strange that there’s a little bit of a jazz flavour in there. I have absolutely no training whatsoever. It’s just because I like a lot and listen to a lot of jazz, but I can’t read a note, I don’t have a clue about chord structures or anything, but intentionally so. I could have tried to learn that, but I actually prefer to remain ignorant to the whole thing, just completely relying on my ears in deciding on a chord or something – I have no idea what they are though.

WMR: I was online reading, and I think I was on the CBC Radio webpage where it lists David Lynch as one of your influences. How does David Lynch influence your music?

Al: Well, in kind of an abstract way. I just like his films a lot. In particular I love his use of dream imagery. And I kind of use some of that in my music as well. A lot of it is – some of the titles come from that – and when I’m writing music in particular I try as much as possible not to think about anything at all, which is what I’ve read about him as well. He tends to do the same thing when he’s creating his films or thinking about thing for his films. He tries as much as possible to completely clear his mind of any thoughts whatsoever, and then something will just sort of pop into his head, and a lot of his ideas come that way.

WMR: So it’s like a true art experience.

Al: Yeah, well it’s in his work ethic I find something I can relate to – I think that’s why I find him to be an influence. Simply because I’ve read about how he works and creates his films. And I also love the way that his films make me feel. There’s a sense of unease or something when you’re watching some of his pictures – some of the bizarre things that happen in his films – and I try to create something like that with my music as well.

WMR: And his films also take time to develop story lines and what not. Would you say your music also would lead itself well to soundtracks?

Al: I hope so, yeah. I’ve had some success in that area where a few things have been picked up and licensed.

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