posted 05-28-2001 06:45 PM ET (US)        

I am almost a rock star in Japan! I did at least 12 hours of interviews (featuring the considerable skills of Yuko, my very own translator!) for all the big Japanese rock mags like "Rockin'On" (seriously, that's what it's called) and "Strange Days" (where the review of Lovers Leap was on the same page as David Byrne and Elvis Costello! Ooo!) and the interviewers all mentioned how my music was very special...a few of them suggested I would have great success in Japan. The experience has really recharged my musical batteries...I've been writing like a fiend since I've been back. Songs about drugs and sex! Whoo-hoo!

We did a photo shoot in a park on the only rainy day...totally cutesy/sappy. The photographer even got the ultimate cheesiest shot of me with surrounded by schoolkids in their uniforms. I did an interview for Channel A (Cable TV) and Sony Music TV filmed my set. I was freaked out nervous the first two shows in Osaka and Nagoya, opening for Malkmus and all, but by the shows in Tokyo I was fine.

Avex (my label in Japan) was totally wicked... they made Dan Bryk buttons with a little cartoon I drew in my letter to Akiko (who found and signed me). They took my girlfriend Erin and I out to dinner every night (except when the promoter took us to 10-course dinners with the Malkmus posse!) and I had way too much sushi, amazing Sukiyaki and tons of Japanese junk food! I probably gained weight, even with all the walking around.

Akiko took us everywhere, even on our day off in Osaka ("jet-lag appreciation day") she took us sightseeing in Kyoto. And kept us out of trouble with my non-existent Japanese language skillz--she was totally apologetic about her English speaking, though we thought she was amazing. Totally workaholic, though, she makes most western record execs look like lazy shits. We got to the Avex office at 9pm one night and 3/4 of the staff was working like it was 3 in the afternoon--I think the Japanese work ethic has a lot to do with the 8 iced coffee machines on every corner. It's mind-blowing, although Erin and I totally wanted to give Akiko a vacation! She probably had enough work to do already without shepherding us around for a week.

The Jicks were really salt of the earth, hardly rockstarish except perhaps for their consumption of backstage alcohol. Stephen and Heather are what you would call a "great couple." Jicks were a surprisingly tight band (not judging by their record, but after some of the Pavement shows I've seen...) Joanna is pretty quiet but definitely a deep-thinker, the George of the group, which makes John the Ringo (albeit heavier, considering he played with the Fastbacks.) Mike would then be the Mike Pinder (an all-round great multi-instrumentalist with ace mellotron chops on some obscure cover they called "Fly" that was so fucking epic-sounding I expected Thom Yorke to rise from a platform on the stage...and that's a compliment.) John cavorted a fair bit with Remco, their travelling soundman--he's Dutch and we shared a few bars of "Beep Beep Love" together...or was it Radar Love--and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Erin and I kept running into the Jicks in record stores and the "Hello Kitty" floor of Kiddyland in Aoyama. Stephen even let me be fanboy opener, and I sang "Phantasies" with them the last night in Tokyo. I will post the photos when they are developed.

The whole experience was occasionally surreal, like the 440-channel radio in the hotel room in Osaka that had 24/7 Beatles and Elvis stations (ever heard Elvis do the Carpenters' "Solitaire"?) or the coffee machines with 20 different drinks in them on every corner...or the cigarette billboards. The snacks are definitely odd and sin-thethic. I kept a junk-food diary ;)

My usual non-charisma ensured no mob scenes, but I did get approached at McDonalds by a couple of very polite kids who enjoyed my show "very very much" and wondered when I was going back to America. (Ha!) And there was the Australian-sounding gal in Tower Records who was upset when they didn't have any CD's for me to sign (L.L. isn't out 'til next week.) Then again, there were the girls who were giggling and videotaping Erin and I from a block away...but then again they might have just found us funny looking gai-jin. There's nothing like your own personal interpreter for three days to get you feeling self-important...it's addicting. I didn't know what it was like to have to sing after fifteen hours of interviews in three days, though. Not that I'm complaining.

Definitely the highlight was Hideki Kaji wanting to meet me backstage! He is a pop star legend in Japan who has recorded with Eggstone and Sarah Cracknell, and he's probably younger than I am. It was really a shock that he knew my music. Akiko totally has the hook up in Tokyo, and I was surprised when I got there I already had testimonials from J-Pop stars like Hirohisa (from Neil and Iraiza) and Shakkazombie. There is a little page for now on the Avex website, if any of you know Japanese: http://www.avexnet.or.jp/avexdb/danbryk/index.htm

Anyhow, I'm still on a really amazing vibe even a week later. I've been at the piano a lot the last couple of days, writing after a couple months of winter depression and being disappointed that Lovers Leap didn't find a few more friends. You folks have really helped me feel like you're actually waiting for more music from me, and sometimes I need to know that to be inspired. I'm not very good at justifying my status as a product anyhow, so it's good to feel like I could be "commercially successful" for a change. They had to like me somewhere!

The jet-lag is killer though. My body has refused to wake up the first four days...I've been sleeping in until the crack of noon. I was quasi-nauseous today...uuurm.

posted 06-01-2001 03:35 AM ET (US)            

http://www.bryk.com/photos/

posted 06-01-2001 03:47 AM ET (US)            

quote:

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tee hee so its fun to be a rockstar?

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posted 06-02-2001 11:32 PM ET (US)            

Speaking of Bono I saw U2 on Sunday...damn what a show! Elvis Costello is awesome live too! Dan...you fucking rocked the shit out of the Cabaret in Montreal when I saw you! I had never heard of you before that night with Owsley and FOW, but man I was impressed! I hope you come to Montreal relatively soon. It would be great to see you again! Speaking of Owsley they are still working on their second album...It's taking them forever, but I am sure that it will be even more shocking!