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Satoshi Tomiie Interview

Over the decades, thousands upon thousands of Japanese and American citizens have formed unique friendships and secured many acute business deals, none perhaps as important to modern day dance music as that of US house music legend Frankie Knuckles and hero of the Japanese DJ circuit, one well-known young artist by the name of Satoshi Tomiie.

When Frankie met Satoshi…
Way back when in the late 80’s, one Mr Frankie Knuckles came to host some parties in the heart of Japan, stumbling across something raw, something new, and something very Japanese. "I was helping the parties he was doing", Satoshi explains. "He just went back from Chicago to New York and he joined the Def Mix crew, and then in a matter of time it was a natural move that I become the 2nd/3rd edition really".

Working closely with Frankie on the amazing "Tears" re-hash and the "Full Lick" album released in 2000 were Tomiie’s milestone records, eleven years after he first started on the ladder of clubland success. We catch up with Mr Tomiie six years on to find out when his next artist album is due, the imminent release of the massive "3D" compilation, Japan’s club scene and future aspiring Japanese talents to watch out for…

Clubbing UK caught up with him in his Tokyo hotel room, preparing for the next gig and taking a short breather during the middle of his Asia Tour. "I’m enjoying the stay in my home country"; a place often greatly missed by Satoshi, mainly due to his manic work diary and record label commitments he only gets play his hometown three or four times a year. 2006 started with him playing New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day in Italy and Spain. "Italy’s been really good to me, a very enthusiastic crowd and the party was excellent" he beams. From there he had five days in New York before the start of his Asia tour kicked off, and somehow he even managed to complete the awesome Satoshi Tomiie hand-picked triple compilation via Renaissance presents "3D".

Taking inspirations from a variety of musical pioneers including the late Miles Davis, one of the greatest visionaries and ultimately one of the most important men in jazz. Satoshi just can’t praise him enough, "His attitude to music; not only he’s an amazing player, he never stopped changing and re-inventing himself, he was not afraid of taking risks and I have a lot of respect for what he did."

Reflecting on his own style of music Satoshi quotes "it’s like ‘electronic dance music’, you can’t really categorise it in the one genre of the music". If I were pressed to say, terms like ‘deep, funky, dirty, techy house music’ would spring to mind. The Japanese answer to Danny Tenaglia perhaps?

When prompted, the humble Satoshi tends to play down any hype surrounding his position on the global market. Questions like "How does it feel to be one of Japan’s most successful and internationally respected DJs?" will usually start with "I’m not sure if it’s true or not… I just feel fortunate that I can pay the rent from doing the work I really love."

We get chatting about the vibrant Japanese club scene, in particular that of Tokyo and how things differ between Europe/US and Japan. "There’s a really good club scene going on in Tokyo, most of the international DJs are coming here and there’s a lot of great local DJs, especially in the techno category, playing not only in Japan but also internationally… The difference is the European scene is backed up by the club culture, I don’t think we have a big club culture here, when you think of the amount of people living in Japan, compared to that the club scene over here is still quite small. I’m just hoping in the future that the scene becomes more like a culture as there’s not an established one yet."

"Still unfortunately in my opinion it’s not there for anybody, it’s still for the people who are really into the music. At the same time I’m just hoping more people will find the undiscovered music and it expands…"

In an effort to redress the balance and to help more of those undiscovered souls find that precious Japanese clubland mecca, we asked Satoshi to advise our readers on where’s best in the essential Japan club-guide. "A few clubs I can really recommend, Yellow is my favourite one. Then Air, then Womb, Agaha (it’s actually the name of the butterfly), and Agaha is like a huge club, 5000 people probably and this is something like totally different from the other three. Each club has it’s own character. Yellow has been there for the longest and this is my personal favourite, I actually did a party last Wednesday for the record launch, a week day but still the party was just amazing!"

Ok so now we know what venues to look out for, but which local Japanese DJ names should we be looking for on the bill? Asides from ST himself of course. "Osamu M, he’s like up and coming and he’s doing a few stuff for different dance labels including Digweed’s Bedrock Records. The next guy shares my first name, Satoshi Fumi and he’s doing right now is kinda like German influenced house music and it’s quite interesting."

His aforementioned debut album of 2000 "Full Lick" featured the outstanding anthem "Love In Traffic" with Kelli Ali (ex-Sneaker Pimps) on vocals. The track was picked up by John Digweed for his Global Underground mix and remains a progressive classic to this day. The album also included "Darkness" featuring veteran house vocalist Robert Owens, and two tracks performed by Diane Charlamagne. When Satoshi was invited by compilation kings Global Underground to contribute a mix to their NuBreed series, it was a great honour. Satoshi’s album remains the fastest and highest selling NuBreed album to date. This was followed by a double series album collective entitled "ES" & "ES-B", before being pinned down by the Renaissance mix. A busy six years have flown by with Satoshi still keeping his next album on the back-burner "I’ve got something in the pipeline and I’m working on it. I have a new single coming out ‘Glow’, I actually produced this song for the last compilation called ‘ES-B’, I re-tweaked it and I’m waiting for the remix from Spirit Capture (Belgium), coupled with the remix it’s going to be released roughly around May. I’m hoping to release the album sometime this year, although it may be too close to the ‘3D’ album. I don’t want them to be like - oh it’s just Satoshi!"

Meanwhile his label Saw Recordings has started to blossom, their unique ethos of "introducing the good quality dance electronic music regardless of styles" may seem to hard to digest but to anyone who knows Satoshi’s sound, this policy fits right in. Merely a month away, talks inevitably lead to Miami’s Winter Music Conference, "The annual Miami Saw Recordings Party will be at the new club called Shine. It’s a new club in the Shelbourne Hotel, they have a great sound-system in there!". After discovering it for himself last Christmas, he was more than impressed. Needless to say, Ibiza won’t go without its Saw Recordings love this summer, catering to the brand’s truly global crowds.

His forthcoming DJ schedule may appear a gruelling one, but you get the impression Satoshi thrives on all of this. With his Asia tour drawing to a close, he’ll be stopping off in Shanghai, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. As March then sees the start of his full twelve-date US Tour before heading down to Tunisia. That leg over and it’ll be onwards and upwards towards Europe, Russia and then on to the annual appearances at Miami's nightclubs and Ibiza's best clubbing venues. Check out the full details of Satoshi Tomiie's 2006 Tour Dates here.

If clubland were a government, Def Mix and Saw Recordings would be home to the Japanese Embassy in NYC, and Mr Satoshi Tomiie would be heading up Japan’s secret service operations on a mission to infiltrate clubland and spread the message of Tokyo love across the globe! If it were true… he’d be pretty damn good at it!