Transcription
[Music] Good afternoon everyone. This is Fish and Rice stories from Japan. I'm Toby. I'm Andre. And today, we're welcoming a new guest on the show, Capital. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for having me. Yeah, Capital, you're a long-term resident of Japan now, a little bit, and you are a successful musician in Osaka. Depends how you define successful, but I'm trying. Yeah, there's many ways to define success, but today we want to hear a little bit about your musical journey and kind of what brought you here and what you started and what you've created in Japan. Love it. So, before we maybe dive into that, could you introduce yourself a little bit more to our listeners?
Uh, yeah, I'm Capital. Um, I'm a doctor of music, and so, you know, I go by Dr. Capital. Um, I'm from, uh, Oregon in the United States, West Coast, and spent basically, you know, my upbringing all in Oregon and California. And I went to university in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. And while I was there, I studied abroad in Japan. Oh. Uh, and kind of like got the bug to, you know, spend more time in Japan, focus on Japanese language, listen to Japanese music, get into lots of Japanese stuff. And so since then, I kind of have been back and forth and back and forth for many years as an artist. You know, I put out original music. I also work a lot as a music teacher, uh, like a professor at universities and stuff. And then I have a YouTube channel for J-pop, uh, covers and analyses that I have a lot of fun with. Oh, so you're doing a lot of very diverse things. And, uh, uh, we want to talk about maybe all of them. But what inspired you in the first place to come to Japan and and move away from California? So you studied music, uh, back then. Uh, why is a certain interest to go abroad in in Japan specifically?
Um, when I was a kid, we had, uh, some exchange students come and stay with my family and do homestays. Okay. And, uh, we had, you know, many students from different countries. There was a, a guy from Germany who lived with us for like a year, I think. And we had a woman from Sweden lived with us for several months. And, um, we had students from China come. And then one year, you know, a student from Japan came for a couple of weeks. And we just really clicked and had so much fun. Like, you know, as you guys know, there's a lot of kind of like zany culture in Japan and, you know, just like really colorful, really different, really intriguing. And of course, like the custom of bringing omage, um, presents from Japan when they came to stay with us, that was obviously like a good way to get on our good sides. And so I was just like, really fascinated by these Japanese students. So after that, we ended up having, you know, like almost every single year, students, high school students from Japan come and stay with my family for a week or two weeks or even a month or something.
That's quite an original way to kind of get into Japanese culture, right? Most people, you would, you would think, uh, maybe discover Japan through traditional cultures like martial arts or tea, or perhaps are interested into anime, manga. But you actually got into Japan because, uh, you hosted a Japanese person at your home for a while and like, "Oh, I want to learn more about that country." It was like I had, you know, a Japanese family. Remember, before I knew anything about Japan, it's like, what it felt like. Because the, the students, you know, kind of they looked really cool to me. They were older than me. So it was like, "Oh, this is my big brother. This is my big sister." Kind of. Um, and so, yeah, I got interested in all the other stuff, you know, after just like being interested in the people that I knew. And then you decided to study music in Japan as well, or how, how did you get on this path to music that led you to Japan?
Well, I'm glad that we're doing this podcast in English because, you know, I do lots of talking about my sort of origin story as a J-pop YouTuber in Japanese, and like I can't go off on too many tangents. Oh, but I feel like in English, it's a little bit easier for us to flow. And you guys, like, uh, you're asking me pretty open questions, so I'm going to tangent it up if you don't mind. Here to listen to your story. Okay. So, so like, you know, I, I wasn't so, I had my interest in music and my interest in Japan were like two different things. I didn't feel much of a connection to them at first. Of course, I was like intrigued by the Japanese music, but I just went to LA to like study, you know, guitar. I went into a jazz guitar program there. Um, but I kind of like that feeling of coming out of high school and going to university and just like, "Whoa, the world is huge, and my parents aren't here, and I can explore many things." And I just wanted to take as many different kinds of classes as I could. You know, not just music classes, but I wanted to take more math classes, even though there were, there was no math like required of my degree. Um, and and I also was like, "I want to study abroad" because I had seen how transformative that was for my family to have students stay with us and how transformative it seemed for the students themselves. Uh, so, but I didn't speak Japanese well enough to really come to Japan at first. So I spent one year abroad in England, and I found a school there, University of Sussex. It was in Brighton, which is a really cool kind of town south, you know, in the south. And, uh, brilliant composers there, you know, kind of modern avant-garde composers that I got to study with. And that was, of course, like mind-bending, expanding. Uh, I really enjoyed the European style of, you know, classes in university. I don't know what it's like now because I'm talking about my experience, which is in 1995 that I lived in England for a year. But, um, what it's like in American universities is typically, you know, especially nowadays, you have like a 16 units is a full load. And to take, fill up 16 units, you take X number of classes that each have X number of units. So maybe like you're taking like an anthropology or biology class, and that's four units. You know, but what ends up when you go into the music department is you have to take like an ear training class that's one unit, and a theory class that's two units, and a history class that's two units, a lesson class that's two units. And so to fill up the 16 units, you're taking like, you know, maybe eight classes, and you're meeting constantly. So it's very kind of micromanaged curriculum, uh, that has you like going into class many times every single day of the week. When I got to England, the class as a music major was called Music, very specific. And it was one class that was like 10 units and it met for three hours once per week. That's a lot of fun. That was that was it. So, you know, I would compose something and spend a whole week composing. Then we would get together and we would play each other's compositions. We were always trying to write in a certain style. This week, you have to do something in the style of Lutoslawski. This week, it's Stravinsky. You know, this week, it's like, be it's, you know, we were doing lots of different styles. Um, but it was a very kind of like dynamic, self-directed way to do lots of things at once. It just like was sort of a Renaissance kind of moment for me. Um, and while I was there, I also was like, "Oh, this is so great studying abroad. I need to study abroad again." I always wanted to go to Japan. So I started with some of that free time just going to the library and studying Japanese like, you know, by myself. Which is, you know, not the best way to learn conversation, but, you know, I was kind of trying to build my skills. And when I got back to LA the next year, I enrolled in Japanese class and immediately kind of applied to come study abroad in Japan. So I ended up, you know, in my four years of undergraduate university, I spent one year in England, and then I spent six months in Japan the following year. Um, and while I was in Japan, I kind of like, you know, got interested in playing Japanese music, like traditional music, Koto, Shamisen. So, traditional string instruments from Japan. Yeah, I didn't even bring a guitar to Japan. I just wanted to like do new things. So, kind of like as soon as I got here, I started doing Koto music and stuff and got interested in traditional Japanese music. You know, studied the language very hard, very hard, you know, like three, four hours a day, every day. And then that's all I was doing when I was at home, like watching TV, practicing kanji and stuff.
Where did you study back then? Waseda University in Tokyo. Yes. Yeah. So you came as a, basically study abroad during your undergrad, went back to the States, and then decided, "Oh, this is a place I want to go back to," and came back. Yeah. It's interesting. So my friend now from France, right? Are you from France? Yes, I grew up from, correct. So I loved France when I was in England for that one year. I got a Eurail pass, you know, and I spent two months traveling around, you know, in Europe on the, in the, you know, do I call it the continent? But anyway, you know, like the part that's not England. Yeah, like the main part. And so I loved France, I loved Italy. And I was like, "Okay, you know, I need to do this in other places. I'm going to go to Japan, and then I'm going to spend some time living in France, and then after that, maybe I'll live in Italy. We'll see, we'll see." But the problem was is that I got to Japan and I worked very hard on the language, and I got pretty good at it, conversational. But I wasn't good enough. And so when I got back to the US, I was like, "Yeah, I, it's not time for me to start French class yet." You want to improve your Japanese? Yes. I need to do the advanced Japanese classes. And then I ended up coming back to Japan a lot, you know, because of music work. Also, I just got involved with some Japanese musicians. And, um, okay, so I kind of skipped some stuff. But basically, I finished my undergraduate, and I had already kind of like learned traditional Japanese music, some, and been interested in that. And there's a field called ethnomusicology. Okay. Where you study lots of different kinds of music from more sort of a, you know, sociological, uh, kind of global kind of impact of music on communities, on societies, and also the technical side too. But, you know, quote unquote, world music is sort of like, like the research field of world music is called ethnomusicology. And so I went to graduate school for ethnomusicology, and I specialized in Japanese music while I was there. While I was doing that, I met this hip-hop artist who was a Japanese MC named Shingo Two, who also lived in Berkeley. I went to UC Berkeley for that. Um, and we started recording albums in my room and releasing them in Japan and coming to Japan to play concerts frequently. So it just, you know, as I was doing that as a professional musician, um, I just started meeting so many people, building new relationships. Even after I wasn't doing an album with Shingo, I was doing an album with a DJ friend of his, DJ Nozawa, who I'd kind of met through him, and then just branching out from there.
Can you tell us maybe a little bit more? So this was like your first, uh, contact with the Japanese music scene, and you started, you were not living, uh, in Japan at the time, you're still moving back and forth. How would you say, where were your first impressions and the main differences you noticed between the music scene here in Japan and a music scene back in the US?
Yeah, well, my understanding of that has evolved a lot, and it kind of depends on what level you're working at. Like, uh, it's very different, you know, if you're playing, uh, a coffee house, which I've played, or if you're playing the Fuji Rock Festival, which I've played, you know, it's like all the stuff in between there, or playing on TV or something like, uh, you know, so it's kind of a different answer for all of those. Um, I'll just sort of start at the beginning, though, which is my first impressions was, "Oh, this is amazing." I felt like people in general were more, uh, respectful of music. Like in America, I don't know what it's like in Europe, but in America, like if you're a musician, that instantly, uh, the stereotype people have is that you're kind of a lazy person. Oh, that's not a very good, good image of musicians. Yeah. So they just sort of think, "Oh, if you're a musician, that means you're probably just kind of like sitting around, you don't have a job, you're not very smart, you know, you just like are pursuing some dream in a sloppy, unmotivated kind of way." Yeah, hope for a hit and like one hit wonder, something like that. Whereas, you know, like my actual experience as a musician is, and and with all the musicians around me, it's like everybody's really serious, everybody's really smart, and they're all working like really hard. So when I came to Japan, it seemed like the assumption about a musician is that they were serious, smart, and working hard. So I really liked that aspect of it, you know, I felt like you got better treatment overall.
So it's considered more like a proper job, like you would work in an office, you work as a musician, and you have to be organized, you have to plan your work, you have to go to meetings or to concerts or events. Yeah. And that over the years, you know, I also see some disadvantages to that, you know. Um, so like, it's not, it's not a coincidence that, uh, Stevie Wonder, you know, mhm, or Aretha Franklin, or like, you know, I don't know, Madonna, or whatever. There's like many great, great, great geniuses, Bruce Springsteen, or whatever, of of American music who, um, created sort of new things. Same in Europe, obviously, you know, great. But, you know, just like the, the culture of collaboration and looseness and kind of like freedom and rule-breaking that we have like in the American music scene, uh, you know, that that makes good music. And I believe that there's a lot of great music in Japan too, so I don't want to say that like, you know, America has better music than Japan. But I do think that there are some things about the culture of America that are well-suited to mind-blowing music making.
So you would say that the American culture is more stimulating for breaking the rules a little bit, experimenting with new things, whereas perhaps in Japan they are, uh, very into specific genres, and the genres have rules, and for you to be good at, uh, this kind of music and be successful, you have to basically play it to perfection and not necessarily innovate in that genre, is my understanding? Correct?
Well, I mean, actually, it, it, I think it's way more complicated than that, and I might kind of like, you know, break down what you just said a little bit, like into some different pieces. So the perfection part, yes, like play perfectly. I feel like the standard of that, it's high among all musicians around the world. But there's sort of an extra tension on that in Japan. I feel like, you know, you got to show up and play perfectly the first time. Like if you show up and you're trying to just like fiddling around and playing loose with it and exploring and experimenting on somebody else's time, that feels kind of unprofessional. Whereas in the, like American system, like let's say I was going to go and, you know, get a gig with some huge artist like Beyoncé or something, obviously I need to show up knowing the songs, but they also want to hear me explore. Interesting. Yeah. And so using that time to actually workshop stuff together, to find stuff, to break things, like that's very highly valued in my experiences playing in Japan. And, you know, I've been lucky to play with like lots of really great artists, tons of major label, you know, singers, sometimes multiplatinum selling singers. And their musicianship is top-notch. And so there's no, you know, feeling like, uh, they're not as good as Beyoncé or Stevie Wonder or something. But there is, is like a more serious vibe in the rehearsal room. And even if I'm working with like a multiplatinum selling singer, what I believe it's a little bit better for the music if we just talk to each other. And there's not like, you know, their management and a record label kind of introducing us, and we're not even really allowed to say anything to each other. And we can't just kind of like sit in the corner and run through the song. Like it has to be like they have to sort of come into the room, and everybody kind of like greets them, and then they take their place, and this just like, go. Like the looseness, I miss that.
You're invited on a set to work with a famous artist in Japan, and their production company or the studio will tell you, "Okay, so your part is to play these notes, to play this part of the partition." And when the artist arrives, you don't actually interact with them, you just wait for them to sit down, start singing, and then you do your part. Yeah. And it's not quite as, you know, kind of clinical and, uh, you know, like, uh, rigid as that. I'm, I'm more making the comparison, it's just a little bit more clinical and a little bit more rigid. Of course, like when I play with any artist, I'm going to talk to them a little bit and say friendly things and sort of like try to break down any feelings of like, uh, you know, like tightness or questioning. It's just like, "We want, we're going to find something, and I'm going to play something that's going to just like melt into the sound of your voice, and your voice is going to melt into the sound of my guitar, and we're going to create something, you know, that's like an incredibly powerful, incredibly deep thing to do." Um, but yeah, it's a little bit, yeah, like the hierarchical aspect, I think, is not positive for collaboration sometimes. Like if you and me were going to, if you and me were hanging out, okay? And I was like, "Toby, let's write a song." Okay? You're not going to be thinking, "Oh God, he's two years older than me. I have to defer to his choice of chord." Okay? Yeah. You know what I mean? And you're also not going to be thinking like, um, you know, like, "I'm embarrassed for him to see my idea for the next lyric. You know, I'm going to go home and just work on it all by myself and then send him my draft, and then he can go home and work on his draft at home, and then we can bring them together." And now we have to like figure out this incredibly complex way of not hurting each other's feelings while we while we address the things that you created by yourself in your room, and I created by, and maybe it's because I'm spent so much time in LA, like the Los Angeles music, uh, collaboration sort of format, free flow. Yeah, we would just like start saying crazy stuff and laughing. And in the process of that, we would start to find something that we agreed sounded cool. And we would be like throwing out garbage. Like I would be giving you garbage ideas, and you would be giving me garbage ideas, and then we would find like a real gem in there. Um, so the protection of your image, you know, and of like your privacy, and like a thinking a little bit too much about hierarchical things, "Oh, this person's more famous, this person's older, this person is the one who asked me to do it, so I have to," you know, that stuff. I, I wish we could have a little bit less. So I'm trying to create that when I do music in Japan.
So it's very interesting what you say. Maybe we can get back to that. We had a singer on the on the show a few episodes back, and we were talking about basically music is trying to touch people's emotions. And you just described, uh, fundamentally, music in Japan is probably still the same, but the process of getting there is very like rigid. So how did you adapt from this very loose LA music scene into establishing yourself as a well-known musician? You just mentioned you went to the Fuji Rock Festival as an artist, you work with big artists. How did you adapt and establish yourself here in this kind of scene?
Um, uh, well, I mean, first of all, even though I just kind of like basically said some things that I think are not ideal, overall, it's better over here. And so it was very easy for me to adapt to just sort of enjoying making music here. Um, yeah, uh, I guess like the things that I had to work on were, you know, like being okay with somebody's boundaries being like quite quite conservative, okay, compared to what I'm used to working with. And, uh, you know, just doing, just showing up and killing it, you know, playing it perfectly. Like that's what you have to do. So, you know, if they don't want to practice it with me, and I have to just do it in my hotel room, then that's what I'll do. And you show up and do that. And building, building relationships, you know, in a different kind of way, but still achieving that kind of level of closeness with people. Um, and then trying to bring a little bit of California into the recording studio and on stage when I'm here, you know, I think it's good.
So the, the most important would be, you got to know your craft. Like if you're a guitar player, player, your vocalist, your bass player, you got to do it really well. And that's the main thing. And then also, of course, you mentioned having relationships and connections and building connections. And and earlier, you were saying that one of your first contacts actually was when you came to Japan and you met this MC and this DJ, Nozawa, was it? And this kind of got you into the scene and you met more and more people. So it actually started also from relationships. Yes. So there is a scene in Japan that is maybe not so rigid. Definitely. Yeah, like that kind of like extremely rigid thing, that's what's happening when you get higher and higher and higher and higher up into, you know, somebody who's got a music industry, yeah, like a huge label behind them and a huge management team and a huge kind of like, you know, if it's a big production show and like the rehearsal studio is like very expensive, and you, it's not like I show up at the rehearsal studio with a multiplatinum singer, and it's just me and the singer sitting there. There's like 20 people there, uh, who are just kind of like staring at us or they're on their laptops. Like it's a very, you know, it's, it's not like a super artsy kind of, yeah, it's more like business. Loose vibe. But, you know, the, I've also had like crazy amounts of fun with Japanese artists. And what I've kind of discovered, um, so, you know, I started coming to Japan in the 90s, and then from 2004 to 2007, I actually lived in Japan and worked really hard on my Japanese again, then. Um, and then from 2008, you know, to 2020, I was mostly living in LA. I got my doctorate during that period. I was teaching at universities in Los Angeles. I moved to Texas and taught at the University of North Texas for three years. I came to Japan again. Uh, I was just coming back and forth to do tours and stuff. And I came to Japan again in 2020 during spring break from my university, um, and there was COVID. And so then the plane situation got complicated, and my classes went online. So I just ended up living in Japan from then, uh, until now. So at this point, again, I've been living here for about three years. Um, I've met many other, you know, non-Japanese musicians who live in Japan, who have been here for 10, 20, 30 years. And, you know, sometimes they're a little bit bitter, like they're kind of like, is that they're like, you know, when I first showed up here, everybody wanted to listen to my music, everyone wanted to be my friend, everyone wanted me there on on their TV show and their radio show. But then they all stabbed me in the back, and they nobody wants to play with me anymore. And I can't get, you know, the band to return my phone calls. And, you know, I'm just kind of stuck here. I can't go back to my home country because I lost all my connections there too. And those people generally are not good at Japanese. This is just my observation. The language is actually also a key to enter. Super important. So my whole career in Japan would not work at all if I wasn't pretty good at Japanese. And not just like being able to string together sentences, but knowing how to address people in the hierarchical kind of like flow, like being having keigo, being polite at first, finding that moment when it's okay to go away from that and go to teigo, you know, when you just speak informally with somebody. Knowing that there is like sometimes that the person is going to speak informally to you, but that doesn't mean it's okay for you to speak informally to them, and vice versa. Being able to kind of navigate all that stuff, which I learned, you know, not really from playing music, but from Japanese language classes and just like building relationships over over here. That's like the key to success in Japan, I think.
And your success today now is very diverse. You've achieved a lot of things in the music industry, from playing with people, establishing yourself as a musician. And one of the things you have built over the years is a successful YouTube channel, right? So you mentioned that you got interested into J-pop and are now a J-pop specialist, and you built this channel on YouTube, Dr. Capital, your name and your title. Thank you for the. And you basically, uh, play with some of, uh, your, I don't know if they're friends or or colleagues, but you have recurring guests on a show. And what you do there is explain music, basically. You explain how the songs are built, and then you play them with your band. How did the idea start with, like, "Oh, I want to make a YouTube channel explaining music to people?"
Okay, uh, do you mind if I go back a little bit? Yeah, let's start from the beginning. So, um, you know, you were telling me before we started recording that you had experience playing music also, that when you were a kid, you played piano, correct? And they just sort of showed you the sheet music, but you didn't really get into that. Uh, and eventually, you would just kind of want to learn a song, and then you'd sort of memorize the way it feels and sounds, and you weren't actually getting that good at reading the music. Yes. Okay. So that's actually what all of us do. Even if you, I have a doctorate in music, and I'm really good at reading music, if you put music in front of me, I'm not looking at every note. Like, as soon as my ears and my hands get used to it, the way that yours did, I'm not really, you know, reading the music anymore. You just kind of play from your memory, from your ears. Um, and also, you know, like when you're, when you're trying to get good at music, the best way to do it is to kind of like have a real connection between your ears and your hands, and also be very sensitized to, you know, what the sounds make you feel like in your emotions. Okay. So I could play a chord and tell you that it's called like an augmented sixth chord. Very specific. Yes. Okay. So that's a word, but that word has nothing to do with what it sounds like. It's just a word. Like the word, you know, mug, like describes for me the shape of this thing. Like the music is the actual thing. Okay. So it, the word could be anything. Sometimes in music education, teachers, I think probably because of laziness or lack of comfort with like the emotional aspect of it, they just focus a little bit too much on the words, and they focus too much on, "Look at the piece, look at the black note here on this white piece of paper. Yeah. What's that called?" You know, uh, of course, those are tools that are useful. Like we couldn't have much of a conversation if we didn't share any words. Mhm. Yeah, we need to agree on what what is what, right? This is a paper, this is a pen. But once you kind of have some words, obviously the communication we're having is about something other than the words. It's about like the ideas, the feelings that the words evoke. The same thing with music. So what I discovered when I was studying as a kid, you know, I would practice guitar. Uh, the best way for me to get inside of a song was to actually try to learn it by ear. And if I was learning it, even on on paper, to get it into my hands and my ears and sort of analyze it. So I just like, I found that the more I analyzed it, that was a way of processing it. Not again, turning it into math, not again, turning it into arcane, weird words, but, you know, turning it into memories, associations with emotions. Um, so what I discovered is basically, you know, if you want to enjoy listening to music more, it can really help to actually analyze it and find out what some of the details are and think about how it makes you feel and sensitize yourself to those. That works if you're a player, or if you're just someone who likes to listen. Have you ever cried when you heard a song? I'm not sure, but probably at least once or twice. I've cried a few times when I heard a song. Uh, for example, you know, like at a funeral, I've cried when they started singing. Uh, I've cried when I, you know, had a breakup or something, and there was a song that just had like this one part of the song that the notes and the chords and the lyrics just like kind of unleashed something in me. Um, there's something behind that, right? There's a reason for that. Yeah. I know what those chords are, okay? Because I like went in and figured it out. Okay. And now that I know what those chords are, when I hear them, I'm not hearing math. It's more like I'm hearing actually, you know, more detail. And that greater detail makes me feel it more. Now I'm coming back finally to where your question really started, which is my approach to teaching music is to try to find the musical devices, the chord, the note, the rhythm that has like a special sort of emotional impact. Mhm. Okay. And then if we sort of focus in on that thing a little bit, if I'm like, "Check out how this chord sounds." It's not like this, it's not like that, it's like this. And that's more sweet longing or whatever. Once we go through that process of kind of focusing on it together, then we listen to the song again, and you hear that in there, and you feel it deeper, and the song becomes richer, you know? So the expressive part, you're not destroying the mystery or ruining it by uncovering all the structure. You're actually just giving yourself a much more detailed view to be able to look inside of, you know, the beautiful painting of a song and be able to appreciate every single stroke, every single nuance of color. You get to a deeper level of understanding, understanding, and also very visceral, like emotional power. So this is my approach to teaching, uh, music theory, which I taught at the University of Southern California. While I was teaching music theory there, a J-pop superstar appeared in my class, Angela Aki. Yeah. Well, she, she was, uh, you know, uh, on Kohaku, you know, seven times. And, uh, the big New Year show, music show. It's like the biggest thing that you can do as an artist in Japan to be on it even once. It's like, you know, unbelievable. One day, fingers crossed, you'll be there. Anyway, you know, she, so she's like a huge superstar, but she decided in her career that she wanted to work on like musicals and write a Broadway musical. She identified that she had like an amazing songwriting skill set, but she wanted to get a little bit more kind of music theory, arranging skills, maybe counterpoint, just some stuff that would help her to actually, you know, actualize a full-scale musical. Uh, and so she left her career here in Japan, she paused her performing career to go to America and study, uh, music and music theory. And she happened to come to my university and show up in my department in my class. You, and I already knew her and was already a fan of her music. But, you know, we became friends there, you know, cuz we had that kind of connection of my knowing her. Um, and she was like, "Your your teaching style in the music theory class is like, is nothing I've ever seen. It's like so effective. Like I'm, we're, I'm surrounded by a bunch of 19 or 20 year olds who are just just like, you know, totally enraptured, like just hanging on every word about music theory for like a whole year." It's like the best compliment you can get as a teacher. Yeah. So it, you know, and and I, I'm very happy about, you know, the the results that my students had. A lot of those students, by the way, have gone on to be huge rock stars right now. You know, like they're the proof is in the pudding, man. Like they're, they're really good, and they are. It's working. And so Angela was kind of identified that, and she said, "The fact that you also speak Japanese, you should be doing this in Japan. The fact that you kind of speak Kansai-ben," which is, you know, the Osaka kind of Western Japanese dialect. She also speaks Kansai-ben by the way, cuz she's from Shikoku. So that was one of the things of kind of kinship with us. She was like, "You should do this in Japan." And so I just started coming to Japan, and as a part of my shows, I would play a song. But instead of before the song say, "This is a song, you know, written by such and such artist in this year about their breakup with so and so," I would, I mean, maybe I would say that too, but I would say, "You know, like this song has this really cool chord in it." And it's just part of my live show. I would sort of do something like what I was doing in my music theory class at school. And after I did, you know, one of my tours, you know, kind of like doing that over here, one of the songs I was playing was this song, "Poly Rhythm." I just went home, and since it seemed like it went over really well in the shows to kind of do that demonstration and play it, I just turned on my iPhone and my iPad, you know, and just like filmed myself doing it and put it up on YouTube. And that's how my YouTube, Dr. Capital thing started, kind of a little bit unintentional. Yeah, totally organic. It just grew out of being music theory, getting the advice to do that in your shows, do it in a show, and then I just recorded one of the things that I would do in my shows.
How many years have you been doing the the YouTube channel now? Uh, I think it's probably up to around five or six years now. So the whole growth period has also been organic, and you just continue doing what you were doing from the start? Yes. And what's funny is like, I have, you know, I have a decent, uh, following on YouTube, and some of my videos have like millions of views. And I, you know, so I feel in a sense like a YouTuber, because I actually have like, I've got a YouTube Silver plaque on my wall for having more than 100,000 subscribers. But I also don't feel like a YouTuber like at all. You're a musician at heart. I'm just like a music, you know, lover, music teacher, music performer. So, you know, like a real YouTuber, unlike me, would be putting up YouTube content every single week, maybe multiple times a week. Sometimes I go for like four months without putting anything up there. That's not like a point of pride for me or something. I would like to be doing much more. It's just, you know, there's there's not enough time, man. I got so many things I'm doing that, uh, yeah, I need to grow my team or something. I admire you guys because you're putting out lots of content. Yeah, the consistency is very important in many of those regards. And so I was wondering, in in in terms of the YouTube channel, you, you said some of the videos have like got more than a million, the channel grew as well, maybe despite the inconsistency, because the quality of your content is there. What is the, what kind of reactions have you gotten from the Japanese public to a foreigner coming to Japan, speaking Kansai-ben, and explaining music in Japanese?
It's overwhelmingly positive. Yeah, you know, like every once in a while, I'll get like a comment that is kind of discouraging, but that's after I've read like 200 comments that are really encouraging. So it's overwhelmingly positive. I'm incredibly grateful that, uh, people, you know, are so nice and expressive about like things that they like. Uh, yeah, I think, you know, the songs that I do on my channel are all songs that I think are pretty awesome songs. And so I've got like a, you know, I'm, I'm invested in it actually as a work of art that I am enthusiastic about. And so I think that that comes through. Like people can tell that I like this song. I think it's kind of like, uh, interesting if you are Japanese and you see this guy who's not Japanese, and he's, you know, talking about a song, a Japanese song that you like, and it's, uh, you know, just so, it's not that, uh, the, like the, the non-Japanese person has like more authority or something, but you definitely probably have sensed that they are more objective or something. It's not like I grew up like listening to Japanese music from the time I was born. I found it, you know, in my young adulthood, and I would find a song that's really great. And so I think it's exciting for people sometimes to realize, "Oh, wow, this song really is good." Like, it's not just because it was on the radio or on that TV show. Like, look at this dude, he didn't even have a radio or watch that TV show. He's like from California, and he thinks it's awesome. So I think sometimes people like that aspect that, uh, you know, I'm kind of like validating how good the music is. I also, you know, part of my mission is just to share that music with other people. Outside of Japan, I always put English subtitles on my videos, and I get some viewers who are kind of discover Japanese music through my channel. Um, but mostly, like the goal that I have is not just to promote specific songs, but to to create that feeling I was talking about, like that when you get inside music and look at it really closely, you become sensitized to the, like the emotional power, the impact of a chord or a note or a word or a rhythm. Uh, and as you become more sensitized to it, it means it feels better to listen to it. So just expanding the amount of like musical pleasure in the world, musical enjoyment, that's kind of like my core mission. And so I feel like that's working. Yeah.
Would you say that, uh, your mission and this kind of format you've been using would work in the United States, or would you say the cultural differences in the music industries and in the way people perceive musicians, as you mentioned earlier, would kind of not work out the same way it works?
It works exactly the same, that aspect of it. Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, that was my experience always with my students in the US is that, you know, like you get inside of some musical devices with them, you kind of unwrap them, identify them, stare at them, uh, explore them, and then you just become deeper as an artist, and, uh, you know, more emotionally moved as a listener. So that part works exactly the same. I do think there is a little bit of an advantage in Japan just because like the idea of, uh, analyzing something, mhm, does not elicit as many eye rolls, like as a, as a knee-jerk reaction in Japan. There's more curiosity towards actually wanting to understand. Yeah, like studying something, analyze something. Like if I told, you know, a group of like 50 Japanese people, okay, right now, we're going to analyze this song. I think almost all of them would be like, "Wow, cool. I wonder what's in there." And if I said that to a group of like Americans right now, "I'm going to analyze this song." They'd be like, "No, don't analyze it. You're going to ruin it. I, I don't want to know." Like, there's kind of an anti-academic, you know, thing again, like with music. Leads to the inspiration of the artist, basically, not the work behind it. Exactly. Like there's this, there's this feeling in American culture that, you know, if you overanalyze something, you're going to ruin it. And obviously, that's true. But again, that's like if we're focusing on the fact that the word is a German augmented sixth chord, or this is like a Neapolitan chord, or it's like, "Oh, now we're going to play the octatonic scale." It's like, whatever lingo I'm attaching to it. If we get too nerdy about that, then yeah, that can kind of ruin the effect of the music, defeats the purpose. But if you do what kind of I would do in my classes, like you get past the students' skepticism about that, when they're like, "Oh, no, he's going to ruin, he's going to ruin David Bowie now by analyzing it and never be able to listen to the song anymore." What we actually did was made David Bowie better. Was made all of them love David Bowie more and feel his music more, you know? So there's the, the actual result is the same, but the, you know, kind of like the, the welcoming, uh, you know, openness to the approach, I think, is a little bit easier in Japan. Interesting.
One thing I noticed throughout the whole discussions, uh, we've had and listening to your story is you seem to have a very keen interest into understanding things. From understanding the the people that came to stay at your home and their cultures, to understanding the the music you were studying, to understanding the Japanese language better. And well, you became a teacher, right? So you kind of started teaching at university, and you took this mission one step further to teach, uh, to everyone online for free, and and kind of share your mission of having people get on a deeper understanding of music. And you brought with us today a book that you have written, and this book seems to be just a natural kind of extension of your work, of your mission of having people understand music more. Yeah. Can you tell us maybe how you came to write an entire book in Japanese about music, and what this represents for you?
Uh, well, thank you for talking about my book. Um, yeah, I mean, uh, the genesis of this book was that, uh, Shueisha, ASA International, who is the publisher, yeah, very big publisher. I was very honored to be contacted by them. They basically, you know, asked me if I would write a book that kind of like is a J-pop analysis book, but for non-musicians. Like, this book is designed for just a general reading public, people who enjoy music, but not necessarily.
play music and we sort of like discussed some different ideas and uh yeah there's always like as an artist um there's always this sort of balancing and act and also negotiation when you when somebody approaches you with like a you know an opportunity.
Okay, so I'm a college professor. I've like made tons of uh materials for my classes and of course thought hundreds, maybe thousands of times, "Ah, I'm going to use this in my book. Ah, I want to make a book about this. I've got all these ideas for books." So when somebody comes to me, you know, they have like an idea that's their sort of conception for like what kind of book they think would sell or be interesting. And then I'm like, "Okay, this is an opportunity for me to finally do some of the stuff that I want to do." So you plug your ideas. Yeah, so we kind of like find this place in the middle that turns into something that both of us like. That was a slightly, you know, uh clunky process, but we got to it. So I'm very happy with the book. I think that they're happy with it.
Um, how long did it take to to make from the moment they kind of contacted you to the moment the book was out, which is quite a recent publication, right? Yeah, it came out last year, uh, in August. So, near year. Yeah, it's been out for nearly a year. It, uh, it took kind of a while. Again, I wasn't, I, I just got too many things going on, so I wasn't able to just like go into a cabin someplace and focus on like pounding out this book. There was also sort of a process of working that, yeah, like in the beginning, they sort of wanted to pair me with like a, a writer who was. So I was going to just interview with them and then they were going to write down like dictate my words and edit it. So we had, you know, like, I don't know, 20, 30 hours of interviews. Uh, and then they sort of like wrote down what I said, but not very well. All in Japanese, of course. Yeah. And when I read it, I was like, "This is like not good."
It's not your message. No, this is, let's, we need to, I'm just going to write it. And so it took a little bit of convincing. The process between like the genesis of the idea to like when I actually started just writing it like on my computer, that like took over a year. Oh, okay. So, yeah, it was a long process to get there. But once I started writing it, the book was finished in maybe four months. Yeah, pretty. That's like way too much information for your question. I'm sorry. Not at all. It's actually quite interesting to see that. Well, you know, you also have to enter that kind of new business environment, a publisher wanting something very specific, uh, out of your work, out of your expertise, and you kind of having to navigate in order to kind of get your message across, to to make the right compromise. This is like a universal thing for like any artist doing work, you know? It's like, uh, you know, somebody might ask me to like make a song for like the background music for something. Okay, so I have to decide, okay, am I going to pour my soul into it? Am I just going to give them something that I don't even like because then I'm not going to feel bad about just like getting paid for it and my name doesn't go on it? Or am I going to give them something that I really like? And what if I do give them something I really like and then they're like, you know, "Can you do it a little bit more blah blah blah?" And they and they make it worse.
With their being a creative. Yeah. So just like, you know, just like this gray area, negotiation area, balancing act like of like how much do I bring of myself? How much do I try to push for my idea? Whenever you're kind of collaborating with like a big corporation who have their own goals, you have to do a combination. And like the answer is definitely not to just always do your thing exactly the way that you want to. You have to make compromises. Yes, you have to make compromises. And sometimes those compromises make it better. And definitely those compromises can help you build the career, uh, because if you're a pain in the butt to work with, they're not going to ask you to do the next thing. Yeah, it's it kind of ends there. And then you end up in the situation that you mentioned, a lot of fellow musicians might be here where they don't get the the second call to followup.
Yes. Do you feel like this book, or maybe rather I should ask, how has this book impacted your career as a musician? Uh, well, it's fairly good to have something published, you know, as a, uh, a proof that you're established in a society that likes to have some kind of, especially in Japan. Exactly. Yeah, like in America, like, um, you know, the, there's sort of like a, like a, a reverence for people who have like just like a magical story, like you're like, "Oh, I just woke up one day and played guitar like a genius and became Jimmy Hendrix and became Jimmy Hendrix like in a vacuum and I never and I didn't even go to school or whatever. I never even tried and I got an A." It's like so this kind of idea that like, uh, you know, the the mystery is and is just spontaneous and there's no process. That's kind of that's kind of like powerful in American lore. So it doesn't really matter to me whether Brad Pitt, for example, like is a doctor of acting who's got a book, uh, you know, and who like really worked really hard. I just like see his movies and he looks awesome. And if they told me he's just a natural, it's like, great. Same thing with like musicians. Like I don't really care if like, uh, you know, Aretha Franklin has a doctorate in music or not, okay? Meanwhile, in Japan, they, uh, they do kind of like. So putting that I have a doctorate of music, like on my on a poster for my show, actually makes people like more interested in going to my shows. And the fact that I have like a, you know, a book that's published by a major publisher, that also is good for that credential. It also leads to other work, you know? I've had lots of, um, I've had I've been blessed to have lots of kind of TV work in Japan, but since this book came out, I had a few bigger things happen with that. Very nice. And then that's again, sort of snowballs, you know? I got lots of cool video stuff going on right now, uh, and I think that the book had a big impact on that.
Do you feel like, so you, you've kind of had a very, uh, successful, uh, career in music here in Japan. What were some of the the most difficult moments or challenges you faced? Maybe it's cultural or just musically speaking, how was it for you to kind of face those challenges here in Japan? Yes, well, we kind of discussed a little bit of the cultural stuff already. Some other things that are just like really, um, you know, kind of like logistical challenges. When I was traveling back and forth a lot, I like the jet lag is hard. Yeah. I came one time to do some recording for, uh, the TV show Music Station, which is like a huge TV show for music in Japan. It was a really huge opportunity for me. And I did fine, okay. And I was on it and I, you know, I'm very happy that that happened. But after we recorded it, you know, I really felt like it was 1/10th as awesome as it could have been. And part of that was just because like I got off the plane the day before. And while we were recording, like I felt like I couldn't talk. I felt like I'm still adapting to the time zone. Just like my body was like a mess. So like that kind of thing can be really rough. Um, being able to, uh, you know, just make noise like in your apartment or your house, like that has been a challenge. There was a time when I first came over in 2020, like this time, I was in a very small apartment in Tokyo, and the walls were thin, and you can hear your neighbors. Yeah. And they could definitely hear me if I was going to play some scales or try and sing a song or something. And I just had this feeling like I couldn't. It was very constricting kind of feeling. It's very hard to practice music if you sort of know somebody can hear you and they might not like it. It's like hard to keep your mind off of that and into the stuff. So, you know, just like logistically having to go to karaoke to practice, uh, having to rent a rehearsal studio. Cuz in America, you know, I was living in a house and I could make as much noise as I wanted all day long, even in the middle of the night, cuz my neighbor wasn't that close. Yeah. It's quite a difference in terms of logistics here with smaller apartments, less space, and to kind of do this.
Do you have the opportunity now to go more frequently to recording studios, and is it, is it easier now in Japan? Yeah, so, um, one, like, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. I love this expression. Like the fact that you can't really practice your music inside your house means that like you can go to karaoke, but it also means there's like tons of music rehearsal studios like all over. Sound and probably maybe more accessible as well. Yeah. And so, you know, I've got a rehearsal studio pretty close to my house that I go to when I have a friend over who plays drums or something, we can just go there. Uh, it's a little bit expensive, but, you know, not, not too bad in terms of the music.
We record. We talked a lot about, uh, while you kind of explaining the music, uh, on your YouTube channel for your audience. So taking songs from, uh, that are already written. You mentioned that that you worked with some very popular musicians here in Japan, and you taught music at university, but you also mentioned at the very beginning that you kind of started it all by making some of your own music and releasing your albums. For bringing it back to that, are you still doing this today? And if so, what kind of music and how has your life in Japan influenced your musical style? M, uh, yes, I, you know, I like, I need, uh, I need help. Toby, you need help to help. Like I need help figuring out, you know, what to do next and how long to do it. You know, like I need somebody to help me with my scheduling, a manager. Yeah, well, I have a manager and it's just like, there's, I'm, I'm just involved in kind of too many different things to keep my focus, you know? It, there's, there's a good side of it and we can get into it, but let me answer your question first, which is, yes, I still make music. Uh, I'm still writing music. I have new songs that I want to record. Uh, it's kind of like taking a long time to get it done, but, uh, they're coming. Yeah, they're, they're on their way. And I, I love making my music. I also love other people's music. So I don't really feel like as an artist, like, uh, you know, if I'm playing somebody else's song, then I'm, you know, not being an artist. Like, I just feel like whenever I'm playing a beautiful song, then I feel pretty fulfilled. Uh, if it's my song, of course, there's an extra layer of sort of like personal touch. Yeah. So I, I want to make more music. Uh, I'm kind of working on it, but, uh, you know, one of the things about, we've talked a little bit about how like, you know, I'm, I'm doing lots of different things. I wrote a book, I'm a YouTuber, I'm a college professor, I'm an artist, I'm a, whatever. That's just what being a musician is like anyway, you know? So the complete opposite of the stereotype you described about the American musician who's lazy and doesn't do anything. Yeah, right. But that's also just like, you know, I always thought of like a musical career just like a pie with many pieces in it, you know? Mhm. Uh, it is not a straight line and you don't just do one thing. It's not like you practice like some note and then you sell an album and make a million dollars. Like that. What you do is you do some teaching, that's like a piece of the pie. You play at a wedding, that's like a piece of the pie. You play at a party and just get free food, that's a piece of the pie. You know, you like play something that gets chosen as background music on a TV show and you get a royalty check from, you know, whatever the ASCAP or BMI or whatever Jazz Rack or something, that's a piece of the pie. Somebody calls you and says, "Will you play guitar, you know, on my, uh, demo? I'll pay you $100." That's the piece of the pie. Somebody calls you the next day and asks you to do the basic do the same thing. "I'll pay you $22,000." That's the piece of the pie. You know, it's just like very, you have tons of different tasks with tons of different people asking you to do it. I think it's the same pretty much for all artists, but to be a musician, you just have to like, kind of try to grow your pie. And the ratios of the different things kind of change over time. Sometimes it's seasonal, maybe you have tons of wedding gigs in the summer, maybe you have like no performances at all in January, but then it picks up again in March. Maybe January is your month to do, you know, so do writing.
Look like for you in the future, what would you like this pie to look like? If you could, if you have a preference for, oh, this will satisfy me. I like this flavor. What, what will that be? Okay, big, big. I want the pie to be big because the more, the more the bigger the pie, sort of the more freedom you have to make choices inside there. So you still want the flexibility. You like to do different things. I like to do different things for sure. And I kind of need that, you know, like, uh, if I was just going to, even when I was writing this book, just like focusing on it for like eight hours for a day, it is, I'm not going to write a good word next. I needed to get out of the house, go for a bike ride, go, you know, for a walk, like, uh, just sing a song or whatever, uh, have a picnic or or something in the middle for the next word to be good. So for me, I like to have a life where I, I get to be involved in lots of things. For the pieces of the pie that I have right now, I would definitely like to, you know, do more my original music. Yeah, that would be nice. I'm actually kind of, you know, I'm involved in a project right now that I can't really talk about it in detail, but I can say this, it that I'm writing tons of music for for it. So even though I haven't released, uh, you know, a solo album recently, uh, I've, I've been producing tons of songs for this other project. So I am still. And your music will be available through that other project for many to hear. Yes. Is it a movie? Yeah, it's no, it's not a movie. It's, you know, I, I'll talk about it, you know, some other time. It's just like, you know, how release schedules are. It's like, I don't want to get into it before I know the release details.
But with all the things that you've done and, uh, the opportunities you've had, do you still have any specific dreams in the music industry? Maybe some artist that you love to play with that you like to collab with or having your own show at a specific event, or is there something? Sure. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to list some dreams on you, man. Yeah, go ahead. So first of all, you know, this is one of the questions that Angela asked me back then when you came into class, just like, "Po," she's, she's, by the way, you know, like an incredibly powerful, motivated, just like force. Of course, she's a brilliant songwriter, she has an amazing voice, she's a, she's a great artist, but she also like knows how to achieve a dream, you know what I mean? And so she done, yeah, she, and she like gave me some tips on that. I'm not that good at it, but, uh, anyway, one that was one of the things she asked me, she was like, you know, you shouldn't need to write down some of the people you want to play music with and you know, kind of like have very concrete goals and like make that happen, like go towards that thing. Unfortunately for me, like when I was growing up, the people I wanted to one day play music with, uh, like my, the main people I would have said was Prince and David Bowie, and they both died like in the last three years. So, oh well. Um, but yeah, I have other people of course I'd love to play with. Um, yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot of Japanese artists that I really like. Uh, I would basically love to play with any major Japanese artist, of course. Um, more, any specific genre, maybe J-pop, or would you like to explore maybe hip-hop or Japanese jazz artists? I think like pop rock music, yeah. And in my life, you know, I've studied lots of different styles. I got really deep into metal, I got really deep into like country music, I got really deep into classical guitar, got really deep into Brazilian music. So I've gone through lots of phases, you know, uh, and explored different things. Hip-hop, you know, I was in that hip-hop band for a long time. But yeah, I think where my sort of home is as an artist is like pop and rock music. Yeah. Uh, okay. And then I would definitely like to, you know, have kind of like more, I'd like to get to a million subscribers on YouTube. That's like a goal. So there's a goal. There's a number. Okay. That would be really cool. That would be awesome. Yeah, definitely need to, uh, pump up my output if I'm going to make that happen. Consistency is key. Yeah.
Well, I have one more question that I want to ask you before we move to Andre's little trivia session. And I wanted to kind of, uh, we talked so so much about your, uh, uh, understanding of music and your mission that you have. But if you could summarize this, maybe one more time, what will be the message that you would have for our listeners if they are now listening to the next song? That when they pick up their phone, what, what should they kind of remember from this discussion we've had? Okay, so, uh, you know, music is quite powerful. Um, it can, it can help release emotion that's pent up. And sometimes that manifests in like crying, or sometimes it manifests in you kind of like getting off all pumped up, you know, ready for the game or whatever it is. Sometimes it manifests in you just like being able to relax or whatever. These kind of like therapeutic, almost aspects of music, they are, they are connected to specific musical devices, you know, like you could tell me an emotion that you want to express and I could, I could find it for you pretty fast, like in with notes and rhythms and stuff. Um, so what I just encourage people to do is when you listen to a song that you like, you know, just try and listen in a little bit. Focus on something. So maybe the song starts with a little guitar riff. It goes, okay. So as you listen to the song, the next thing that's going to maybe take your focus is when the singer comes in and says, "I want to go to the store," or whatever they're going to sing about. But instead of just like letting yourself kind of passively follow the, you know, the whatever is like the most prominent thing in the mix, maybe try and follow that guitar line and see where it goes. And just follow what it's on its journey. It's on the L on the guitar. Yeah. Imagine it's, you're like watching a movie and you're like, "Okay, you know, I'm going to just like pay attention to what happens to that red car right there. It's not even the main part of the scene." Okay, look at it. Now that red car goes up and it kind of stops in the middle of the street there. I never noticed that before. Oh, now it turns right. But five seconds later, it's here again. I guess they didn't have that many cars on set when they were, you know, what I mean? Like you will notice like a detail if you just focus on the guitar, or you just focus on the drum part, or you just focus on the bass, uh, and listen to the whole song like that. Then the next time you listen to the song, you can go back to your kind of initial passive way of listening to it, where you just enjoy the song. But you're going to have a slight bit of extra consciousness, a little bit of extra sensitivity to the musical kind of impact that the guitar line has. You're going to be hearing the song with a little bit more clarity. And so that's like the, the baseline way to sort of get inside music and have it like be deeper, more fun. Beautiful message. Thank you, Capital, for sharing and telling us all about your story. I'm sure there will be many more things to say, but it's time for Andre's trivia time.
Okay, I can't wait. I, um, this discussion was very serious and deep, and I feel even embarrassed with, yeah, my questions are so silly now. So, but anyways, I will follow through and ask those questions. Um, let's just jump right into it. The first question is, how many views does the most viewed YouTube music video have? So the closer you get to the number, most, the most viewed YouTube music video. So not Japanese, like just worldwide. Worldwide? Yes. Okay, so must big. Just write the number. I'll see. Thousands, millions, billions. All right. I am, I got an idea. Okay, so Capital, you as an expert and guest, you would go first. 1.6 billion. 1.6 billion views. Wow. Okay. I said 7 billion. 7 billion. What, what is the most viewed video? By the way, any guesses? And music video? I'm going to guess Baby Shark. Right? Okay. Okay. That's Baby Shark. Um, because many people say that it's Despacito, usually because that's what they listen to. Yes. It's Baby Shark, and it's 12.9 billion. 12.9 billion. Wow, man. I was trying to be like, I thought like it was big news and Baby Shark passed a billion. So, but now I realized 12 times around. I was way under. 12, almost 13. Soon. Soon be 13. Okay. Yeah, I don't have any that many views on any of mine. Yeah, consistency. If only I was putting out a video a day, I'd have a billion views. Crazy. This Pito has 8.16 billion. Okay. Eight. I don't know why I'm writing this down. It's just something about the power of this pen. Okay. Uh, next question. The channel that has the most subscribers is happened to be a music channel. Oh dear. Which channel is it? Wasn't it some Indian, uh, Bollywood music channel or something like that? Okay, let's write down the, the number first. And then like the number of the number of subscribers. Subscribers. Oh, wow. It's really coming down. I was about to say 1.6 billion again. Subscribers. Be weird if, like, my answer to every question was 1.6 million. 1.6. Eventually, you will be right. Like, if I ask millions of questions, like that's the correct answer to some question. Some question. Okay, wait, let me. So the most, the number of subscribers of that, of the most subscribed, all right, YouTube channel, which is a music channel. All right, I got an idea. Okay, you go first, please. 103 million. 103 million. Million. I have 120 million. 120 million. Okay, so the name of that YouTube channel is T-Series. It is an Indian channel, and it has 243 million subscribers. More than double. Once again, I'm too low. You, The Price is Right. You ever see that show? The Price is Right? I would be losing big time because you got to get as high as you can without going over. I've been doing this for many weeks and I haven't gotten any right so far. I've got few maybe or close enough. Not right. Yeah, not exactly. One more question. Okay, the last one is not about YouTube, but about subscriptions and music. Um, how many people are subscribed worldwide to music streaming platforms? So all platforms combined, including Spotify, Deezer, and many more. The information that I have is two years old. I couldn't find 2023, so I, 2021 or end of 2021. Worldwide streaming platform subscribe. Maybe 1.6 billion. Yeah, that will be. Okay, I got an idea. All right. Okay. Please. 3.2 billion. 3.2 billion. That's like half population. That's half population of the world. Well, yeah, music streaming. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I was imagining a large part of the population in China maybe being subscribed, plus Europe, plus North America, then of course, maybe less in India, but well, yeah, maybe we're over the moon here, overshooting. 521 million. Over. 1.60. 521 million. All right. See, this is an great example of why like I need help for planning in the business side. Yeah, it's just, you know, yeah. Good. Well, thank you for the questions. And at least we learned something about the music industry. That was a good question. That was kind of a point to learn a little bit and give our viewers a little bit of information, trivia information. Thank you again, Capital. This was very nice of you to come today. And, uh, we'll share your philosophy of music with and your journey here in Japan. And, uh, well, this was today's episode from, uh, Stories from Japan, uh, presented by Toby and Andre. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll see you again next week. [Music] Here.