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. "Want to know more about Japanese music but not really interested in J-pop or J-Rock?" reads the about page at Instant Miso. Created by TheenD to showcase Japanese Indie artists, Instant Miso's knowledgeable and creative staff (Darren [TheenD], Ngai [Tokyolunch], Rena [licorice], Nina [beanlit], Brian [dysmorphia], Edwin [lazyhead] and Molly [usagiko]) provide a wealth of information on the Japanese Indie scene through live reports and profiles on such artists as Supercar, Head Phones President, Hiroya Komeiji, Mono, What's Love and Color Filter. The site's comprehensive news updates set Instant Miso apart from other sites by keeping readers informed on the latest new releases, tour dates and news on their favorite artists. When asked, "Can you remember your first reaction to listening to a Japanese artist?" Usagi replied, "I remember feeling like I was at home, that feeling had never happened with music and me before." back to features		Best Japanese music sites... Instant Miso 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? licorice [Instant Miso]: I didn't really have a certain reaction when first listening to a Japanese artist. This is because at the time, I had discovered Japanese music by mistake. I was into hip-hop and was downloading a song Foxy Brown did with Utada Hikaru. From there on out I searched for other Japanese music because I liked her voice. Initially when I heard Japanese songs I noticed I really liked the language, and the music, because the pop scene in Japan seemed to be much different than that of America's. I've learned that Japan seems to have many more genres than I've ever heard before, and there is much more creativity in most of them that I have experienced. I don't have an extreme personal choice of artist though. I like a little bit of everything. theend: The first artist I had exposure to was Ayumi Hamasaki, and I was hooked by upbeat, honest lyrics of the song. I was currently into the Metal/Rock music scene and Japanese music (specifically Jpop music) offered to me a contrasting alternative. As I became more knowledgeable about the Japanese music scene I discovered that there was a much wider range of music than I had originally thought, my personal choice of artists started stretching further than the current pop sensations of Japan into lesser known territories; however I must say that I haven't lost touch of the artists that first started me off in the music scene. beanlit: Since my parents are Japanese, I grew up with Japanese music playing in the house. So, I guess for me, Japanese music wasn't anything "different." But, it wasn't until when bands like Pizzicato 5 and Shonen Knife were releasing albums in North America did I try to go beyond mainstream Jpop. When I came to Japan a few years ago, I discovered my local Tower Records, a great source for a variety of Japanese Indies music. tokyolunch: I think I was exposed to Japanese music really early on as a child. I'm Asian, specifically Chinese, so I've always listened to Asian music and many of the Chinese artists that I listened to [technically, my parents listened to], covered many classic Japanese songs. For instance, I originally thought that the song Shima Uta was a Chinese song. Little did I know that it was really a cover of The Boom's Shima Uta, which is a song that still lives on in my head because it is so memorable. Teresa Teng was also an influence. However, I think the first real Japanese artist that I actively got addicted to was Shinohara Tomoe. I found her through a monthly mp3 rotation site and I think she started it all for me. My initial reactions were "Wow, this language is so different. And it flows so well with the music." From there on, I began to dig deeper and deeper. I started to find out all about the popular artists such as Aikawa Nanase, B'z, Every Little Thing, Do As Infinity. Then, as I dug even deeper I found out about the indie scene. About the lesser known artists. I think it was the Japanese language and the way the vocalists express that language through their music that really impacted me. No matter if artists are indie or not, they all try to do that in some way or form. Music is a way for them to express emotions. In addition, as I got to know more and more artists, it really broadened my range and take on music as a whole. Music is so different. It can open you to so many different cultures and so many different aspects of life without you even knowing. usagi: I remember feeling like I was at home, that feeling had never happened with music and me before. 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? licorice: I had actually found a lot of English sites about the artists I'd be looking for, but taking into consideration I listen to a great deal of mainstream artists as well. I was usually able to find lyric sites done in romaji, disco and biographies, and links to other sites. I liked the sites that seemed to have been worked on very hardly the most, and ones that were most complete. Frequent updates kept me coming back. More links were lacking, and maybe easier navigation. theend: When I first looked for websites I found quite a lot of sites that represented my current taste in music. They were welcoming and clearly laid out. The community was one of the major reasons why I was a frequent visitor at certain sites, message boards and the personal friendly nature of the webmasters made finding new artists and discussing my favorite artists much easier. What I found lacking was variety, each site profiled many artists, but they always profiled the same artists giving almost the same view on them. beanlit: At first it was all jpop stuff. And a lot of these jpop sites tended to cover the same singers/bands. If there was stuff that was not about jpop, it was usually VK. And if it wasn't VK, it was noise bands or punk bands. I was discovering all these bands but their music was nothing like any of the above styles. Musicwhore.org was one of the first English sites I found where you could information about the less mainstream music and it covered bands/music styles that I liked. tokyolunch: When I first looked for artist information, I was mostly able to find their official pages and such because they were, more or less, quite popular. However, English pages wise, they were a few fan sites here and there. Though, not a lot. Usually, most of the fan sites covered the basics, profiles, discography and such. However, I think the sites that did really well were Junkmagnet, Musicwhore, and Rock Of Japan. They really exposed some of the lesser-known artists out there. Not only that, they were in English! They recommended artists and had a large selection. Until then, I never knew there were still so many artists that were unknown [at least to me]. Those sites really opened me up to more bands that I never knew of and would soon grow very very fond of. As TheenD mentioned, it's definitely the community that holds the site together. Especially the fan sites because usually the fans in the community give recommendations for artists that are similar to the ones that they are a fan of. This, in turn, links everything together and exposes people to more and more. News updates were definitely something else that kept me coming back for more. 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? theend: I think I'm the only one qualified to answer this question. Going from fan to creating a site wasn't such a large step for me. It was a natural progression from a being an avid fan who loved sharing his music and tastes to whoever would listen to putting that on paper and reaching a larger audience. I was eager to share to the world my favorite artists who I believe are highly under appreciated. The biggest challenge I have found in making/running the site is the apparent lack of interest in indie artists (or rather, my taste in artists), I found the lack of feedback quite discouraging. Triumph? I think the site's triumph is still yet to come, but it is encouraging when I get an email from a fan of the site telling me how much they like my site. When deciding content what criteria and or who decides what your site will cover? What sources do you use for information? theend: When I started the site I started thinking of a way to make the site unique in the artists it would cover. I then saw an apparent profile chasm in the Indie scene; most of the indie websites that I had visited profiled mainly punk/rock/garage-influenced bands that fit well with the current American Indie scene. I wanted to cover the "other" indie bands, the artists influenced by a wider range of genres. but in deciding what artists to actually profile, I leave that decision up to the staff members. I trust their judgment. I'll leave the question concerning sources to Tokyolunch who covers the news section of the site. beanlit: Everyone individually decides what artist they would like to profile. We profile bands we really enjoy. The style of music doesn't seem to matter. tokylunch: I don't really think that there is a criteria in deciding what profiles that we are going to do and such. If there was a criteria, I would think that it would be it had to be something that we enjoyed listening to and really feel strongly about. Otherwise we wouldn't providing content on them. As for what sources I use for information, first and foremost, I usually check the artist pages themselves. Go directly right to the source themselves. Scrounging through their BBS and the like. Then, I check the English resource sites that are available such as Keikaku or Musicwhore. After that, I go and check Japanese music news sites such as bounce or oopsmusic. As I'm only one person, it gets really hard to gather news sometimes because I may overlook things. That's why I believe that things would work really well if fans started contributing. My take on the news aspect is that I want to collaborate all the information and give it to the reader. Put all the links down in one page for the reader so that they do not have to be frustrated when finding material. 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? licorice: Yes, I have noticed there is an increase of English pages being offered at official sites. I think it is because the Japanese industry itself has always wanted to expand outside of Japan, but now they are finally getting more overseas fans as they've wanted. theend: What Licorice said. beanlit: I've noticed some English on some of the indie pop bands, but that's all. tokyolunch: Yes, definitely. Nowadays, I seem to find that many artist official sites have a splash page and then two options, "Japanese" and "English". Although the English page seems to be less actively updated, it still provides information on the artist that newcomers may need information about. I think the reason for this may be that record companies are beginning to realize that there is an overseas market. There are fans outside of Japan that they do not know about. Though, I know the Japanese industry may have their own views and opinions on this matter. 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? licorice: I think our site will help bring recognition outside of Japan to their artists because it is a friendly and inviting environment. It exposes our visitors to the artists listen to --not just artists we are profiling and doing news on because they're Indie. We listen to and enjoy these artists and give honest opinions and feelings about them. I think our site has a lot to offer because we try to choose artists that are often overlooked by overseas sites about Japanese artists, and we also try to pick the ones we listen to that might not be covered by other Indie sites. theend: We offer a different perspective on Indie music. beanlit: It's hard to find English sources on the bands we cover. Like I mentioned before, a lot of the English sources I found tend to lean towards punk bands. It's great these sources are out there, but not everyone likes that kind of music. tokyolunch: I tend to think our site is different in that it's more personalized, more intimate in a sense. As Licorice says, we're not here just to report something because they are indie. And we don't just restrict our self to one particular genre. We spread out everything. 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? licorice: The main focus of Japanese music to overseas fans is mostly Visual Kei and bubblegum pop, but in the Indie area I'd say it's more hard rock. Our site tries to bring more than that element of Indie to the table. theend: Jpop is not edgy enough to be hugely popular outside Japan. Jrock outside Japan has been relegated to being culturally too obscure due to the popularity of VK. beanlit: It's nice to see that more people these days are getting into the Japan's music scene but I think there needs to be more coverage on the less mainstream artists whose music styles are not necessarily punk, garage or noise. And as long as the western media keep concentrating on the mainstream jpop, people will still be thinking that Japanese music is nothing but a bad rip off of Western music. tokyolunch: A lot of people overseas are still blinded by the surface of the Japanese music scene. They look at the surface of popular music and mainstream stuff and get turned away sometimes. What they don't realize is if they spend some effort, there is a treasure under that surface. If they are able to break that thin film barrier, they may find something that may change how they view music as a whole. usagi: Japanese music is slowly starting to creep out of Japan and into other countries, but it will still be a long time before we see a regular flow of releases made for those other countries. Interview from 2005.02.20. Keikaku.net staff would like to thank the staff of Instant Miso for their participation in this interview. - Denise Smith
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