Introduction Have you ever wondered what prompted the creation of your favorite Japanese music site? Who created it? Through this weekly series of interviews Keikaku hopes to shed some light on the motivation and driving personalities behind some of my personal choices for the best English language based Japanese music sites on the web. Created by George and Steve, one of the newest sites with a twist is JapanFiles.com. Written and maintained by Steve Laity of Guitar Vader, this commercial site not only highlights underground and independent Japanese bands but also distributes their CDs and mp3s in the US. JapanFiles.com covers such bands as Guitar Vader, Mothercoat, Samurai Delicatessen Band, Up Hold, Pop Chocolat, Rinobrown and many others with live reports, a message board, music distribution and free music samples and videos. JapanFiles.com, with its US releases of independent Japanese bands is stepping beyond the realm of the fan site. When asked "How do you see your site's contribution if any, in bringing recognition outside of Japan to Japanese artists?" Steve replied, "We are taking the real Japanese underground music from all over Japan and making it available to the world. We are supporting the artists and not the industry..." back to features		Best Japanese music sites... JapanFiles.com Can you remember your first reaction to listening to a Japanese artist? What were your initial thoughts? As you've become more knowledgeable about the Japanese music scene how has that effected your personal choice of artist? Steve [JapanFiles.com]: The first Japanese bands that I was exposed to were "Guitar Vader" and "Cibo Mato". I was completely blown away. It felt like I was listening to music from the future. Their music is always awesome and fresh. As for the Japanese music scene I think most of the originality is in the indies scene. In America I went through a phase where I thought "If it's underground and from Japan, then it must be good". This is not true. I have many cds sitting in my apartment that are being used as coasters. These days I am finding new music by going to my favorite band's shows. The indies scene in Tokyo is huge but it is also very small and everyone knows each other. I often listen to the opinions of bands I like and sometimes I just take a chance and walk into a random live house. When you first looked for artist information on the web what type of English sites were available? What sites attracted you? What was it about these sites that made you a frequent visitor? What was lacking? Steve: Well first of all when I first started looking for information about Guitar Vader I remember it being extremely difficult to find. Sure I could find pictures and band information, but finding a place to buy their albums or go to a concert was really difficult. Usually, I had to go to the bands own site and even then there wasn't much information. I am surprised and happy to see all of the information available these days on the bands that I love. However, I feel there is still a large lack of information on the Japanese indies scene. That's why working on JapanFiles.com is so fun. It is always fresh and exciting to find a new band that most people have never heard of. To go from fan to reporting on the artists is a big step. Please elaborate on what motivated your decision to create your site? What has been your biggest challenge? Triumph? Steve: I have always been the type of guy who likes to show people new music. I love driving in the car and exposing people to new bands etc. I get a real high off of finding something new. I live on people's comments on our bands, and the response that the bands get. I also love to hear people say that they found their new favorite band on JapanFiles.com. The biggest challenge was getting started. Where do we find bands? How do we sign them? There were many questions and still several more. When deciding content what criteria and or who decides what your site will cover? What sources do you use for information? Steve: I decide. I find what I think is good no matter what the genre and then I send it to the headquarters and they listen too. However, we have never disagreed so much on a band that has never gone up although there have been plenty of arguments! Have you noticed an increase in English pages being offered at many Japanese artist official sites and record companies? Do you have an opinion as to why this may be? Steve: I haven't noticed anything really. Of course the major bands have some English sites available but I don't think there has been too much change. As long as there is millions to be made in Japan why would they risk millions to go abroad? Unless of course you are Utada Hikaru, one of the highest selling artists in Japanese history. How do you see your site's contribution if any, in bringing recognition outside of Japan to Japanese artists? What does your site offer that other sites don't? Could you describe your dream site? Steve: We are taking the real Japanese underground music from all over Japan and making it available to the world. We are supporting the artists and not the industry. We are one hundred percent underground bands. As for my dream site, I hope that JapanFiles.com will be it in the future. We are getting better everyday and have many exciting prospects for the future. Finally I'd like to ask; what do you perceive to be the current state and focus of the Japanese music scene outside of Japan? Steve: I think that the focus is getting bigger and bigger. Especially through the help of anime and videogames, but I don't believe it will be any of the current major bands in Japan who will break through to America. I hope that a band from the Japanese indies scene breaks out and takes the world by storm. If that happens then it will really shake up the Japanese music industry. Interview from 2005.02.21. Keikaku.net staff would like to thank Steve Laity of JapanFiles.com for his participation in this interview. - Denise Smith
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