Japanese media about Tetsu Yamauchi, especially interviews?

June 26, 2024 5:00 AM

I am very curious about Tetsu Yamauchi who played bass for Free and Faces before returning to Japan. All the other Faces members have biographies and autobiographies but I cannot find even one English interview with Tetsu. I would love to read his thoughts and opinions on that time and wonder if there is anything in Japanese that I could put through an online translator?
posted by Rhedyn to Media & Arts (1 answer total)

It's probably safe to assume that Tetsu has never given an interview about that period, whether in English or Japanese. As of 2011, "Tetsu will not speak to any press. Seriously. He will not, period."

It's not Faces-related, but there is this quote from Tetsu, c. 1998, as found in the liner notes for Werner Lüdi's album Ki:

Tetsu speaks a singing Cockney English--he lived in London for several years, went through wild times with Ginger Baker. Even today, at fifty, he still is a passionate sake drinker.

Tetsu, very drunk, lays a frenzied bassline through the typhoon, Hano pounds his drums as if he wants to unleash a seaquake.

"To simplify it somewhat", Tetsu begins, "in Japan, we have two directions--besides all the plastic crap that exists all over the world. First there is New Wave. Actually a 'high-tech' romanticism, that stands for sexual liberation, natural foods, bucolic tendencies, personal empowerment, cultural pluralism and stylistic experimentation. The New Wave doubts, of course, that the rise in science and technology contributes to the betterment of the human condition. So it's more an 'Old Wave'." Laughter.

Dave McNarie runs the Faces website... if you can find contact info for him (I couldn't), he should know for sure if there's anything out there. It's also possible that Paolo Hewitt or John Hellier might be able to provide some info.
posted by paper scissors sock at 1:01 PM on June 26 [4 favorites]