Days Spent Scouring for Records: A Surprise Offer to Debut

Tomoki Sukezane, Editor-in-Chief (hereinafter 'Sukezane')For an event held in Kyoto in 1994,Towa Tei^*1did you have connections that helped you bring him on?

Tomoyuki Tanaka (hereinafter 'Tanaka')Actually, none at all. At the end of April, when I received my first paycheck after starting at Leica in 1990, I went toWAVE^*2in Umeda.

Sukezane Ah, WAVE. (laughs)

Tanaka That's whereDeee-Lite^*3their debut 12-inch single,'GROOVE IS IN THE HEART^*4,' was on sale.

Sukezane I remember that one, with the purple jacket.

Tanaka Exactly, I bought that. I thought, 'This is amazing!' I’ve just been a Deee-Lite fan ever since.

Sukezane Did Tei-san come to the event alone?

Tanaka Yes. But on the day of the event, Tei-san said, 'I forgot to bring my copy of the 'Groove Is in the Heart' record,' so I lent him the one I bought with my first paycheck, and he played that.

Sukezane That’s wonderful. Where was the event held?

Tanaka It was an event for Kyoto’s 1200th anniversary. I can’t remember if it was in Oike or Marutamachi-Karasuma, but they had set up a special venue in a place that looked like an old bank. We used the old building just for that day and threw a huge party.

Sukezane By that time, you were already DJing, weren’t you? Did you have thoughts of pursuing DJing as a career then?

Tanaka Honestly, not really, but at the time,the Rare Groove movement^*5 was picking up steam, and I did have this feeling of wanting to buy records at shops that I’d never seen before, like, 'I'm going to be the one to find music that nobody else in the world knows about!' I think many DJs at the time felt the same way.

Sukezane It’s a competition.

Tanaka That’s how it was back then. In Tokyo, there were also movements to collect records that weren't the mainstream rare groove stuff—like soul, funk, or disco—but because we were mainly operating in Kyoto, we had overwhelmingly fewer rivals. There were so many good record stores in Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.

Sukezane At that time, what was your favorite record store in Kyoto?

Tanaka Of course, there were a few in Kyoto, but I likedDISC J.J. in Osaka^*6 andHuckleberry in Kobe.^*7 I loved them. Whenever I found a record, I'd ask to listen to it. For the ones I couldn't listen to, I'd take the plunge and buy them based solely on the cover. I kept buying records with a 'win some, lose some' attitude, and eventually, I had about 20,000 of them—my house floor almost gave way. (laughs)

Sukezane (laughs) Were you picking records without any specific genre in mind?

Tanaka Yes. Often, a record’s price would suddenly skyrocket just because some hip-hop artist used a track from it as a sample. I’ve always been a contrarian, so I wasn't interested in things that had become expensive like that. I wondered, 'What are records that no one uses for samples and no one values?' and ended up arriving at film soundtracks, mood music, bossa nova, and what we call library music—records made for BGM in radio and TV programs. I bought those in bulk and sampled them to create my own sounds.



Sukezane How did that lead to your debut?

Tanaka As I was holding regular parties on Thursday nights at Metro and hosting events at other clubs, I started having more opportunities to invite guests from outside Kyoto, like Tei-san,Konishi-san of Pizzicato Five,^*8,and Comoesta Yaegashi-san.^*9 At that time, Konishi-san and Tei-san, who were already active in overseas events, had been telling local DJs and music lovers, 'There are these interesting guys called Sound Impossible, so if you're ever in Kyoto, you should try getting in touch with them,' and they were giving out our contact info.

Sukezane So they introduced you.

Tanaka Yes. They were promoting us nicely. Since there was no email back then, DJs from Berlin, Amsterdam, or the UK would suddenly fax us saying, 'I'm coming to Kyoto next time, let's meet up.' We kept interacting with them, like having them DJ when they came to Japan. Then, one time in 1995, before I had even moved to Tokyo, a GermanDJ duo called Le Hammond Inferno^*10 told me, 'We’re starting a label in Berlin, so we’ll release your stuff!' and suddenly my European debut was decided. Even though I only had about two or three demo tracks made (laughs).

Sukezane Amazing!

Tanaka It’s a story I'm truly grateful for. Even at the very moment the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck, I was at my house in Kyoto—the one you came to interview me at—starting to make music by sampling with friends on cheap equipment. When I gave the demos I made that way to Tei-san and Konishi-san, Konishi-san really liked a track I’d made called 'Jetki no House' (House of the Jet Plane),'Romantique '96'^*11and it was decided it would be included on it just as it was.

Page 02.The 90s: Experiencing the Shibuya-kei Boom and Its Decline Abroad Up Close

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*1 Towa Tei
Japanese DJ/music producer/artist

*2 WAVE
A popular record store in the 80s and 90s

*3 Deee-Lite
An American house/dance music group. Initially known as 'Dee-Lite,' they changed their name to 'Deee-Lite' after Towa Tei joined. The group disbanded in 1996, two years after Tei's departure.

*4 GROOVE IS IN THE HEART
Deee-Lite's debut track, which reached #4 on the US charts. Due to the presence of Yokohama-born Towa Tei, it received significant coverage in the Japanese media. It became a revival hit in 2000 when it was included in the soundtrack for the film 'Charlie's Angels'.

*5 Rare Groove movement
A movement that gained attention in the late 1980s, primarily within music journalism, disco, and club scenes. Literally meaning 'rare groove,' it referred to 'hard-to-find music' before the advent of the internet.

*6 DISC J.J.
A large used record specialty store in Osaka with two locations: the Nipponbashi main store and the Umeda new building. Their motto is 'Good quality, cheaper prices, and wide selection.' They handle all genres, primarily jazz and rock, including CDs, LPs, 12-inch singles, LDs, and DVDs.

*7 Huckleberry
A long-established used record specialty store in Kobe, known for its affordable prices and wide range of genres, mainly rock, soul, and jazz. They also carry idol 7-inch singles, as well as Brazilian, tango, and reggae records.

*8 Konishi-san of Pizzicato Five
Japanese musician Yasuharu Konishi. A member of the Japanese music group Pizzicato Five, which was active from 1984 to 2001.

*9 Comoesta Yaegashi-san
Japanese DJ/producer/writer. Also popular as a member of the Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys.

*10 Le Hammond Inferno
A popular DJ duo from Berlin, Germany. They are said to have introduced Japanese Shibuya-kei music to Germany. They also ran the music label bungalow.

*11 Romantique '96
The 9th studio album by Pizzicato Five, released on September 30, 1995.

The 90s: Experiencing the Shibuya-kei Boom and Its Decline Abroad Up Close

Sukezane So, in Japan, you made your debut on a Pizzicato Five album.

Tanaka Yes. Even though it was a Pizzicato Five album, it included a track under my name, so I made my album debut that way. That's a typical tactic for an idea man like Konishi-san, isn't it? On the same album,Plastics'^*12 cover of 'Good' was included. That one was credited to Pizzicato Five, but I did the arrangement for that as well. Around the same time, Tei-san also said to me, 'I'm going to do a remix for this girl namedBjörk'^*13 next.'

Sukezane Björk, of all people? (laughs)

Tanaka Tei-san was going to remix her classic track'Hyperballad,'^*14 and he said, 'Tanaka-kun, why don't you make an intro for it?' He even went out of his way to give me a credit for 'Additional Intro Programming.' I was lucky to be blessed with such mentors. I’m still grateful today, because I was able to make it this far thanks to all the times they pulled me up.

Sukezane I wonder if your fashion sense had something to do with it, too. Someone like me tends to think that way immediately.

Tanaka Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was doing magazine editing at the same time as music. I loved the material aspect of records themselves. As a product that wasn't just music—whether it was design, propaganda dating back to EP-4, or advertising—I was drawn to the whole atmosphere of it.

Sukezane Pizzicato Five was stylish at the time, and Tei-san’s styling was cool, too.

Tanaka That’s true.Shibuya-kei^*15 I was able to see the term spreading overseas in real-time, and I benefited from that, getting chances to be invited to DJ abroad.

Sukezane How did it feel to suddenly go overseas to DJ?

Tanaka I didn't understand what was going on—all sorts of things. (laughs) Of course, not every gig was amazing, and there were times with turntables where I couldn't even match the pitch. Once, when I went to Detroit, the DJ before me wouldn't switch out, saying, 'There’s no way a Jap like you can DJ!' The crowd was packed with Black patrons. I insisted, 'Just let me take over,' played some gritty funk, and got the crowd dancing, at which point he was like, 'My bad. (laughs)' (laughs)

Sukezane That’s like a drama. (laughs)

Tanaka During that period, Japanese music was perceived as hype, and it spread to the US and Europe with incredible momentum. In my view, from the mid-90s untilthe 9/11^*16 incident, I feel like that was the peak.

Sukezane 2001, right.

Tanaka Actually, I wasat the World Trade Center^*17 DJing one week before 9/11. There was this huge restaurant and bar called Windows on the World on the floor just below the top floor, and every Tuesday, there was a party hosted by an American former-pilot gay DJ. It was a super stylish, cool party, and they’d invited me to DJ there several times. But that time, I wasn't there to DJ,but for a GAP^*18 shoot in New York.



Sukezane What, as an ad model?

Tanaka Yes, as a model for a global campaign, along withDaft Punk^*19 andMary J. Blige,^*20 anddj honda^*21 were chosen from Japan.Mario Sorrenti^*22 was shooting it, so he told me to just come to New York, and I thought, 'Well, in that case, I'll see if I can DJ at the World Trade Center.'

Sukezane So that was a week before 9/11.

Tanaka It was a Tuesday, so that would be September 4, 2001.

Sukezane How was the GAP shoot?

Tanaka It was fun. Since it was the campaign for the year of 9/11, I couldn't actually go see it, but I heard that during the 2001 Christmas season, billboards all over America were all my face. (laughs)

Page 03.The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks That Broke Out Amidst a Whirlwind of Events

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*12 Plastics
A Japanese techno-pop band formed in 1976 by Toshio Nakanishi (vocals/guitar), Chica Sato (vocals/dance), Hajime Tachibana (guitar), Masahide Sakuma (keyboards), and Takemi Shimamura (rhythm box). Their unique fashion also attracted attention.

*13 Björk
Icelandic singer-songwriter/producer/actress. Debuted in 1988 as the vocalist for The Sugarcubes. Started her solo career after they disbanded and released 'Debut' in 1993. Gained worldwide popularity for her intensely unique, chameleonic voice and sound. Won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for her starring role in the film 'Dancer in the Dark'.

*14 Hyperballad
A popular song included on Björk's third studio album 'Post,' released in 1995, and later released as a single the following year.

*15 Shibuya-kei
A Japanese popular music movement that became popular in the 1990s, originating from Shibuya, Tokyo. It sometimes also refers to the fashion style that thrived during the same period.

*16 9/11
The September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when four US domestic flights were hijacked by an Arab group, crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing all passengers and crew on board.

*17 World Trade Center
A commercial complex formerly located in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was named after the Rockefeller family's ideal of 'World Peace through Trade'.

*18 GAP
Founded as a jeans specialty store in San Francisco in 1969. It later expanded its lineup to include clothing, accessories, and children's wear, growing into a brand that manages planning, production, and sales, now with about 3,700 stores worldwide. Based on the concept of 'clean, all-American, simple, good design,' it develops highly designed products while incorporating trends.

*19 Daft Punk
A house/disco/electro duo from France consisting of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Known for unique performances such as wearing full-face masks and not revealing their faces.

*20 Mary J. Blige
American singer-songwriter. Debuted in the early 1990s as a backing vocalist for her father, an MC. Known as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, she has made a name for herself as one of America's leading female R&B hit singers.

*21 dj honda
A Japanese hip-hop DJ based in the US. In addition to his music career, he is broadly active, such as producing his own fashion brand 'h'.

*22 Mario Sorrenti
Fashion photographer/director from Naples, Italy. He is the son of New York-based advertiser Francesca Sorrenti and the brother of the late fashion photographer Davide Sorrenti. He rose to prominence in 1986 with his Calvin Klein 'Obsession' perfume ad campaign featuring his then-girlfriend Kate Moss, and is known as the 'genius of nude photography'.

The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks That Broke Out Amidst a Whirlwind of Events

Sukezane Bravo! Were you wearing your glasses then, too?

Tanaka I was. They were from a friend's brand, and I had them sign a usage consent agreement. I'm wearing them in the photo, draped with about ten GAP scarves around my shoulders, grinning sheepishly—it's a creepy photo, though. (laughs)

Sukezane (laughs) Who was the stylist?

Tanaka I think they were from New York. A lot of GAP clothes and vintage clothes were prepared.

Sukezane What was your impression of Mario Sorrenti?

Tanaka During the shoot, he told me, 'I’m in a band, so listen to this,' and handed me a demo tape or a CD. I ended up losing it somewhere, though. (laughs)

Sukezane Wait, you didn't listen to it? (laughs)

Tanaka I didn't listen to it; that’s rude, isn’t it? (laughs) He might be a great photographer, but I had absolutely no interest in him as a musician. (laughs)

Sukezane You’re clear-cut about those things, Tanaka-kun. (laughs)

Tanaka No, no, I was just full of myself. (laughs)

Sukezane I once went up to the side of the booth and requested a song from you, and you ignored me.

Tanaka Seriously? (laughs)! That must have been because I didn't have the record! (laughs)! I wouldn't ignore a senior of mine! (laughs)!

Sukezane What was the most memorable thing about the GAP shoot?

Tanaka It was a three-day, two-night trip, but the flight was in first class, and I had a limousine reserved just for me.

Sukezane That’s amazing.

Tanaka It was the best. They’d ask, 'Where to next, sir?' (laughs) So I’d say, 'To a record store.' (laughs)

Sukezane (laughs)

Tanaka A1 Record^*23 and had them take me to.

Sukezane A record store by limo. (laughs) Riding in a limousine in Manhattan feels good, doesn't it? I almost think limousines exist for Manhattan.

Tanaka Back then, things were happening with incredible speed. It sounds like a joke, but when I’d do a DJ event, the guest list would havePrince^*24,Madonna^*25 written on it. Whether they’d actually come or not was another story, but they were on the list, at least. From the label Madonna was running,'Austin Powers'^*26 soundtrack was released, and my music was included on it. I had debuted in the US too, so I licensed my music to various movies and TV shows as FPM. When I heard a drama that used my music was being released on DVD, I received a contract again, and when I looked at it,'Sex and the City'^*27 was written, and I was surprised. When I first signed the contract, I thought it was a porn movie. (laughs)

To be continued in Part 2

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*23 A1 Record
A long-established record shop founded in 1996 in the East Village of Manhattan, New York, by record dealer Isaac Kosman. They handle a wide range of genres, from jazz and disco to hip-hop and house.

*24 Prince
American musician/producer/actor. Produced 12 platinum albums and 30 Top 40 singles, with total album and single sales of over 120 million. Known as a charismatic figure who had a massive influence on numerous musicians. Died in 2016.

*25 Madonna
At 17, aspiring to be a dancer, she went to New York with $35 in her pocket. After paying her dues, she debuted as a rock singer in 1982. Her 1984 album 'Like a Virgin' was a massive hit, and with her sexy costumes, she became the talk of the town as the 'second coming of Monroe,' rising to become a huge star.

*26 Austin Powers
A spy comedy film series starring Mike Myers, produced in 1997, and its main character. It’s a story where a British spy from the 60s is revived in modern times to confront his nemesis.

*27 Sex and the City
A hit television series starring Sarah Jessica Parker, broadcast on the American cable network HBO from 1998 to 2004. Packed with real topics ranging from fashion and sex to parenting, it’s a work that continues to captivate women around the world.