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May 1, 2005

Golden Interview Week: No. 3 - Sheila Burgel

Sheila Burgel runs Cha Cha Charming - a net 'zine, previously in print form, dedicated to international girl pop of all eras. She also writes a column for MTV Japan's monthly free paper and is a frequent contributor to Bust Magazine. After finishing up a massive liner notes project for Rhino Records, Sheila is currently in Japan buying old records for her DJ arsenal and doing reconnaissance for a possible Japanese beat girl compilation.

1) The first time I ever saw Cha Cha Charming in 1999, you had dedicated an entire issue of your 'zine about 60s girl pop to 90s Jpop. Why the sudden disinterest now in the current Japanese pop scene?

It's dead. Only Shiina Ringo and Halcali remain. But even those two artists are on their way out. So in short, I feel like I discovered J-pop at it's all-time high - mid-late '90s when squeaky-voiced female pop-ettes fronted bands that could actually string a tune together (without having to resort to the over-used J-pop formula). Groups like Judy And Mary, My Little Lover, Puffy. But when the clock struck midnight on Dec 31 1999, all Japanese musicians suddenly realized that Green Day, Blink 182, and/ or Jay Z, Fat Joe were the way to go, and thus put all their eggs into mainstream American crap. Had they chosen smarter influences, J-pop might still be breathing. Yet, that is only one of the reasons J-pop has become so awful as of late...

2) So do you still listen to Japanese music?

I listen only to Japanese music from 1966-1970. And within that, only female singers. If you'd like specific artists, I'll say Chiyo Okumura, Linda Yamamoto, Ayumi Ishida, Mieko Hirota - girl-pop singers with enka-twinged pipes singing GS [Group Sounds]-styled oriental rock n'roll. Some of Japan's best songwriters and producers backed these girlies, and these guys - Tsutsumi Kyouhei and Kunihiko Suzuki - really knew how to merge American/ British influences with Japanese traditional music. The result is often dark - lots of minor key melodies - but add that to some heavy bass and groovy GS garage/rock n'roll, and you've got yourself some FAB records.

3) Can you discuss the compliation you're putting together?

Basically, ever since I "discovered" Sixties Japanese beat girls I've been wanting to put together a compilation for the world outside Japan, most of which isn't even aware that Japan boasted a pretty swingin' Sixties scene. In the mid-90's British reissue label Ace Records produced three Group Sounds compilations for Europe - the GS I Love You series - which comprised three volumes, and since it sold a fair amount of copies, I went to them with my "Nippon Pop Girls" pitch, and they gave me the go ahead to begin researching the potential for such a compilation. So here I am in Tokyo, meeting with Japanese '60s pop record collectors, producers, compilation kings to get the scoop on licensing these tracks for Ace. So far so good.

4) What's the rarest 45 in your collection?

Probably Dutch gal Bonny St. Claire's "Tame Me Tiger," which I found on Ebay for a ridiculous amount of amount of money. The reissue is everywhere, but I've got the original.

5) Can you describe for the process of writing liner notes?

My first liner notes gig was for a Girl Group box set that Rhino Records will be putting out towards the end of the year. 4 CDs, 120 tracks - and I don't mean "Be My Baby," "Chapel Of Love," "Johnny Angel" - this box delves into the obscure girl group stuff, which is my expertise, but also extremely difficult to obtain info on. I wrote the track-by-track commentary. 120 tracks X lotsa lotsa words. Process is research followed by hours of condensing the info into 150 words. And writing an introduction and conclusion 120 times. This is a dream job for any music writer. But to get this at the start of my "career" is even better.

Posted by marxy at May 1, 2005 1:14 PM

Comments

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