I did write an article about Japan in my publication SLICE 2006 (published in February 2006). Tarja Turunen with Xena chakram on the cover (very exclusive shot by Michael Johansson). I was not very interested in the music scene at that time so the bits in the article that covers this subject is about stories I have catched from European artists that have toured over there. The rest is basically an historic look at Japan (including conflict, social, sexual, cinematic, criminal, tourist). It is not your average PC article. It was a fun piece to write and it still holds up pretty well as good entertainment (which was the goal for everything I ever published). When I quit publishing magazines in 2015 (after having published over a hundred editions, of which 60 had been dedicated to Deep Purple) I had not returned to the subject of Japan. It kind of bugs me now that I only discovered the Japanese rock scene again thanks to Babymetal in 2017. Had I published magazines now I would have highlighted this scene in a big way. Printing magazines is expensive, and I did walk away from it all pretty content with what I had achieved. I can feel now that it would have been great fun to dive deep into Japan again though. The music scene is fantastic, and still very underground over here. Well, it is what it is. Trinkelbonker is my outlet now.
(My shot of said article, cover shot by Michael Johansson – check out the fanzines and read up on them on the “Fanzine History” tag on this blog)
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