Ever wondered what it is like to meet a japanese band directly from japan, yes me too. Unfortunately I havent been able to meet many japanese rock band concerts. L arc en ciel has been in New York many times but I missed their shows. It does not matter because good news many bands come to American Anime conventions like crazy.
In our anime radio show episode of December 10, 2012 we had a special guess. His name is Roger Shackelford. He owns an entertainment company that promotes Japanese rock bands (J-Rock). You guys can find his Facebook page by clicking here. or you guys can go to www.taintedreality.net
So Roger called into our radio show. He is a real cool dude. Of course Anime fan. We interviewed him and asked him a couple of questions about his j-rock business. Here is the interview.
1. How long have you been working with Tainted Reality?I started Tainted Reality as a college radio show in 2005. So… its been just over 7 years.
2. What was the first japanese band you promoted?The first band I ever promoted was BLOOD. We booked their first tour in the summer 2006 and it was a real big hit! We sold out both of our shows in LA and NYC!
3. I assume you personally know many japanese band members. Do you travel to japan alot? Only ever went there once. 3 weeks back in 2009. Interviewed a lot of bands and participated in the first V-Rock Festival. It was a very memorable time for me.
4. do you only promote japanese band or do you promote American bands too? I mainly work with Japanese bands, but I have helped out American bands like Echostream and Shinsei from time to time.
5. Most of your shows are in anime conventions or have your fellow japanese bands played on other places in America if so what was the biggest shows. Biggest show I ever did was with Versailles at A-Kon 2008. 3000 people came to that show! The biggest non-convention show came 4 days later when we brought Versailles to LA. 550 people at that.
6. What do you think about Vocaloids as far as competing for the attention of j-rock fans? I’m not so worried about the fans as much as the competing prices. With international airfares so high, it can cost past $10,000 to bring over a band! With independent producers now making their own vocaloid concerts that bring in amazing draws, anime conventions now have a much cheaper alternative. I’m afraid that sheer economic may snuff our true rock music at cons. The only thing that can save it is that fans make their voices heard and demand rock at their favorite conventions.
7. Do you have the connections to bring a big japanese band to america such as Dir en grey….L arc en ciel…? We usually work with independent bands.
Pure awesome. Stay tune my friends because you never what japanese band we might interview on our show dudes.
You can listen to our radio show and hear Roger calling into our radio show.
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