Makoto unveils his debut digital label featuring a batch of new Japanese producers...

What have you been up to the last few years?

Many things have happened in my music life. I've had good and bad experiences and I got heavily into DJing and improving my own style. At the same time I've been doing a lot of collaborations with producers such as DJ Marky, Sonic, Zinc, Deeizm and A-Sides. After that I took a little break to think about my next move and I also had to move my studio.

Tell us about how you see your homeland of Japan differently now that you've experienced England and London.

The drum & bass scene in Japan is hardly anything like the UK's but the scene itself is growing slowly. The problem was we had only few producers who could make tunes, but I think younger producers are coming. The internet has helped. When I started over ten years ago, as far as production tips went, I had to guess everything. But now you can get information through the internet and also spread your tunes virally. I remember my first demo to Good Looking was on a cassette tape and I contacted them through fax machine!

Tell us about your new label, and the releases coming up.

It's called HE:Digital. I've been trying to launch a physical label Human Elements for a while but it's been difficult controlling things from Japan. So I thought it would be good to start a digital label first.

We have three releases so far: I have a few collaborations which I have been holding onto for the past few years with Marky, Deeizm and A-Sides: Makoto & Deeizm – Untold (HEDIGI001), DJ Marky & Makoto – Togetherness / Fablous – The Words Of Love (Makoto Remix) (HEDIGI002) and A-Sides & Makoto – Hot Rock / Vice Versa – Spacebridge (HEDIGI003).

 

HE:Digital Releases by HE:Digital

We have two new things that have just been released. DJ Marky, Makoto & Sonic – Holy Tuesday / Makoto & Sonic – Tigereyes (HEDIGI0014). These collaborations are something different from what people might expect from myself. But you can still hear my sound and it was really fun to do something different.

 

HE:Digital 004 Marky, Makoto & Sonic "Holy Tuesday" by Makoto-Humanelements

 

We also have a compilation called HE:Possibilities (HEDIGI005) that is showcase of Japanese talent, although there are few collaborations between Japanese artists and foreign artists such as Naibu from France and Vice Versa from Australia. This what I've wanted to do for a long time, to put a collection of tracks out on a release which shows that there are a lot of great artists underneath the surface or coming up in Japan. But I'm sure this event isn't limited to my country – there are possibilities for co-productions all over the world and that's why I've called this album HE:Possibilities. I really hope you enjoy listening to this compilation as much as I did putting it together.

 

HE:Possibilities Album Min-mix by Makoto-Humanelements

 

What do you have to consider when marketing and advertising your label in the digital world?

I think in the digital world you need to take advantage of all possibilities. We can use SNS networks for marketing and advertising and it's free. So, a lot of things you can do just sitting at home. But at the same time, people will share your music for free on the internet. I don't think we can stop that and maybe in the future all digital content will be free? But at this stage of HE:Digital, we just want to spread our music.

Tell us about the philosophy of your new label and the producers on it.

It's definitely about quality control! The producers on the label – it's myself and collaborators. But at the same time I love to release other Japanese producers' stuff.

Are you making any music at the moment?

Yes, I'm doing an album now. It's going to be something quite personal. There will be tracks at various BPMs – 170 bpm of course, and even 120 bpm, 140 bpm, and lots of collaborations with vocalists. I'm aiming to release it in early 2011 on Human Elements.

Are there benefits to online downloads over physical formats?

I can say online is definitely more handy than physical as we don't have to do manufacturing and possess stock. But I still love physical formats and the package of vinyl and CDs as I grew up with it. That's why we try to do artwork for every release, even for digital releases.  

Where are you heading in the next few years?

Like I said about my new album, I have been making different tempos of music lately, but when I'm making these I still feel like I'm making drum & bass. It's not much different to me. Maybe some producers who make both DnB and dubstep are feeling the same. I'm really enjoying it and maybe this is the way my DnB life is heading in the future.

• Makoto

Related Links:

• Makoto Releases Charity Compilation Album
• Japanese Dubstep: Goth-trad
• Japanese Dubstep: Harikiri
• Japanese Dubstep: Greg G
• Japanese Dubstep: Hyaku-mado

Like it? Share it!
Sign up for more with the Kmag weekly newsletter.