Japanther

Ian Vanek would like to make one thing clear: Japanther are more than just a band. Sure, the New York City duo write and play raucous, punk-minded songs that rely heavily on a Casio SK-1 keyboard, distorted tape loops and random samples, and touch on everything from dead movie stars (“River Phoenix”) to rebelling against authority (the “1, 2, 3, 4, fuck the cops” chant on “Radical Businessmen”) to youthful friendship (“Bumpin’ Rap Tapes”). But there’s also the Japanther-designed t-shirts and skateboard decks, the tour posters and limited edition vinyl with fellow NYC bands including Ninjasonik and Matt & Kim, and the collaborations with artists, movie directors and more. I recently checked in with singer and drummer Vanek, who along with guitarist and keyboardist Matt Reilly make up Japanther, who took the time out of his much-deserved vacation in Birmingham, Alabama (or as Vanek describes it, “God’s country”) to talk to me. The duo just completed a 70 show run through the United States, Canada and Mexico, and soon will be back in New York City to join Dillinger Four on tour before their upcoming Toronto appearances at NXNE. I spoke to Vanek about the duo’s DIY mentality, the many pies they have their hands dipped in, what Toronto audiences can expect from them, and more.

“We wanted to sound like Slayer for girls.” Vanek is describing Japanther’s early musical mission statement, when he and Reilly met as students at New York City’s art school Pratt Institute in 2001. Bonding over the unholy trinity of The Ramones, The Misfits, and the aforementioned Slayer, the two decided to start a band despite having little musical background. Vanek tells me that he believes “The Misfits spoke to human nature” – an ideal that he feels Japanther have been pursuing with their music from the very beginning, an ideal that has been eight years in the making. They released their debut, a homemade CD-R entitled The Last of the Land Pirates, and have since have produced a steady stream of EPs, split seven inches and full-lengths, which eventually caught the ears of those in their city (Brooklyn Vegan said “The virile and powerful Poseidon is no match for the pairing of energetic Brooklyn band Japanther”) and on the national stage as well (Rolling Stone’s review of 2007′s Skuffed Up My Hussy: “If Buddy Holly were young, wired, pissed at his landlord and unable to play guitar, he might sound like “Challenge”). Their live shows in everywhere from basements, warehouses and even empty swimming pools, quickly gained a reputation as being chaotic, loud, but above all, fun for all-ages. Vanek says that the band’s greatest pride is that their band never attracts the same audience twice, but plays to a diverse crowd which includes “bike punks, art school girls, whites, blacks, Mexicans – everybody.” The duo’s most recent album, the awesomely-titled Tut Tut Now Shake Your Butt (released last year on independent label Wantage USA), is more of everything that fans have come to love about Japanther: a cacophonous dance party with thumping drums, messy guitar, and fuzz-drenched vocals. Despite all the acclaim and attention though, Vanek says that, “We still try to stay off some radars. We still want to keep it fun for us and fun for the kids that come to see us.”

If you were to visit Japanther’s website, you’ll be greeted with a sensory overload of brightly-coloured, flashing illustrations. The majority of these images were created by either Vanek, Reilly or friends of the band, and include everything from t-shirts with a drawing of a panther riding a skateboard to album artwork which features a cartoon body with a knife stuck in his back. The duo have dabbled into every medium imaginable; from print-making to painting to silk-screening and design most of their merchandise themselves, including intricate tour posters (to which they have a section of their website devoted to) and black and gold skateboard decks (“We got the idea from a Circle Jerks concert”). If you follow Japanther on Twitter, or regularly read the band’s blog, Dump The Body In Rikki Lake (named after one of the band’s albums), you will discover another favourite pastime of the band’s: graffiti. Between Tweets that pronounce “Just did ten big red throw ups along highway 70 in Cincinnati, OH. Illegal Trouble thats my shit!” and links to classic clips of Bart Simpson tagging hijinks, its a pretty safe bet to say that wherever Japanther are they have a subscription to Clout Magazine and a can of spray paint handy.

Talking to Vanek, you can’t help but notice the amount of artist names keep cropping in boldface during the conversation. There’s Yannick Desranleau and Chloe Lum from Montreal band AIDS Wolf, who also formed poster design company Seripop, and whose work Vanek said “floored” him and the band ended up getting the duo to create artwork for them. There’s Dan Graham, a famous New York City contemporary artist, for who the band provided the soundtrack for his puppet rock opera, Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty (watch this to get just an idea of what the project looked and sounded like). So are Reilly and Vanek repressed artists masquerading as musicians, or do they just get bored easily? According to Vanek, the answer is neither. He insists that they always considered Japanther as an “art collective”, and they just want to work with anyone that has unique ideas with “social or political motivations”, whether it be sculptors, BMX riders or painters. “Art will always eb and flow,” says Vanek. He tells me that Reilly is also working on animation for the band. “In the future you’ll see Japanther like Scooby Doo – teaching morals to kids,” he laughs.

“We don’t try to exclude people.” When Vanek says this, he isn’t just talking about the artists the duo have worked with, but also the close-knit circle of Brooklyn musicians, friends and labels that he feels they have surrounded themselves with. Japanther, alongside bands including flailing punks Cerebral Ballzy, Nintendo-rappers Ninjasonik (who write songs with titles such as “Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant” and “Internet Bitch”) and probably the most recognizable name, husband-wife pop duo Matt & Kim, have formed a Brooklyn scene of bands that support and play with each other. And when one of the bands in this scene “rockets off into the stratosphere”, Vanek says there is nothing as gratifying. “You see some bands up there and they’re staring down at their shoes,” says Vanek, “You see Matt Johnson up there singing into the microphone and he’s having so much goddamn fun.” In a sense you get the feeling that this Brooklyn scene is more than a scene, but a community of individuals coming together to express and share original ideas with one another. After all, as Vanek puts it, “We all die alone, we don’t have to live alone.”

For Canadian fans wanting to see Japanther live, they have not one, but three opportunities at Toronto’s upcoming NXNE. They will be playing Sneaky Dee’s on June 18th, Wrongbar (a venue that the band lit up the last time they were here in Toronto) with partners-in-crime Ninjasonik, Matt & Kim and more on June 19th, and for the kids, a free all-ages performance at Yonge-Dundas Square with Crystal Antlers, Golden Triangle, The Sonics and The Zoobombs on June 20th. “You guys should know that you have a beautiful city,” says Vanek, “Our manager lives in Toronto.” So can we expect any special treats from the band’s multiple performances? Vanek filled me in that there will be a new, split 7″ single with tour mates Ninjasonik, entitled “I Don’t Give a Fuck What You Say On the Internet”, that’ll be available in a limited run of 500 copies. As the title suggests, its a tongue-in-cheek “fuck you” to online critics, with Kelly from Ninjasonik delivering lines like “While you’re talking shit, we’re taking off.”. “I bite my tongue a lot,” says Vanek, who adds that sometimes its hard to ignore the negative stuff that’s being written about you when you’re “bearing your soul and you’re [being] really positive”. For a band that is unabashedly DIY; from their songs to their album artwork to doing their own publicity, positivity is incredibly important to Japanther. Whether its making music with friends or coming up with new ideas for art projects, if it isn’t fun for Vanek and Reilly, than its something not worth doing. That said, when asked if he could be any singing animal, Vanek had no hesitations. “Whale. Killer whale. Its a beautiful mammal, it can repeat a loop up to twenty minutes, its loyal to its family and friends,” said Vanek, “We have a song called “The Whale” on one of our albums. I’m a Taurus, but I’d rather be a singing whale.”

For more Japanther,
Website: http://www.japanther.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/japanther