ABOUT THE SONGS ON THIS PAGE:
Okay, so my husband, ever the jazz purist, is like, "What's up with all this dance music you've got up?! CHANGE THEM!!" I see his point. That's just one facet of what I do. So time to put up some of the more organic stuff I've been working on lately. From my first ever album of all covers (I'm known for my more original self-penned works) and 100% acoustically recorded with some of the greatest musicians around, My Ever Changing Moods, which came out in Japan this summer, I'm offering the wonderful S.O.S. Band tune Just Be Good To Me. Also up is the song off my remix album Alternate Routes an original track co-written and produced by UK team The Part Time Heroes entitled You Don't Know which I really love. Note: That is not him playing the horns on this track -- he really wanted me to mention this :-) I also am offering up from my husband's self-produced album Out of the Circle that just got released this year a tune he covered of mine which I'm singing on as well entitled Sketches of Myself -- look out for its release on the prestigious jazz label Sunnyside out next Spring. The Stevie Wonder cover of Real Thing came out on a new compilation album put together by Soul Source Productions (Kenichi Yanai) entitled CO to be released September 19, 2007 in Japan. And the classic cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's No More Blues is part of the tribute album Jobiniana just released in Japan through Sony.
SO WHO AM I?
I'm a contradiction of all kinds. For starters, I'm Japanese and I'm American (or to be precise, American-Italian -- a "Wopanese"), grew up both in America & Japan. I love classical & jazz music, but I also love the underground club movement, and the music I make reflects it all. I'm conservative, and I'm a liberal. I'm gentle & shy, but I'm opinionated and out-spoken. I'm all about peace, but I'll fight for what I believe in. I love natural and organic things, but I love innovation and modernism. I'm a nice ripe age, but I feel like I'm still an egg waiting to hatch. I love life, but I hate a lot of what reality presents to me. I could go on, but I'll spare you.
I've worked with some great artists, people I can say changed my life in some ways and have a place in my heart: DJ Krush, Basement Jaxx, Mondo Grosso, United Future Organization, Kyoto Jazz Massive, Masters At Work, Joe Claussell, Anton Fier, IG Culture, Rob Playford, Angel (60 Channels), bird, m-flo, Soul Source, Eri Nobuchika, Gil Goldstein, Dill Harris, Kenny Garrett, my folks (yeah, did I mention I have 3 pretty cool folks who are jazz musicians?)...I don't want to seem like I'm dropping names, so I'll stop here (after I've just dropped a bunch! HA!). I've also done my share of paying my dues and searching: working as a secretary, hostess at a restaurant, door check girl, DJing in clubs and on radio, playing flute in the streets with a hat out so I can make enough $ to make it on the bus to the beach and hang, journalism, modeling, acting (got best new actress for my first film in Japan)...but at the end of the day, there's nothing like music. Making it, doing it, dreaming about it...loving it.
After years of being with major record labels in Japan (namely Universal & Sony, released in Europe as well), I've decided to take my own path. All the softwares out made sure of that. It's okay to share music, but I've got to say, downloading and copying has really made it hard for some of us. Record labels seeing their profit margin shrinking give artists more pressure with "Make X-type of album, or why don't you collaborate with (and they'd come up with a really lame producer who happened to be the flavor of the month)..." F*ck that. So in 2004 I got together with an internet company, ArtistShare, out here in New York, that I think really has a great concept. Their idea is that in the past, users' (or listeners') only way to connect to the music and the artist was through their albums, and it was a business, a way for labels to make a buck and for artists to support themselves while doing what they loved, but now that we're in the age of the computers and all its softwares, one CD becomes a thousand copies, no one can sustain themselves. So what ArtistShare has come up with is a way for the artist and listeners to be in direct contact with each other, for the listener to actually support the budget of the album by pre-buying the album cutting out the middle men (the labels, the record shops, etc.), and in return, the Artist gets to share the whole creative process of the album, from conceptualization, thoughts behind lyrics and songs, sheet music with chicken scratches attached, rehearsals, tours, the whole gammat of what the Artist might go through to actually get to the final point of making an album. You can copy the CD, but you can't ever copy the ideas and thoughts behind the artist. I think it's a pretty great concept, and it's put me in direct contact with some of my listeners and I'm loving it, and I've gotten a lot of e-mails telling me they're digging it too.
So far I have 3 albums made through this system, all available through my website (follow the ArtistShare link): Naked Breath which came out in December, 2004, the first offering from ArtistShare and my actual first release available worldwide -- this one is a real departure from the more produced works people associate me with, an acoustic and unplugged reworking with guitarist Adam Rogers in a duet setting of some of my older material as well as new compositions. The second is Routes in which I wearing the hats of producer, arranger/programmer, singer, record label staff, coordinator...the list is endless. And the latest is Alternate Routes, the 6 track EP CD of remixes off Routes as well as an original tune with The Part Time Heroes, Jephte Guillaume, Casamena and Yellowtail, all, with the exception of Jephte, whom I met here on Myspace -- gotta love this site. I've gotten good feedback so far from all three projects.
And now I am working on my fourth album through ArtistShare, again exclusively through my website, in the new project entitled FLOW. As always, I'm exploring new concepts and ideas, and this one is going to be really interesting with some twists, great collaborations, and as usual I'll be putting my best foot forward in writing the songs. Of course I have my hand in the pot on a bunch of other projects, but that's a whole nuther blog!!
At the end of the day, I'm just doing what I love and what I need for my soul. Without music, I don't know where my life would be.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you're interested in more, it's all in the website: www.mondaymichiru.com -- If you want to check out the new project FLOW which includes the new remix CD Alternate Routes, just hit the ArtistShare link and then the FLOW link and you'll see a bunch of different packages available with one that's sure to be right for you!
Peace!