Ramble thought time! Ani-Jam through my experience: I think theres a difference when it comes to an anime convention in a city thats in the middle of other cities, versus an anime con in a city thats in the middle of the countryside. It goes deeper than just less traffic and resources around you. Fresno Ani-Jam is one of those unique con experiences where, yes it is a smaller event, but the people who run it for the attendees all see it as one big family get-together thats into similar interests. Mainly Anime, Japanese culture and gaming. Plus a big presence of Steampunk thrown in. This is the con that I always look forward to that gets to hear the new music I remix first... And not just any music - the remix work that I consider an experiment, before releasing it out there to the world. Gigs in the past, I did more mic work onstage. This year (with the exception of Cosplay Videography Live), I did almost no mic work. I let the music do all the talking. A solid 2 hour set of mostly new remixes not heard outside of my portable music player, and remasters of classic favorites like Totoro and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. Sure there were spots in the crowd where they did form a circle and such, but the fact is this - THE FANS STAYED DURING MY SET OF FAST MUSIC. That is loyalty I dont really get at other events I go to on a regular. And yes - I heard you guys chant ANI-JAM! ANI-JAM! and sing during Naruto - Haruka Kanata and the Attack on Titan remix... JAGERRRRR! Oh, u gaiz! LOL~ Music geek talk, I was also experimenting with my own genre I created last night... Genre is called Nagasaki Bass Prefecture (a mix of 90s Atlanta/Miami Mass music, Detroit Techno and 80s Latin Freestyle Dance meets J-pop/Anime music).... The experiment worked! Plus it blends perfectly with Happy Hardcore and Drum n Bass/Jungle styles. Whats more to say about Greg Ayres? I think having him do the second half of the dance, and me doing the first half was an excellent idea. And yes, even if I suck at dancing, I stayed around for a while to simply listen to what he was mixing - and it was excellent! This year, we had this awesome chemistry of planning for the dance. He already knew what I was about to ask - I wanted to get the opening slot anyway, to experiment with my new genre :). It was perfect. Greg is always awesome to work with. Very happy to be able to share the dance space with Greg! Other acts that I enjoyed: Chii Sakurabi (very excellent Jpop Idol works - very reminiscent of Megumi Hayashibara) and Akai Sky (Always a crowd entertainer, lot of energy in their songs). I also got to meet Samantha Inoue-Harte finally! I was happy to hear that she enjoyed the Cosplay Videography Live DVD (the staff had leftovers from last year). Yes, I plan to record the entire set from last night, and I will post a link for everyone to check it out in a few days! I wasnt able to make a new batch of DVDs in time this year... Sorry about that! But back to Samantha - she is also an awesome guest and just a fun person overall! Good times talking with her in Con-Ops! :D I personally want to thank the fans and staff of Ani-Jam for another successful year. This has been a great experience for me as a musician/entertainer, as I not only further my development in creating this new music genre, but further develop Cosplay Videography Live as well! Thank you, Ani-Jam!!!!
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:35:00 +0000
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