Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2013

“Chk chk chk” (or, apparently, any other trice-repeated monosyllable) have been injecting funk into indie since the late ‘90s and are returning to Japan for Beatink’s annual thumpfest Electraglide. Head out to Chiba to see them perform tracks from their April release Th!!!ler and a brand-new EP, R!M!X!S, available in CD-form only in Japan. The rave boasts current electro-darling James Blake as headliner, but for a seriously upbeat tonic, !!! are the ones to get your hips moving in the cavernous Chiba venue that night. Metropolis spoke to vocalist Nic Offer by phone from a hotel in Berlin.

!!! are credited as among the vanguard who injected funk and dance into indie. Where are you at 15 years on now everyone else is doing it?

When we started we just saw ourselves as doing our own thing, it wasn’t some grand plan or something. We’re going to keep doing our own thing. It feels interesting that there is indie music that we can relate to it and understand where it’s coming from… It’s exciting to see that people get it and try to incorporate that kind of music into the indie. As far as where we stand at all now, we had to learn early on not to care, so I don’t care. The musician’s job is to explore and care about the music.

Your new album Thr!!!er released in April on Warp—how do you pronounce that?

You can just say “Thriller.”

Is the name a conscious homage to Michael Jackson?

We view Thriller as more part of the pop canon, everyone talks about making their own Thriller. It became more than a Michael Jackson album, it became an iconic type of album. Michael Jackson is always an influence, specifically for us with the kind of music we play, so it was a tip of the hat to him… But more to the kind of album that he made, the one that we always call, “The one with all the hits on it.”

Was it a departure for you?

It sounds like what a band’s fifth record should sound like. As a band it felt like a big jump for us from the fourth record, ultimately in how the music came out. I think most of our fans agreed it was a big jump because we pushed ourselves really hard on it and I think it shows in the songwriting, the production, the feel, just everything about it, the record, the music.

What’s the best and worst thing about playing Japan?

The worst thing is just the flight over, and other than that it’s cool. The best thing about it, maybe it’s corny, but it’s the fans. They do things that really connect with us over there and it feels good to be able to go that far away and have people give a shit.

What can people coming to Electraglide expect?

We’re known as being one of the greatest live bands that there is, still now, and we’re at the show with a bunch of electronic artists, so we should be okay. We’re one of the few indie bands able to make the jump from a small club to an arena. We’re still pretty exciting in a big room, other bands get kind of dwarfed. It’s a pretty cool live show, I think they’ll be into it.

How do you feel when people use a lot of exclamation marks?

I’m personally not a huge exclamation mark user and often I find it’s difficult when someone does use it a lot, then if you just respond without it seems like you are not as excited as they are. Some writer said that every author was only supposed to use five in their lifetimes. We’ve used three extensively and we’re just waiting on the other two.

Makuhari Messe, November 29