1. So you are into metal Huh! What groups do you like?

Yeah! My hero is early Iron Maiden though, recently I'm into death metal band like early Fear Factory, Cryptopsy, Anal Cunt, Brutal Truth, Dissection, Edge of Sanity, Exit-13, etc. I recomend you the remix album of Fear Factory called "fear is the mind killer". It's by Frontline Assembly.

 

2. Your brother is Com.a, how did you both develop into musicians? Have you taught each other little tricks or shared samples, etc?

When I did Rom=Pari, most of tracks are done by me. Because it's my project. Sometimes, when I wanted to add a bit memorable thing, I used to call him and worked it together. After Rom=Pari, we write tracks apart from each others. We've never shared equipments or kind of that. Actually I sometimes write tracks for Rom=Pari still. It's very far away from Joseph Nothing feeling.

3.Tell me about Dreamland park. Why did you make an album around it?

Dreamland is a weird themepark which really exists near to my house. Everything in the place is old,lo-fi,cursed,full of anachronism and it looks like ghost town.

Of course,few people come here because of such state. There are some rumours that some people have seen the real ghost in the bankrupt hotel (the wickedest place). I often take a walk around there, and really love it because it is different from any other themepark.

I used to be high when I went there. Finally all the companies have been bunkrupted recently and Dreamland too. Why I call this album "Dreamland Idle Orchestra" is that I would love to be a part of them(Dreamland), and leave something about it for my memory. In short, the title is a kind of metaphor of myself. Also I mean to dedicate this album to Dreamland. What I used to do there was only taking a walk and wasting my time to fool around though. This is my first album which is full of love songs.

4. Why is it full of love songs? Are the songs dedicated to the park itself or to people? Did you know that there was a Dreamland park here in NYC in the 20's? It was really amazing looking but burned to the ground by a freak accident.

It's definitely dedicated to the everything in the Dreamland, like cheap Games, wicked attractions, cemetary, haunted hotel, etc, everything, because I really love them.

It's fantastic that there was another Dreamland in NY. Both are seem to be wicked - funny coincidence.

 

5. Describe to me what a Joseph Nothing live show is like?

I can't tell what I do in my show from the other's eyes though, I think it's similar to a kind of Metal gig, more rock feeling than the atmosphere of my albums. That's why I have my long hair to head-banging:)

 

6. Tell me about the music scene in Japan, It seems like there a lot of really interesting music coming from there. In previous emails you mentioned something about rival factions?

Yeah, it's getting better and better. But still Japan exports many equipments, don't exports much music culture, I think. I know there are many kinds of great music here especially in traditional music, commercial songs, etc. Actually, such kind of musics have a great influence on me.

About electric music, people prefer listening in their room to hanging out in the clubs. The Japan tour which was organized by ROMZ rec (my homeground in Japan) was succeeded in the point of making nerd people come to each clubs:) ROMZ rec might change the electronic music scene here. About rival factions, they are not our rival. Because we are far away from the people like that, for example techno, electronic things. We often try to be isolated and different from any others.

7. If Iron Maiden asked you to do a remix, what song would it be? How would it sound? Fast? Slow? Crazy? Melodic?

It would be one of my dream! Actually the song called "March of the D.I.O" from my new album was composed under the influence of their song called "Can I play with maddness" :) If they really offered me a remix, I would ask them to use the samples of their "loneliness of the long distant runner", and the sound would be of course melodic like trance techno, and I'll get big money:) I would love to do it, because it's really easy for me to write trance techno track.

But I don't mean to dis Iron Maiden, you know.

All photos and illustrations by Joe Nothing

DREAMLAND IDLE ORCHESTRA is out now! Check it out at Planet-Mu

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