An Interview with Maru (The Shock Treatment).

 To promote the release of the upcoming Bloodstains Across Chiba CD from Private Scandal, I'll be interviewing some of the people involved in the bands featured on the CD.

The Shock Treatment were a band I'd never heard until my friend Invader Boy Shinobu (ex.Hysteric Concert) sent me their tape. It just so happened that their guitarist, Maru, was helping out with the release of The Gozz CD at the time. Thanks to that, we were able to reissue this hyper-rare tape as part of the Bloodstains CD...

Maru kindly answered a few questions and provided some photos of The Shock Treatment.

An Interview with Maru (The Shock Treatment)

The Shock Treatment.

PS: Hello Maru, thank you for agreeing to this interview. I wanted to ask you some questions about your old band The Shock Treatment. The Shock Treatment demo will be reissued on the Bloodstains Across Chiba CD (a compilation of obscure Chiba Punk bands). Despite me releasing it, I don’t actually know anything about the band, so, could you tell me a little bit about how the band started and who the members were? 

Maru: I invited Atsushi, who was the bassist for a band called Dolt (pre.Screaming Noise), and Kotaro, whom I met at a Gozz gig, to be the vocalist, and we formed the band. I asked Machan, a friend from Kashiwa, to be the drummer.

PS: The sound is very typical Chiba Punk sound (at least in my opinion). Were the older Chiba Punk bands a big influence on your sound? 

Maru: I think it's safe to say we were all influenced by The MARGAReTS.

The Shock Treatment live.

PS: Despite the band sounding like a typical Chiba Punk band, you didn’t look like one, your style in particular seemed unique, you look a bit like a Chiba Jimi Hendrix in those old photos haha, were you influenced by Jimi Hendrix at that time? 

Maru: Sorry, I don't know anyone called Chiba Jimi Hendrix haha. I personally liked Jimi Hendrix.

PS: The Shock Treatment songs we’ve reissued are from the “Demo 01” cassette – did you do any other recordings? Is there more obscure Chiba Punk that is waiting to be discovered?

Maru: I left the band during the recording of our second release, so it was scrapped.

The Shock Treatment - Demo 01 cassette.

PS: The artwork for the Bloodstains... CD is from the Shock Treatment demo. I've gotta say... I love this art! I think when people see it they will say “Now this is Chiba Punk!” – who drew that artwork?

Maru: It was our vocalist, Kotaro, he did the artwork for the tape and all of our flyers.

The Shock Treatment flyer (artwork by Kotaro).

PS: When did Shock Treatment break up? After Shock Treatment you joined The Johnny Five, Stinkers, and ヨンブンノイチ (Yonbunnoichi)… are you still active in bands nowadays?

Maru: I remember our last gig was in 1996. I don't think any of us, myself included, are in bands now.

PS: Would you like to say anything to the people who are hearing Shock Treatment for the first time? We should also give a big shout-out to Invader Boy Shinobu (ex.Hysteric Concert) as he was the person that gave me the tape in the first place... Thank you Invader Boy and thank you Maru!

Maru: How can I put it... we were just one of those bands that existed, but please give it a listen. Thank you.

The Bloodstains Across Chiba CD will be released on the 30th of November and will be available to order from the Private Scandal Shop.