The One Where KTheChosen goes to Japan
It all begins with an idea.
Any Friends fans in the house?
Awesome, then you'll appreciate the reference in the title and those who don't, are you old enough to be reading this blog?
Haha just kidding,we're all friends here regardless of where we're from. This was my biggest takeaway from my time in Japan as I found community among the amazing musicians I met. We'd been assembled like the Avengers to participate in the inaugural year of music bridge Tokyo (MBT), an independent music festival and conference that brought together artists from around the world to showcase in different live houses (smaller, intimate music venues) in Tokyo.
This was a surreal experience as I'd never been to Japan nor performed outside of Calgary before. At the end of 2024, I sought to change this by making a new year's resolution to play an out of town show. I was thinking Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto as I'd visited these cities multiple times to watch concerts, attend conferences and support my creative friends but never put on a show myself. But apparently, life had bigger plans for me!
One could say I manifested it. Around October of last year, the music bridge Tokyo Instagram account followed me and I kept an eye on their page waiting for submissions to open. Funny enough, I didn't make the final cut but as the festival was looking to expose international acts to Tokyo's music culture, they offered to give me a free festival pass and organize a couple shows with their partner venues post festival if I could get to Japan on my own. Taking a mid-year vacation instead of waiting until December (like I usually do) was also on my 2025 resolutions so I jumped on the opportunity and started searching for plane tickets.
I was fortunate that flights were fairly affordable as Japan is encouraging more tourism from Canada but this is also an example of success being the product of opportunity meeting preparation. As soon as I set my goal to perform elsewhere,I'd been keeping an eye out on festivals outside of Calgary. My nerdy-self even made a database with website links, event dates and submission deadlines (this and many other indie artist resources to follow in a future blog post) which I was constantly updating. From a social media aspect, I always geo-tag my stories and ensure the hashtags on my content mention the kind of music I'm promoting, that I'm based in Calgary but also #ProudlyZimbabwean and include a broader tag #HipHopCanada. Something within these habits must've worked because the festival found me!
Fast forward to me having my flights, AirBnb and e-visa sorted,now I needed to figure out how to navigate Tokyo. This is where I give a huge arigato to MBT for providing numerous resources on travelling and performing in Japan. The documents they shared included everything from budgeting and accommodation,promotion ideas for Japanese audiences as well as general information on the Japanese music industry. This was super helpful not only in preparing me for the trip but as supporting material for applications like the SOCAN and Canada Council travel grants. Remember, this was an out of pocket trip for me since I wasn't part of the main festival but totally worth the experience! Especially because I was able to capture footage of one of my performances (see below YouTube recap) which I can then use for other international performance submissions and I connected with several venue managers as well as artists from Australia, China,Hong Kong, India, South Korea and Japan itself. I foresee some international collaborations in my future. Haha more manifestation😉
Before we talk about the performance and cultural experience (I know this context building is taking a while but there's so much to share) I want to go back to the preparation for the trip and thank my friends and community in Calgary. In addition to MBT's documents they shared their own tips and guides on places to visit, common phrases to use and saved Google maps locations for so many delicious places to eat. There's practically no bad food in Tokyo but there are so many options having them narrowed down helps a lot! It also ensured that I took an actual vacation while out there so shoutout to Andrew,Lamar, Mal, Scar, Steph and Sho🙂
Ok, now for the part you've all been waiting for…what is it like performing in Japan!?
In all honesty, it's a little daunting because so few people actually speak English. You'd assume the opposite because it's a huge tourist destination but it was a humbling reminder that I was the foreigner. The systems in Tokyo are also so well automated that you can do a lot from riding the train to ordering food from a digital menu within a restaurant without speaking to a single person. This presented a great opportunity to truly immerse myself in the culture by practising a few phrases and learning cultural norms by observing those around me. I'm not at a fully conversational level yet but by the end of the trip, I was able to greet the elderly couple that was hosting my AirBnb in Japanese and answer basic questions with hai (yes) or iranai (polite way to decline or say "I don't need that"). This was helpful as I found most people I met were super polite and willing to help or offer extra items. Interestingly enough, there is no tipping culture in Japan so a pro tip (more advice I received from a Calgary friend!) is to bring small souvenirs known as omiyage with you such as Werther's Original candies, postcards or promotional stickers that you can give to people to thank them for their hospitality and kindness. This is a literal cultural exchange as your gift is meant to represent the place you're from or somewhere you've recently visited. Receiving CDs, keychains and other merch items (see below picture) from the artists I meant was one of the most wholesome moments of the trip.
We were all so inspired by each other's performances and excited to share a piece of our art for the other to take home with them. Coming back to the performance experience, English being the common language between myself and the other artists did help in that they could provide feedback based on their understanding of my performance. It also made me appreciate the feeling or unspoken connection we can make through music. For audience members who only spoke Japanese, they may not have had a literal understanding of what I was saying but would dance along for my more melodic music and nod in contemplation at the slower, more emotional songs. Live performance is as much about body language and presentation as it is about the lyrics, if not more so. I'd just released a new EP, HBK a week prior to the trip and my set includes an outfit change from a full on suit with sun glasses to a t-shirt revealing a broken heart (HBK stands for Heartbreak K). The idea was to extend the metaphor of vulnerability in the music by literally removing a layer with each song. Shoutout to the Calgary drag and burlesque scene and Janelle Monáe’s Style Like U interview for inspiring this idea.
I performed two shows during my time in Tokyo. My first set was at a Gamuso bar in the Asagaya region where I was the only one in costume and performing among mostly singer-songwriters from South and East Asia. My second set was at Shibuya XXI cafe in the heart of Tokyo where I performed with two Japanese artists (one art rock and the other a modern Enka musician) and an award winning RnB/Soul artist from South Korea who all incorporated dance and costumes into their performances. I felt overdressed in the first show and among my people in the second, but I was well received by both audiences. Take this as a reminder to always be your authentic-self, even when the multiple hats you have to wear as an independent artist may make you roll your eyes every time you hear "it's all about your brand" or "you are your business". Ultimately, people gravitate towards your music because there's something about you that they resonate with. The second wholesome moment on this trip was realizing that the artists from the Shibuya performance and I watch the same anime!
We ended up dancing to the Dandadan theme song when the Shibuya XXI owner played the song at the MBT afterparty. Imagine, if I'd chosen to hide my love for comic books and anime, I would've missed out on that opportunity connect over a niche fandom.
This trip was more than I could ever have imagined and is definitely the first of many. I had a week to explore Tokyo and now have my eyes set on Kyoto and Osaka for the next trip. Thank you for reading this far and for being part of the reason my music could take me across the world. The “K” in KTheChosen now stands for Kommunity as well as kaizen, the Japanese concept of continuous improvement (which I actually referenced in a 2018 song, Like Water). I'm inspired to elevate my music and performance style so I can take you along on more international performance as KTheGlobal (citizen) haha.
Until the next big adventure.
Kanpai!