Shuqing's Story: Music Matters 2013 - J-Rock Matters presented by BARKS Media Conference

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Music Matters 2013 - J-Rock Matters presented by BARKS Media Conference

Fans of J-Pop, here is something for you:

Music Matters Live is happening this week from 22 - 24 May 2013.

The annual Music Matters Live with HP is back for the third year, bringing the best underground talent from across the globe to Singapore. Asia’s top music festival that showcases some of the industry’s up-and-coming and established local and foreign music acts. The festival will be held at Clarke Quay over three nights...with no admission cost!

Are you ready for it?

For the first time, Japanese artists will perform in a Japanese showcase at Music Matters 2013 - J-rock Matters presented by BARKS.

On 23 May 2013, SID and flumpool will hold a public concert at the Fountain Stage, Clarke Quay at 9 pm. The hour-long showcase will be streamed live on Youtube as well. Click here for the link to Youtube.

Following that, SID, flumpool and WEAVER will each hold an exclusive invitation-only mini-concert at the Beer Market from late night onwards.

Isn't it awesome to catch 3 of the famous J-Rock bands performing live in Singapore for free?

I was here at M Hotel for J-Rock Matters Media Conference. I can't wait to see SID, flumpool and WEAVER in person.

BARKS is Japan’s largest music publication, engaging in multi-lingual publication of Japanese music news, providing agency, consultancy, digital music distribution aggregation services, and EC for merchandising and ticket sales.

Let's invite Tadashi Goto, Producer for BARKS to share with us more about it.

The popularity of Japanese music and artists is rising in Asia and worldwide. Despite that, not enough sources existed to feature them and deliver Japanese music news internationally. Hence, to respond to the growing diversification of global consumer-needs, BARKS extended its online outreach with a an English website and the launch of two new Mandarin sites, making Japanese music news more accessible to global audiences:

English website (www.en.barks.jp/)

Simplified Chinese (www.zh-cn.barks.jp)

Traditional Chinese (www.zh-tw.barks.jp)

With this, international audiences will now be able to get the latest updates and trends on the Japanese music scene. From news, artists biography, the site also includes a BARKS Ranking, which showcases the top artists based on the viewership hits on their bios and news articles within the website.

Without further ado, let's introduce the first band up:

WEAVER

From left to right: Shouta Okuno (Bass & Backing vocals), Yuji Sugimoto (Piano & Lead Vocals) and Toru Kawabe (Drum & Backing Vocals)

WEAVER is a piano rock band and started their performances mainly at the live house “VARIT” in Kobe.

This is the third time WEAVER is performing in Singapore. Yuji shared with us that the fans enjoyed seeing them interacting in English. So this time round, WEAVER will be singing one English song at Music Matters 2013.

The next band, flumpool.

flumpool expressed their gratitude to the global fans for supporting Japan during the Tsunami crisis in 2011 and that's why they are here to performing at Music Matters 2013 to show their gratitude.

Aww, why isn't Kazuki Sakai (Guitarist) here at the press conference?

Kazuki is actively trying to slim down and he hope to surprise the fans during his performance. So he does not wish to disclose his progress at the conference.

Do you know know flumpool had a performance together with Mayday at Tokyo’s EARTH X HEART LIVE 2013.

It was Ryuta's personal dream to give Ashin a hug and his dream came true. Both bands had a close brotherly relationship after a series of successful collaborations.

Last but not least, SID.

For SID, it is their first time here in Singapore. SID were touched that there were many fans at the airport waiting for their arrival.

They are really excited to put up a good performance together with flumpool and WEAVER.

Do catch the three growingly popular artist groups performing livein Singapore. Through their music and performances, music fans in Singapore and Asia can recognise and appreciate the universal appeal of J-Rock, and continue to support the artists by checking out their latest news and updates on BARKS.