I forgot to mention, but I got hired to mix three Modular Australia bands at Summersonic! I got flown to Tokyo yesterday. Last night I did a club gig with Muscles, and then today was a day off before tomorrow’s big festival day. So, I figured out the trains and went to a Japanese baseball game in Yokohama. SO MUCH FUN!!
The fans were on their feet, screaming, ALL THE TIME. I walked in midway through the first inning and the energy level was similar to a tied game at Fenway in the 9th inning.
They have songs – not simplistic chants, but lengthy songs with multiple parts and rhythmically complex clapping interludes – for every situation you might encounter when your team is at bat. As far as I could tell, there is a song for:
– When your team is behind in runs
– When your team is ahead in runs
– When your batter is behind on the count
– When a rally is needed
– When a batter has just gotten a base hit
– When a batter has just gotten a home run
At least. There may be more. You only sing and clap when your team is at bat – when the other team is at bat, it’s the other fans’ turn to sing and clap.
Relatively few people wear team hats. But easily 70% of the people there were wearing team jerseys – including the small children and toddlers, of which there were TONS, just toddling around. And probably 90% of the people there had official team-branded plastic noisemakers.
It was a continuously deafening, celebratory experience, easily more manic than any of the 100+ baseball games I’ve been to.
In other news, I had a meeting today with a Japanese indie label that’s expressed interest in licensing Shannon’s material for a Japanese release in early 2008. Neither the A&R guy nor I spoke each other’s language, so we had a translator!
The gist of the conversation was that they think Shannon’s songs and voice and physical appearance would be marketable in Japan, but they want to overdub the songs with Japanese musicians to make it fit in better with the local sound. Haha! I’m really tempted to do it, just to see how it would turn out.
Tomorrow I mix three bands in a row at the Summersonic festival, with only line checks, from 1:30 to 4:30 in the morning. Oh. My. God!
Anyway, that’s what I’m up to. I can’t believe I get paid to do this stuff :-)