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I'm a bit hit in Japan

Monday, 21 March 2005

Presenter: Martin Powley
Lensei holds the new album from Mika Nakashima, featuring his song "I already knew".

How’s this for a songwriter’s dream come true; a local Griffith University student wrote a song. A record label heard it and loved it. They gave it to a pop star. It ended up on the top of the charts in Japan.

“It’s a bit unbelievable, especially half way across the world where there’s no real tangible evidence of anything happening. But you go on the net and see it’s number 1 on the weekly Japanese charts, meanwhile you’re going to university in the morning!” Explains Lensei Nishizawa.

Lensei wrote a song called “I already knew”, it was recorded by Mika Nakashima who renamed it “Rocking Horse”, "I was over in Japan in 2003. I entered an audition program they had, it was kind of like Australian Idol, without the TV side, a record company genuinely looking for new talent. I made it to the final round showcase where I performed my own songs, accompanying myself on the piano…Unfortunately I wasn’t terribly marketable because at that stage I couldn’t speak Japanese. I look the package but I can’t speak the package so to speak!

“From that, I got a contact with [a publisher] and I’ve been sending them my songs as a freelance song writer, and this one was obviously successful. It made the album! I found out about this in mid August. It takes a long while for things to perculate, it was finally released on March 9th.”

Lensei has noticed differences in the approach to music in Japan, "Japan has always been much more melodic. Melody comes first and foremost, whereas rhythm and backing is secondary. If you look at the Western tradition, with African syncopations etc, rhythm is much more important. The cadences of the language are interesting. The Japanese will stick a whole lot of syllables before the dominant beat, whereas English tends to be right on the money, it tends to be a lot less syncopated”.

With a bit hit in Japan can Lensei retire yet? “Oh no…I’m estimating I’ll probably get 1.5 cents an album, so if it sells a million, that equates to $15,000. It’s nice, but no super fund! It’s a foot in the door, and people know me, and the best thing is I can go to a record producers here or in Japan and say ‘I have sold 300,000 or a million copies of my song, what would like to do with me’ and that sort of stuff gets attention”

http://www.abc.net.au/goldcoast/stories/s1328096.htm