Good Things that Happened to You!!!

Wow... that is awesome. (I want to add up all my Kala/Yuki purchases... but then it would probably be at least 5,000. lol)

Listening to Sawano Hiroyuki's discography is making me happy. Currently on Tielle's stuff, she is pretty good. I have Youtube Premium which allows me to access all this music, which is great. :dote: Also now I have fast internet! Finally. I had to get a Wifi Extender and a Firewall in order to do it, but it is worth it for going on my comp at my desk for once and then my kitty sits behind me in my chair. heh
 
had the chance to meet @NoxLila again this long weekend in Paris. Thank you, it was a great journey, and au revoir ;p

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I’m a bit embarrassed to share this on the forum, but f**k it.

On Thanksgiving Day, I pulled what I thought was going to be a simple empty YOLO moment. As a HUUUUUGE fan of the NieR: Automata soundtrack, I explored J’Nique Nicole’s website as I’d realized I knew nothing about her outside of her vocal contributions to Weight of the World, A Beautiful Song, City Ruins, The Tower, etc., and so sent this message to her Facebook page:

Hello Miss Nicole, my name is Caleb Chappell. I’m a student from Detroit, MI that has been desperately desiring an entertainment arts career in Japan for about 16 of my 23 years. Although I have an equal amount of experience in dance and artwork, a longstanding dream of mine has been to participate in singing for OSTs akin to your gorgeous work with Emi Evans when collaborating with Keiichi Okabe’s team developing the NieR: Automata OST. I found your work (and the game itself) from my years of listening to Yuki Kajiura, as her OSTs are often similar to the songs of NieR, and hope to be able to work in her record label, FictionJunction Music. Of course, if not her, any similar label.

I’ve become stressed to the verge of tears about a career, as these interests I’ve expressed don’t have any support up here in or around Detroit. I’ve also been studying Japanese from 8th grade to college, but am caught in student loan debt and really struggling for the money to finish. I was totally astonished and heavily inspired finding a black woman, still under 30, on stage contributing to such a style as the NieR: Automata soundtrack! People remind me that 23 is still very young but I’m nonetheless concerned about various things — I don’t have an educational degree in singing (all experience come from chamber choirs and church) or dance (all experience from church and show choirs), and have postponed my art degree to focus on Japanese language (which is now also postponed from debt), and don’t know how much of this is required to attain a job such as yours. And so, what was your process getting to Japan and working in Japanese music from America? How had you been recruited to sing for the NieR OST? Because I’m very, very willing to give up my American life, but I feel so largely uneducated about how to get to a level such as yours.
— Caleb Alan Chappell
(I’m sorry for how this message has been sent; I’m trying to be simultaneously professional and honest.)

Accustomed to sending messages like this out on a wing and a prayer (and getting nothing in return), I went on with my day and stopped caring almost immediately afterward — so imagine my astonishment when this famous woman has responded so respectfully and with real suggestions:

Hi Caleb,
I appreciate your message. If you would like to sing in Japan you have to build a resume with your vocal experience as well as create some demos and some YouTube videos of yourself singing/performing. You have to be able to prove to the person who could potentially hire you that you have what it takes. Furthermore you would need to really network and surround yourself with people who could put in a good word for you with these people. It’s very hard but if it’s what you really want you just have to be willing to put in the work nonstop. I would also recommend finding a way to move to Japan somehow maybe by applying with an English teaching company such as JET or Interac. It would at least get you a visa and buy you time until you can really break into the industry. That’s all the advice I can really give you but I wish you the best.

Completely awestruck at such a straightforward yet respectable response, I’m really gonna start over with my videos and stuff, and actually have demos to send. I’m nervous about song choices with such a large discography at hand, but Canta Per Me is one of my best “go-to”s and so I’ll just try to build off of that.




I just hope when I can get them to FJM, Miss Kajiura isn’t like, “who is this sad man singing my music?” or something. :rain:
 
Pretty sweet of her to respond.
If you're really serious about pursuing a career like that, you best start looking for a vocal coach and start taking music theory and solfege classes. I imagine sight-reading is going to be important as fuark if you're hired by a composer.
 
Lorde-Kowz said:
Pretty sweet of her to respond.
If you're really serious about pursuing a career like that, you best start looking for a vocal coach and start taking music theory and solfege classes. I imagine sight-reading is going to be important as fuark if you're hired by a composer.
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I already have most of this in the process of being taken care of and my GOD what a relief it is. Thankfully my godmother, uncle and cousin were all experienced backup singers and/or Broadway performers. I explained this situation to them and my godmother especially was like, “don’t you dare go wasting money on coaches when I’ll gladly help you for free!”

Of course, I haven’t sightread since I was in men’s glee club at Wayne State so I’m damn well catching up on that process.
 
You should start with making enjoyable music in the way that makes most sense to you. If you are trying too hard to pander to Japan thats a good way to get people to turn you off. Basically you can take the singer out of Japan but you can't take the song out of the person? (sorry im bad with these things)
 
I got a new laptop! It's a Lenovo Yoga 14" which is smaller than my old one, but it's a 2 in 1 so it turns into a tablet also. I haven't used it that much since getting it Fri, but going to start soon. Also finally got to see the midseason finale for Sword Art. The end of the ep... wow. I can't wait for April is all I can say.
 
I am going to Vegas to visit family (and to gamble heh) I have not been anywhere in a long time, I mean other than Rochester, but that was for medical reasons. This will be for fun. If there isn't any family drama that is.
 
It was my bday on Sat. My niece was here, so had a good one of course. She's going to be here the next 2 weekends also. )Not going to say how old I am... since I am not happy about it heh)
 
Feeling blessed after Thomas Bergersen replied to me on messenger. We had a small talk about the meaning of his newest song "Vaporize", for which I really liked the lyrics, and about the global message of his album series "Humanity".

Had similar experiences with other composers, I love them because they are really accessible.

Throwback to Bergersen's maybe most famous piece on youtube (107M), and the best comment section ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASj81daun5Q
 
I figured out how to connect my computer to the tv! So now I can watch the Fate movies, Detective Conan and other things on the big screen! And tonight is the Anya Marina concert and Nikki Glaser (a comedian who I like a lot) will be guest appearing during. Ahh I am so happy!
 
I have a boyfriend! For the first time! Well, I had one for about a month and a half, but this has been longer than that already. His name is Scott. He has a kitty named Fizz. We started watching The Slayers anime. We have now finished season 1. We are building our relationship on Slayers. hehe
 
Surprised that I didn't post it at the time: https://www.nitroplus.co.jp/special/nss20th/ (3rd September 2019) at Tokyo Dome City Hall, only 2106 yen for admission, included:

出演
  • 西川貴教
  • ayumi
  • 板垣奏太郎
  • ELISA
  • 茅原実里
  • 春奈るな
  • いとうかなこ
  • 生沢佑一
  • 栗林みな実
  • Swinging Popsicle
  • ワタナベカズヒロ
  • すーぱーそに子
  • Hassy

and a Thunderbolt Fantasy live puppet show that included: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIinYYtGWXc
 
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