Author: Ali Watson

Interview – exist†trace 2011

Published by Ali Watson

[Photo originally courtesy of JapanFiles.com for JrockRevolution.com] May 2011. At Sakura Con this year, JrockRevolution.com had a chance to sit down with exist†trace. Among the many subjects we touched on were the past, the present, their future in going major and the international music scene. Enjoy! The band introduced themselves as: Miko, guitar Jyou, vocals Omi, guitar Naoto, bass – nice to meet you! Mally, drums Last night was your first concert in the United States. How did you feel about the performance? Jyou: The crowd was so energetic for us. That gave us a lot of power and we want to do it again. You brought a Japanese flag and an American flag with ‘kizuna’ written on it. Can you give us the story behind this? Jyou: Kizuna means ‘heart to heart’. There was a big earthquake in Japan and we received a tremendous amount of support from America. ‘Kizuna’ is about the connection between people, that travels even over the ocean, between Japan and America. We decided to write it on the flag …

Interview – LUNA SEA December 2010

Published by Ali Watson

December 2010. Just before the show at the Palladium, JrockRevolution.com had an opportunity to chat with Sugizo, Shinya, and Ryuichi. We talked about the present, some of the past and the near future for their World Tour: Reboot. At present, Hollywood is the second stop with the first being Germany and other dates being in Asia. You can find tour dates and information about Luna Sea right here at JrockRevolution.com. This is the first part of the interview with the final piece being published tomorrow! We started out asking about the twenty years together and how the reunion has gone so far. Shinya answered first, saying it wasn’t like someone had said, “hey, let’s do this”. The timing happened to be good. “A lot has happened over the years,” he explained. “Things were just right for this to happen now.” Sugizo agreed. “A certain kind of gravity brought us back together.” Like things were in alignment. Ryuichi added, “Also, the fact that we could produce an ideal sound at this point in time as a …

Live Report – LUNA SEA December 2010

Published by Ali Watson

December 2010. In the last few days leading up to Luna Sea’s Dec. 4 concert, a few things remained consistent throughout for many on the industry side and in the fanbase. Curiosity. Anticipation. Expectation. The same feelings the band likely felt up to the point of the lights dimming on the Palladium’s stage and the first note sounding over the roar of cheering fans. In Hollywood, California, fans from around the world descended to see this iconic band live — many for the first time in their lives. Luna Sea consists of Ryuichi on vocals, Sugizo and Inoran on guitars, J on bass and Shinya on drums. Starting out in 1989, the five rocked Japan and quickly gained a dedicated fanbase that only grew after their hiatus in 2000. Each musician, accomplished in his own right, went on to have successful solo careers before the stars aligned, Fate intervened or — as Shinya had pointed out — the timing was simply right to come back together. “We’ve been looking forward to playing here in Los …

Jrock and Rock Band

Published by Ali Watson

[Graphic by the JrockRevolution.com graphics team] March 2010. Harmonix invited JrockRevolution.com to submit opinion on what Japanese rock bands would be a good addition to the popular video game Rock Band. Rather than gather information from staff, we asked fans what bands they’d like to see. In a two part process, we polled fans to discover the top ten bands of who they wanted to see in the video game to generate this list: 1. the GazettE 2. Dir en grey 3. X JAPAN 4. MIYAVI 5. GACKT 6. An Café 7. D’espairsRay 8. Nightmare 9. L’Arc~en~Ciel 10. Versailles ~Philharmonic Quintent~ For article information, please check out the following links: Initial article and Final poll results After our results were submitted back to Harmonix, we, as well as other fans, were hopeful that one or more of our top ten selections would make it to the game. Ah, but that was just the beginning…

SXSW 2010

Published by Ali Watson

[Graphic by the JRR.com Graphics team] March 2010 South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual entertainment industry convention. Considered to be the most influential and important convention for the music industry, I submitted a panel idea about Japanese rock music internationally for consideration. In 2010, there were over 2200 panels in for consideration with only 300 able to make the cut for the final lineup. Due to the uniqueness of our idea and the fact that, to my knowledge, no other panel had ever been presented on the Japanese music industry at SXSW, we were hopeful. To our delight, we were accepted. The original panel host was not able to attend and I presented the panel with Makoto Kawabata of Acid Mothers Temple and Keith Cahoon of Hotwire K.K. in Tokyo, Japan. Our panel gave some history of the Japanese music industry in Japan as well as how the relatively underground movement of imported rock and other genres have fared around the world in recent years. Both Mr. Cahoon and Mr. Kawabata provided invaluable insights …

Uchuusentai Noiz

Published by Ali Watson

JrockRevolution.com and Anime Diet shared an interview for Uchuusentai NOIZ. After a long day, we opted for a shorter interview, yet it was very enlightening! Our thanks to Anime Diet for letting us include their questions and the photos taken after the interview. Your battle suits are creative and unique. When you designed them, what inspiration did you draw upon? Kyo: There isn’t one specific thing; it is [in general] Japanese culture is one of the main draws. Masato: Hm. X-Men. Eye candy. Angel Taka: There isn’t anything specific such as “oh, I like this”, but the main theme is ‘Asian beauty’. Yamato: Creature. Kotaro: [did not get translation] [In relation to the suits], you were posing on stage. Are you posing because you were specifically influenced by the sentai dramas? Uchusentai NOIZ: It’s not so much influence – we are space rangers… As individuals outside your powers as heroes, what would you consider your personality strengths and weaknesses? Kyo: My strength is being positive. The weakness is without thinking, going into action. Masato: My …

GLAY returns to the U.S.

Published by Ali Watson

August 2008. What does it take to make a legend? For this band: passion, dedication and a dash of good luck. Over their twenty year career, GLAY has risen from their humble beginnings in high school to sold out shows, festivals, and an increasingly large international fanbase. To say GLAY has had it easy suggests that every high school band can rise to the same heights. Some can—if they have what GLAY has had in spades from the very beginning. Music was something all of GLAY had in common. Each member had played in different bands and enjoyed listening to different styles of music before the four members became one entity, performing music full of passion. Despite every obstacle, GLAY has persevered, dedicating themselves to their music and their dreams. In 1993, it was Yoshiki of X JAPAN who signed them to his new label: Extasy Records. When their first single, “RAIN,” made an impact, the climb to the top seemed inevitable. “BEAT OUT!,” their second album, became their first #1 hit and marked a …

VAMPS 2009

Published by Ali Watson

In 2009, I’d only been working with JrockRevolution.com for months. A partnership for promoting the VAMPS 2009 tour was in process and flier designs were needed. Among a number of other web and print designs requested and submitted, ultimately, no fliers were printed. These are among the designs for the original club flier. Page 1, however, is based on an existing flier already made. Some modifications were made for clarity and information.