Passend dazu noch nen paar Worte von Astan:
Zitat:
Is J-Rock Dead Is VK Dead? Difficult Question, difficult to answer. I had ups and downs the last 10 years (Wow its really 10 years now) since I worked with artists from Japan. My first experiance was an Interview with a guy called HOTEI. Later Haru Ash from EOD contacted me and I did Interviews and put an EOD Song on a CD-Compilation of my Print Magazine. A Year later EOD and KÖZI appeared on my Festival in Münster. Three month later I was the first one doing a VK Concert in Europe, with BLOOD. Many other J-Musicians follwed and in late 2008 I thought the hype is gone for the first time. But in 2009 from 2011 things were doing well. Finally in 2011 with Nega we had a sell out in about three days. 2012 was difficult, yes. Megaromania I lost a lot of money and Blackline / Utrecht was the worst visited J-Rock Concert I ever was responsible for. But there were also Ace and Plunklock. And if there had not been the Concert of that "I am not a musician I jump in a silly way on stage around and attract little girls" K-Pop doll. Who knows? Jap-Ro 2012 might have been better visited. I will go on. We work together wir RAMEN and KANZEN again this year. I try to rearrange TOKIO DANCE NIGHT this year. The business is way harder for J-Rock than ever before. It is very very fucking damn shitty hard to work with some of the J-Rock Managers, because they do not give a shit about how business goes in the EU. But that was always this way. I will go on. Lucky Bastard I am : I do not need to pay my rent and bread from the J-Rock income. And at last I am working on a book about 10 Years on the road with J-Musicians. And I am only 9 years on the road now. So I need HAVE to do a motherfucking damn full year - otherwise my Bestseller would have a lie in its title.. I know there are a lot of people who like me and what I stand for. Just as many others out there, who wish to see me die on assholecancer.. Well, Motherfuckers? I am still here. I have opened the chapter VK / J-Rock in 2003. So its my part to close it some day..
Zitat:
I tell you: Gazette were offered to me, for about a minimum doing 3 gigs in germany. I needed to have 2000 visitors on EACH Concert to only reach the costs... Dio and Nega had sell outs and even more visitors on Tour than Luna Sea in Europe. And Majorbands do want the same money as they get in Japan. which is zero possible , because no J-Rock band get the fans they need to pay the fee. I was dealing with a lot of even Mayorbands. Them Mangers are the most greedy people I met in 25 years as Touragent. I worked with really worldwide stars on Concerts (Offcourse no J-Rock) and none of them was that stupid greedy and unkind as the normal J-Rock Manager from Japan is..
Zitat:
Schau dir mal ne Band wie Aural Vampire an. Das ist Musik die könnten man vielen Leuten nahebringen. Und ich weiss das Chika gerne mal was englisches eingesungen hätte. Aber die Leute bei den großen jap. Plattenfirmen kämen nie auf den Gedanken eine Platte für den internationalen Markt zu machen. Schau mal auf Tokio Hotel, die haben es gemacht und waren sehr erfolgreich damit. Ok wenn es um den Tiefgang der Texte geht, das kannst du nicht ohne weiteres von Japanisch auf Englisch umdrehen. Dennoch hilft es einer Band weiter, wenn man international Konzerte gibt, international zu denken und zu arbeiten. Die meisten US Manager sind ebenfalls ignorante Pisser, aber die HABEN den Markt ja schon, die müssen nix erobern.. Bands wie Aural Vampire hätten in Europa auch nie an ein Label wie Gan Shin oder Bishi Bishi verscherbelt werden dürfen. SO kommen sie aus dem reinen J-Rock / VK Bereich niemals raus. Ein Label das NUR jap. Musik macht ist der Tod für jede Band die eine andere Szene interessieren könnte. Aural Vampire an ein Japano Label zu verscherbeln ist Perlen vor die Säue werfen...
Interessante Ansichten, finde ich alles logisch und habe es schon immer ähnlich gesehen.