Blog - NOMOTO Karia in-store event report
Nomoto Karia in-store event report
Tonight I dropped by Tower Records Shinjuku for an in-store event featuring Nomoto Karia and Konishi Yasuharu.
Tower Records staff asked the two questions, mostly about the recently released "Tokyo wa yoru no 7ji" (or "the night is still young") single, regarding what they thought of the early download-only release, the CD finally coming out, the remixes, the videoclip that almost completely copies Pizzicato Five's, etc. Mostly stuff I had already read elsewhere.
The videos for this song and also "hitomi no naka ni Mirrorball" were played. About the "Mirrorball" video, which was directed by Konishi, he said that he wanted to do everything in blue-ish light, and they ended up using blacklight, which made other fluorescent and white things stand out, such as Karly's panties while she's playing with a hula-hoop. :)
At one point, Konishi-san asked Columbia's CEO Hirose Sadahiko (seen here) to come on stage, something that didn't seem planned. He walked from the cashiers' side of the store with a big Tower Records bag of stuff he had just bought. He was wearing a blue hawaiian shirt, and looked like a very fun and cool guy. He said that he's really hooked to YouTube lately, actually he pretty much only talked about YouTube, saying that he "works while watching YouTube" (rather than the other way around). Karia said that she sometimes gets emails from him with YouTube links.
He talked a bit about the copyright issues realted with YouTube, and he seemed to think that YouTube is all good, and that it's even got them offers from overseas regarding artists who'd have otherwise no presence outside of Japan. Interesting to see a major label's CEO who thinks so openly! He's also the one who went forward with the early download-only releases for columbia*readymade, while Konishi-san was very reluctant (he said he's only ever been into records and even rarely buys CDs, let alone download-only music), but Konishi-san said that in the end he realized that it could be a good thing since the process to release online is so much faster than the months it takes for a CD release, like Karly's next songs that are just being finished these days and will be out on iTunes already by the end of the month.
And now, some scoops! columbia*readymade will release a compilation of breakbeats-remixes of anime songs, in collaboration with Muro, probably before Karly's full second album that should be out in September! Also Konishi-san says he's determined to release a solo album, sung by himself, before he turns 50 (in less than 3 years) and while his teeth are still good. :)
At the end, those who bought the single at Tower Records Shinjuku were entitled to receive an autographed sticker from Karly's hands. Of course I was one of those so I stood in line and was very happy to be able to shake her hand. I told her to keep it up with the drums, as she's often been posting on her blog about rehearsing with friends in a studio, and she seemed pleased with that.
By the way, I realized just at the end of the talk show that there was no mini-live, while I first thought there'd be one. Oops! So, sorry if anyone who read my announcement ended up disappointed.
(Before Peter asks, pictures weren't allowed. :) I might scan and post my signed sticker later though!)
Posted on July 9, 2006 at 01:09 | Tweet
|