Little is known about the man who helped James Lavelle to fulfill his wildest dreams. Yasushi shared with us stories about his childhood and aspirations as a young man all the way to reaching the position of A&R for the legendary Japanese record label that is Toy's Factory. Here's the first part of our conversation...
Jon
Can you tell me about your childhood and how it was for you to grow up in Japan in the 70s/80s?
Yasushi
I was born on June 26th, 1971 in the Ōta-ku area [South] of Tokyo which is known as an industrial area so there's a lot of factories there. We are three siblings in the family, I have a younger sister and a younger brother, and me and my younger brother Fumitaka both run the Rush! Production record label together.
Both my parents were born right after World War II in the 1940s and at the time, the government was encouraging people to have a lot of children, so many families had like three to five children. The [Summer] Olympics in Tokyo happened in 1964 [the first Olympics held in Asia] and Japan was becoming a lot more abundant financially than previous generations. So I grew up with a lot of electrical appliances, I used to play soccer and kids were able to play soccer and baseball too.
Jon
Do you remember what sort of music was played at home when you were a little kid?
Yasushi
So from the age of 3 to 10, I was really into a kid TV show called Ponkikki [Hirake! Ponkikki on Fuji TV ran from 1973 to 1993 and its concept was based on the US program Sesame Street], it was on TV every morning and I was always watching it. There were a lot of very famous songs that came out of that TV show and one of them was "Oyoge! Taiyaki-kun" [Masato Shimon / Canyon, 1975], like a million-selling record. But there were these instrumental songs that were played on the show and I really liked them as well. I watched it again when I was in my 20s and then I realized that they were using Beatles tunes in the background, so I got into western music through that TV show.
My mother used to sing in a choir as a hobby and my father collected tapes and records of Japanese music that he was listening to on the hi-fi system, so I remember being into music from a young age.
Jon
What was the first record that you purchased with your allowances?
Yasushi
The first record I remember buying and really getting into, not just the music but the visuals and the music video, was Michael Jackson's Thriller [Epic, 1982]. When I first heard it, it blew me away!
Jon
Michael Jackson is clearly pop music and you were 10 years old when it was released so how did your musical taste evolve as a teenager?
Yasushi
So when I was an early teen I was really into a group called Godiego and they were known for singing a lot of animation theme songs like "Monkey Magic" [opening theme for the 1978 television series Saiyūki, known in the west as Monkey] and "The Galaxy Express 999" [theme song for the series of the same name designed by Leiji Matsumoto who later worked with Daft Punk]. They were a Japanese band but there was also a foreign member [Steve Fox] and so they were very influenced by western music.
Then my parents bought me a stereo tape recorder, so I started recording songs off of TV or commercials and I got into editing my cassette tapes and making mixes out of them. Like, I remember Michael Jackson being in a very famous Suzuki scooter commercial [in 1979] and there was another commercial for a whisky brand with Sammy Davis Jr. [Suntory Whisky, 1974] where he was doing human beatboxing. So those were the kind of things I was recording.
Then when I got into high school I started getting into Def Jam Records and The Beastie Boys and I was really into Madonna and Guns N' Roses too. There was a really popular West TV show that featured music from the US charts, it was called Best Hit USA [on TV Asashi from 1981 to 1989] and I would often record those shows on VHS and then edit them.
Jon
So right from the beginning you were into video and audio editing, but were you interested in DJing as well?
Yasushi
When I got into high school I really wanted to start DJing but it took a while for me to save up enough money to buy gear and when I turned 18, I was finally able to buy all the equipment. That's when I started practicing, like mixing and scratching and that got me into DJing at my friends' parties and stuff. I had a dream of traveling to places like London, New York and Paris, so I was thinking "If I can make enough money through DJing, maybe I will be able to visit those cities."
Jon
What was your DJ name back then?
Yasushi
So I was going by two different names. When I would play at clubs I would play hip hop and it was often in cities like Roppongi [South West of Tokyo] and Yokosuka [Kanagawa Prefecture]. There were a lot of African-American people who were living in the military bases that are in Japan and they would come to these clubs. They couldn't say my name very well and so I went by the DJ Yashi moniker because I figured that it was easier for American people to say that name. And then when I played in other clubs where it would be house music, disco and reggae, I would just go by my real name Yasushi.
Jon
Did you go to college after high school?
Yasushi
In high school I was in the soccer team and I was pretty good at it, but at the same time my grades were quite bad. So my teacher told me "Maybe you could go to a sports university and play soccer there but you'll have to shave your head though," because back then you had to have a shaved head to be on a sports team and I didn't want to do that. I also didn't have the money to go to other more famous universities and I still had that dream to travel outside of Japan. And so I decided not to go to college.
Jon
In Japan there is this sort of elitist kind of education, but were your parents supportive of your passion since they were into music themselves?
Yasushi
Actually, my parents were really against me going into the music industry. They were telling me "You know, after high school just get yourself a regular nine to five, we don't care what job it is as long as it's a proper one!" And they were really against me going out at night and performing and stuff.
Jon
Do you remember what was the first show that you went to and how determinant it was for your professional career afterwards?
Yasushi
So that was around June 1987 when I remember going to the first Madonna Tour in Japan [during the Who's That Girl World Tour, she performed from June 20th to 22nd at the Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo], it really gave me goosebumps and blew me away! And then the same year I was able to go to the Michael Jackson concert in Yokohama [during the Bad Tour, he performed 5 times at the Yokohama Stadium between September and October 1987].
It was really difficult to get tickets for concerts like that back then, but I had a friend who was good at getting tickets so that's how I was able to get them. I mean, those two concerts persuaded me that I wanted to do something in music.
And there's another Japanese group called Complex featuring singer Koji Kikkawa and a famous guitarist named [Tomoyasu] Hotei and as I was a big fan of them, I went to their show in 1989 [Complex Tour]. Hotei was also in a very popular group called Boøwy before that, they were very popular in Japan.
Jon
How was it for you to connect to that foreign music?
Yasushi
So I didn't understand the lyrics but I was listening to the vocals as if they were instruments. But you know, I was still a teenager at the time and so I didn't really go as far as reading deep into the liner notes or anything, until after getting into the music industry when reading liner notes and stuff like that became very important to me. Back then as a junior high school student it was more about the overall performance of these artists, like how sexy Madonna was when she was dancing or like seeing Michael Jackson moonwalk, so it was also like the visual aspect.
Jon
In the early 90s you went to the UK for the first time, so how did you manage to go there and was it business related?
Yasushi
So after high school I was really into music, fashion and films but I couldn't really decide what I wanted to do. My first job was at a rental video shop where I was working on weekdays and weekends I would be performing at DJ gigs. And so I did that for like four years until I got a job at a company that was promoting artists like Nobukazu Takemura, Silent Poets, Natural Calamity, Spiritual Vibes and a group called UFO (United Future Organization was Yabe Tadashi, Raphael Sebbag and Toshio Matsuura and I was involved in their street promotion). I also helped out Mondo Grosso on Tour dates in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka.
In 1994 there was a show [coming up] for this really well known group Pizzicato Five, so the company had some records pressed in London and they were supposed to sell them at their concert. And so since I was a young guy, the company said "You go to London, you go and pick up these records and bring them back," so that was the first time I ever got to go to the UK. And it was just for one day, just so I could pick up the records that were pressed there and bring them back to Japan!
Jon
I guess that it must have been quite confusing for you to be in London just for one day, unable to communicate very well, completely jet lagged and basically on your own but still doing business?
Yasushi
I remember the immigration being really strict and that scared me because I never had endured something like that before. I didn't have any money so I couldn't use a taxi and so I took the subway and this was the first time I actually was in a train with people from all kinds of different cultures which was also a big surprise to me. I remember my surprise to see people in London not using umbrellas when it was raining. But at the same time it made me feel like this is what I really wanted to experience in life, so all these new different things were really exciting to me.
And then I had another opportunity to go to London in February of 1995 as an assistant for Nobukazu Takemura where I was basically carrying records for him. And there was an event at the Ministry of Sound [nightclub in London belonging to the record company of the same name], it was called the Brownswood Sessions and people like Gilles Peterson, James Lavelle, Patrick Forge, Galliano, Mark Murphy and Palmskin Productions were playing there. And then from Japan there was Nobukazu Takemura, DJ Krush and then UFO performing there.
It was just around the time when acid jazz started to change and when jungle music which later became drum & bass came out. People were also playing Brazilian records in the clubs and then at the same time artists like Tricky and Portishead emerged into trip hop, so all these new different kinds of music were coming around at the same time. The club was filled with like 4500 people and I was totally blown away by that experience! I also had brought a video camera with me and I filmed all that so that was very formative for me.
That time I stayed in Europe for a little over two weeks and while I was in London, I was able to go to meetings with the Ninja Tune guys, I also got to visit the Kiss 100 FM radio station to promote the artists I was with and I went record shopping, so it was like at Mr Bongo and Soul Jazz. But I also went to Paris for five days and I got to meet a lot of artists and Yellow Productions too.
Jon
Were you still working for that promotional company at the time?
Yasushi
So I was still working for [them] and going to London kind of helped me join Toy's Factory because they already had this label called Bellissima! Records back then. And this label had artists like Nobukazu Takemura, Silent Poets and also Spiritual Vibes. Natural Calamity also joined Toy’s Factory Later.
Toy's Factory wanted to get more into the club music scene and they'd seen that I was already very close to these artists and knew about it myself. So they asked, "Can you join our label? Because we don't know how to deal with these artists and we don't know much about the club scene." So I was like 24 or 25 back then and so I joined the company as their youngest employee.
Jon
It seems to me that early on Toy's Factory was all about Mr. Children and basically a lot of US metal and so it was this very specific field of music for a long time. Then you came in with this different spirit which was a u-turn for the label but at the same time they gave you a lot of money to make it really happen, how do you explain that?
Yasushi
Back when I joined Toy's Factory, labels like Sony were already heavily invested in club music, they were releasing a lot of hip hop but also techno artists like Derrick May or Jeff Mills. Then labels like Avex [Trax] were releasing Japanese hip hop, house, Metalheadz and they were also releasing Mo Wax records early on. And so as you were saying, when I joined Toy's Factory they were more known for releasing metal and hard rock but also a lot of j-pop bands like Speed that were a famous girl group back then.
Since they wanted to get into the club music field they gave me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted and they also put a lot of money [on the table] to bring the artists' visions into reality, so I was thankful for that.
Jon
How did you ascend to head of promotion for the record company?
Yasushi
When I started to work at Toy's Factory, my actual position was A&R for Bellissima! Records which was the label that had Nobukazu Takemura. At night I would do all my Bellissima! Records work like going to clubs and stuff, but then during daytime I also had to do PR work for the company and that included street promotion for the pop acts and kind of bridging pop music with club music.
So one of the biggest pop rock groups for Toy's Factory was Mr. Children and they wanted to do something that was more club-like. Then at first what I wanted to do is to get The Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy to remix them but that didn't work out. And right around 1997 I got in touch with James Lavelle who was doing UNKLE with K.U.D.O (Major Force) back then. They [gave me] just an instrumental track with no vocals and so that was kind of a problem, but the song did pretty well [Mr. Children / "ニシエヒガシエ (West)" from ニシエヒガシエ / Toy's Factory, 1998].
And then I also connected other pop groups like My Little Lover and Speed with dance music artists. I got a lot of those pop acts into more street magazines like Hot Dog [Press] which was quite popular at the time and I also had different directors making music videos for them.
And so after two years of being in that position, Toy's Factory got an offer to work with Ninja Tune which was a great opportunity. The following year, James Lavelle wanted to work with Toy's Factory and so I became the A&R of that also.
I remember Gilles Peterson and James Lavelle would always say they were A&Rs and I liked that title, and so I was really happy that it said that on my [business] card as well. At the height of Mo Wax Japan, we were working with artists like Muro and NIGO® and stuff and I was managing a team of five people, like a director with the same kind of power. But since I was a young man, the company didn't give me that title and I just kept on being like an A&R.
Jon
You were already infatuated with foreign music as a young DJ, so I wanted to know if Mo Wax came to your attention before you actually met with James Lavelle in the UK in 1995?
Yasushi
So as a DJ, I had already been collecting house music, techno and hip hop records. And then when acid jazz came around I thought it was a really interesting genre that I'd never heard before, so that got me into Gilles Peterson and Talkin' Loud, and then James Lavelle and Mo Wax. It really broadened my horizons musically, like I got into Brazilian and African music through them.
But I particularly noticed Mo Wax because they suddenly released Japanese artists like DJ Takemura [Nobukazu Takemura] and DJ Krush on a compilation [Jazz Hip Jap Project / Mo Wax, 1993] and so I was like, "Why are these Japanese artists on this UK label?" That really got me into Mo Wax even before I got to meet James, and at the same time DJ Krush's first record [Krush / Triad - Chance Records, 1994] came out in Japan. So those were the first Mo Wax records I got.
Jon
When you were in this A&R position, I guess that your English was not good enough for you to be able to talk to foreign artists, so maybe someone was translating for you?
Yasushi
So as you're saying I couldn't speak English very well, so before I was in Toy's Factory the way I would communicate with these DJs was by giving them records. After going to London I learned that if I brought promos to the show, I could get close to the DJs when they were doing soundchecks and say "Here's a new record." So using my broken English and trying to have them remember me was one way of communicating with them.
After I joined Toy's Factory, there was a woman who was working there with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion band named Miwa Kuroki and she spoke English very well. James Lavelle contacted her saying that he was already interested in moving his label over to Toy's Factory because he knew that they were releasing Ninja Tune. So James Lavelle came to our office with me and Miwa, so the three of us had a meeting and that's how it started.
And that's how Hashim Bharoocha [the live translator here] came into the picture because he was living in Japan back then and he was DJing as well. I needed somebody to help me translate and kind of be their guide when artists like DJ Shadow came to Japan. So I was introduced to Hashim through Natural Calamity and that's how he started working with me back then.
When James Lavelle worked with us, Miwa was in charge of the CD production and communicating with the label and foreign artists, and I was in charge of booking the shows and doing their promotion.
And while I was working with Mo Wax Japan I was also doing a lot of work with Japanese artists. NIGO® had set up his Ape Sounds label and was also booking record sessions with K.U.D.O (Major Force) and then I was also working with Ninja Tune at the same time.
But in terms of Mo Wax, I was making sure of booking artists for interviews in magazines and I always made sure the artists were on the front cover. I was booking different collaborations for them, but moreover it was very important for me to make that Mo Wax vision come to fruition. So I would set up the Mo Wax Nights and find the right venues or different release parties.
And when it came to more rock oriented artists on Mo Wax like Money Mark, an agency called Creative Man was in charge of booking the shows. They're this very big Tour promoter in Japan that does the Summer Sonic Festival so I had them book all the Tours for Money Mark. And there was a different team that was working with a lot of the rock magazines back then such as Rockin'On Japan so I would get these different artists into there. And you know, when it comes to booking and especially cover stories for magazines there's a lot of politics involved so I was in a lot of the negotiations.
Jon
From 1993 to 1996, Mo Wax was distributed by Avex Trax so they were already kind of established in Japan, how did you manage to fold the deal and what was the first Mo Wax Japan release?
Yasushi
I remember that after 1 or 2 years Avex Trax's contract with Mo Wax was coming to an end, and at the time James Lavelle was looking for a new label to work with in Japan. James already had a lot of friends in Japan like NIGO® and he already knew about the local scene. He was this very instinctive person who knew how to do his detective work and find out what was going on out there.
And so he had got in touch with Miwa Kuroki and he had set up this meeting with Toy's Factory. At first he was gonna talk to the president of the company, but the president said "Miwa, you and me will have a meeting with this guy James," and so we had this meeting. We talked about the terms of the contract and at that time, James Lavelle said he already had a vision laid out. He said, "I want to start up this label called Mo Wax Japan, I want to collaborate with people like NIGO®," and he said, "I want to make records but I also want to make figures, I want to do special packaging because that's what Mo Wax is known for."
And so he also wanted to go in a different direction than this acid jazz scene, he wanted to collaborate with brands like Supreme, Stussy, A Bathing Ape and Gimme 5 from London. So I remember James Lavelle saying "I'm looking for the holy grail for Mo Wax in Japan." And so this was already very intriguing for me but I knew that it would also be kind of hard to tell the president "Let's work with this label." So I asked James, "What releases do you have coming up?" And he said, "I have this artist called DJ Shadow coming up, I'm gonna be releasing Money Mark, I'm going to start this group called UNKLE..." So he already had like a two-year plan of releases laid out!
And so I asked him, "How much of an advance do you need for these artists for two years and can you add bonus tracks to the Japanese releases?" Because that was very important, and the other important thing was to be able to release the CDs in Japan earlier than in Europe or America, so I asked him if he could do that. And James said, "I promise that you guys will put the releases out earlier than other territories." So after I gathered all this information I brought it to the president. Nobody knew how much these records would be able to sell in Japan but we still went for it. So the first Mo Wax Japan releases were DJ Shadow's Endtroducing [TFCK-87921 / Aug 1, 1997] and Luke Vibert's Big Soup [TFCK-87923~4 / Aug 6, 1997].
Jon
That's really interesting because Toy's Factory brought this structure for Mo Wax to exist beyond the music label aspect. Mo Wax is the house of many great artists and that's undeniable, but in my head it's really unlikely that it would have stood the test of time if it was not also for the special treatment it got in Japan. So in my opinion, Mo Wax's legacy wouldn't be the same now if it was not for you to have taken the risk at the time.
Yasushi
I'm really happy that you think that way. But I remember that it wasn't all easy back then, like my bosses got mad at me a lot because I made so many different promo items including records and toys. And my bosses would say, "You're filling up the warehouse with toys! Are you trying to make it like a toy factory or something?" Because we also needed space for these other labels like Ninja Tune and stuff and apparently it was very expensive to rent out this space. So yeah, I remember getting in trouble a lot for that!
Jon
If you're going to sell some records you have to justify the price to pay for it because since it's foreign music it's more expensive in Japan, so I mean it's risky business to multiply the releases. Obviously you don't gain anything from the 2nd hand market so I'm also wondering how well Mo Wax Japan did?
Yasushi
For foreign artists to sell over 10,000 records was a really big feedback then. So on artists like DJ Shadow, UNKLE and Money Mark, their sales were very good and the other Mo Wax artists didn't sell as well, so sometimes those releases lost money. But I knew that those releases were important for Mo Wax's creativity and expression.
I remember that Psyence Fiction [TFCK-87955 / Toy’s Factory - Mo Wax, 1998] was the best seller. We were still able to sell this more expensive Japanese version of Endtroducing with the bonus tracks even though the import version had already been selling in Japan [MW059 was released September 16, 1996 in the UK and Europe], and that sold around the same as the Coldcut album [Let Us Play! / Toy's Factory - Ninja Tune, 1997].
The Money Mark's Push The Button album [TFCK-87949-50 / Toy's Factory - Mo Wax, 1998] sold well too. Ape vs Mo Wax was a Japan only album [TFCK-87929~30 / Toy's Factory - Mo Wax, 1997], and we also released the Attica Blues' self-titled album [TFCK-87932 / Toy's Factory - Mo Wax, 1997].
CDs were selling much more back then and so Toy's Factory didn't make vinyl for UNKLE, Shadow or Money Mark but they did one for Ape vs. Mo Wax [TFJK-37901~2 / Toy's Factory - Mo Wax, 1997].
But you know, looking at all the Mo Wax sales across the years they were always making money, so that helped convince my bosses to make these promo items. And I'm also kind of grateful to bands like Mr. Children because they were a million-selling artists. And because of those artists, I was able to put some of Toy's Factory's money into Mo Wax releases, that's kind of how it all worked out.
Jon
In 1994, DJ Krush was signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan, so that is probably why he was not in the roster of artists on Mo Wax Japan. But at the same time, some of his mixes and remixes were released on Toy's Factory so how did you work it out?
Yasushi
From what I remember, DJ Krush had a [long term] deal with Sony Japan so he was locked into that [it started with Meiso -迷走- in 1995 up to The Message At The Depth -深層- in 2002]. And overseas, he had a multi-album deal with Mo Max so he released his albums up to MiLight [MW077LP, 1997] through them.
I've had a tremendous amount of respect for DJ Krush since his days with the group Krush Posse [with DJ Go and Muro]. Krush gained worldwide exposure after signing with Mo Wax, and we had him collaborate on a mix CD with Coldcut from Ninja Tune which also became a big hit [Cold Krush Cuts 2 (Back In The Base Megamix) (A 60 Minute Remix Of Ninja Tunes Back & Front Catalogue) / Ninja Tune - Toy's Factory, 1996]. After that, Coldcut and the Ninja Tune crew came to Japan with Hex, Strictly Kev, Mixmaster Morris, DJ Vadim, and Up, Bustle & Out. DJ Krush performed as a special guest, and the event was a huge success.
We also asked DJ Krush to remix a track for DJ Vadim which was released worldwide through Ninja Tune ["Variations In U.S.S.R. (DJ Krush Mix)" from U.S.S.R. Reconstruction (Theories Explained) / Ninja Tune - Toy's Factory, 1997]. Both James Lavelle and I asked DJ Krush if he could sign with Toy’s Factory but as he was already engaged with Sony that didn't happen, but I'm still grateful to Krush and his management Es.U.Es for everything they did for us.
Jon
When I started collecting, I was told that it was a dodgy thing for people to sell promo CDs and tapes in Japan because they could get prosecuted for doing it. As a result those are still hard to find nowadays, so I was wondering how many promos were usually made?
Yasushi
So we would make about 200 or 300 promo CDs and I would make the actual list for who they would be sent out to. So it was magazines, radio journalists, fashion people and basically tastemakers who would have an influence on the scene. And we also made promo cassettes and vinyl (usually about 200 records) that I would pass out to like DJs and stuff.
Jon
Can you explain why some promos were available on tape but weren't pushed on the market in this format? For example there's an Endtroducing promo tape but it was only released on CD.
Yasushi
For promos it was mainly CDs and tapes, and you know back then you couldn't send a link to somebody with music and stuff, so cassettes were very important because they're small and you could actually bring them with you very easily. For more important industry people I would give them promo CDs, and then later we would send them final CDs [the ones with a colored sticker on barcode].
Toy's Factory was a pretty big company and there was a team of people who were exclusively mailing out these promos for Ninja Tune, Mo Wax and Bellissima! Records and paying for the shipping cost.
And now that I have my own label [Rush! Production], I understand how big it was to have a team of people just doing that!
Photos provided by Yasushi, Strictly Kev, online sources and personal files.
Yasushi Takayama can be reached out to through his label Rush! Production, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Special thanks to Hashim Bharoocha for live translation and loads of communication work!
Shootouts to Strictly Kev for additional Ninja Tune photos and to Beezer for allowing us to use his work.
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Interview made by Jon on February 12th, 2022