Blues Creation - Demon and Eleven Children (1971)

StonerRock.com interview w/ Kazuo Takeda of Blues Creation:

Ra’anan: What bands were you listening to that influenced the change from the straight up blues-rock of the first album to the heavy rock of Demon & Eleven Children?

Kazuo: In those days I was listening to mostly British bands like Jeff Beck Group, Deep Purple, Eric Clapton (Cream, Derek and the Dominos, Blues Breakers First), Alvin Lee, Toni Iomi, Love Sculpture, Climax Blues Band, Savoy Brown, Colosseum, Humble Pie, just to name a few. I also listened to several American bands such as The Allman Brothers, Cactus, Blues Image, etc. in a way, listening to the so-called white blues kind of led us into a louder, heavier, harder rock instrumental ensemble. We also felt kind of a necessity to write our original songs and as a result the band’s sound changed to being more rock oriented.

Ra’anan: What is the meaning of Demon & Eleven Children?

Kazuo: I have absolutely no idea. Sorry. Perhaps something the record company suggested or maybe some other band member came up with this weird title. The idea of every song and its riffs came before its name.

Ra’anan: You released both Demon & Eleven Children and the album with Carmen Maki at the same day. Why did you decide to do that and why were both albums so musically different from one another?

Kazuo: Carmen Maki was a very well known Japanese folk and pop singer. All of a sudden she came to me and said, “I wanna sing rock. Will you help me?” Her record contract with Sony had just ended, so our record company at the time (Japan Columbia) wanted to get her in any means they could. That’s how big she was. So, I organized her album as a project. Since she was new to this kind of music, we picked up material from her daily listening records and I wrote some original songs for her accordingly.

Ra’anan: How big were you in Japan after these two albums?

Kazuo: We were very happy to play around in almost every outdoor rock festival in Japan. In those days, rock music was still considered underground and the mainstream Japanese pop market was always strong, but we were proud to be one of the leaders to do something new for the young generation of Japanese music fans.

Ra’anan: What are your thoughts today about Demon & Eleven Children?

Kazuo: I know there are some fans of this album, especially in Japan, but to tell you the truth, I feel a little embarrassed about it and it’s hard for me to listen to it today since it was done so long ago, when I was really young (19 years old) and it’s so innocent. (buy it)

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