New Album. 'If You're Not With Us, Then You're Against Us'

2012. This year seems to be synonymous with the end of the world. Well it might all be baloney, but with the huge Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan last year, along with worldwide civil unrest, protests, revolutions, economic crisis etc, it can feel like it's all about to come crashing down around our ears.

It was in this atmosphere that I started writing the songs for this record, and this continued into the recording sessions. The title is a call to arms. A rallying cry to get behind the things you believe in, the people you love, and to stand united.

Inside Neon are part of a 'Gaijin rock' scene here in Tokyo. We are also individuals with families and loved ones who want to make a stand for the things we believe in. You're either with us on this mission, or you're not. Stand with is, or stand against us.  

It's not a paraphrased reference to G. W. Bush's speech as some may have assumed or suggested. That was never in my thoughts, if anything it's a tribute to my heroes Manic Street Preachers.

Conceptually the album is split in two very distinct halves.

The first five tracks (Cosmonaut, The Soviets, Go Kitano!, Radical Citizens, Cold Sunshine) are very much political songs. Referencing my obsession with communism, 3/11, revolution, and fighting the system.

The next five (Losing Gravity, Faith & Time, Angel's Kiss, Shiny Black Star, Buried Alive) are very much personal songs.

If this were a traditional album released on vinyl that that would be your side 1 and side 2.

The album opener and closer (Cosmonaut and Buried Alive) are built around the same piano chords, allowing the tracks to act as framing devices.

So is this our 'concept album'? In some respects it is, as it is not simply a collection of songs, it does have some over arching themes and motifs. 

The album was recorded in just 3 days, but we had been playing and rehearsing the songs for months in advance of recording. This is how we tend to work when approaching recording. The songs are a combination of influences and styles, and represent a different approach to our music and my writing. We have augmented our sound with electronica, but also retained our MUNK style on some of the other tracks.

I would like to personally thank Jakey Slater our producer for the hours he spent in the studio helping me to mix and master it. Also I would like to thank Sorcha Chisholm for contributing her vocal talents on Losing Gravity. Finally thanks to Baz Le Rock for the album artwork.

It's finally here, so are you WITH US or AGAINST US?

Album Credits:

Cosmonaut
The Soviets
Go Kitano!
Radical Citizens
Cold Sunshine
Losing Gravity (feat. Sorcha Chisholm)
Faith & Time
Angel's Kiss
Shiny Black Star
Buried Alive

Produced by The Kitchen Cynic & Rich Loffman

All Songs written by Rich Loffman
*Except Angel's Kiss. Music by Inside Neon / Lyrics by Rich Loffman

Guest vocals on Losing Gravity by Sorcha Chisholm
Bass on tracks 4 & 9 by Jeremy Eastwood

Additional programming by The Kitchen Cynic
Recorded, mixed & mastered by The Kitchen Cynic
Recorded at Deuce Studios, Tokyo. March 2012
Album Artwork by Baz Le Rock

Inside Neon is
Rich Loffman – Vocals, guitar, piano, programming
Teruhisa Yamaura – Guitar
Nat York – Bass
Chris Meggitt – Drums & backing vocals

© & ⓟ 2012 Nitrogen Music. All rights reserved

www.insideneon.com

2011 For Inside Neon

Welcome back to my yearly round-up of all things Inside Neon.

2011 has been an eventful year in many ways but I think it' easy enough to split the year into 4 distinct stages (or people for that matter). So here we have Jeremy, Raphael, Teruhisa and Jakey.

Chapter 1: Jeremy
Towards the tail end of 2010 bass player Nat York left the band (albeit for only about 6 months), but Chris and I decided to continue unabated, and we drafted in Jeremy Eastwood on bass. The result of all this was the recording of the Oceans EP and the release of our first promotional video for the song 'Radical Citizens'.

The songs on the Oceans EP (Radical Citizens, Oceans, A Scream In The Dark and Shiny Black Star) represented a great step forward in our sound as a band. A more sophisticated and mature sound that we will be developing still further during 2012.

Radical Citizens was the big stand-out track for us, so we decided to make a promotional video for it. We shot the video with the help of Director Carl Stella (and his production team). What a wonderful experience that was! That music video has been a great promotional tool and in the 10 months since we've had it up on YouTube it's garnered more than 1000 views. Jeremy left the band in early Spring, and Nat rejoined.

Chapter 2: Raphael
Nat, Chris and myself decided that we needed another guitarist. Our live performances, in my opinion, had never done our recorded songs justice as we were always in need of that elusive second guitar. In Raphael Antoine we found the perfect foil for my guitar work, and the sound of the band expanded.
Ben (DieByForty) commented, after our show at Golden Egg in Shinjuku, that our sound was too big for the room. Thanks for that comment Ben, that's definitely what we were aiming for.

We played 5 shows during the summer with Raph, and had some really great nights.
In particular, we started our 'love affair' with Crawfish in Akasaka. We will have played there 5 times by the end of this year.

We called this mini summer tour the 'Radicals Tour', and we used it as an opportunity to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross, in the wake of the 3/11 Earthquake and Tsunami.

Also, during this tour we played our first unplugged show at The Pink Cow in Shibuya. That was tons of fun.
The highlight of the night being our acoustic version of Radiohead's 'Creep'. (Nat, Teru and myself performed another unplugged acoustic show at my Birthday party in September).

Much respect and thanks to all the great friends and bands that we met during the summer. (Remedy's Library, As Dusk Fades, J.J. Vicars, Sorcha & The Sinners, Melted and The Mootekkis, all get special mention here)

We also got our first Radio play at Head Case Radio (USA) and Rock Around The World (Germany).

Unfortunately, all our plans to record a new record at the end of the summer came crashing down around us when Raph decided it was time for him to leave the band, to be fair he was also leaving Japan. Anyway, many many thanks Raph for rockin' with us throughout the summer.

Chapter 3: Teruhisa
So, with Raph sadly parted, and after much wringing of hands, we asked Teruhisa from Remedy's Library to step in as our second guitarist. Once again, as with Raph, we got lucky and found a wonderfully expressive and talented new member.

Teru's debut came in late October at the Rock'n'Roll Paradise event in Akasaka. I put on an event with 7 bands spread over the best part of 7 hours. It was my most ambitious event to date and I am so pleased that we managed to pull it off. Inside Neon enjoyed rockin' the stage that evening with PlayFight, DieByForty, Sawas Phool, Honeydew, The Mootekkis and J.J. Vicars.

In early November we made our 'professional event' debut by appearing on the outdoor stage at Design Festa at Tokyo Big Sight. What a great day we had. The videos of the event have become some of our favorite's to watch over these last few months. That 'big sound' that Ben had described earlier in the year was finally allowed some space.

We got some more radio play with KMSM FM based in Bute, Montana. And then played another show in Yokohama. Our third time to play in Yokohama and another great night of rock'n'roll was had by all (with a smidgeon of Guiness drinking too).

Chapter 4: Jakey
This is a short but important chapter in our 2011 story. Without this guy we would not have been able to record our EP, and most of gigs would have been the worse for his absence behind the mixing desk. Jakey is our George Martin, the proverbial fifth Neon. Thanks mate.

And Finally...

The year will be rounded off with a big bonenkai at our favorite live bar, Crawfish in Akasaka. Joining us on stage will be Martin Leroux (who also played with us at our unplugged show) Mana Hardcore, Selwyn & Duncan Walsh from The Watanabes and our great friends over these last 2 years, DieByForty (this will be our 6th show together).

Should be a great way to end 2011 and see in 2012.

Thanks for being there!

Lookout for us in 2012, things are about the get VERY different.

Rich.

Inside Neon - Radical Citizens

The Oceans EP

Inside Neon - The Oceans EP.

Radical Citizens (4:49)
Oceans (4:23)
A Scream In The Dark (2:54)
Shiny Black Star (4:15)

All songs written by Rich Loffman
Except 'Oceans' by Rich Loffman / Chris Meggitt / Nat York
Copyright & Publishing: 2011 Nitrogen Music

Recording:
Rich Loffman - Vocals & Guitars
Jeremy Eastwood - Bass
Chris Meggitt - Drums

Engineered & mixed by The Kitchen Cynic
Produced by The Kitchen Cynic & Rich Loffman
Recorded at Deuce Studio, Tokyo. December 2010

Art
Oceans EP artwork by Justin Vun

Video shoot for Radical Citizens:
Carl Stella -- Direction, Camera
Donovan Jones -- Camera
Markus Uhl -- Lights, Edit

Shot in Toritsu Daigaku, Tokyo, Japan on January 27th 2011, at Noah Sound Studios
Cameras -- Canon EOS 7D & Canon EOS 5D Mark ii
Lenses -- Nikon AIS 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, Sigma 50mm Macro, Canon 24-105mm
Edit & Grade -- Adobe Premier / After Effects
Stock Footage courtesy of: www.archive.org

Inside Neon - Radical Citizens

2010 For Inside Neon

So that's 2010 over and done with and what an eventful year it's been. Here are the highlights for Inside Neon.

Live Shows (Tribal Rock & The Munk Tour)
We played a total of 5 live shows this year. Two at the start of the year at Space With in Iidabshi which were Tribal Rock shows. We really enjoyed playing with DieByForty, Atom B, xREBELx, Free City Lime and PlayFight. A great time was had by all. Later in the year we played 3 more shows. 2 in Akasaka (Move & L@N) and 1 at Club Lizard in Yokohama. We called these three shows The Munk Tour, and again it was great to play with D.O.G.S., Distant Earth, Sawas Phool, Tommy from Airmail, F.I.X. and Duel. Thanks for all the great times and to everyone who turned out for these shows!

For the band these shows were the real highlights of the year. There is nothing to beat the thrill of playing live, and yeah we f*cked up from time-to-time, but like I said it's all good fun! Thanks to Kanshi Machida, Eiko Hosaka Tiernan, Mizue Suzuki, Mika Nuki and all the others that took pictures of these shows. Thanks for capturing some great moments.

The Introduction Of Munk
We released our first album this year. This was released through my label Nitrogen Music and done digitally through iTunes, Amazon Mp3, etc. Recording the album was quick and mixing was long and painful (for our producer The Kitchen Cynic at least). We released the album in June, and the 8 tracks that made up the album were a good representation of where we were at this time in terms of our sound and energy. It was by no means a perfect record but I feel Jezebel, Release, nineteen45 and In Isolation will continue to be live mainstays in the future.

After the recording Dave Austin, our original drummer, left, but left having laid down some phenomenal drum tracks. Even though I wrote the songs for the album, I feel that this record will always be 'Dave's record' so powerful and expressive is the drumming on it.

Thanks to both Baz Turton and Justin Vun for their art contributions, Baz for the album sleeve and Justin for the In Isolation artwork.

Reverbnation Charts
We really loved everything that the website reverbnation did for us this year. This site helped us to release our music and reach a wider audience through the use of embedded players on facebook and MySpace. Best of all was the reverbnation rock charts, a ranking system whereby we could see how popular we were becoming. We finished the year at #4 in the Rock Charts and I am really proud that we are now, for the time-being at least, considered an established part of the rock fraternity in here in Tokyo.

Rich, Nat, Dave, Chris, Oz and Jeremy
As mentioned earlier, original drummer Dave Austin left the band in mid 2010 so we were left with the difficult task of finding a new drummer. Luckily we found Chris Meggitt! Chris dropped into the band almost seamlessly and allowed us to keep some level of continuity going into the summer. We also invited xREBELx vocalist and guitarist Oz Murillo to play with us in the studio. Although Oz didn't get to play live with us, or record with us, I do really appreciate his contributions in the studio. If anything it made me realize that Inside Neon should be a four-piece band, and that is how things will be from 2011 onwards.

After we had finished the Munk tour Nat York, our bass player, decided to leave the band (for family reasons) and this left Chris and I without a bass player. Lady Luck was once more shinning down on us as Jeremy Eastwood (Distant Earth) agreed to play bass with us for a short time. It is Jeremy's bass playing that you will hear on the upcoming Oceans EP, and Chris and I really appreciate his brief sojourn with Inside Neon.

2011
And so to 2011. This first big thing will be the Oceans EP. There will be four tracks on this record and at least 2 of them will have videos. The first video for the track 'Oceans' will be online in January, and with a bit of luck we should have a video for the track 'Radical Citizens' produced by February. The EP will be released in early February through all the usual online digital retailers. We are really excited about this record as it does represent something of a leap forward sonically for Inside Neon.

In March I will be playing my first acoustic show. This will be at David's Deli and I will play acoustic versions of Inside Neon songs, as well as some other unheard and unreleased tracks. Looking forward to that challenge.

Then for the BIG news, we will be playing some live shows in the summer, and I will be asking a second guitarist to join us for these shows, and, wait for it... we should have a certain bass playing member of the band back in the line-up (hint, hint).

Thanks to everyone who came to see us live, took our pictures, videoed us, bought our records, listened to them online, visited our various media pages, commented on our Facebook page, commented on our tweets, and wished us good luck throughout the year!

See you all in 2011!

Nitrogen Night

On September 29th 2010 my band, Inside Neon, will be playing live at Club Lizard in Yokohama. Nothing remarkable about that I hear you say, just another band playing at one of the many livehouses scattered across this dirty conurbation we call home. But this even is actually a bit special for me.

NITROGEN NIGHT

Jeremy Eastwood (Distant Earth) and myself have put this together as a showcase show for our two music projects and also invited some of our friends to come along and play with us.

I invited Jeremy to join my label Nitrogen Music earlier this year. One of things that I wanted to do was have label nights like this one. Jeremy had an existing relationship with this venue, so he has handled all the logistics, whereas I have taken care of getting the acts booked.

And what a great line up we have! Like all good festival line-ups we have tried to keep it interesting and eclectic.

Distant Earth (Dark electronica)















Inside Neon (Munk)














Sawas Phool (Alt. Rock)

















D.O.G.S. (Grunge)
Duel (Electro-pop)

A Gaijin Musician In Japan

"Non Japanese Japan based bands have a limited fan base currently. Outside of Japanzine, no media publication seems to focus on foreigner bands."

The above quote is part of a message from a radio station that purports to promote Japanese music around the world. We contacted them with the view to getting some exposure, but were told that there simply isn't any interest for foreign bands plying their trade in Japan. So I guess Japanese music means Japanese language music then right? Anyway, that got me thinking to how difficult it has been, and continues to be, to get any form recognition in Japan. Basically being a Gaijin musician in Japan is hard work and takes a lot of determination from those hoping to succeed.

Great Music, No Audience
In the last few years I have met, and played with, some really great musicians. A lot of the foreign musicians I meet are really talented and dedicated people. When I think about, say, Laurier Tiernan, DieByForty, PlayFight, The Oversleep Excuse, Atom B, The Simones and even The Watanabes (whom I haven't met, but have had some limited recognition in the English language media in Japan), that is a considerable range of musical styles and talent, all competing within the same space to win over the hearts and minds of not only their immediate friends and loved-ones, but also trying to reach a more far-reaching Japanese audience too.

The major problem seems to be how to reach that audience, the same audience that will buy Muse, Foo Fighters and Green Day albums, but aren't aware that there are bands within their own borders that are making great 'foreign music' too.

Compounding this problem is the issue that there has been a gradual shift in taste within the Japanese music market in the last few years. Walk into any HMV these days and you'll notice how difficult it is to find foreign music, especially compared to 5 to 10 years ago. Sure, the big artists can still do business both in terms of record sales and concert tickets, but they're not as prevalent and as all conquering as they were 10 years ago. Japanese music has come on leaps and bounds (production and song-writing) and the domestic market is as strong as it's ever been.
That makes our job even more difficult, as there seems to be a very limited audience for foreigners playing rock and its derivatives in Tokyo, and next-to-no market-place for it. After all, why would you watch, or listen to, a band that you couldn't understand well when you could do the same with a band that you could? Makes perfect sense to me.

Expensive Engagement
Put quite simply, it's bloody expensive to play in Tokyo. The pay-to-play system means that unless you can persuade your friends to come and see you you will likely be playing to an audience made up the venue staff and the other bands you are playing with, and you'll likely be paying through the nose for the privilege. It's a ludicrous system and it means that you really have to choose your events and the nights you play so that you can make some impact. The Tribal Rock events that I have been involved in organizing have been, by-and-large, successful, but no-one really sees gigs as a chance to make money or reach a new audience. The chances of a A&R man from a Japanese label turning up to your show are extremely slim and if they do they are unlikely to see anything in your music that isn't already being done by a Japanese act.

Digital Or Physical
One of the other difficulties for Gaijin bands is how to get a Japanese audience to listen to your latest offering. So you've spent all your hard earned cash on that great sounding 4 track EP, now who's going to hear it?
Your friends on facebook might, but your Japanese friends on mixi won't, your family and friends back home will, but your Japanese colleagues and acquaintances will be shocked to know that you are in a band, those who can be bothered to make the few effortless clicks to your myspace or reverbnation page might listen, but those with a fear of English language sites may be frightened away.

How many of these people will be your potential Japanese audience? Chances are that your music will never reach the audience that you are maybe intending it for. A lot of Japanese people I speak to tell me that they either still buy CDs from a record store in the traditional way or download to their cellphones. So unless you're willing, and financially secure enough, to get your music into HMV or onto the Japanese music distribution sites you are limiting yourself to how foreigners now get their music...file-sharing and iTunes being the most obvious. So again you are unlikely to reach a Japanese audience.

Safety In Numbers
Now, all of this does paint a rather negative and gloomy picture doesn't it? And you might be thinking "why bother?" The problem is that most musicians are inherently unfocused and happy to just blunder along until something magical happens, like they get heard or noticed by accident. This might happen back home, but is highly unlikely to happen in Japan. Japanese radio play, singing songs in Japanese, seeking out Japanese management and playing with Japanese bands are all good ways of potentially reaching an Nihon-jin audience, just don't hold your breath that they will lead to any form of wide-spread recognition.

Laurier Tiernan, Benjamin Pruvost, and myself have started to address some of these issues and difficulties by trying to create a sense of community with the IMAP (The Independent Musicians' Association for Positivity) group and Tribal Rock live events. Hopefully we can help to shape a scene and create some interest in Gaijin Music in Japan from outside of our immediate friends and families. This is not an easy thing to do, and it can seem like an up-hill struggle at times, but a little positivity and proactive planning and who knows? In ten years time people might be talking about the foreign music explosion in Tokyo in the same way they did about Seattle or Manchester in previous times.

So, come along to some of the Tribal Rock shows coming up later in the year and help to support our cause. Just make sure to bring along your rock-music-loving Japanese friends!

The Introduction Of Munk

Today is a really proud moment in my life.

Since I was a teenager I have imaged being in a band and releasing an album. I really, quite honestly, thought that it would never happen. As I got more and more into film making music seemed to get left behind. I thought that I would never get the chance.

Well all that changed when I met Jakey and I joined MJ Ultra. That was more than four years ago and through playing, recording and gigging with that band I got the confidence and belief that I could start my own band, INSIDE NEON.

So the moment has come for me to welcome the fruits of my labors. An 8 track album called THE INTRODUCTION OF MUNK.

I don't know how it will be received, and quite honestly at this point I don't care. I'm just proud to have something out there.

Inside Neon Links

Hi,

Just wanted to add a few links to this blog.
Inside Neon's MySpace
Inside Neon's Homepage
Inside Neon's Reverbnation

nineteen45

Tribal Rock

This weekend (Saturday 23rd) will see the first edition of tribal rock. My band Inside Neon will be joined onstage by DieByForty, PlayFight and Atom B. Should be great night of rocking entertainment.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2010 Plans for Inside Neon and beyond...

So what will 2010 bring for us (Myself & Inside Neon)?

Fist off in January I will be co-hosting (with my band Inside Neon) the inaugural tribal rock 10.1 event. This will be held on Januray 23rd. Inside neon will be playing with 3 other bands. DieByForty, who I have been friends with for some time now and have spoken about on this very blog - more on them later. The other 2 bands are new to me; PlayFight & Atom B, but I am looking forward to playing with both of them as I have heard good things.

The whole concept behind tribal rock is to promote foreign talent resident in Japan. It's an opportunity for us all to play together and to enjoy each other's company. There will be second edition of tribal rock in March.

In February I will be finishing off a long gestating project. A few years back I shot some footage of DieByForty with the view of making a music video. The footage was great but when I came to edit my PC just couldn't handle it so I had to give up. I intend to get a new PC in February and to then get this video finished for my friends. This will be the first project for Nitrogen Video. Finally I will get some film-making done. I have really put this on the back burner of late, as I wanted to concerntrate on music, so it will nice to do some editing again.

In March, as I said above, we will be hosting tribal rock 10.3.

The Introduction Of Munk
But, most significantly my band Inside Neon will be recording a mini album.
The album will be called 'The Introduction Of Munk' and it will feature 6 to 8 tracks. The exact composition of the album hasn't yet been determined. We have set a tentative April release date. The album will be available as a digital download only and will be available on all the usual digital download sites (iTunes, Napster, etc). There will also hopefully be a promo-video to go along with the release. All is in the planning stage right now, but we have the studio booked, the producer locked in, the distrubuter in place and the video Director on board, so barring major international incidents and natural disasters we should be good to go.

The Introduction Of Munk will be the first official release for Nitrogen Music.

So a busy few months coming up for Inside Neon, Nitrogen Video and Niitrogen Music.

Enjoy the ride!

2010: The Year We make Contact

The title of this post refers to the movie of the same name. I really did think that by 2010 we would be exploring space. But it seems that technological advancement as been to the betterment of individual's comfort (iPhones, PCs, cellphones, etc) rather than developing us a global society and increasing our capacity to develop as a species. Oh well, that's disappointing but it just makes you feel as though the utopian's visions of the future that some sci-fi writers thought might happen seem very far away. Anyway, that's not the point of this post.

Firstly, it's been almost 5 months since I posted anything on here. Why? Well it seems that my readership had dwindled over the last few years. Once everyone found facebook, no one had time for reading blogs. So this is the first of 2 posts.

Secondly. Welcome back to my blog.

Inside Neon Facebook Page

For Facebook users my band Inside Neon now has an official Facebook page.

Inside Neon on Facebook

Inside Neon are here

It's been a while since I've blogged anything. In fact I've realized that my creative juices have been drying up somewhat over the last 6 months or so. Well, all that is going to change. In May I had the first rehearsal with my new band INSIDE NEON. We will be rehearsing extensively over the next few months, and I'm hoping to be playing live by the leaves start turning orange.

The band line up is:
David Austin - Drums
Rich Loffman - Vocals and Guitar
Nathaniel York - Bass

I will be taking pictures during rehearsals and posting them on this blog and also I will be starting a Facebook page and possibly a MySpace page once we have made some recordings. It's all feeling pretty good right now, so watch this space.

Inside Neon and no more YouTube

Well, it's been quite a long time since I wrote this blog. I really have had a lot of things on hold over the first few months of this year.

After I left MJ Ultra I decided to see if I could could get a band together. Not as easy as I thought, I can tell you. But after looking around and talking with a few people I have finally found the 3 members I need and we can now start rehearsing. In the meantime I have written a few songs that I am hoping my new band members are learning. I can honestly say that Inside Neon is up and running.

I wrote ten songs and put together a rough demo using Audacity (a great little home recording program). I won't go into the details of each song but I will give you the titles. They are: Rains to come, The Seventies, Jezebel, Escape, Sacred, An angel in my life, nineteen45, Seconds, Dog gods and On the left/California. I will be getting together with the rest of Inside Neon over the next few weeks to flesh these songs out into songs that will be good enough to play live. All things being equal we should be playing live by the Autumn.

As mention in the title of this post I have finished with YouTube. I am sick of the little scum bags that patrol its pages and the abuse they seem to arbitrarily dish out to anyone and everyone. I still have my Dailymotion account and that should do me fine. Bye bye YouTube.

In celebration of this momentous occasion I have put the music video I directed and edited for Japan Indie rockers Molice into the side panel - live streamed from Dailymotion. Click on the video to play.

Inside Neon

It's just a quick announcement...

My new band is going to be called...

INSIDE NEON

People Are Strange

There really are some very strange individuals out there.

About a month ago I got an absolute barrage of abuse from a total stranger about some of my videos posted on YouTube. These posts weren't just simple criticisms of my videos, they were just all out abusive. The sender actually sent me 11 messages. Now, I am assuming that this person didn't know me, so it's difficult to know why you would abuse someone anonymously online unless you were either clearly deranged or had an ax to grind. But, being called a "cock head" and being told to "just die" by a complete stranger is totally weird.

Then just today I told a guy who was interested in joining my band that I didn't think it would work out for us and he sent me a really childish and abusive response. I was stunned, to say the least, to hear "go suck a dick you fag" from someone I'd never met.

What is wrong with these people? I really am starting to think that the internet is just a haven for all the sad and deluded people out there without friends and nothing else to do with themselves except find pleasure in abusing others.

What's most worrying is that there seems to be so much rage inside these people. That is what I find most disturbing - that these people need to vent their frustration at strangers. I think it's an unfortunate sign of the times. People are becoming more and more removed from each other and increasingly frustrated with their lot in life.

In response to all this I have have been thinking about reducing my online presence. I need to consider whether or not I should close down my dailymotion, YouTube and MySpace pages. I'd rather NOT have to give in to this kind of cyberspace abuse, but I'd also like to feel safer both virtually and in real life.

Nitrogen and Neon

This is the new blog site for all things Rich Loffman's music and video news. Tribal Pictures Japan blog is no longer in service, however all the old posts are still available at this blog.

Welcome to the Nitrogen and Neon blog.

A New Year and a new me

Hey there and a happy New Year! It's 2009 already and I haven't done half of the things that I set out to do when I set up this blog back in 2006. Back then I was just starting out with film and music in Japan and I hadn't really got any ideas where it was going to take me, but I'd imagined that the journey might be somewhat interesting. Here, 3 years later I am looking back at the last 3 years and see that I have had some great experiences and great times. I have played live and recorded with MJ Ultra, made several short films and music videos and took part in Design Festa. All of them leading me towards 2009 and some new directions.

Firstly, I have made the decision to leave MJ Ultra. I will be starting my own band in 2009, so I hope that will occupy a lot of my free time. I have already written quite a few songs so now it's just a matter of getting a band together and getting into the studio to rehearse it all. I am hoping to play live before the summer. I will confirm my bands line-up pretty soon (I have a bass player and drummer lined up) as well as the name (which I have already decided).

For the last 4 years I have been making my short films and videos under the name Tribal Pictures Japan. I have decided that I will be closing that site and no longer using that name from this point forward. I will be 're branding' myself as Nitrogen Video and the website will be launched before the end of the of January. At this pint I will also close the Tribal Pictures Japan website. Nitrogen video will be primarily for music videos.

The next project: The Oversleep Excuse

My next music video project looks to be with a band called The Oversleep Excuse. More details to follow on this as I will meet them this week to discuss everything. But, I'm already hatching little eggs of ideas.

www.myspace.com/theoversleepexcuse

DieByForty video shot

On Saturday Jared and myself shot the video for Franco-Japanese rockers DieByForty. We shot it at a studio in Toritsudaigaku. The shots look really nice as I shot on HQ and used the camera's internal 'film look' setting. I also set the white balance artificially to tungsten light which made for a great orange look to the shots. Which was exactly what I wanted, so I'm really happy that it worked out well.

Now we need to shoot another indoor scene, which is proving more problematic than I thought it would be, as I can't find an actress for half a day's work. Anyway, once we have that we will start the editing and I'm hoping to have that completed before the end of January.

After shooting was done, the band played a few songs, as we still had a little studio time and I took this shoot of Ben (vocalist).

mjultra.com closed for business

Today I have shut down my band's website mjultra.com. The site had been up and running since September 2007 but hadn't really been a particularly effective tool for promoting MJ Ultra. It's back to the drawing board for now, and we will see what comes in the new year.

Anyway, here's an old MJ Ultra track and video made around the time that the site was launched.

MJ Ultra - La Humanity
Uploaded by Rich71

Lipstick on the mirror and DieByForty

Good news, the video for DieByForty is just around the corner. I met with my friend Jared (he is assisting me with shooting and editing) this Monday. We have secured a location for one part of the shoot (the bathroom mirror scene) and we will shoot there before the end of the month, but the bulk of the band shoot will be early next month (at a studio in Tokyo).

I am still waiting on an actress to get back to me about appearing in it...and I really hope she does because I think she is perfect for the part.

The image below is from the video for the song '4ever' by The Veronicas. I think it's pretty close to some of the images that you will see in the DieByForty video.

By the way I don't like the Veronicas song all that much ;)

New MJ Ultra Music

I am pleased to announce a shiny new track on the MJ Ultra MySpace page.

The track is called 'Solo Dreams' and it's been a staple of our live shows for the last couple of years. It was actually the first song that I wrote with the band, so I'm pleased to finally get it recorded. We recorded live in the Deuce studio and I think it sounds top notch.

To listen to Solo Dreams go to:
http://www.myspace.com/mjultra

DieByForty live!

Last night I went to see my Franco friends play live in Shibuya. They rocked! Below is a picture I took of them, I added some orange colorization to it later. The principal color for the video we are shooting will be orange.

DieByForty - Orange-drenched French chic, fuelled by rage and angst

The end of the year promises to be a cracker! Apart from another MJ Ultra gig sometime very soon, I will also be putting another music video together. The bad experience I had making the video for Molice hasn't stopped me from going at it it again. This time I am much better prepared and a little wiser.

I have agreed to shoot a music video for DieByForty, a mostly French band based in Tokyo (see picture below). The song is called Le 4eme Conil. It's sang in French, and I am informed that the lyrics are dark and brooding. Right up my alley then!

We will shoot the video in two sections and then cut them together. The first will feature the band performing the song in their studio in Torigatsudaigaku, and the second will be a young lady removing her make-up as she goes crazy in front of a mirror. The theme will be orange-drenched French chic, fuelled by rage and angst.

The crew will be me and a good friend of mine Jared Campion, who's done a few music videos of his own already. We will be filming in mid November.

Franco-Japanese Rock and a Bitter club

Saturday was a busy day for me, especially busy considering that nothing of any real importance in the worlds of film making or music has happened this summer.

First off was a lunch meeting with French-Japanese rock band DieByForty to discuss making a music video. The meeting went well enough and we will meet again next Sunday at their studio. Then I will watch them perform, and hopefully get some impressions of their aesthetics and the group's dynamic.

After our meeting, I met up with my good friend, and band mate, Jakey, and went to a club in Yokohama called Studio Bitters. There were a couple of Japanese guys banging out some tunes on the decks, which was fun. But, the main reason was to get a look at the place, as it might be a great venue for an MJ Ultra event later this year. As they say, watch this space.

We drank a few cool beverages and then wandered back to the station. But I felt a real sense of progress yesterday for the first time in a while. As they also say, I don't get out much.

Coppe at Superdeluxe supported by MJ Ultra

Well, it's been well over a month since I posted on this blog. I simply haven't had anything to write about. No gigs, no films and nothing really in the pipeline, although things may start to happen for me over the next few months.
The title of this post is a little disingenuous, as actually I won't be there in person playing an MJ Ultra set. But Jakey will be with Coppe, and may knock out a few MJ Ultra tunes. If you get a chance then get yourselves over to Superdeluxe on September 10th for an evening of electro pop and video stuff. Like I said, I won't be there as I will be in Hokkaido.

open ...	19:00
start ...	19:00
end ...	23:00
price ...	free! (with order)

http://www.super-deluxe.com/#Tipsy

The Mighty Wah!

This weekend I got myself a new toy. Loving it!!!

Last Night's Lizard

Had a great session in the studio last night with my band MJ Ultra. On the way there I spotted this lizard (tokage) on the wall. He/she was quietly sunning themselves, so I took a quick snap of it. I was reminded of the Beatles song 'Happiness is a warm gun' which has the line:

She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand
Like a lizard on a window pane

Molice video on YouTube

I have finally decided to post the video I made for Japanese Indies band Molice to YouTube.
I had originally decided that I would only post it to Dailymotion because the quality of the player is much better, however the video has gotten only 237 hits in 3 months so obviously it's not getting enough exposure. So, it's with some reluctance that I am sticking on YouTube. The reason for my reluctance is that things just don't look any good on their crappy flash-player. But don't forget you can see the original on my website.

Summer is here

Well the summer has finally made it's presence felt in Tokyo. It's so humid this evening and I feel like I just wanna scream!
Nothing much happening on the music or film front. In fact for the first time in a long time I have nothing planned, nothing on the back burner, no ideas in the pipeline, nothing, zero, zilch. In fact I am starting to wonder if I will ever play another live show with MJ Ultra or make another short film such is the scarcity of action. So nothing to do today except to polish my guitars and change the strings on them. But, what a fine pair they make.