An Outtake from BOMB 104, Summer 2008…

In BOMB’s Summer 2008 issue, Hisham Akira Bharoocha speaks to Yamatsuka Eye and Yoshimi P-We about the ways in which Boredoms connect music with humanity. In the following outtake, we learn more about Yoshimi’s side projects: her clothing line and her own band, OOIOO.

 

Yoshimi during a sound-check at 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., April 3, 2008. Photo: Hisham Akira Bharoocha.

Hisham Akira Bharoocha How long have you had your clothing company?

Yamatsuka Eye Maybe about 6–7 years, but it’s not quite a company.

HAB You just started making stuff?

Yoshimi P-We When I was traveling across the mountains around the border of Thailand and Laos, there was this tribe that had the coolest clothes—I got them to trade them for the OOIOO shirt I was wearing. This inspired me. The mountain tribes of a certain altitude—in Thailand, Yunnan, Brazil, and Africa—all have this color. It might be the way that they see light. In South America, for instance, they have this unique fluorescent blue. But all these tribes’ clothes have something in common: they’re all made by hand, are amazingly beautiful and radiant. It’s totally punk, not just in Yunnan.

HAB In Guatemala, too. How long have you been doing the all-girl band OOIOO? And what about the band’s name?

YP Since around 1995. I saw “OOIOO” written in Eye’s notebook, and I stole it from there.

EYE That’s not right, I gave it to you when you asked me if I could think of a band name…

YP Yeah, then you showed me your notebook and were like, “Which one do you like?” You had OOIOO, Pink Sabbath, and all kinds of things written down.

HAB Pink Sabbath! (laughter)

YP I could only see OOIOO. I was like, I’ll take this one! We wouldn’t even have to do anything after that, because the band name was already art.

 

Boredoms perform during their most recent U.S. tour in March of 2008. Photo: Hisham Akira Bharoocha.

 

 

Read the print edition interview of Boredoms by Hisham Akira Bharoocha in BOMB 104, Summer 2008, now available on newsstands everywhere. Subscribe today and receive your FREE copy!