Pack Rock

Japanese punk/garage/speed rock trio Guitar Wolf are like the adolescent ideal of a rock band. This is the band that saved the world from a zombie alien invasion (in movie, Wild Zero) and can play the craziest set you've ever seen without having their sunglasses slip down.

And after a career that's spanned the better part of three decades and has had more ups and downs than the gnarliest rollercoaster at Fuji-Q Highland, Guitar Wolf are still one of the most exciting bands you're going to see. In the two years since they last unleashed their hellfire rock'n'roll show on Australian audiences, the trio retreated to the studio to give birth to their thirteenth album. Arguably the greatest/dumbest record title since the Dwarves' Blood Guts & Pussy, Guitar Wolf's Beast Vibrator might even exceed its dumb/fun moniker. It's scuzzy, super fast and infectious in its simplicity.

According to Seiji, via our good friend Google Translate, making new Guitar Wolf music requires he find a very special headspace. It's a process to get there, but once he finds it, the songs come.

“I eat the raw meat. I like the horse meat sashimi. I don't know if this dish is served in Australia. It's called Basashi. I watch the space, Enter The Dragon, and think of the motorcycles, girls… then the kickass rock'n'roll will be born.”  

Then he heads into the studio to meet up with Drum Wolf Toru and Bass Wolf U.G.“The other wolves are looking forward to my new songs all the time. When we get together to complete the songs, we always have a great time. We laugh a lot. At the recordings, we focus with different kind of tension from that of the live shows. We record our guts out. We always keep a great deal of focus and tension at the recordings, just like the wolves when they are ready to kill the prey.”

That focus equates, once again, to rocking at 11 from start to finish, but did Seiji ever feel tempted to slow things down and do a Guitar Wolf ballad?

“I want to write a ballad but I can't make one. I want to sing about a red hair girl riding the rocket, but I can't make it into a ballad.”

Guitar Wolf are returning to Brisbane, a place Seiji describes as, “the city where the girls wearing mini-skirts hang with the boys and party all day and night, that's Brisbane”.

There's still one question - all those rumours about a Wild Zero sequel?

“Wild Zero Episode Of Time Trip – The Wolves At The Edo Castle will be the sequel. We are going to time travel back to the old Japan to kill the samurai zombies.”