The Road To Nabeshima ep6 vlog.
Here’s the excerpt.
1: Nabeshima album is now complete
2: Now that we made Nabeshima and I have achieved my life goal, I like to consider myself dead.
3: Because I consider myself dead, I want my music to be free. But free is actually costly. So we set every album price at $1 on Bandcamp.
4: If you want to support us, please visit our newly launched Patreon page.
Our Bandcamp page:
https://imaritones.bandcamp.com/
Our Patreon page:
https://www.patreon.com/imaritones
and here’s the whole text.
Hi this is Tak from Imari Tones.
Today I wanna tell you this. I think I’m dead. (theme music)
It’s been a long journey.
We, I, we, have made an album called “Nabeshima”.
This was the ultimate musical goal for me.
Now we made it.
Still we have a long way to go until we can release it.
We need an artwork, maybe printing CDs, we need to do some promotion work and we need to spread the word.
So that’s where we need your help.
Basically I want to tell you 3 things here today.
No.1, we have finished making Nabeshima, which is a big thing for us.
No.2, Now that we finished making Nabeshima, I like to consider myself dead. Because, I’m dead.
No.3, I want to make everything free because I’m dead. Our music, I want to make it free. Maybe not completely free, but as much as possible.
No.4, Oh sorry it was 4. We finally decided to start “Patreon”. We want to make our music free as much as we can. But we need to make money somewhere else. So we decided to start our Patreon page. I’m gonna write and record a new song every month and I think it will make everyone happy. So please support us on Patreon.
Did we already launch our Patreon page?
I don’t know. Now I’m working on it. But if we did, there is a link in the description.
Okay let me talk about the Nabeshima album.
We finished making it.
So now I know what it sounds like.
I can say the result is great.
It has been a long journey.
We, I, started making music long time ago.
Started as a Christian band with Hassy and Jake in 2008.
We have made some awesome Christian metal albums such as “Victory In Christ” and “Jesus Wind”.
But I can say this “Nabeshima” is the ultimate goal as a Japanese Christian metal band.
Everything we did, it was all for making this album, to achieve the musical mission as a Japanese Christian metal band.
Since I conceived “Nabeshima” songs, around 2015 and 2016, we have sacrificed so many things.
In order to make this album I had to say goodbye to Hassy and Jake, my long time bandmates and possibly the best lineup of our band.
I had to work hard, I had to pray, I had to ask God which way to go.
It took us a long time, but I think it was worth it.
Still, I’m a little nervous if people will like it.
Because Nabeshima album is based on Japanese traditional music.
Some people may not like those traditional essences.
Also it’s half English and half Japanese.
I know many people want us to sing in Japanese language. But the reality is, most of our fans are living outside of Japan and they don’t appreciate our Japanese songs as much as our English songs.
So I’m a little bit nervous about this language issue, half English half Japanese approach. Also nervous about if people will accept this Japanese traditional factor and diverse musical styles.
But this is the music we had to write. This is the music we had to make. Because we are a Japanese band.
If you want to sing about your FAITH, if you want to praise God from your heart, I think you wanna do it in your genuine style with your native language. So this is our genuine musical style to praise God. It’s a cultural thing and it’s a historic thing. I hope you understand.
Next thing.
Let me tell you about why I’d like to think I’m dead.
In 2016, when we finished recording “Jesus Wind” album, I thought now I could die anytime.
Because I felt like I had done all the homework given by God.
We made our most intense metal album, we made our political statement, and we made our FAITH statement.
But God told me to go even further. So I’m still alive.
By the time we made “Jesus Wind” album, I had already written all the songs for “Nabeshima”. But I didn’t think it was possible for us to actually make it.
Because those songs were very difficult, musically, technically and spiritually. Workload was huge because it’s a double album consists of 24 songs.
And quite honestly we were already done as a band, when we finished making “Jesus Wind”.
After that, Hassy and Jake could not keep doing it much longer. That’s why we made “Overture” album, a very special farewell album from [Tak-Hassy-Jake] lineup, in a short time after “Jesus Wind”. We got only short time left, so we had to record it quick.
So I didn’t think it was possible for me to make “Nabeshima”. I knew “Nabeshima” was a goal, musical answer I’ve been looking for since the day one. This band Imari Tones is named after the ancient Japanese porcelain art, and Nabeshima is the best part of Imari porcelain.
But now, in 2020, I don’t know how I did it, but now we have actually made “Nabeshima” album.
I didn’t think it was possible but we did it.
So now, my life goal is achieved.
I have completed my musical mission.
Maybe God has some more plans for me, so I don’t know, but music making homework, I think I did that.
Now I can die anytime. Because I did all my work in this world.
So I think, maybe it’s time for me to consider myself dead.
When I’m dead, I want my music to be free. Freely available for everyone.
Because I don’t need any money when I’m dead.
Spread the word, spread the music, because it’s free.
It makes people happy. It’s about love. It’s about loving God and loving people. It’s a music that tells you about someone who loved God.
So that’s what I want to do now.
I’m gonna stop worrying about money. I’m gonna stop worrying about business. I’m gonna stop worrying about success.
I don’t need those things when I’m dead.
I want to make everything free so that people can listen to our music.
But the thing is, nowadays music is mostly free to begin with, thanks to the internet and music streaming services. So maybe it doesn’t make a big difference.
But still, I want you to understand.
Another thing is, in reality it costs money to give things away. We are selling our music on Bandcamp. But if you set the price at zero, there is a certain limit, because they have to make profit too.
Also there is a saying in Japanese, that says, nothing is more expensive than free.
So maybe the price zero is not good from the standpoint of listeners’ experience.
So we talked a little bit, and decided to set the price of every album at 1 dollar.
Those major digital stores such as Amazon and iTunes, we don’t have control over price settings. So their prices stay the same.
But on Bandcamp, we will set the price of our albums, at 1 dollar.
I think that’s the price where we can all be happy.
Something I could not say in the movie.
This $1 price will apply to our digital albums. But physical items such as CDs, we will sell at reasonably profitable price such as $10. (Simply because of the cost issue.)
Also we probably will upload our songs to places like YouTube and Soundcloud more often. Many of our songs or even whole albums.
It’s a small thing.
But I want you to know it and I want you to understand.
Because sometimes people may feel it’s unfair, especially when you bought our albums in the past.
We thank you all. We are very thankful.
Because you helped us to keep going and come this far.
But I want our music to touch more people. I want my music to go beyond money and business. I hope you understand.
Now instead, there is a new way to support us making music.
That is Patreon.
I think this Patreon thing has been around for a while now and many people know about it.
I will write and record a new song each month.
We will give you some rare materials and unreleased songs.
We will give you insider vlog and things like that.
It’s gonna be exciting.
Until now, we, all of our past and current band members, have made our personal sacrifice to make music.
We are very proud of the music we made.
But we need your support to keep going.
So please,
please please check our Patreon page.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your support.
God bless you!!