In addition to occasional writing gigs, and despite Quit Your Band! fading into the past in both Japanese and English editions, I've been featured in a few different things as well over the past few months, in my capacity as a journalist and as a general Tokyo indie scene face. I'll put some links and explanations below:
(1) The Barbican in London asked me to write an article for them on Japanese underground music for a series of concerts they were doing, but in addition to the article, they also interviewed me for their podcast, as the third part in a series focusing on different decades of Japanese music. I got the 1990s as my decade, which is definitely the place I feel most comfortable, as it allowed me to rattle off some awesome tracks by OOIOO, Otomo Yoshihide, the always wonderful Melt-Banana and more. You can listen to it and see the track list here.
(2) Interview with JRock News website, mostly focused on Call And Response Records and the indie music scene in Japan at the moment. You can read it here. It's always interesting to be on the other side of an interview after having spent so much time being the one asking the questions. It often makes me realise how scattershot and meandering my interviews are.
(3) Appearance on Got Faded Japan podcast. You can listen to the whole thing here. A very different kind of interview, carried out with the assistance of a couple of beers by two American men. No idea how this comes across, since I never listen to things where my own voice is going to be played back at me, but I remember it being fun.
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