Shuichi Iwami

About me:

My name is Shuichi Iwami. I live in Hiroshima, Japan since I was born. Call me Shuichi or just Shu or Zapato. I am a music fan. I mainly prefer Americana music, especially stuff from Austin, Texas. The reason I'm here on myspace is to make friends who are musicians and people who are listening to the same kind of music as me. So, I'd like to write about music in my life and my times in Austin.

When I was an early teen, I just watched TV programs which were about Japanese TOP10. I really started to listen to music since I was around 15 years old, a junior high student. I first got into British new-wave like Duran Duran, Culture Club and WHAM!, stuff like that. In the 80s, a song called We Are The World by USA for Africa was also a big thing for me. In fact, my first vinyl was that song. But when I found the Beatles one day, I was totally changed by them. I can remember I listened to their famous red double best album again and again and again every day. Then I started to discover other British bands in the 60s like The Stones, The Kinks, The Who, Small Faces, and some bands which Eric Clapton was involved in like The Yardbirds and Cream when I was in high school. I got into them but at the same time, I'd listened to more hard stuff like Van Halen and Dokken and I pretty much liked them, too. I played electric guitar at that time, but gave it up until I graduated high school. When I was in a college, I started to get into more American stuff. After graduating college, I found a small bar in town which had tons of vinyl and CDs, and I went there to listen to the cool collections almost every night. I listened to American stuff, mostly from the 70s, like rock and singer songwriters, southern swamp, music made in Woodstock. I especially love the Band as a group, also Dan Penn as a singer songwriter.

I deeply got into ONLY 70s music back then. I thought it was the best, it was the only thing for me. I believed that until 1998. In 1998, I got to realize that I was just wrong. I met two guys in town. They are in their 50s, much older than me, and have huge knowledge about music through the 70s to now, especially American stuff. They never stopped to trying to find new stuff when they were younger. One guy is really great. He understands English and thinks about the heart of the lyrics. He is still my mentor. They changed me. They taught me a lot about new American stuff. The first shot was Lucinda Williams' Car Wheel on a Gravel Road, then Sweet Old World. I was blown away by those records. We started a website called Sweet Old World to introduce our favorite american music to Japan.

Then I started to learn more about locally know bands in the States, and I quickly got into that and discovered Austin. I've been really surprised getting to know the Austin scene. I've rapidly found a lot of new stuff day by day and, I've been totally addicted to the scene. And finally Austin became my main focus. I had interest in the town where is keeping to produce a lot of great music. I started to research some things, including musicians and recording studios in Austin, and I was really interested in South By Southwest (SXSW) which is a huge festival in Austin. Eventually I visited Austin in March 2001 for SXSW. I already had many favorite musicians from Austin and tried to contact them to interviews for our website because there was not much information about them at that time. So, I sent some email to those musicians and management anyway, and they wrote me back. We met in Austin and they gave me their information. That was the beginning of all things which happened later...

Anyway, I think I was changed after the first trip to Austin in 2001. I thought it was my first and last trip to Austin, but it wouldn't be. I am completely knocked out, and became can not get out Austin from my mind. Austin is always in my mind for 365 days. I just can not stop that. And I've been to Austin in March 2003, September 2003, March 2004, March 2005, June 2006, December 2007 and September 2008.

I've also brought some Austin musicians to Japan, and I've done the small Japan tour. The first chance was a singer songwriter named Damon Bramblett in 2002. He was sent to Oita city by city of Austin as a guest for a band competition. Oita is sister city of Austin and all the costs were paid by Austin. Damon sent me email to ask for some other places where he could play. I set up a few shows for him as the result, then started to think about bringing musicians. That seemed like impossible at first. But I wanted to try. And I brought a singer songwriter named Andy Van Dyke from a band called Rainravens as the first one in 2004. And I've continued it still now. It's not easy thing, but it's always great to spend the time with great musicians and introduce their music to Japan. I want to continue to do that as best as I can.