Every now and then you come across a story of a band that completely draws you in with it’s uniqueness..
Japanese 70s funk style band, Ken Sato Experience is a band that has done just that..
While Covid-19 has made live performing challenging for all artists, Ken Sato Experience made the decision to create and share their music completely online.
The decision has allowed the band to focus on collaborating with artists across the globe to create compositions that are not limited by distance or location.
As well as composing their own arrangement the band cover songs such as “20th Century Boy” (T-Rex), “I Wish” (Stevie Wonder), “Vogue” (Madonna), and “If I Fell in Love with You” (The Beatles).
Ken Sato Experience’ latest track, ‘Busybodies’ has been created in collaboration with Philippines based vocalist, Pikoy, who wrote the lyrics for the song, as well as performing on the track.
The collaboration was born completely over the internet, and the artists had never met before.
The band have a great appreciation for the connections that can be made with these artists in completely different countries, to their home city of Tokyo.
You will love listening to this high energy funk track with bright vocals, energetic drum grooves and atmospheric brass instrumentation.
You can listen to Busybodies below:
Would you like to start by telling us a little about where the Ken Sato Experience began?
I have been a professional composer and producer in Tokyo ,Japan, mainly working with many companies to compose and produce soundtrack,TV jingles for them.
At NUMAN STUDIO, my studio, in spare time.
I often have sessions with awesome players I found in my career.
I was so shocked to watch videos of vulfpeck and KNOWER@Facebook.
Because their live performances are, of course, so Cool, What surprised me more was that they played at their own home studio so CASUALLY, simply as just the way they look. Maybe on a low budget.
“Wow !! That’s it, we can do the same thing at NUMAN STUDIO.”
I understand that the Ken Sato Experience is an entirely online band and has never played a gig.. What do you think has been the biggest factor in your success so far?
In my opinion, Playing live gig and posting a performance Video on SNS is the same thing at the end in terms of exposure.
To be honest, I don’t like playing live gigs so much. Because live gigs needs much “Waiting” time backstage until performance before the audience.
I love the studio work better than playing live gigs as a composer.
Playing live gigs and shooting our live performance to post on Facebook instead of gigs is the same thing to our fans..
Besides that we can get so much time to develop arrangement and our technique deeper and deeper thanks to NO GIGS like the Beatles in their middle time.
Of course we were planning a live gig if we got measurable fans through SNS Meanwhile, the COVID 19 era has started…..
One more reason is it is easy to access to foreign countries online.
Japanese people regard it impolite to express their feelings so directly.
Therefore I can not get the reaction to ken sato experience enough to judge if it is good or bad.
On the other hand listeners abroad react so quickly and don’t hesitate to express how they feel at all “WOW!!” “Amazing” Congratulations !!”
These sincere reactions encourage us so much.
What does life look like for you, outside music?
I believe there is always music worth listening to everywhere in any genre. Wherever I am, my ears never miss Good Music whatever genre they are, So I can not do without the “Shazam” application.
Of course some outside music my ears intend to pass through.
Anyway, Outside music is my teacher.
How would you describe the feel of your music?
I want to cover Any genre as long as they are sophisticated and people can enjoy it. So my music, on the whole, is like the “White Album” by the Beatles, as I always feel.
Now funk based, and the catchphrase of ken sato experience are; “Toy box of Music”. “Experience unexpected”.
You have recently released your single, ‘Busybodies’.. What inspired the creation of this song?
Pikoy’s voice inspired me a lot !!
No vocalist in ken sato experience so we sometimes welcome featuring vocalists abroad through the internet, such as SKEB from Barcelona,Tea from India.
My friend introduced me to Pikoy from the Philippines who joined an online event he organized.
I love her voice and offered collaboration. Then she joined 2 tracks with us, one is “Don’t stop me now” Queen cover, the other is this “Busybodies” music by ken sato and lyrics by Pikoy.
I watched Her vivid performance on YouTube, which inspired the creation. Quick tempo funk based.
The song has been a collaboration between Japan and the Philippines.. what challenges did you find working between 2 countries?
As remote working has become “Normal” because of COVID 19, Remote music production is common in the world. We can work together without technical problems.
The challenge is whether we can find a good musician to love and we can understand what we want from each other.
ken sato experience is lucky to meet that kind of vocalist on the internet so far.
We have to ask Pikoy for recording and shooting her video within 2 or 3 takes After Sending the backtrack and the band performance movie to her , we were just waiting.
ken sato experience is always satisfied with every remote performance they send back now.
We are fortunate with artists even in remote.
Where do you find your inspiration for your songs?
For me good inspiration comes with good music I hear by accident in most cases.I can’t find Good inspiration when I look for it desperately.
Good inspiration will come by itself by chance;
When I take shower, driving in the car From Radio, TV or someone’s music player
Good music which inspires me through my ears all of sudden.
Shazam helps me a lot.
No intention to look for it welcomes Inspiration.
By chance when I am away from music business.
What would success in music look like for you?
For the band only on SNS the key to success is how much we can spread our music there.
More chances for people to listen to ken sato experience’s music leads to success.
I believe listeners only have a chance to listen to our music.
That’s why I use Facebook ads, which really works fine.
The more listeners come and and react on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram day by day
I want fans !!! NO success without Fans.
No Fans No success.
I am exploring how much fans we can get through SNS, Like many artists in COVID era.
This interview, I hope, brings more people a chance to do that.
What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt along the way?
As a professional composer, I produce something for others.
It is important to have an objective point of view.
Similarly when I make music for myself it is the same.
But you know creativity and originality, something different from others, need a certain amount of EGO.
Music is never created by majority decision.
The biggest lesson I learnt is the balance between Ego and ability to make sure of what fans want
What would you like the future of the Ken Sato Experience to look like?
Our goal is NEVER to be an SNS band in the future, which is just one of the ways to promote ourselves.
With a certain number of followers we will get out of “Online band” to go on tour around the world.
100 times followers than current numbers on Facebook and Instagram
Where can people find your music?
Please follow Spotify, Facebook and Instagram.
Of course you can find them on other digital stores.
https://kensatoexperience.com
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.