Metropolis-Aug-8-2014

the last word
Side Project
PLAYING THE TOKYO MUSIC SCENE
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BY WILLIAM BRADBURY
Tokyo is a great place to form a band and
play. But further success—touring, making
money from your music and honing
an original sound—are all frustrationinducing
stumbling blocks that are nearly
impossible to kick out of the way.
Like many millions of people out
there, I’ve harbored a dream of being a
musician through my teenage years and
into my adult life. After I arrived in Tokyo,
I started out playing open mic shows—
which are unusually scarce for desperate
musos in this city. I played shows where
I would bang on a toaster and loop the
sounds on my laptop. Nobody thought
it was good, but I still meet people who
remember me as “the toaster guy,” and
it’s from this period that I met future bandmates
and enthusiasts who introduced
Illustration by Christi Rochin
me to other events—all of which earned
me no money and no fans, but at least
brought me temporary satisfaction.
If you’re in a band, you’ll have to check
your ego at the door and accept that
a passion project is probably all it will
ever be. Getting shows is rarely a way to
make money; in actuality it’s more a way
to make money for the venue doing you
the honor of allowing you to play.
I now play in several bands to escape
the reality that my day job is teaching
English and my only fans are a mixture
of family, friends and girlfriends. But
unambitious as I am, I’m aware that even
this would be more difficult if I lived in
another city. If you want your own ragsto-riches
success story, Tokyo is probably
the wrong place to be. But if you just
want to play, you can. A large percentage
of Tokyo-based bands are passion
projects—and if you can’t
find a band to join, you’re
just not looking.
People advertise the
old-fashioned way, and in
neighborhoods famed for
music—such as Koenji—
you can find lots of fliers
from people searching for
others with whom to play.
And yes: being a foreigner
helps. Japanese bands
seem enamored with the
“cool” factor of Western
music. Bands here often
have English names, write their descriptions
and sometimes their attempts to
find members in English. It makes the
band appear more hip—even if half of it
is arbitrary gibberish.
Of course, lots of these projects involve
bands making music suspiciously
like that of their favorite artists—the most
common being soundalikes of My Bloody
Valentine and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Many in the Tokyo music scene are
into gadgets and gizmos, too. There are
people with such huge collections of
pedals and effects that just watching
them set up on stage is like a show in
itself. This can lead to disappointment
if the final product doesn’t justify the
prep time.
IF YOU’RE IN A
BAND, YOU’LL
HAVE TO CHECK
YOUR EGO AT
THE DOOR AND
ACCEPT THAT
A PASSION
PROJECT IS
PROBABLY ALL
IT WILL EVER BE”
Then there are people into perfection,
preparing the most expensive
equipment money can buy—but hesitant
to press the record button. Some
bands have everything thought out
apart from the making and recording of
the actual music.
There are a range of scenes and
communities of like-minded people
playing shows together. Some of these
are based purely on area; others are
based on category. Tokyo, for example,
is famous for being the “home of
noise”—though I’ve always felt a contradiction
in the underground noise
scene here, because although it prides
itself on being “out there,” there are
often many rules as to what sounds and
vocal styles can be used.
It’s hard to ever become fully despondent
in Tokyo, though, because
the population is so large
there are always people
out there somewhere
who share your interests.
There could be another
guy banging on his mother’s
pots and pans and recording
it in his basement
at this very moment. You
just have to put yourself
out there to find him.
There’s an earnest
enjoyment of music in
Tokyo, but that overt earnestness
can also lead to
naïveté. Many musicians accept that it is
enough just to play a show or even just to
be in a band and enjoy that for what it is.
Trying to make music is a strange
thing to call a hobby compared to, say,
golf, and many people don’t try for fear
of failing—and miss the point that not
trying is also failing. Everybody should
try to make music if they’re interested in
doing so, even just to see what kind of
thing they churn out. But after a certain
number of years, you have to question
whether you’re getting enough of a payoff
both literally and emotionally for the
time and life investment.
■ William Bradbury is an English teacher,
freelance writer and musician based in Tokyo
The views expressed in “The Last Word” are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the position or opinions of Japan Partnership Co. Ltd. or its partners and sponsors.
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