Exclusive Interview with Makoto

Siam2nite had the opportunity to have an exclusive interview with Makoto, shortly before his performance at Grease on 25th October.

Inspired by LTJ Bukem and Goldie you began to experiment with your own Drum&Bass music compositions, then in 1999 you caught the at-tention of LTJ Bukem himself and got signed on his label Good Looking Records. What exactly caught LTJ Bukem’s attention and how was the collaboration with him?

I just sent Bukem a demo and he sent me back a letter which was telling me that I needed to change the beats a little bit as it was a little bit frantic, then I fixed and sent it again, then I received a contract by fax ! That was the start and after that I have signed a long term deal with them and went world tour with him. It was great experience in my life. Never done the collaboration track with hi, but I learned about what professional DJ is a lot.

How would you describe your own music in just a few words?

Soulful and Musical

Out of all tracks you have made, which tracks would you recommend to someone that is not yet familiar with your music?

Golden Girl with MC Conrad, one of my well known track and still smash on DJ set and it’s almost 10years old.

Also Tower Of Love feat. Paul Randolph, I have been big fan of Paul’s work since 90’s. It was kind of dream comes true to work with him. Also the track was something I have been trying to make over 15years which is pure fusion of Soul music and Drum’n’Bass.

After two albums on Good Looking Records, you released your third album “Souled Out” on your own label “Human Elements” in 2011. What can you tell us about the album? How does it differ from the previous albums?

Souled Out is more like concept album, I tried to make you can actually listen to the album from beginning to the end. A lot of dance music al-bums are a collection of tracks which I didn’t want to do that this time. the 1st album Human Elements is very similar to Souled Out album, but 2nd album Believe In My Soul was more like a collection of tracks as I have been touring and DJing a lot at the time.

Releasing on your own record label grants you more creative freedom, besides that what other pros and cons are appreciable?

Yes, the creative freedom is great and you can release music whenever you want. But at the same time, you have to do all promotions yourself, all other legal stuff and distribution things. That take your time a lot…

What are you currently working on?

I’m working on a collaboration Drum’n’Bass album with Asides. It’s taking for long time to finishing as he lives in UK and sometimes in US. so whenever i was in UK and we had time, we are working on it. But it’s coming alone now, we need to finish just few bits. Hopefully we can re-lease it early next year.

Also I’m working on Boogie / Disco album with Japanese DJ called DJ Kawasaki who is one of Kyoto Jazz Massive family. I also plays keys and doing mixdown for Kyoto Jazz Massive’s new tracks too.

What was the best and the worst gig you ever played? What was the funniest thing ever occurred during any of your performances?

To me the size of venue doesn’t really matter, I’m really happy and feel grateful when my set flowed very well from the begin to the end and the crowd totally felt and understood it. that’s the my best gig. so I had few times like that around the world.

Worst gig…mmm. when I cleared up the dance floor for wrong crowd. haha.

You live in Tokyo. What can you tell us about clubbing and nightlife there? Do you have any nightlife related suggestions for first-time visitors?

I think the club scene in Tokyo is getting bigger, lots of new big size clubs and interesting events. I’d suggest to go to Womb / Vision club for underground cool music. Also a small club called The Room in Shibuya, that’s my favorite club in Tokyo. you can hear good time vibe club Jazz music all night and good drinks :)

You most recent performances here in Bangkok were in 2010 at Bed Supperclub and 2013 at Glow Nightclub. On 25th October you will re-turn to Bangkok to perform live at Grease. Did you keep your previous performances in good memory? What can Bangkok expect of your up-coming performance?

Yes, I love playing Bangkok. it’s really unique experience to play there. I have lots of new soulful and musical DnB tracks at the moment, I can’t wait to play them at there !