Category Archives: interview

DJ Emma: Up close with Tokyo’s hardiest house DJ

Posted on September 16, 2013 by dangrunebaum

Going back to the heady early days of Tokyo’s house music scene and fantabulous clubs like Gold, DJ Emma was there. Two decades on and he’s still there, behind the decks at Tokyo’s biggest discotheques, ministering the gospel of classic house music to the faithful. Metropolis tracked Emma down for a quick Q&A on the occasion of his latest dance remix album for Daikanyama club Air.

Metropolis, Sep 5, 2013

Onda Vaga: The Argentinian quintet reprise their Fuji Rock conquest

Posted on September 16, 2013 by dangrunebaum

With an unsettling eight shows over three days at Fuji Rock 2012, Argentina’s Onda Vaga were the universally acclaimed masters of the event’s small stages. Now they return to Japan to tour their new disc, Magma Elemental. We caught up with singer-songwriter Marcelo Blanco ahead of the quintet’s biggest gig yet in their native Buenos Aires.

Metropolis, Aug 29, 2013

Gamarjobat: Mime duo jacks Tokyo

Posted on August 18, 2013 by dangrunebaum

Japanese acts that first find success abroad often then have to convince domestic audiences to reimport them in a bit of legerdemain called gyakuyunyu. Something of a fallacy exists that overseas acclaim immediately translates to success here as well. “We are originally from Tokyo, but ended up performing overseas a lot,” Ketch! (the red-mohawked one) says about comic mime duo Gamarjobat’s trajectory since their discovery at Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival. “We tour Japan every year but we hadn’t done Tokyo much, so this time we decided to devote ourselves to the capital.”

Metropolis, Aug 2, 2013

Cyndi Lauper: Friend of the LGBT community, friend of Japan

Posted on July 18, 2013 by dangrunebaum

“The Japanese fans and companies were great people and really stuck by me,” she recalls. “When the Americans made me feel like I should crawl and fall off the edge of the earth, these people would come to me and say, ‘Please make music—we love your music.’ And these are the same people that are suffering and you think I’m going to walk away? I don’t forget easily, and I was having nightmares about the Japanese.”

Metropolis, Jul 18, 2013

Yuki Futami: Jazz piano phenom heads to New York

Posted on May 21, 2013 by dangrunebaum

With technical mastery and a taste for vintage modern jazz, 25-year-old Yuki Futami is Japan’s belated answer to the late, great pianist Oscar Peterson. Before he heads off to New York’s Julliard, Metropolis got some insight on what a millennial Japanese sees in jazz, and the Yuki Futami Trio’s debut album, Banzai Oscar.

Metropolis, May 1, 2013

Takako Minekawa & Dustin Wong: Indietronic pair’s “Party on a Floating Cake”

Posted on April 30, 2013 by dangrunebaum

Some matches are made in heaven; some don’t even bother waiting to get there. Indietronic pair Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong’s new album Toropical Circle sounds as if it were made somewhere near the gates to heaven—somewhere, if you will, at a “Party On a Floating Cake.”

Metropolis, Apr 26, 2013

808 State: The seminal electronic act reveals a political side to rave culture

Posted on April 30, 2013 by dangrunebaum

“Guitar bands were out. Using the new technology was a stance for change, being armed with a sampler was very much about starting a new page. We had more in common with Detroit than London. Joining an internationalism of the dance floor was a rejection of colloquialism that had chained us.” – Graham Massey

Metropolis, Apr 12, 2013

Jazztronik: Ryota Nozaki fuses live jazz and electronica

Posted on April 8, 2013 by dangrunebaum

“We Japanese don’t have a deep music history, so we are always trying to define our own style.”

Metropolis, Mar 26, 2013

Moon Duo: Ripley and Sanae lob their spaced out sounds at Japan

Posted on March 23, 2013 by dangrunebaum

Take the Eastern psychedelia of a late-era George Harrison sitar solo and the fuzzbox transcendence of strung-out Velvet Underground. Set it to some purposefully tinny rhythm box beats and you’re getting close to the sound of Oregon pair Moon Duo.

Metropolis, Mar 18, 2013

Karl Hyde: Fresh off the Olympics, Underworld’s frontman stabs out solo

Posted on March 15, 2013 by dangrunebaum

If nothing else, their iconic soundtrack for Trainspotting—and in Japan their sets at Fuji Rock and Rainbow 2000—assure Underworld a spot in music history. But from their design collective Tomato to their music for the London Olympics, the British duo of singer Karl Hyde and musician Rick Smith are feverish in their exploration of new opportunities. I spoke with Hyde about his solo debut Edgeland ahead of next month’s SonarSound Tokyo.

Metropolis, Mar 12, 2013