Honing the craft and playing bigger shows
Sonpub (2007-2010)
Starting to get where I wanted to be
Before I left Back to Chill and initially had the idea to work with an artist on a more finely tuned audio/visual set
I had been introduced to this skinny guy at Milk who was a beatmaker and looking for a visual element of his live set.
Sonpub had his hood up the whole time and sunglasses covering his eyes and the next day I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a police line up but after a few more meetings I got to know him more and more and his goals of what he wanted to do seemed in line with mine.
On those first encounters he was warm but reserved and really enthused at the prospect of working with me so I hassled him for a demo which he finally sent me when I was back in Australia for a month. I was blown away by his tracks which were poppy and heartfelt but smart with a hip hop aesthetic. They were inspiring as I would have to redefine my visual palette again just as i had done with dubstep a year or so ago. I had a chance to start again from scratch which was exciting and liberating. I sat in my friends house in Collingwood trying to make sense of how I would add to this strange music I was hearing and it didn’t come easily to be honest.
We returned home to Tokyo and I listened to that demo more times than anybody else did ( I don’t think he gave those tunes to anyone else and the majority of them weren’t released as his style changed a lot from the point that we met to his next release). I listened to it on my bike, I listened to it on the train, I even listened to it as I slept slowly building ideas as to how this music looked. We also met quite a lot to discuss ideas and influences and started to become quite close due to our mutual love of music in general. I was drawn in by his niavety and enthusiasm .
Falling in with the right crowd
I probably should have mentioned that Sonpub was already quite renowned due to his affiliations with million selling Teriyaki Boys and other acts that were quite big,
he was on a first name basis with then richest man in Japan for god’s sake.
It struck me how shy and humble he was for someone whose reputation was so big, this changed a lot in the later part of our relationship and that’s all I’ll go into on that matter.
We played a handful of fairly “standard” club shows over the next six months or so, honing our thing each time and I was learning how to do what I wanted as we went. The first two shows we did were probably among 2 of the most personally satisfying sets I have done to date, and the positive feedback we were getting was motivating to say the least. Sonpub was really encouraging for me to be on the stage when we performed but I was initially against the idea – what was a VJ to be doing on the stage? He wanted us to be a duo performing together just like musicians would be jamming together on stage, I gave in and then
just like that I became one of the guys on the stage.
At first it was really awkward, I was still new to mixing visuals so quickly and on time to the music that I had quite a lot to be concentrating on, I was head down to my gear, stone cold afraid to look up let alone into the crowd. I just tried to look like i was having fun and not make any mistakes. Sonpub on the other hand was used to being in front of (bigger) crowds and had more of a confident stage presence, he had the whole call-response thing going on with the audience and pressed the buttons and twiddled the knobs of his machines like a man possessed. I wondered if I could ever have that much confidence on the stage, I thought probably not.
Everything changed when we supported Daft Punk.
It was the biggest show I have done and when Sonpub initially told me we were a chance to get the support slot my initial reaction was, so what, I don’t even like Daft Punk. What a (ignorant?) fuckin’ idiot. Sonpub was really nervous about it, we had to make a big impression and do an amazing set so the lead up was a lot of fairly tense practice and idea development sessions.
We supported them for the 2 shows of their Tokyo tour, saturday and sunday and both shows were alot of fun. The venue was a massive airplane hangar type venue with something like 10,000 people in attendance each day and climbing the ladder to the stage was pretty daunting. I was still pretty much face down to the computer during the whole set, looking up into the vast sea of faces trying to take a mental photograph once in while.
- Pilfering some of Daft Punks beer from their rider, a cooler box I found down a long tunnel of corridors backstage when we had been cut off from the staff bar.
- Mistaking the second most famous person on the bill for someone in the little known opening band, to his face and him looking me dead in the eyes, droll look on his face and saying back to me, “I am ***”
This is Image 4
This is Image 1
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Ramping up on stage and off.
The next year (2008) was a blur of rather big shows and touring throughout Japan. By December of this year
I had thrown away the keyboard gazing shy guy and created a stage persona who was more than comfortable jumping, dancing, drinking and communicating with the crowd on stage.
It became really easy as I kind of shed my real self as I went on to play and as this different guy I could do anything. This new guy could be brash, cocky, even silly on stage and the crowds seemed to like him. I noticed at this point and later that when people met me backstage after the shows they were kind of disappointed to meet this quiet, somewhat introverted opposite of the fun guy they had seen on stage
Our set was really tightened over this year and we could both do the live set with our eyes closed now. Making visuals in some ways came easier and quicker but as we progressed Sonpub wanted more and more of a hand in the creative direction of the visuals. I had always liked the collaborative aspect of working with him, and appreciated his ideas but his increasing input was creating a strain.
Sonpub’s sound had also really changed it was now really rocky electro which in hindsight was the it thing back then. I had no cerebral or emotional connection with this music and It was easy to make visuals that were suited to the music but hard to like or respect them. It became a job and something I think I did well but did not gain satisfaction out of.
2008 in a blur:
Ski Field Cafeteria madness
- Playing a show in a cafeteria for the Nissan Snowboarding Open in Tsukshima. It was in the snowfields and there was no live venue so we had to play in a cafeteria area. The live element of the show was wonky but being the ski fields the crowd was mental and there was alot of alcohol. We stayed in this massive complex so there were no real clubs or pubs and the only place to get a drink was Karaoke or the vending machines. I left Karaoke when someone persisted me to sing Limp Bizkit.
Out of Tokyo, Out of our heads
- The always weird regional shows we did as part of Sonpub’s release tour (Nagoya, Himeji, Shikoku, Okayama, Sapporo). There was always funny episodes and great food. We spent far too much awkward time in cars and hotel lobbies with the label rep and the tour manager than I care to recall. The tour manager was a kind of overweight guy with a big afro. He had the gift of the gab, knew alot of people and was most importantly full of shit as far as I could tell. One day we were waiting in a hotel lobby for Sonpub which was a reoccuring scene on tour and the tour manager started to unzip his pants at the knee, he proceeded to turn his pants into shorts and reveal the skinniest chicken legs on a man i have ever seen. Sonpubs manager and I who were on really good terms looked at each other without uttering a word both acknowledged that this was the funniest thing we would probably see on any tour, ever. Sonpub came down the elevator and gave us a look to say, what’s going on here then.
Go To Heaven. Strange name, awesome party
- The most indulgent, hedonistic party I played was definitely a party called “Go To Heaven”. It was organised as an end of year party for a really successful promoter who had handpicked his favourite acts for the year all to play on one massive bill from afternoon to night. When Sonpub’s manager was initially asked if he could play and what was our price, the promoter said on the spot that he would double it. The minute we walked in to do a sound check (I was actually double booked and had another booking at the same party with De De Mouse) there were full bottles of tequila EVERYWHERE and at least 6 fridges stocked full of beer. The fridges were emptied early and the Tequila went pretty quickly after that. I can’t remember too much of the live shows but I got home with all my gear which was pretty amazing.
The Rip Slyme Christmas party
- Rip Slyme are a household name hip-pop group which 95% of 19-45 year old people would know and for a few years running they would have a concert on christmas day. Christmas in Japan isn’t like christmas in western countries, they celebrate it but usually with friends or to go out to dinner with their partner. Work is business as usual and holding a massive concert is not really out of the ordinary. The screen was the best I have played on being a 2 story high led wall that made anything look good. The audience was mostly young girls, probably 17-30 years old and we were still on a rock and roll vibe from the “Go To Heaven” party 2 days before so I had a handlebar moustache and we walked on stage with a half empty bottle of rum and proceeded to bewilder most of the audience with our set.
The cracks start to show
We went into 2009 pretty weary after a busy year, We had found out in late 2008 that we were to go to the SXSW festival in Austin Texas in March so that was the next big goal in our sights. SXSW came and went and was probably a bit of an anti climax. I didn’t really expect much as I went in aware of the nature of the festival – that it was basically a big behind the scenes exercise in networking. I think Sonpub thought we would be “discovered” and when we evidently weren’t I think it was a big blow. We returned to Japan and unofficially split. i think we did 2 or 3 more shows that year and after the stress and strain of 2008 I was quite happily that we seemed to be going our separate ways.
I didn’t contact Sonpub much around this time, in the past we would usually meet socially outside of Vjing but at this point in time we only met to rehearse or play gigs.
Just when I thought things were winding down…
Out of nowhere 2010 was busy with alot of outside of Tokyo bookings.
We had fallen in with one of Sonbub’s aquaintances who was working for a promotion company with less than legit business connections.
We played quite a few shows with them and they were at best awkward. To me they were the epitome of all that was wrong with the current standpoint of alot of event organisers in Japan at that time. There was no concept behind what they were doing and they would match want-to-be pop chances with guys like us on the same bill. As a result the people who came to these events were probably too much of a mixed bag and by the time we played the prime time there was a lot of looks of confusion and bewilderment.
Everything around the parties was great, getting chauffered around, taken out to eat, staying in pretty good hotels.
Random bits of 2010
- One of the people who was playing on the same bills as us was the daughter of an insanely famous 50 something year old comedian/ television personality who was trying her luck at the pop star thing. She was trying her luck in vain but it brought the paying customers in like wildfire. I knew of her father’s reputation but not really the extent of hers. One night in Osaka I was watching TV in the hotel room drinking a beer getting ready to go to the soundcheck and said wannabe pop star was co hosting the prime time TV show. When I arrived at the club for the soundcheck it made me ponder the massive gap between what she was doing in the context of that TV show and what she was doing here and now.
- Trying to find Nagoya castle at 6 in the morning with Sonpub and another friend after a show. I have a theory that Nagoya people are really bad at giving directions and the fact that a taxi driver couldn’t take us to a landmark the size and reputation of the statue of liberty was disconcerting to say the least. He dropped us off after not being able to find it and every person we met kept leading us in the wrong direction (police included). We gave up in the end and caught a cab back to our hotel.
A few ends at once
Officially Quitting was one of the hardest things I have had to put into words to another person and it kind of jumped out on the phone in October of 2010. We had seen and accomplished so much together but
I felt the whole thing had run its course
and I didn’t believe I was in a position where I could make good work, also I had plans to move back to Australia in 2011. We had 2 shows booked in December so I agreed to see the year out and then we would part ways.
I was talked into doing one last show which, unfortunately due to the Earthquake of 3.11.11 was cancelled. It was a real shame because even though I reluctantly agreed to doing it at the time, I would of had one more story to tell if I had have done it.