Song I Wish I Wrote: Teen Mortgage’s Edward Barakauskas on Boris
I’ve raved about Teen Mortgage more than any other DMV band. The duo is everything I want in a band. Their songs are direct, most clocking in at under 3 minutes. Their sound is simple: loud guitars and loud drums. Their instrumentation seems rudimentary but actually well schooled in the history of garage rock. They sound more like they’re pummeling than playing.
Teen Mortgage drummer Edward Barakauskas is also Tired all the Time drummer Edward Barakauskas. TATT is a little more indie, a little less rock than TM. They make catchy, dancy, sway-y tunes that’ll have you nodding your head.
We asked Barakauskas for a song he wish he wrote. He went above and beyond and once you listen to some Boris, the shared DNA between his two bands becomes a lot more obvious.
Edward Barakauskas: I have a tendency to overcomplicate questions that probably only warrant a simple response. For that reason, I wasn’t able to decide on a singular song I wish I had written, but rather, an entire band I wish I could be like: Japan’s BORIS. As of this writing, they have 27 full studio albums, 14 EPs, 7 live albums and 15 collaborative albums before you get the assorted one-off songs, splits, concert videos, import releases, etc. They have constantly morphed through such genres as sludge metal, drone, noise rock, doom, avant garde, punk, noise and even a dance album. They’re known for recording live in studio, utilizing analog equipment with minimal overdubs. It’s not all great or sometimes even listenable. Once I put on their album, Megatone with Merzbow, and thought my speakers were broken before realizing I’d been listening to 23 minutes of soft textural noise.
Most musical projects I’ve been a part of developed compositions over months or years, constantly refining the same handful of songs. Then it’s off to the task of tracking it all in-studio and shaping those recordings towards industry standard expectations. At some point of the process, I’ll find myself temporarily hating what we’re working on. Ideally, I’d like to simply make the music I want to make and worry about what people think later. There’s certainly some spectrum of necessity in quality control but it’s not an element of being a musician I enjoy. From working with countless sound engineers over the years, I’ve often felt grateful to have not refined my audio palette to the extent required of that occupation, allowing me to enjoy music with a certain level of blissful detachment from sound quality.
Boris, on the other hand, represents a template of artistic freedom I envy immensely, operating far outside the confines of contemporary music production. Their records embrace elements of humanity and often uncontrollable sounds. Atsuo, the band’s drummer, has gone on record in numerous interviews about their divergence from writing and recording traditions, experimenting with recording techniques and embracing incidental sounds or mistakes. This no doubt contributes to their ability to churn out such a massive body of work while continuing to remain interesting.
A great place to start with Boris is their 2005 album, PINK. I consider it the quintessential gateway Boris record, it’s their breakthrough album and one of the most accessible releases. The opening, “Farewell,” and the title track, “Pink,” are rare staples of their live shows.
Likewise, some of the more accessible albums include Heavy Rocks (2002), Akuma No Uta (2003), Rainbow with Michio Kurihara (2006), SMILE (2008) and one of their newest records, NO (2020).
When you’re ready, I’d highly recommend diving into their more extreme records, many of which consist of one long form composition like Boris at Last – Feedbacker (2003), FLOOD (2000), and Altar with Sunn O))) & Dylan Carlson of Earth (2006).
I also recommend Dronevil (2005), but it’s relatively hard to find and it’s a double album meant to be played on two separate systems at the same time.
Recommend If You Like pays all our writers. Some of that comes from our Patreon. If you've enjoyed anything we've done, cool. We have a Patreon. We promise that once we're bought by a billionaire or millionaire looking for a fun new vanity project, we'll stop asking for money. Until then, please consider the Patreon. If you can't afford to become a patron, please sign up to our mailing list. It's free and we're asking here instead of a pop-up.