Introduction Sometimes something comes along in life that sparks our imagination prompting us to explore the unknown and leads some of us to create sites that allow others to explore that obsession with us. That something, that obsession we all have in common is music. Our "life's soundtrack" just happens to be in many languages, in particular Japanese. Though I would have liked to cover every Japanese music site on the web, in every language represented, this wasn't possible. In spite of these sites, information is still not as prevalent as I believe it should be. From such genre specific sites as Japanese Electronic Music, Japanese Hip-Hop, Rock In Japan, Jap-punk and J-Music.com's coverage of Jazz and Hougaku, the zine Music.3yen.com, reference sites such as Japanese Music Archive and Music From Japan, to sites like Icepoint.com, Badbee.net and So★Rock which cover underground Artists, and the gender specific Asian Girl Rock, the common thread that motivates all of us can be found in the words of Aaron Nanto of Asian Girl Rock, "There is still a lack of English info on the net about Japanese artists and I wanted to fill a little of that gap." This is what drives the staff behind Keikaku.net. Keikaku was born from the conversation of three people frustrated with the lack of information on the web about our favorite artists and the exaltation of only a select few. More joined us in the discussion, and pooling our resources and talents Keikaku was created. With this final interview in this series, I hope to shed some light on the motivation and driving personalities of my fellow staff members and the creation of Keikaku. back to features		Best Japanese music sites... Keikaku 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? Larry: It was Shonen Knife covering "Top of the World" on the Carpenter's Tribute. I didn't like it. Then fast foward ten years, I saw GO!GO!7188's Jetto Ninjin video. As I watched it I thought to myself, wow, their back-up band really nailed that surf-punk sound. During the lead break there's a little 1/4 second shot of Yuu revving up to strum the last 2 or 3 chords to the lead, right then I realized this was no studio musician. It was all her, her riff, her song, her band, and I was all over it. At first, I was only attracted to the female fronted bands, and to a large extent I still am. I don't mind a woman's voice singing in a language I don't understand, and there's something about girls & guitars. Freud would understand. I'm just now coming around to see genius in a lot of other bands. I have to thank our website for that. Richard: I wouldn't say I had any special reaction listening to a Japanese artist for the first time. I think the first was Mad Capsule Markets. They were getting a lot of play on the UK hardcore scene after their first European release. I liked the way they fused pop, hardcore and electronic sounds. Melt Banana around that time too. John Peel introduced them to me via his BBC show and I remember thinking they were a fresh change from the amount of "Britpop" I put up with back then. Further inspection into Japan's scene showed me the other genres Japanese music was tackling and helped broaden my music collection. After Britpop had got old and almost generic, I turned to punk, hardcore and experimental bands almost exclusively. I think the Japanese scene helped me rediscover my interest in indie-rock and guitar pop. 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? Larry: I could hardly find a thing in english. Just a handful of sites Rock of Japan, Junk Magnet and Project-J. Project-J was the site. It has profiles with translations and the obligatory forum. The forum being the most important part of the equation. Project-J's forum brought a sense of community to being an english speaking fan of asian rock. It gave instant feedback on anything happening in the scene, ie, tours, releases. Simon: Back when I started in around spring 2000, Oshima's site was where it was at, he used to have somewhere between 100 and 150 PV's up for download all stored in homestead accounts. To start with, I wasn't concerned with information, I wanted to see the artists for myself rather than just hear about them and in that respect, I guess not a lot has changed; I've always loved a good PV. The first site's I did begin to frequent for information were Junk Magnet and the Bluesky Complex for information on Blankey Jet City and The Mad Capsule Markets respectively. They had a good level of information and were written in an easily understandable format. 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? Richard: Some of the folks I knew from the Project-J forums were talking about covering information that other English language sites were not, especially indie. I was asked if I would like to design Keikaku. I thought it would be a good opportunity to give something back to the community and strengthen it at the same time. The biggest challenge was to create a site that a team of writers could all upload to with having no knowledge of web design. The writers all had the knowledge and enthusiasm to write so I didn't have to worry about that. I expanded my knowledge and met my aims for a custom back-end content management system while maintaining a aesthetic front-end. Triumph? The site is recognised as a good resource for English language fans of Japanese indie. Also getting so many interviews with many artists. James: I wanted to have a website that focused on bands and artists that are not well-documented (or often not at all) in English, and for those that are, do it in a way that I consider satisfactory. Getting the idea off the ground was the biggest challenge, but even that went smoothly because we found such a solid core group to work with. Our site designer Richard was definitely a boon to getting things up and going early. As for triumph, you could ask that question every month and get a different answer, because it seems like there are new surprises all the time. The way our interviews have worked out is the biggest triumph so far, but I'd bet by the end of the year we'll have trumped what we've got with something better. When deciding content what criteria and or who decides what your site will cover? What sources do you use for information? Chris: It's pretty much been left to each individual in the group what they want to cover, and many times information can be found from band websites and online interviews in Japanese. I usually find out about bands I want to cover through sampling sites and especially link pages on artists' official sites. I figure if I like a band then that band is going to be colleagues with another band that I may find interesting, so link pages have been invaluable in that respect. James: The criteria has shifted around a bit since the start, but overall it's pretty loose. All our contributors a good idea of what belongs, and what doesn't. Bands don't have to be obscure, or even indie, to be covered. But a Glay or Southern All Stars just don't fit with the feel of the site. As for sources: websites, articles, interviews, just about anything's fair game as long as it's credible. 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? Chris: I have noticed it, and I'm sure much of it is a precursor to interest in the United States and other English speaking areas. I remember seeing DMBQ play in my area as part of their US tour this year, and that night I went to their website expecting to find Japanese only information. Fortunately, they have an English version of pretty much their entire website. Most of the bands that have toured or are planning to tour in the US have English on their websites. Even larger bands like the pillows have opened up English areas now. I think it's great and will allow bands to get more exposure in the US. I know I've been frustrated when I find out about an interesting band and reach a block in the road when I can't find any English information on them. Richard: Yes, I think there are more English options at artist sites than before but that maybe because I am looking harder. The English option helps artists appeal to an international audience but English content generally doesn't seem to be actively updated as much as the Japanese content. The language barrier makes it hard for Japanese bands to communicate with international audiences. That's where sites like ours come in to bridge the gap. 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? Chris: The goal of the site has always been to expose the English speaking audience to Japanese artists they probably haven't heard of, be they indie or major label. We've started to evolve into more of an online magazine rather than something just made by fans, and I think that's great. We're growing at a tremendous rate as far as content goes, and although band interviews are nothing new, we put out quite a few of them so fans can see the inner workings of Japanese bands from the bands themselves. Being in contact with the bands and their management through these interviews has really shown us to be a dependable English source for Japanese indie fans. There are many things we can improve with the site. We're working on them. I'm amazed at how far we've come, and must say that we're doing awfully well for a site that isn't even six months old yet. Now I just hope that all of the staff stay interested and maintain focus in the time to come. That's probably the most important thing. Simon: Well, I would like to think that we cover bands that other sites wouldn't, really there is no band too small; we have had recommended bands who don't even have a record deal. Where else offers that kind of information in English? I guess we bring some recognition, however small to these relatively unknown artists or so I would like to think. I guess my dream site would have in depth biographies so you could really get into the heads of some of these smaller underground artists and understand what motivates them to do what they do. Also it would have lots of samples, maybe streaming videos too. 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?. Simon: In general, the number of English speaking fans is growing which can only be a good thing however there are still far too many people fixated on the stereotypical high pitched pop idols and the talentless visual bands that give their genre a bad name. Thankfully, this is slowly changing as more people discover the huge diversity of artists available. James: There's two sides to this one. There's a pretty sizeable indie fanbase, in America at least, that follow Guitar Wolf, Pizzicato Five, The Boredoms, and many others. This especially seems true with the noise, electronica and punk genres. These artists even have contracts with some big (and some might say fake) indie labels. On the flipside, a lot of people are trying to ride the wave of Japanese culture that's getting more popular. You see that with bands and pop artists playing at anime conventions, and even the Benten label tour to a certain extent. If there's ever going to be a breakthrough, it'd be better for that to come from winning over audiences in the clubs and working upwards from there, not from associating with anime and Japanese kitsch. That may be too idealistic. Being associated heavily with anime and the like is an easy marketing tool, but also puts the whole movement on the fastrack to not being taken seriously. Interview from 2005.04.27. I would like to thank the Keikaku.net staff and Aaron Nanto of Asian Girl Rock for their participation in this interview. - Denise Smith
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