We have sent out the first newsletter in 9 months.
Who is still doing this “newsletter” thing in 2024, while people are spending most of their time on TokTok?
In spite of our effort to make it short and simple, the newsletter was really long, mainly because so many things happened after the fire incident last year June.
Not all people open and read newsletters. So we decided to post it here for everyone to read and catch up, even though some of the information was already posted on our social media.
(If you’re curious, you can sign up to our newsletter on our website. Scroll down and you can see the mailing list subscription form.)
Here it goes!!π
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[Updates, Bandcamp price change and Best Album]
It is surprising because we haven’t sent any newsletter since the fire incident last year June.
I hope you have seen the updates we posted on our social media pages, but let’s also give you some updates here.
Our new album (we promised!), called “Coming Back Alive”, is now all recorded and now it’s in the mixing stage. At this point we can’t say the exact release date, but it will be finished soon and the songs already sound awesome even in the rough mix.
Thank you very much. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
So many important things happened in the last 6 months.
We have started “Heavy Metal Church Japan” project.
We realized that this is the mission God has given to us. “To build a heavy metal church in Japan”. This is the goal of our band. (Maybe “one of the goals” but it’s very important.)
In October we did the first concert event & church service for this “Heavy Metal Church Japan” project. At this point it’s just an idea but now we have a handful of people who we are working with to make this dream come true.
The 2nd event for “Heavy Metal Church” event will take place on March 30th at El Puente, Yokohama, which is a renowned hardcore/punk/metal venue. It’s not only a concert but also a church service. We are excited to bring this kind of “heavy metal church service” to an underground music venue. We will have a famous theologian as a guest speaker (because he loves metal music!) and we are very excited about that.
We have posted about this “Heavy Metal Church Japan” project on our pages and websites but we believe it will be an actual church someday when the time is right.
We also want to tell you about our church… not sure if we can call it “our church” but it seems right because we have been working with them since the fire… Asao Christ Church in Kawasaki. We stayed there after the fire and basically we recorded the whole album there. We met so many new friends and things are getting really interesting. We believe some new things are starting in this place. We have played some church concerts here and there will be more. This place will be a home base for our band and for other musicians, too.
We have played so many awesome concerts in the last 6 months.
That includes a show in Osaka, the Christmas show we posted recently on YouTube, and a show in Shimokitazawa where we shared the stage with the famous pastor Arthur Hollands.
Our band is really on fire right now and we have played nearly perfect shows in the last several months. We really want to post movies from those shows but we don’t really have time for editing videos.
But at least, like I just said, we have posted our Christmas show on YouTube. It was at a local underground venue and video quality is not really best but our performance (and message) was top notch.
You can watch it here.
https://youtu.be/2er2Olnx5rU
Tak has been working on his message video project right now. It’s going to be something very interesting and he really is wanting to “change the world” with that. We are going to start a new YouTube channel for it and we are preparing for the launch.
Oh, talking about the video, we have filmed a new music video for the song “To Rome”. Because the song was used as an opening song for the Christian anime called “Bearly Biblical”.
The music video will be released soon and we are going to make it a hit.
Have you already watched “Bearly Biblical”?
It’s a very cute and funny Christian anime. It’s based on the Old Testament and it’s for kids. They are all cute teddy bears!
You can watch it on Loor.tv.
Please give it your support!
https://www.loor.tv/project/bearly-biblical
It’s funny because we just wanted to write a newsletter and tell you about 2 things, but we ended up giving you the whole updates of what happened in the last 6 months.
But the updates are important, aren’t they?
Whew…
So it was a long introduction.
But today we have 2 things we want to tell you.
One is about our Bandcamp price change.
I’m being lazy here, but let me just use what I posted on our Facebook/Instagram again.
Here it goes…
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Bandcamp alert! [Price go up soonπ±]
We are going to set up our Bandcamp page, which has been untouched since last Summer.
We will restock T-shirts and some CDs. (Now that international shipping situation back to normal!)
That is, because we want to provide our fans with proper goods and services.
We will start spreading the word, we will try to be discovered, heard, and get the message out there.
For that reason, we decided to “double up” the price for our digital albums(!!!??)
If you remember, we have set the price for our albums on Bandcamp at $1. (For digital downloads)
That was because of our “we stopped worrying about money” policy.
However we should also consider the minimal cost, not only for us but also the Bandcamp server, and the prices are going up in our current world.
Also we should consider the price for which buyers feel more comfortable. (Less guilty)
For these reasons, we decided that $2 for an album is the right price.
We still keep our indie band “we don’t care about money” policy, as long as possible.
It’s just a 1 dollar price increase.
But hey, $1 to $2 is a double price.
So we thought it would be nice to give people a notification beforehand.
We will set up our Bandcamp page sometime next month.
We will set the new price sometime after March 10th.
So if you want to download some of our albums, please do it now, because prices are going up just by $1.00!!!π
Here
https://imaritones.bandcamp.com/
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and the other thing is about our “Best Album”.
We are still planning, but we want to let you know about it. Because “Best Album” is a big thing. You can do that kind of thing only once in a lifetime, right?π
Again I get lazy and use what we posted on our social media pages.
Here it goes.
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In order to get known and heard by more people, we are considering the release of “The Best Of” album.
Yes, the best album from Imari Tones.
Do you want that?
If you remember, we were planning to release the “Best Of” album back in 2020 and 2021. We remastered the songs and even made an album cover artwork.
However, the plan went on hold. Because the release of the “Nabeshima” album happened sooner than expected.
It was great we could release “Nabeshima” from a record label based in Latvia (Sliptrick Records), but we kind of missed the timing for the best album.
Probably now it’s the right time?
The “Best Of” album contains 16 tracks.
They are mostly from our prolific “Tone, Hassy, Jake” era.
And it also contains some of the songs we recorded in Germany with Sascha Paeth back in 2006. (We have come so far!)
It contains so many songs we still play at our live shows. It’s like “Essential Imari Tones” which covers our history and live set altogether.
It will be a digital release.
At this point we are not sure if we make actual CDs, because of the storage and cost. (But hopefully soon?)
We have a long history as an indie band and we have recorded so many songs and albums along the way.
If we release the “Best Of” album, it makes it much easier for people to listen to our songs, even though it’s just a digital release.
And if we make CDs, it certainly will be a collectible item.
What do you think?
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Wow that was a very long letter.
Thank you very much for sticking around.
Lastly, we are planning an oversea tour this year.
We have posted an article and a video about it. We are open to all possibilities in the future.
But at this point, we are thinking about July in the USA South. (More specifically, Texas and Tennessee)
Please stay tuned. We will keep you updated. And we are hoping we can plan things with our fans! (Let us know if you know any church or music venue where we can playπ)
Let’s make it happen!
God bless you!!!
Imari Tones (Japan)