Some worship songs demo

Hi this is Tak from Imari Tones, a Japanese Christian rock band.

We are playing local gigs here in Yokohama while we are getting ready for the touring plan.
Today I just want to give you an update about some little demo tracks of 2 songs.

These are not Imari Tones' song. But one of my friends sent me these lyrics on facebook.
I wrote music for the lyrics and made demo tracks.
Also I wrote Japanese lyrics for 2nd verse&chorus.








These are demo tracks and quality is kind of rough, but you may find them interesting.
I wrote these songs in different music style than we usually do. These are more like in Pop style.


We are actually working on new songs.
(What!? We just finished recording new album a few month ago and already working on new songs?)
And I want to write a worship type song in Japanese language this year.
So writing these 2 songs was a good practice for me.
Thank you Noe Ortiz for sending these lyrics.


God bless you all and Happy Easter!!
(Actually we are playing a local gig on Easter Sunday in Yokohama!)

Tak / Imari Tones

Jesus Train video, current status, and 1 year since then.

Hi, this is Tak from Imari Tones, Japanese Christian rock band.

Long time no update, but we've been working hard.
We have 2 topics here today.


1. Jesus Train music video

It's already a few month since we finished recording our new album called "Japan Metal Jesus".
We are trying to figure out what is the best way to release it.
We are still looking for a decent record label but on the other hand we are preparing for an independent release by our own small label.
It will take some more time while we are making artwork and finding a distribution but we are sure you will like the album when it is released.

At the same time, we are already releasing/uploading some songs from the new record on internet.

We told you about the music video of "The Concept" and "You Key" before (Check them out on our YouTube if you haven't yet!).

And now we uploaded another music video on YouTube.
It's a song called "Jesus Train".
We have been playing that song in our live shows for a while now and it's one of our live favorites. So some of you may be already familiar with the song.

We made the video using footage from our local gig in Yokohama, Japan.
It's a simple video but it has got a live show feeling and we love it!


So please check it out!





It's already 3rd song uploaded on YouTube from the album and we feel as if we were going to upload all the song even before the album is released!
(Actually some other songs are on our Soundcloud, too.)




2. Our current status and touring plan this year

While we are excited and can't wait to release the album and share the music with you, we are making plans how to spend this year 2012.

We are trying to "go local" this year and we are going to play small local gigs in Yokohama Japan.
We already booked several gigs in Yokohama/Tokyo area. So check our schedule on our website, if you happened to be in that area. (Though I know our internet activity is mostly for people outside Japan.)

Life in an independent rock band is tough and our life is hard, too.
But we are a band destined to reach for the international market.
So we are trying to do a tour again this year.

We are talking with people from "The Extreme Tour".
We friended with them last year when we visited USA.
They are a Christian music tour and they are great ministries.
We are trying to join their tour in USA/Canada region.

Though the detail is not confirmed yet, but we will let you know when it happens.
We are praying so that the plan will work. Because we are dying to play live in front of you. Because we are so much in love with ROCK music and Jesus is the ROCK.


Well, I guess it's time.
It's Sunday I'm writing this and I'm in charge of worship in our church today.
(I got to go now.)

Hope you are doing great and hope we can keep in touch.
We are rocking alive here in Yokohama.
So you keep on rocking too!
God is at work in Japan as much as in the rest of the world!

It's one year since March 11th 2011, when the earthquake and the tsunami disaster happened in Japan.
Our life in Japan, it has changed forever since then.

But we believe God will make everything good. Even bad things and sad things.
Today we are all praying for our home country.

Thank you very much and may God bless you richly.

In Jesus name,
Tak / Imari Tones (Japan)

Merry Christmas and a story about Doc Brown

Christmas came a little bit earlier in Japan than the rest of the world (depending on where you live) and last night I and my wife had a good time at a Christmas party at our church VIC (Yokohama, Japan).

Just as a little gift for Christmas, I want to share this song with you. It's a song we wrote for our church VIC, in 2011. As you can see, so many things happened this year in Japan and in the world. Lyric of this song, 2nd half of the song, is our prayer for Japan. We just recorded this song recently. Yes now we finished recording our "new album". We don't know how it will be released so we need your help here but anyway, now we've done it! It's December 24th early morning it was finished. (Working all night. So tired.)

http://soundcloud.com/imaritones/give-us-your-miracles-mp3

 Give Us Your Miracles (mp3 sample) by imaritones

We set this song "downloadable" on soundcloud. Because we want to share the blessing with you. So feel free to share this song with anyone. It's a worship type, acoustic song.

Now here comes a new year soon.
And new year season is when we Japanese come back to home, hometown, parant's house, to see their family.

Here I want to share a little story. A journal of a local musician.
It's a story about "a local musician".
When I was a kid, when I was younger, we had video disks of "Back To The Future" movies at home. (It was, on Laser Disk, a media which has extinct long ago...)

I watched the movies (Back To The Future trilogy) many times. Actually I learned so much English from that movie. (It's heavy, hah?)
And I noticed that in the movie, Doc (Emmett Brown) calles himself "a local scientist".

I thought it's funny, because, what's local scientist?
Is it something like local bakery or local florist?

But after watching the movie many times, I gradually begining to like the word "local scientist". Because Doc Emmett Brown was totally an incredible guy. He is not famous. He is not rich. But he has a great science skill and invented a time machine after many years of research! (and no one knows the fact except his best friend Marty McFly.) There is almost not doubt that Doc is one of the greatest scientist ever, but he loves solitude and isolated from the world. People call him crazy. But he doesn't care, he stays humble, doing what he's doing, and call himself "a local scientist".

After I started playing music independently, I began to understand how it is like to be a Doc Brown. Being an independent musician is so much like "Back To The Future" movie. And I found out Doc Brown is the best form of independent music. He became a very good roll model for me.

I want to be a Doc Brown. People may call you crazy, but I continue my research and searching for the best music, trying to invent something new.
I'm not famous but trying to stay humble and call myself "a local musician". These things, probably I learned from Doc Brown?

And probably someday I will invent "Time Machine" and go back to the future:)
(hopefully)

But let me tell you one thing.
Here is something I'm more blessed than Doc Brown.
Doc continued his research alone, and the only one person who understands him was his best friend Marty McFly.

When I look at my life, I have my wife, my band, our friends, our church.
And apperantly, we have more than one person who cares about our music.
This is Musician's Blessing!
Because music is something to share with people!
Even if I'm a stuborn introvert person, I can share our music with people.

I'm not saying we are not going to be famous. Things are getting better and better. And we just have made the greatest record ever.
I'm sure the big things are waiting for us all in 2012.

But I just want to tell you, I'm more than happy being "a local musician".
Because we can receive God's blessing most when we are humble.
Because we know that God is always watching what you do, no matter where you are, or, no matter when you are, I mean, even if you are traveling through time.

I love calling myself "a local musician".

Tak Nakamine / Imari Tones
Merry Christmas!

New song video and we need your help!

Well what can I say?
We have been working on our new recording work throughout year 2011.
February-March, we recorded 4 songs, in the occasional blackouts and turmoil after the earthquake.

April we had an opportunity to record 2 songs in Dallas Texas, USA.
(USA recording? Wow, sounds like a dream!)

In summer we (mostly Tak) did one song for Famicom Dojo podcast.

And now we are working on 3 more songs, drum tracks already done.
Probably in January 2012, we will have whole album done.

But here is the problem.
We need a record label.
(Sounds ridiculous?)

As you can see, we have been selling our music independently, mostly on internet.
But this time we want to have a breakthrough.
Next step as a band.

That's why we made these 2 videos.
We have to spread the word and have a breakthrough.

So can you help us?

We need a record label but we don't know how to contact right people.
So we decided we need help from people.

Here is our request.
Can you retweet or post this video on facebook, twitter, blog, anywhere on internet, so that the word will spread?


Here is the first video called "The Concept".




and here is the second video called "You Key". (This song is a killer!)





These are very low budget videos, recorded by iPhone camera, but they represent our attitude so much. Having fun, being happy, and being thankful to God.
It was so much fun to make these videos.
We hope you enjoy this video just like we did while making them.


Blessings,
Tak / Imari Tones


p.s.
It looks like YouTube got a timing problem. Sound and movie sometimes doesn't synchronize. In that case, maybe you can visit our VIMEO page, just in case.
http://vimeo.com/imaritones

"The Concept" on SoundCloud

Hello friends!

We were planning to upload 2 song videos in this month. We were going to make them quick, using the photos and movies from the past.

However, it turned out that we need to do it right in the studio, in order to make good videos.
We gonna make those videos in December.
So, instead, we decided to release the songs on SoundCloud first.


 The Concept (sample) - Imari Tones by imaritones


This song is called "The Concept" and we played this song live many times this year.
So some of you already familiar with it.
This is a hard rocking song which goes like "Leave everything behind and follow Jesus Christ~~!".
I want you to spread the word because we need some exposure!
Thank you!

Tak / Imari Tones

History of Imari Tones & "He's Still With Us" video

Hello!
This is Tak "Tone" Nakamine from Imari Tones, a Japanese Christian rock band.

After the tour in April/May, we are gigging constantly in Japan and thinking about a bigger vision of our future.
This may be the shortest message I have ever sent, but actually it has the longest and biggest volume of content.


Are you interested in the history of our band?
Maybe nobody cares, but finally I wrote our band history in English.

It's a story about why we started music and how we became a Christian rock band in Japan.

You can see many pictures and you can hear our old songs.

If you are interested, please take a look here.

http://www.imaritones.net/e_history.htm



Another thing is,
We uploaded many songs to YouTube, in order to place them on our history page I just wrote.

And I want to show you this particular one, because you probably will like it.

"He's Still With Us"


It's a song called "He's Still With Us".
We played this song often in our last tour, and we made up this video using photos and movies from our tours in USA.
Maybe it's too much of "USA" stuff, but we love this song.
I hope you will like it too!


That's all for today.
In Japan things are still not easy, we are again having some large earthquakes recently, Fukushima situation not good. Nobody is sure about future.

But still, we are going forward to realize the vision God has given to us.
I hope there is His guidance upon you, too!!


God bless, and Rock on!

Tak "Tone" Nakamine
Imari Tones
"The First Christian Heavy Metal from Japan"
http://www.imaritones.net/

"Shito Shinjo" (使徒信条)

Just a little update.
It's just a little song in Japanese.
Just uploaded a song called "Shito Shinjo"(使徒信条), which means Apostles' Creed in Japanese.
Yes just like "Creed" song by Third Day and Petra. Not sure if any Japanese band did this before but I wanted to do in in Japanese.

It's been a while since we did a song written in Japanese language.
It's just a simple bonus track type song, easy production with programmed drum track, but hope this can reach Japanese people.

-Tak


使徒信条という曲をアップしてみました。
アメリカあたりのクリスチャンのバンドがやっている、「使徒信条」(Apostles' Creed)をそのまま曲にする、というのを日本語でやってみた曲です。簡単でシンプルなオマケトラックですが。