Soiled Hate (@soiledhate) is a band that creates musical and performative violence. If the personal fate of each one of us is to fight to continue living. If we have to do it in an alienating society that has annulled many of our instincts … then perhaps by generating violence in the shape of music we can feel that we are part of something bigger than us.
Something primal. Something animal. We all dance alone, but perhaps by mixing and hitting each other on the floor, we may realize that we are just flesh born to die.
This could be the motive and message of Soiled Hate’s music, but it could also be any other. Even the opposite. Even none at all. If there is something that Soiled Hate is very clear about, it is that it’s the listener, not the artist, who is responsible for making sense of the music.
Soiled Hate is a band born in Tokyo and formed by Ryo (@_0100101101, drums), Ryosuke (@xyxmxmxtx, vocals), Odoru (@o.tatakau, vocals), Hazuki (bass and vocals), and Zamohfied (@zamohfied, guitar and vocals). Their music is powerviolence, not as a strict technical definition, but as a way of breaking genres and approaching the meaning of music as a whole, or the meaning of life if both things do not always go hand in hand.
So far, Soiled Hate have released a demo and also a single from Berlin violent music label RSRec (@rsrandhateapeproductions). However, since their birth in 2019, they have already given a large number of gigs, being especially linked to the Bush Bash live house (@koiwabushbash) in Koiwa, Tokyo.
In their live performances, they make you feel anguish and anxiety until you realize that it’s the anguish and anxiety that you already had inside yourself and their music is releasing. Maybe you feel something else. Even the opposite. Even nothing at all.
This year they are preparing the release of their first album. I had a chat with them about the band, but also about violence, hatred and loneliness.
Chorareii: Let’s start by introducing you. Who are Soiled Hate?
Ryo: I’m Ryo Shirai and I play drums. I’m also the drummer for another band, SOLPÄÄTOS.
Ryosuke: My name is Ryosuke Yamamoto. I’m a vocalist. I also play the bass in a death metal band called Mortal Incarnation.
Odoru: my stage name is Odoru Tatakau. It means “Dancing like fighting.” I’m also a vocalist for Soiled Hate.
Hazuki: I’m Hazuki, I play bass and do vocals. This band is the only one I belong to now.
Zamohfied: My name is Norio Kato, but in the band I’m called Zamohfied. I play the guitar and do some vocals. My other bands are Zen Lunatics, Mohive Har, Distance, Youth Issue, HETH, Shapeshifter.
When was Soiled Hate born?
Ryo: Soiled Hate started in 2017 with me and a previous guitarist. Ryosuke joined via Twitter, followed by his friend Odoru. The previous guitarist left the band in 2018, and we continued as a trio, Hazuki and Norio joined in 2019. From there we became the current five-member band
Ryosuke: We released our first demo in spring 2019 and did our first live performance seven months later.
Why did you decide to create the band, or be part of it?
Ryo: If I had to say why Soiled Hate was born, I’d say it was like karma.
Ryosuke: I found out that drummer Ryo Shirai was recruiting members for a powerviolence band. I knew that SOLPÄÄTOS, the band where he played drums, was great, so I wanted to join.
Odoru: I really wanted a place to release my passion through my voice.
Zamohfied: It looked like fun! That’s all.
You are a powerviolence band. Tell me about this genre and how your music fits into it.
Odoru: In my opinion, we first aimed towards traditional powerviolence as our style. However, some songs that I made did not fit into it due, I lacked essential knowledge to create powerviolence. Maybe they were more youth crew hardcore, sludge or hip-hop. What remains are the stop & go, the twisted rhythm and a frenetic vocal style, perversely exaggerated.
Ryo: Powerviolence is a very difficult genre to define musically, people should accept it as they like. What we have inherited from previous powerviolence bands are the mindset and the power to destroy existing styles.
Hazuki: We do powerviolence in a broad sense. I’m more influenced by metal sounds, but also by all the musical genres that I have listened to in my life.
Ryosuke: I think our music is also heavily influenced by hardcore punk, tough guy hardcore, grindcore, sludge metal, and death metal. Personally, the band I like the most is Crossed Out.
Zamohfied: I don’t define my music, I don’t understand all genres.
You have just mentioned Crossed Out. What other bands have influenced you?
Zamohfied: Infest, Only the Last Song, Turnstile, Super Structure, He is Legend.
Odoru: When I compose songs, I personally take inspiration from many genres and bands, but especially I’m consciously inspired by extreme music bands from the 90s. No Comment, SPAZZ, early Converge, mid-stage Napalm Death, Japanese death metal band Multiplex, Senseless Apocalypse, and also some Nu-Metal bands.
When it comes to performing live, I’m aware that I have been influenced by some rock stars such as Kenji Otsuki (Kinniku Shōjo Tai), Till Lindemann (Rammstein), Taichi Nagura (Endon) or David Sylvian (Japan), although I think I have ended up becoming kind of like a junky noise musician [laughs].
Hazuki: I think it’s the background of each member that most influences the sound of Soiled Hate.
Ryosuke: All the music that I consider good, without being conscious of it, is influencing me.
Ryo: Exactly, I couldn’t list all the bands that have unconsciously influenced me.
Right now you have a demo and a single edited. First, let’s talk about the demo.
Ryo: We recorded it as a presentation of the band and to attract new members, as at that time we were three. We didn’t have much time to make it, but we still got to meet some strong new members, so I think it was a good way to introduce ourselves.
Ryosuke: We recorded the demo in a studio called Noise Room Recordings (@noise_room.recs). This studio is one of our favorite places.
Odoru: I love the demo, it is part of my origins.
Zamohfied: I listened to the demo before joining. It’s good, but now we are more so!
The Berlin label RSRec / Hate Ape Prods —which motto is “Making Violent Music Since 1992”— has released the song “Alone” as a preview of your first album, which will be titled “The Nine Billon Names of Hate”. I would like us to talk about the concepts of violence, hatred and loneliness. Why is it interesting or necessary to create music of hate and violence?
Odoru: RSRec offered us to do this release because it’s a label that has been releasing the work of some of our favorite artists and that we respect.
As for the relationship between violence, hatred, and music, it’s a very difficult subject. This is the way I see it. In a live performance of violent music, the audience makes menacing gestures. They raise their hands in the air. Teeth bared. Stomping their feet. Shouting. This is something very special since in our daily lives we are quarantined when it comes to fundamental violence, animal violence.
However, taken to the extreme, only each person can find out a “given” meaning to music. I don’t know how other people listen to music. So even when I’m at a concert, I’m not there with my “comrades”, but with a group of individuals. Me, another one, and another one … and another one. In that sense, there is alienation on the floor during a gig. But when everyone is alienated, there is equality. Hate has to do with this part. Maybe it would be something like “don’t get along too well with others.”
Listening to the same music, different strangers use different violent gestures. They are scared of each other and hate each other, but a part of their heart communicates with others, too. There are few places in modern society where this is allowed. I think it’s a very interesting and important topic. The title of our single is “Alone”. We all have to dance alone.
Is that the message that you want to convey to the world with your songs?
Odoru: If I had to express the message of the songs from my personal principle, this would be, let’s keep fighting the catastrophe to postpone it as long as possible. That is the painful and lonely mission of each person.
Ryo: I prefer not to limit the reception of the listener too much.
Zamohfied: I would say nothing, I don’t want to say anything to the world with my music.
Obviously your live shows are extremely powerful. I would like to know what kind of energy you feel at that moment, or what energy you want people to feel.
Ryosuke: Let’s get messed up!!
Odoru: I can’t care about anything when I’m singing. However, I hope that our performance is a pure expression of violence. That is, not for money, amusement or anyone’s mental satisfaction, but to revive those primal festivals where sacrifices were made.
Ryo: Playing live is just fun. As I said earlier, I don’t want to say anything that limits the way we receive music. I want people to be able to accept it and interpret it however they want.
Hazuki: I feel the power of the music and I feel uplifted. I think what you feel depends on each person, I hope you can feel something from the performance of that day.
Zamohfied: When I play music, I feel fine. I don’t care about the audience.
You usually give concerts at Bush Bash (@koiwabushbash), what is your connection with this venue?
Zamohfied: It’s a feeling that I can’t explain, [at Bush Bash] there is an atmosphere where anyone can play the way they want.
Ryosuke: Bush Bash has clearly expressed anger at all the discrimination in the world. That stance encourages me to sing clearly. It’s my favorite place.
Ryo: It’s a great live music venue, I respect the way they run their business, and I’m glad I have the chance to play there.
Odoru: I love it there.
You are preparing your first album, what can you tell me about it?
Hazuki: It will be an album with which you can feel us.
Ryosuke: It will be released this year, so I hope you will listen it!
Ryo: I think we will be able to release it by the end of 2021. We have made a great product.
Odoru: I’m looking forward to it. This is one conclusion for a never-ending trial.
Zamohfied: When we get together, we chat, make jokes, laugh. But when we play, we’re hated in this utopia. Each of us is suffering. This is written on our new album.
Support and listen Soiled Hate music on their Bandcamp.
Listen to the single “Alone” from Soiled Hate’s first album at RSR/HAP’s Bandcamp.
Follow Soiled Hate on Instagram and Twitter
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