Speaker 1hello comrades welcome back to the james kennedy podcast how are you doing you gorgeous thing huge apologies i know it's been a few weeks since i dropped one of these bad boys but as has happened in the past sometimes one of the many other things that i juggle in my life has to take precedent and on this occasion i'm making my excuses now it was the band we were being touring baby we've been heading around the uk with our brothers in the band amongst liars we played in manchester reading wolverhampton sheffield leicester cardiff somewhere else eastbourne we've been all over the place man apologies to anybody i just missed out um since then we've also played the just put just push play festival and uh next week we'll be off to to play the rebel tent at the beautiful days festival which we had a great time at last year when we played there was packed out a lot of fun very hot and sweaty a lot of anarchic carnage and we cannot wait to come back and do it all again so that's what i've been doing man so huge apologies for not dropping a podcast i have got a bunch of these episodes already recorded and lined up and ready to go so fear not there's lots more coming but in order to be consistent with these things i've just had to take a kind of a casual approach with them you know and not pressure myself to do it every week because then i will probably stop doing it that's just what i'm like so i hope you're able to to stick with me when i take you know two or three weeks off sometimes in between episodes but know that long term these things are going to keep coming and i'm going to keep doing it and i'm going to keep coming because i really enjoy doing it i love meeting the awesome people that give me their time on a podcast and sharing the great conversations that we have with you guys as well as long as you guys want to keep tuning in listening to it so if you haven't yet please do hit the subscribe button for future episodes and if you're new to the podcast please do go back and listen to the previous episodes because there was a ton of good stuff there and a whole range of subjects and there'll be lots more where that came from but today we have got one not just for the music fans but for the anime fans the sports fans and anyone with an interest in modern japanese culture please listen on because our guest today is none other than john ken johnny half man half wolf singer songwriter guitarist and one-fifth of the incredible multimedia onslaught from japan that is of course man with a mission johnny how the hell are you doing brother thanks for joining us hey nice to meet you man thank you very much for having me here oh man i can't wait i got so much stuff that i want to ask you uh so where whereabouts in the world are you right now and what's happening what's going on and what's
Speaker 2going on right now um it's 6 30 p.m in japan uh we just went um came back from the the tour in the u.s and mexico yeah having a bit of a jet lag but we're wolves so we're used to it yeah of course
Speaker 1yeah of course um well you've just finished a bunch of shows across america like you said and you're soon going to be landing on european shores to grace our ears uh over over this part of the world how have the shows been going man well you know how have they been going and what can people
Speaker 2see in the new show yet what can they expect yeah in the u the u.s and the mexico tour it was really really amazing yeah we had the opportunity to increase the capacity of the venues since the last time and yeah almost every each and every venue is really fully packed and uh above all uh we had the we had the chance to uh perform at the red rock theater amphitheater and that that's a legendary venue in a legendary area so yeah it was just yeah we had a lot of fun and we're looking for more uh looking for more in the uk and europe so
Speaker 1yeah can't wait to see you guys really oh i'm sure you're gonna get it man is there anything you can tell us about the new show or is it all you know you want to keep it a surprise or is there anything you can tell the guys that's going to get them excited about the new show um the thing is uh
Speaker 2this time we have a really great support from country roll a great animation distributor all definitely we're gonna drop uh some of the songs from the animation the shows yeah i guess a lot of animation anime fans are coming but also through the rock listeners it's been a long time since we last went there so yes uh more than you can imagine yeah we're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 1coming oh man i can't wait well as you mentioned yeah you there's a lot of crossover with you guys because you know a lot of people will know your songs from you know like like you mentioned there's the anime there's the video games there's the sports soundtracks you know you're very much kind of you're not just a band you're like a multimedia experience so how would you describe
Speaker 2yourselves to people uh our band yeah our band um well obviously i mean apparently if you're looking at me right now we're totally different from you guys you know half wolf uh the head of a wolf and half human being yeah so the appearance is totally different from uh what you can expect from normal bands but like musically uh i guess we had the taste the inspiration from all the rock music that was going on in the 90s all over the world yeah we're just a huge fan of that era uh the music that was going on in the 90s it was full with experiment and really really free-minded uh diverse you know culture and like genres were all combined together and the the word alternative yeah made a huge sense in that era too and yeah we have the heritage of that rock music into that era um trying to figure out what we can do it today and yeah that kind of if you guys have the same taste yeah you will definitely enjoy it
Speaker 1well there's a lot in the band there's a lot musically it's a lot of high energy as well there's a lot of different influences and different sounds and of course you know you have got the fact that the music has been used in so many other formats as well you know which kind of gives it that whole extra dimension and i think that's a really good point and i think it's a really good mention and why do what do you think it is about your sound that lends itself so well to these other
Speaker 2things um yes like talking about videos and animations and even sports we're just a real huge fan of you know the other culture itself you know i'm a huge geek when you talk about animation and stuff like that i guess uh we really enjoy it we're already a big fan of uh whatever we collaborated with and that makes it really natural for us to you know uh connect to uh collaborate with this those kind of stuff and i guess like music itself it should be enjoyable by itself but at the same time if it clings to sports stuff like that uh you have like different aspects uh you can enjoy like i mean both ways so yeah i guess that's the chemistry of what we are having right now oh well it totally works man it really does work and i
Speaker 1gotta ask i mean i i'm i'm english so i hate to uh to be impolite um but i have to ask you how how did you guys become half man half wolf i know a lot of your listeners will already know this story but you know if we were chatting in a bar having a beer i would i would have to ask you dude how did how did this happen yeah definitely i mean if you i mean if you don't ask that would be in play at
Speaker 2the same time you know yeah well the thing is um it's a huge backstory it's a long backstory that we have uh we're half wolf half human we were made by a mad professor a long time ago um his name was i'm not really sure if he's the jimmy that you guys know but he was definitely really shredding the guitar he was really good at playing the guitar yeah but he was just a mad professor uh we were made we were told uh to do the evil deeds that he wanted us to do a long time ago we did nothing to do with music that we do like today but like uh we probably went too far the professor decided us to freeze us in antarctic and we've been in the ice for a long time but during uh while we were frozen we still had the superpowers to listen to the music that was going on all over the world and it really moved our heart you know music it was beautiful i mean we if we had a chance to get out of the ice uh we promised ourselves that we would definitely do something with music next time in 2010 uh because of the global warming you know the ice melted a little bit enough for us to get out and that's how it happened we just chose to come out 2010 we started the band and yeah brings us today wow long backstory but it really doesn't matter
Speaker 1that was the condensed version yeah i love it well it's funny how things go isn't it because if you guys weren't frozen for all that time absorbing all those awesome different influences then we wouldn't have the band that we've got today so it's funny how life goes sometimes um well you mentioned yeah 2010 when the band started you guys have smashed out a lot of music in the past 10 or something years um and you've been very active as a live band as well you know how do you guys stay so creatively inspired and fertile and active is it a challenge does it come naturally do you still
Speaker 2enjoy the process how does it work well um each and every way it's a challenge uh each and every time i mean we have the human of a we have the body of a human so just like you guys you know uh we get old you know we got we got to exercise we got to you know maintain our energy but it's it's always about the ambition and the dreams that we've always had when we started the band we when we listen to music it's just the point is just to have fun just to enjoy performing in front of people like meeting people that don't even know us but make them like listen to us when we perform all over the world i once like watched a video of whatever festival that was i thought it was glastonbury or maybe i would suck anything but like the atmosphere of the people just waiting for the band um that was really borderless they didn't care about which country this band came from which religion that they have which race nothing you know they were just waiting for that one song and that's pure that's pure music the energy that you can get from music totally borderless it doesn't matter what kind of you know ideology you have uh just pursuing that you know image that dream is probably the primer uh primal motive that we still have today yeah so that's what keeps driving you
Speaker 1guys to do your thing because what you do what you guys do is so big you know musically in terms of your live show everything i can imagine it does take a lot to keep that level of output going at such a such a high level so um what's driving that then i'm from what you're saying is just your you guys love of doing it it's still very much there that's right yeah we're just loving
Speaker 2love doing it you know the love to music you know that that's the only that's the only thing you need
Speaker 1awesome awesome and if if things hadn't gone the way that they've gone for you guys because obviously you know the music industry's changed a lot since you've been in the music industry you've been in the music industry you've been in the you guys have been doing your thing um what would you still be just would that still apply would you
Speaker 2still be just doing your thing regardless regardless well um that's a hard question you know uh the reaction that we get we really appreciate it and even though we have the motive you know that is uh another key for our drive you know everybody uh luckily i mean thankfully they're enjoying it right now and that really maintains us you know keeps us pumping up ourselves yeah and yeah talking about the music industry uh rock music especially rock music is quite changed quite a lot uh since you know the 90s or whatever the era that we loved but i guess it's evolving and like inheriting at the same time so uh yeah today it's it's it's a challenge but at the same time it's like enjoying the challenge but also enjoying passing what we love to the next generation and i think that's a really good point and i think that's a really good
Speaker 1you know the heritage inheriting it yeah love it love it yeah that's a great point because that the industry has changed a lot especially since like 2010 when you guys came on the circuit that was the beginning of the old era kind of being outpaced of the new era coming in um have you got any thoughts on on that you know do you see the new industry as better or worse in any way or is it just different i mean obviously back in the day we had the gatekeepers we had the gatekeepers nowadays you know artists who don't have that can do it themselves you know they can record it by themselves they can promote themselves but obviously that comes with its own challenges as well i'd love to know as someone that's been busy and active in the industry through that
Speaker 2change if what your thoughts might be well the thing is um probably when you're in that era it's not easy to find the answer you know it's probably takes us probably another decade or maybe even 50 years to uh yeah and figure out if it was right or wrong and i think that's a really good point and maybe that doesn't even make sense either but um i really believe that even now these days people uh who are in the music industry really make a lot of interest in music even now these days you know it's still inspiring they make a lot of people make great music but at the same time um i guess uh the people who are choosing it uh they have so many uh like ways to choose it like streaming videos uh cds stuff like that it's spread it all along so i guess nothing is more nothing is more like capital that it used to be you know every everything can every anything can happen everywhere and i guess that spreads a lot of opportunity but maybe like decreases uh the energy of one can contain yeah so i guess it's we're lucky to have the opportunity to choose a lot of things but we should not forget how much passionate we should be in one item or one content or something like that yeah so i guess it's up to of course it's up to the creators of music but it's also uh probably uh something the consumers have to think about you know for enjoying music yeah now these days yeah i guess yeah it's not a concrete answer but that's
Speaker 1the way that i think right now about music hundred percent yeah that makes a lot of sense man it so much more opportunity now for artists to go their own way and make their own music for for very little money and put it out there and stuff but i guess the as great as that is the the new problem that the upcoming artists have got is that it's so difficult to get heard above the noise of everybody else doing it and as you said you know it's hard to keep that energy of being an artist but also being a graphic designer and a promotion person and a radio plugger and all the things that an artist now has to do um it's hard to keep that energy up so i guess it's up to so for artists who are who love man with a mission and they want to follow in your guys put steps but they're they're caught up in the new way of doing things what words of advice could you give to them to keep them inspired and to keep them energized to keep doing their thing
Speaker 2that's a hard one okay no pressure yeah i mean um you know like the new generation you guys have your own way to do things i mean uh now these days it's really tough like talking about social media yeah you definitely gotta know how to use it right now now these days but um above all that i mean it never changes you know the the passion you have in music if that doesn't change it doesn't matter which era you're in which era you're living in which era you're going to reach to i mean it's all about the passion to what you make and what you like and you know even in the old days people a lot of people struggle about what you what comes next and what you're going to make it has to be it has to reach a lot of people but at the same time it never you know you should never spoil it to yourself it should always spontaneously come from yourself you know the passion yeah the passion and ambition if if that doesn't change it doesn't really matter so just keep on what you want to do uh think about it nurture it a lot yeah listen to a lot of kind of music experience your life and that never changes so just go your way man love it that's
Speaker 1great advice man i'm going to use that for the for the promo clip is that that's beautiful thank you man okay but i want to ask you before we move back on to talking about this specifically about the band um you guys have traveled the world you've got fans all over the world you pull a good crowd wherever you go you got a lot of love out there for you guys um what is your impression of the difference between the asian rock music scene and the western rock music scene is there a difference or what's your thoughts um especially like in japan i mean japan has
Speaker 2a really like genuine weird maybe in a word weird kind of unique you know music scene uh actually the cd sales here in japan is still huge it's probably like the second hugest in the whole wide world and now these days everybody's talking about streaming stuff like that of course streaming is huge but like cds are still on on the road in japan and that makes like a lot of bands uh the rock scene in japan really you know is really diverse and still you know still pretty alive right now in japan i don't really sense that in western music right now i mean they're great bands a lot of there are a lot of great bands but like they're probably having a really hard time like cutting through the music scene compared to like other genres like hip-hop or electro stuff like that yeah edm and stuff like that but japan especially yeah it's pretty unique you know bands are still alive stuff like that and what the funniest thing is um i guess animation helps a lot but a lot of like japanese bands are really cutting through the all over the world especially like in the latin america south southern america part stuff like that yeah and that's probably really different from what we can hear from the western music uh western band or like western music right now that's interesting
Speaker 1yeah i suppose that is quite a major difference isn't it because you know the physical sales aspect of it is uh that's quite a major part of it yeah i suppose that's quite a major part of it keeping a band kind of on the road isn't it you know yeah absolutely well i gotta get my band over
Speaker 2to japan yeah i mean i mean rock music is still huge it really really is huge in japan right now
Speaker 1well nobody is huger than you guys you know i'm not just in japan no you guys uh you got a lot of love all over the world like i said so uh speaking of which you guys have just blasted your way across the states and you are coming as i said in the show over to uh this part of the world very very shortly um including a date at the kentish town forum in london on august the 31st a show which i'm going to come to um which i mean you guys that is going to be an insane gig for a band like you guys i can't wait to see it um the guys will then be heading over to the mainland where they're playing the milk bag in amsterdam uh le trianon in paris astro culture house in berlin and evoke in cologne uh what's next for you guys after that you know is there any plan you're going to take some time out or you got another
Speaker 2project in the pipeline what's the plan um we're going to take a break a little bit you know come head back to our hometown in japan but after that not only uk and europe but uh we're not supposed to announce it but we're heading to asia a little bit yeah a little bit in asia so this time uh the later half of the year we had a chance to travel all over the world it's going to be a blast yes
Speaker 1oh man so there's there's no sign of you guys slowing down anytime soon well yeah after that i'm
Speaker 2gonna take a long break but you know i'm just enjoying it right now like it's been a long time because of the plague you know we couldn't we didn't have a chance to travel all over the world so yeah i mean we're just having fun right now just enjoyable awesome i love it man well i love
Speaker 1everything you guys stand for and everything you guys do um tickets for all the shows are available now at mwamjapan.info and the guys can be followed at mwam official on instagram and tiktok and mwam japan on facebook so go and show them some love get to a show you will not regret it and i don't think anybody listening to this is really going to need me to tell them anything about who man with a mission are but for the but for the three people that haven't heard you guys yet they need to get on your socials give you a follow get involved and check it out you guys are welcome yeah yeah please the three of you that haven't heard the band yet please come enjoy oh johnny thank you so much for giving me your time today i know you're super busy i really appreciate it um
Speaker 2yeah it's my my
Speaker 1yeah i will see you in london on the 31st of august and uh best wishes with everything else man and i look forward to everything you guys have got coming up pretty soon no thank you very
Speaker 2much and good luck to your tour too yeah thank you bro appreciate you speak to you soon thank
Speaker 1you johnny bye bye thank you very much and there he goes let's hear it for the brilliant and very generous and talented mr jean ken johnny of the awesome japanese extravaganza man with a mission for anybody going to the london show on august the 31st at kentish town forum you will see me there because i am going along i cannot wait for it i'm going to be drinking a lot of beer busting a lot of shapes and no doubt making a dick of myself so come along and join me and if you're in the netherlands france or germany get yourself along to one of the venues i mentioned earlier because honestly these guys stage show is absolutely insane you will not regret it and as i also mentioned do follow the guys on social media so you can keep up with what they're doing because it doesn't sound like those guys are going to be slowing down anytime soon so lots more cool and exciting and entertaining stuff i'll see you in the next one bye bye and if you're going to be at beautiful days festival next weekend come to the rebel tent at 7 p.m where james kennedy and the underdogs are going to be doing their crazy thing and it would be great to see as many of you there as possible i'm on instagram at james kennedy uk on facebook at james kennedy uk and everything is basically james kennedy uk so if you want to come and say hello to me personally that you can find me on any of the regular places and hopefully i will be back next week with another episode but if it's not next week it will definitely be the week after so you know what to do hit the subscribe button so you don't have to go looking for it you'll just get a notification when i drop one of these bad boys and it'll be a nice surprise for you so between now and then have an awesome week as always take care of yourselves take care of each other it's a crazy world out there right now man look after each other stay safe love you loads see you next time
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