Article Review (January) - What Margaret Yasui was thinking when writing articles

It's been a while since my last note. I'm thinking of writing a monthly review, a sort of monthly report, about once a month. I'd like to use these notes to pick up the articles I published during the month and write about "why I chose to cover this band" and "what I was thinking while writing the article."

The odol interview where I felt that "bands and companies are the same"

An interview with odol published on the website "Lmaga.jp", which is operated by Keihanshin Lmagazine Co., Ltd. This was my first time working with "Lmaga.jp", and I am truly grateful that they offered me a job, especially since I usually only cover indie bands in the Kansai region. Also, the conversation with the two members of odol, especially Mr. Moriyama, was very logical and made for an interesting interview.

Now, when I was preparing to interview odol, I thought about how I should approach it.

I conducted the interview keeping these two points in mind. The result was the interview mentioned above. Although I didn't explicitly state it in the article, I had a hidden theme that "bands are not much different from companies." During the odol interview, there was a story about how they prepared various things for their support members, but things didn't go as planned. While listening to that, I thought, "I had the same thing happen when I brought in temporary staff at my office..."

Before I became a writer, I used to work in management, and things like what happened to odol were an everyday occurrence. Also, since my role was to figure out how to support them, I couldn't agree more with Mr. Moriyama's words. That's why I wanted the readers of this article to think "that's so relatable," just like I did, and I thought that would be a way for people who don't know odol at all, not just fans, to enjoy reading it, so that's how I crafted the interview. It turned out to be an interesting article, so please give it a read if you'd like.

An interview article only possible because of ANTENNA: The AIRCRAFT interview

ANTENNA published an interview with AIRCRAFT. I had told their vocalist, Ishikawa-kun, a while ago that "I'll cover you when you release an album," so it felt like I was keeping my word. But more than that, I also felt that "covering 'bands like this' is my role."

"Bands like this" refers to bands that have momentum in Kansai and have achieved results in award competitions. Those are important, but the biggest point is that they have "no backing whatsoever." To get meta, there are very few music media outlets that operate independently; most also manage labels, event organizers, or distribution platforms. And when an artist is interviewed, it's hard to get it published unless there is a benefit not only to the artist but also to the affiliated business. Therefore, it is quite unusual for a young band without an event organizer or label to have an interview with photos and about 5,000 characters published.

However, ANTENNA, the media outlet I belong to as a writer, is a special kind of media, so we can do that without worrying too much about our own profits. If that's the case, I have to cover bands that have momentum in the Kansai indie scene, and doing so is my destiny. I hope AIRCRAFT grows big quickly, and I'd love to interview them again when they go major.

These are the two articles published in January (that's so few...). I need to search for ideas properly from February onwards, and since I also have to deal with tax returns and consumption tax filings this month, I'll give it my all. This job gives back exactly what you put into it, but if you let your guard down, the consequences will come back to haunt you. I have to keep doing my best.