My Very Own Rock & Roll Swindle! How I Scammed the Music Business in Japan!

Alternative title: "How to use lessons of the Sex Pistols to sell records."

"Hype is always better than reality" - Me

In the early nineties, I ran one of the best-selling independent record labels in Japan. It was called "Samson Records." We were based in Shinjuku, Tokyo and I started the label with a guy from Osaka named Suzuki who owned a radio program recording studio named "Sam." Hence the name of the record label, "Samson Records." 

"I like your music!" - Me
"Of course you do...." - British artist

The company was set up so that I would split 1/2 with Suzuki everything we made. He provided the studios and staff and engineers. I would set up the music and branding and marketing... Later I would be given shares in "Sam" on a stock option (an option that I was never able to exercise). 

The former president of Tower Records Asia, Keith Cahoon, once told me that Samson was the number one selling Indies label in Japan.

This is a brief story about how that label began and how I scammed the Japan music industry.

The beginnings of Samson Label:

We wanted to make a cool indies label that had a policy of very stylish and sophisticated music. J-Wave FM radio station in Tokyo was booming and they had a very chic and stylish image. I wanted to sell music that they would air for us (I also had my own late night show on that station).

I was trying to license music from Europe (mostly France) but was having lots of trouble with conceited artists (what's new?) who wanted huge advances (like $25,000 ~ $50,000)... We didn't have any money to pay advances like that!

It was funny dealing with artists from around the world. If you were interested in music from an American artist and inquired with them, they'd normally say, "OK. Let's have our lawyers get in contact with each other." 

If you were interested in music from a Canadian or Australian artist, they'd normally say, "Great! We'll even pay for our own airfare to come play in Japan!"

If you told a European - or especially a British artist - that you liked their music, they'd take a drag on their cigarette and in a very aloof manner say, "Of course you do."

It was very difficult licensing music from Europeans and Americans. So I decided that we'd make our own stylish music. That first project became known as "Nadege" in Japan and was a smash Indies success that was later sold to a major label. 

Besides problems with licensing foreign artists for Japan, for Indies labels, there was (still are) problems with the music publishers in Japan. Mostly the problems are with the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC).

At that time, JSRAC extorted money, er I mean, "arranged payment" from all small labels by a silly "sticker on album" system. JASRAC used to charge indies labels ¥90 per sticker to be placed on CDs (about $1.10) whether they sell or not - just for manufacture of product. To make matters worse, we were licensing indies bands who had no publishing in Japan so they wouldn't get a cent of the money anyway - JASRAC pays the money to the domestic major labels. It's a scam.

Anyway, JASRAC would make you buy these little stickers at ¥100 (about one US dollar) a pop to place on all CDs made. It seemed ridiculous to me.

No, you couldn't just print these on the CDs jackets either. They had to be the actual stickers!

A new label can't afford these types of charges up front. If our Indies label was going to fly, I had to figure a way out of these problems. But how?

Well, as I wrote about the other day in I Was a Teenage Punk Rocker - Why Dedication Beats Fanaticism Any Day! Even for Punk Rock or Success in Any Field!... I had a punk rock band background so I got to thinking.

First off, I went to Korea and made a deal to press CDs over there (I think I was one of the first, if not thee first, to go make a deal like that)... 

We got around massive import duties by having them ship the CDs as "unfinished product" (parts). The Korean manufacturer would ship the boxes, discs, wrappers all separately and then we'd assemble them into finished product by hand in Japan (that was a tough job!) We printed the sleeves, etc. locally in Japan.

Then I knew a half-French / Japanese girl named Vivi. Vivi was a Deejay at Bay-FM (a Chiba Japan FM radio station) and so was I. Vivi was an excellent singer. She also spoke perfect French (well, at least good enough for the Japanese). We put her and the engineer and the producer in the studio and played some music for them and told them to write songs like some examples that I had brought along for them to hear... You know, smooth jazzy lounge music (like Bossa Nova style, Sergio Mendez, etc....) They did a good job writing songs. They went to work on making the music and I would check it out every once in a while and add comments or advice...

Some advice they took; some they didn't. It was okay with me, I figured. If I already knew what 17-year-olds wanted to buy, I would have already been rich! And anyway, I was in charge of sales and marketing and branding anyhow....

In Japan, at that time, if a CD said, "Made in Korea" or "Made in Japan" on the jacket then there were 3 problems: One, if it said "Made in Japan" JASRAC would demand payment and two, if it said, "Made in Korea" Japanese radio station directors won't play it... Nor would store buyers at places like Tower Records, HMV, Virgin Mega-Stores buy them - that was the third problem... 

This was at the very start of the boom in foreign music stores in Japan and I desperately needed these stores to carry our product... I needed the local radio stations to play the songs... I didn't want to pay JASRAC unless I sold a record....

Malcolm McLaren

So, how to fool all these people? I thought about it for a long time and then it dawned on me like a bolt of lightening! I asked myself, "How would Malcolm McLaren or the Sex Pistols do it?" I soon had my answer. 

I forbade my staff from putting any Japanese writing on the CD at all. None. Zero. Verboten! Then in large letters on the back of the CD backing sleeve, I ordered the designer to write, "Made in France." 

When the JASRAC people saw that they thought, "Oh? Not manufactured in Japan? You don't have to pay publishing royalties!" And, since the sleeves were printed in Japan and parts shipped from Korea, I didn't pay import duties for finished product! (Smirk, smirk!) 

We finally finished the CD, put it all together and started selling it. We offered a really good price to stores for quality product that the stores believed was imported. Even though it looked like an import, we gave the stores excellent product for about half the price of a regular import. We even gave them 100% return rights. The CDs sold like hotcakes!

Soon after, I took some CDs to J-Wave (the big radio station in Tokyo that plays that kind of music) to promote the CD. 

There I met a director named Ishii san. Ishii san was a very arrogant and conceited little piece o' sh*t... er, I mean politically powerful radio director and producer. He was director of what was probably the most famous J-Wave radio program (I can't remember the name). I walked in with the CD to hand to him and he laughed at me (in a very condescending manner) and said, "I already have that CD. I bought it at the store yesterday!" (As if to say, "I'm always way ahead of you Rogers, you are always behind a cool trend setter like me!") 

I saw the CD he was proudly holding in his hand and had a hard time not laughing, but I bowed my head to him and said something like, "Yes. Of course. You are an expert on French pop music. It figures you'd have it first, Ishii san!"

That CD sold well over 20,000 copies in the first month. Considering that we were an Indies label, we made about $10.00 (USD) profit for every album we sold.

This was the rerelease on Victor of what I think was the second Nadege album

Later on we sold all the past released albums for that artist known as "Nadege" to Victor Records for about $600,000 (USD)... Hilarious, huh? We sold to Victor Records a "French pop group" that didn't really exist except that it consisted of one half-French / Japanese girl and two Japanese in-studio computer manipulator genius/dorks for over a half million dollars.  

Man, did we have a massive party the night that deal was signed!

I think they released several albums on Victor but never had any more hits... Major labels always have a way of making something cool quite the opposite.

We never were able to repeat the wild success we had with Nadege with other artists but we were able to still have several artist's albums that sold well over 15,000 ~ 20,000 each. 

It was a great time to be running an Indies label in Japan and it was a wonderful memory! It was my very own "Rock and Roll Swindle!"

The music was good, for sure... But the entire concept and selling and marketing was all a scam! It was a lesson that I will never forget: Hype truly is always better than reality!

Measles Vaccinations? A "Professional" Speaks Out!

"Adolf Hitler wasn't vaccinated against Measles, either!" - Mike Rogers

"See? I told you Ebola was mutating! It has now mutated into a measles epidemic on the nightly news!" - That's by me too!

This measles vaccination nonsense is absurd.

It's not a question of public health. This is a question of property rights; do you own your own body?

At my house, we do not give our child a flu shot every year: we gathered information and made a judgement on cost and effectiveness vs. risk performance. We got him flu shots before, but these last 4 or 5 years, we opted out.

Unfortunately, our kid came down with the flu this year (his second time in eleven years). 

The children of my best friend, Taro, also got the flu this year. The difference? We didn't get a flu shot for our son. My friend Taro had all his kids get the flu shot. Twice. They all did; and they had both flu immunizations; yet they still got the flu.

My son got the flu this year. He didn't get an immunization. My friend's kids all did. They all got the flu also... And my friend was out several hundred bucks for a flu vaccine that didn't work.

If we allow the government to force people to take immunizations, then no one can complain when the government deems that you are too fat and then they can decide ridiculous things like you are no longer allowed to buy large Cokes. Or that your medical condition is so bad (in their judgement) that you need to be put into an institution against your will. Or that your folks (you included) are too old and inept to take care of yourselves so you need to be put into an old folk's hospital or strapped to a bed 24/7. Or that your smoking or drinking habit is too dangerous for other people so you must stop... Or you need to wear seat belts...

There's no end to it, folks.

Most of you folks reading this are mostly probably too young to remember, but for those of us born in the 50s, there was no fear of the measles or the mumps or chicken pox.

Nope. It was something that we all got. No big deal.

I lived in a family with three brothers and when one got it, the others soon followed. I don't remember Chicken Pox being anything but very itchy, the measles were absolutely nothing, but the mumps hurt a little bit.

Still, no big deal.

In fact, I looked forward to getting sick and missing a few days of school: JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHER KIDS DID!

Today's media makes these formerly common childhood ailments sound like Small Pox or Polio or the Bubonic Plague...

Seriously. I remember clearly the Measles, mumps and Chicken Pox because we all three got it roughly the same time. No worry. Just stay in bed.

Watch this video to see what people used to think about Measles, before those days when Big Pharma started marketing vaccines. (Thanks to Lew Rockwell! www.lewrockwell.com)

The Brady Bunch (Ugh!) is the best.... Really. They even say that getting those three diseases is the best way to skip out of school....

Forced immunizations are not about controlling diseases, but about controlling you.

NOTE: Oh, the title of this article: "Measles Vaccinations? A Professional Speaks Out!" Before someone complains about who the professional is, it's me. I've worked in the mass media for over 30 years; this mass media sensationalism? I am a professional and an expert at mass media sensationalism; oh, and I am a "professional" with a big mouth.

ADDENDUM: Great article over at Zerohedge today: Guest Post: How Vaccine Hysteria Could Spark A Totalitarian Nightmare

Snippet:

1. The voices shrieking to forcibly vaccinate people are the same voices shrieking to support a woman’s right to choose abortion under Roe v. Wade. If a woman’s body is sacrosanct, if she has the right to choose to deliver a child or not, if she has total authority over her body, how can she not have the right to accept or refuse a vaccination?

2. Medical ethics are clear: No one should be forced to undergo a medical treatment without informed consent and without their agreement to the treatment. We condemn the forced sterilization of the ’20s and ’30s, the Tuskegee medical experiments infecting black inmates and the Nazi medicine that included involuntary “Euthanasia,” experimentation and sterilization. How can we force vaccination without consent? Vaccination is a medical treatment with risks including death. It is totally antithetical to all ethics in medicine to mandate that risk to others.

3. Science is never “concluded.” Mr. Obama and other ideologues may think the truth is finalized (“The science is indisputable”), but the reality is our understanding of disease and treatment are constantly being updated. Just like Newton’s mechanical paradigm of the universe was supplanted by Einsteinian physics, and physicists today modify that view, medical “truth” is not the truth for long. In an attempt to quantify change in medicine, years ago a cardiology journal discussed “The Half-life of Truth.” cardiologists looked back in their journal at 20-year-old articles to see how much of what was believed then was still believed to be true. The answer? 50 percent. So in cardiology, at least – and in all of medicine to greater or lesser degree – only half of what we believe now will still be true in 20 or so years. The last word on vaccination is not in. It hasn’t even begun to be written.

4. If you believe absolutely in the benefit and protective value of vaccination, why does it matter what others do? Or don’t do? If you believe you need vaccination to be healthy and protected, then by all means vaccinate your child and yourself. Why should you even be concerned what your neighbor chooses to do for his child – if vaccination works? The idea of herd immunity is still based on the idea that in individual cases vaccines actually are protective.

5. If you think the government has the right to forcibly vaccinate people – for the good of society – what is to prevent them from forcibly sterilizing people, or forcibly euthanizing people, or forcibly implanting a tracking device – for the good of society? You make think those examples are extreme (although two-thirds have happened), but the principle is the same. You are allowing government to have ultimate authority over your body.

Read more at: How Vaccine Hysteria Could Spark A Totalitarian Nightmare

Sex Pistols Glen Matlock, Neatbeats and More in Tokyo

Glen Matlock, the original bassist for the Sex Pistols was in Tokyo the other day. Glen was kicked out of the band for Sid Vicious back in the day. I figure that's because Glen can actually play and play well! Lots of people don't know this, but Glen wrote the Sex Pistols hit song, "Pretty Vacant." 

First I went to meet Glen at the radio station. Then I went to see him live and make a promotional video for one of his songs. Both events were pretty cool and I'm glad I went.

Glen is a nice guy

I actually did have coffee with Glen... But that's not my coffee...

The video isn't even close to being done yet. I expect to have it within a few weeks.

The Glen Matlock show was a great show. It featured a bunch of really cool Japanese bands. One that was on the bill that really surprised me was the N'Shukugawa Boys. I really like this band. Here is their hit video  "Monogatari ha Chito Fuantei" (I guess that translates into: "The story is a little bit shaky.")

But the band that really impressed me at the entire show was an Osaka band called, "The Neatbeats." Totally faithful sixties beat music and these guys were awesome musicians (as well as being funny as hell!)

Oh, well, yesterday and today it snowed in Tokyo.. The Mainichi Daily News writes: "...the heaviest snow in the Japanese capital since February 1994 and the fourth largest snowfall since World War II..."

This is the most snow I have ever seen in Tokyo in 30+ years of living here

Last year we had the coldest winter in 24 years. This year we have the most snow in 20 years... (and heading for what could be the coldest winter in more than 24 years). Question: This trend points to a what trend?

a) Warming trend
b) Cooling trend

Never Mined the Bitcoins - Here's the Scam Pyramid

Gary North has written what I think is the best thing I've read on Bitcoin in quite a while. Please refer to: Is Bitcoin a Ponzi Scheme? 

I've spoken and written a lot about Bitcoin. I think the most popular was: The Bashful Bitcoin Numismatist. And I've even been on WHDT TV interviewed about the subject: Bitcoin Not a Feasible Currency.

Well, for the first time in a few months, I finally had a crerative inspiration. This "art" is everything I think I could possibly say about Bitcoin in one image. You know, they say that a "Picture speaks a thousand words..." 

I made this and must give all credit and apologise to the Sex Pistols. 

Here is my last comment on the Bitcoin subject. This says everything I want to say:

Kony 2012? Don't Waste Your Money! You've Been Ripped Off! Only 10% of all monies donated go to Africa. The rest go to bonuses to executives!

Another rip off of the gullible public has been perpetrated. 70 million viewers to the Invisible Children video. Millions of dollars donated. Now the truth comes out: KONY 2012 is just another cash-in like all the rest.

In an update to last night's blog post about my being highly suspicious of KONY 2012 being a scam, this information just in from INVISIBLE CHILDREN IS A SCAM. Once again, I will ask that the reader use their own judgement, but, as I pointed out yesterday in my post entitled, KONY 2012 is a Scam - Kony? What about America's war criminals? If Uganda didn't have oil, you'd ever hear about this:

Why the sudden interest in Uganda? ‎

Six million people have died in the last decade in the Democratic Republic of Congo... But we don't hear about that! Why? The USA benefits from the proxy war in Congo. And Congo doesn't have resources we want. 

Why Kony and why Uganda? What a coincidence that oil was discovered in Uganda two years ago...

..Kony 2012 seems suspiciously to be merely a psy-ops operation to get US public opinion behind more US military action in Uganda to control their resources. The US already has 100 soldiers on the ground in Uganda by the way.

The information I received this morning seems to confirm these suspicions. This part really sticks out:

Base salary for Invisible Children exec is about $85, 0000. When allowances and bonuses are added, these guys make over $160,000 a year... 

...Is the Money you donate to Invisible Children and Kony2012 being given to the United States Government to capture Kony? Off course Not. Will the Money be sent to Africa to Help the African Poor People? Yes only only less than 10%. So what will Invisible Children do with the rest of the 90% of your money? Yes Think About it! 

Here is the full text of the message I received. 

Invisible Children Inc is a scam. 'Stop Kony 2012' is a scam too. Many people are upset at how Invisible Children Inc has been using the Joseph Kony Saga to cause sensationalism, create a way to collect more donations and enrich themselves.

The more money they collect, the more they pay themselves hefty bonuses. Base salary for Invisible Children exec is about $85, 0000. When allowances and bonuses are added, these guys make over $160,000 a year. Just think what this money they lavish themselves with, could do for the people in Africa for whom they claim to be collecting donations for. 

Invisible Children Inc does NOT have an Independent and external Auditor. Their Financial Statements as submitted to the Charity Navigator web site cannot be independently verified. It should be assumed to be a cooked financial statement since it was submitted by their in house Auditor and can not be substantiated by a third party.

Invisible Children Inc Executives have retained expensive Lawyers and in the past have been threatening libel suits to any one who dares to question their financial operations or their ethical legitimacy. They have also used your donation money to hire expensive Washington lobbyists to influence policies to suit their objectives. There close social relationships with African Oppressive regimes have also ensured that they have been protected and shrouded in biased and lopsided misinformation for years.

For the last 2 years less than 10% of funds collected by Invisible Children are sent to the Ground to help the Ugandan Children. Previous to that, less than 30% of the money they collected was sent to Uganda to help the Ugandan People. A preliminary survey of all projects and activity on the Ground in Uganda to help the Uganda Children does not even total up to $1.5 Million of the $13 Million they have collected in donations so far.

Before Invisible Children Inc started, the Executive directors where Media arts students who went to Africa to look for project to farther their careers. They first went to Southern Sudan on a hit and miss venture and by just by chance they went farther south and stumbled upon the conflict in Northern Uganda. Since then they have capitalized on the Uganda -Joseph Kony War to spear head their media, film and music careers. They have also become stinky rich and drive in fancy cars and live in fancy houses with your donation money.

Now in2012, Invisible Children has created this STOP Kony 2012 video to mislead people to collect money to help catch Joseph Kony? The LRA Joseph Kony war, talked about in their video has ended over 3 years ago. Joseph Kony has Not been seen or heard from, for the last two years and is actually believed to be dead. The United Nations however has reported that villages in Central Africa have recently been raided and people killed by thugs believed to be the LRA soldiers of Joseph Kony.

What many people do not kow, is that over 5 months ago, the USA Government had already sent 100 combat marine soldiers to Uganda and Central Africa to catch Joseph Kony. These Marines are co-coordinating their efforts with the armies of Uganda, DR Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic in an effort to Catch Kony. How is the Money you donate going to be used help catch Joseph Kony? Does Invisible Children have an Army in Africa that they are collecting this money to equip for a mission to catch kony? On invisible children's donate website, they write that; "To bring home Joseph Kony’s child soldiers, it will take an army of individuals making a monthly commitment through TRI contributions" Is the Money you donate to Invisible Children and Kony2012 being given to the United States Government to capture Kony? Off course Not. Will the Money be sent to Africa to Help the African Poor People? Yes only only less than 10%. So what will Invisible Children do with the rest of the 90% of your money? Yes Think About it! 

If you desire more information, Google search: KONY2012-IS-A-SCAM 

Yes. Think about it. Another frickin' scam and millions of stupid people are falling for it. 

"A cheap holiday in other people' misery" indeed... A very nice expensive (but cheap for the execs of KONY 2012) in other people's misery and on other people's dime.

Music (Almost) Ruined My Life: Don't Let it Ruin Yours! Creative Work Can Be a Curse - Choose Your Career Carefully

Here I go quoting Confucius two days in a row: "Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

Diana Ross also said something along the lines of, "You had better like the songs you sing, because you're going to be singing them for the rest of your life."

Know it. Learn it. Live it.

This post is about choosing your job, using music as an example. I use music because that is what I know best. It could also apply to food, design, cinema, or any of the so-called "Creative Arts." To paraphrase Diana; "You had better like the career you choose, because you're going to be doing it the rest of your life." 

Choose your career carefully. If I had know then, what I know today, I would have never chosen to work in music... Here's why...

I've worked in music, in one capacity or another, since 1978. While I will say that, when I first started, I think I loved music, now I can definitively say that I don't really like music. I don't want to sugar-coat this. It's the truth. I can't really say that I hate music. But, perhaps like an old marriage that has grown cold tired and loveless (and sexless), I have no interest in music at all any more. The fire that was once there has grown cold and lifeless...There rarely comes along something that really piques my interest and makes me take notice. I blame the industry (but what person wants to blame themselves?)

I think the last well known things that really caught my eye were, Fatboy Slim, Suede, Sex Pistols and Punk, and David Bowie (in that reverse chronological order). Music today, like cinema today, is boring as hell.

Bowie was the first to change my life...

All my life I've had a few very unusual talents. One is that, even though I can never remember anyone's name, I always remember their telephone number - or just about any number. I can remember numbers that are over eight digits long no problem in the world. I've been able to do that since I was a young boy. I can even remember, to this day, our family telephone number when I was 8 and living in Minnesota! I can also remember the lyrics of songs even if I have only heard them in passing on the radio a few times and even if I don't like them. I've also been able to do that since the mid-sixties when garage music was Top 40...

"You're pushing to hard, pushing to hard, pushing to hard on me.... Too hard..." Oh, trivia...

Seriously folks, I've always hated sobbing piano corporate trash like Billy Joel (showing my age here) but can still remember all the lyrics to a song like, say, "Uptown Girl" of which I've only been exposed to a few times and hated with a passion from the first time. Today, I can't say that I hate Lady Gaga (can't name a single song she has done), Madonna, Justin Beiber, whatever, and so on... (insert your favorite pop star's name here).... Because I've gotten to the point where I just don't care about them at all.

Most artists, if they have a clue, will want people to either love or hate them. People like me who don't care at all are their demise.

I cannot try go to sleep with any music on at all. I won't sleep. If music is on, as I try to sleep, the lyrics will pop into my head and I won't be able to sleep. Even songs I hate, I remember the lyrics. It is a serious ailment for which modern science has no cure, or even a name for. 

So, whenever I go to a restaurant or hear music, awake or when trying to sleep, I play a sort of "Name that Tune" in my head (Really, I can get most of them in 4 or 5 notes without a hint). It's maddening. So, if I try to sleep and music is on, my mind clicks into "Name that Tune" mode.. Then, if there is a song I don't know - well, forget sleeping for another hour or two. (And trust that I have a massive library of data stored in the noggin; from the 1940's until late 1990's.) 

I met a girl once who had a similar illness when it came to classical music. Since she studied classical piano since she was a 5-year-old girl and then practiced everyday, a few hours a day, and even went to a university and graduated with a degree in classical piano (?) If she hears classical music while trying to sleep, she sees the sheet music rolling past her head and will not be able to sleep.... 

Later on, that girl and I got married. She is my current wife. We don't listen to music at home unless we are having a party and guests are over.

Music has been a friend and a curse to both of us all our lives. 

Rodney Bingenheimer is a real DJ. Probably the last of a dying breed.

Rodney is real. I am a cheap Japanese copy.

I suppose I'd better give a short rundown on my "music history." I played in a 70s Los Angeles punk band. We were one-hit wonders. Supposedly, we sold a lot of records. Rodney Bingenheimer at world-famous KROQ in Los Angeles once told me that our song was the most requested song in the history of his radio program and that show has been on since 1974 or so. The band was shitty. But it was fun... Well, sorta...

If you've ever played in a band that had even minimal success then you know that playing in a band can be fun. It can be LOTS of fun... If you tour you know that touring can be fun but it, seems to me, usually is not. My band wasn't fun to be around because they were always fighting like poncy hairdressers.

After the band relieved itself, and the listening public, from its misery by breaking up, I carried records and cleaned toilets for people at a radio station. Later, in Japan, I began doing my own radio programs in 1986 or 87. My first radio show in Japan was for a station in Osaka... The station's name was Radio Kansai, can't remember the name of the show.

Let me break here tell you about the "magical dream" - before the days of the Internet - that working at a radio station was. Back before 1990, radio was king. If you wanted to hear new music, the only place was radio. I had been a fan of radio since I was a little boy. My parents would have to drive to a place for my mother's work. The lady who owned the place was named Mrs. Snap. My parents would try to goad me into the 1 hour car ride to Mrs. Snap's office . I'd never want to go (even though she was a nice lady), but if they let me sit in front and zap the am radio tuner, I'd eagerly go. 

My brothers were such uncool turds that, even at the height of the sixties Brit Invasion, they didn't care. I loved it. I loved the music. I loved the radio. (In the sixties, punk was Top 40 - like the above mentioned Seeds song, "Pushin' Too Hard.")

Anyway, most people who love music want to be musicians. But few of us have any talent to speak of. Let's face it, I had none. None! Nein! Zip! Nada! Zero!... So, after my punk band, I fancied going into radio. In those days, before one joins a radio station, like little children at Christmas with images of toys dancing in their heads, newbies at radio think they will be hanging out with rock stars and getting hundreds of the new albums by the hottest artists all for free...

Well, the hanging out with rock stars part isn't true at all. Rock stars might come to the station but they'll rarely remember your face, name, who you are, or even that they were on your very same show just last year! And the stacks of free records and CDs you'll get? Sure. You'll get them. But they'll all be crap that you don't want. You'll just have bags of junk to carry home and have more sh*t to throw away on trash day!

Seriously, if you receive 100 albums from record labels, then out of that 100, only 1 might be good. That is unless, of course, you think Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber are good. Almost everything you get is corporate rock trash. Good new artists rarely have the money or the label backing to put out sample recordings to stations. And, in the 25 years of being the DJ, producer, song selector of some of the highest rated (alternative) music radio shows in Tokyo, I can honestly say that I have only met three promoters who did their jobs properly.

Think about it; I make a show that plays underground and alternative music only and some dumb promoter is putting Justin Beiber's newest CD in my mailbox and asking me to play it on my show? Gee. Thanks for taking the time to listen to my program. I'll make sure I play your songs after they fish the CD out of the river when I throw it out the window!!!!

Arrrggghhhhh!!!!!

Oh? Where was I? Oh yeah, I was complaining about how much radio and the music industry sucks and how, using this example, you need to choose your career carefully.

Let me also interject that the music business (and radio too) has a lot of low class, dishonest people in them. It's been my experience that these dishonest types are usually gone within 3 ~ 6 years, but, through some miracle, some of the really sneaky and dishonest ones hold on. I think it's because they've made a deal with the devil... Rock and roll and all that, ya know.

I blew it in radio. Besides the above, how was I to know, in the mid eighties that the Internet was going to come along and ruin everything? I couldn't. I started a TV and radio production company in 1992 that focused on the niche market of alternative music (no one was doing that in Japan) and so the die was cast.

Today, the internet is king and no one listens to radio anymore and no one watches music TV. Why bother? You can just go to Youtube and see what you want, when you want it without having to sit through 20 minutes of crap you don't like.

Now? I never listen to music and, if I do, it is only for work. Like I said, I rarely hear things that I like (the things I do like, I play) and, when not at work, I enjoy silence.

We have no TV at my home and we have no large stereo. We have a small CD player that we use for background music when guests come over so it is turned on, perhaps, three or four times a year. At my house, silence is golden.

People ask me, "Mike! What kind of music do you like?" I usually answer, "I am a fair person. I hold all Pop music in equal disdain." If I do listen to "music for pleasure," I listen to the birds singing in the garden, the crash of the ocean waves, or, in the car, Mozart.

Real music: Mozart, birds singing, Pianistar Hiroshi (click the link, you gotta watch this guy! He's amazing!)

Some lovers of music might say that this is tragic and a waste. Perhaps. But I like to think of it more akin to what a professional chef would do at a famous French restaurant. I fact, one I know told me the following and it reminded me of how I am. He said,

"Mike, I enjoy my work. I cannot say I love cooking. I enjoy my work. When I am at home, my wife wants me to cook, but I cannot stand to cook when I am at home. When I am at home, I don't want to eat anything... It's much too much trouble..."

He then added;

"Mike, I like McDonald's hamburgers. I am amazed at how fast they can turn them out and they are all exactly the same."

Get it? He likes McDonald's hamburgers. Why? Not because of the taste but because, as a professional chef, he is fascinated by how they can churn out these products and each and every one is exactly the same as the others. This is a goal of all professional chefs at fine restaurants.

Maybe he does like the taste. But I don't think that's what intrigues him; he likes the technique. He doesn't really "taste" the product. If he really tasted McDonald's hamburgers, he certainly wouldn't like them (But, then again, who knows? Some people might like eating chemicals and salt). 

McDonald's vs. Lobster? Hmmmm.... Tough choice, eh?

It's the same with me. I don't really "taste" the music anymore. I judge it by a certain level of quality, melody, and, I think, "Can I use this for my show or not?" That's it.

If this is tragic, then so be it. 

It think it is what it is and it is the fact that I enjoy my job. I cannot honestly say that I love music.

Had I known then what I know today, I would have chosen a different career.

Music isn't a hugely profitable career. There's not much upside. And there are a lot of dishonest sneaky people. Even though I cannot complain and can say that I don't really feel that I've ever worked "hard," (hard work is chopping down trees or working in construction, etc.) I could have made twice as much money in a different career had I made that decision long ago.

As it is, I am fading out music now. I started to do so at age 52. It's not too late.

But there is a lesson here for everyone: If people read this and can really understand what this is all about then, it's not sad, it is actually what makes a professional. Passion is always important, but having a detached, discerning eye is of utmost importance to the successful business man or woman. 

Have a discerning eye. Use good judgement. Choose your career well. 

Pianistar Hiroshi - Bohemian Rhapsody

Watch this. This is awesome!

NOTE: You can see a weekly Top 5 of music videos that I like here at George Williams's site (www.georgewilliams.jp). George and I pick these songs every week: http://www.georgewilliams.jp/wp/category/ranking/ 


Thanks to Allison Sayne