Talking to a REAL Japanese Anime Singer (ft. Nano) | Trash Taste #38
02:06:08 Share

- Hello and welcome to another episode of Trash Taste. I am your host for today, Garnt, and joining me as usual are the boys. And once again, I am hosting another guest. - No.

Do you wanna introduce yourself and tell us what you do? Or tell the viewers what you do, I should say. - Sure. Hi, my name is Nano. You probably don't know who I am, but nice to meet you. Nice to meet you guys. - Very humble start. - I have to say, you were the only reason why I loved Batum so much. - Oh really? - Yeah. - Wow. - The Batum opening is so goddamn good. I'm just gonna get that out of the way. - That's amazing that you know my songs. - Of course, of course. - Who doesn't know your songs? - Oh really?

- Yeah, honestly from like that, especially Batum, but out of everything about Batum, I still remember the opening. - Yeah, to this day. - Yeah, to this day. And it's impressive because I don't remember a lot about that show. It's been many, many years, but I still, the opening just fucking banged. I just gotta say that now. - That and also Arpeggio Blue Steel opening is like so freaking good. - Okay, I do remember that show being quite bad.

- But the opening though, you know. - Yeah, opening's bang. - Even though I'm not, I'm often mocked because I can't really appreciate music, but I have to admit your music. I like the noise. - Thank you, thank you. That is an honor to hear. That is an honor to hear. - Beeps in the boobs. - So do you wanna introduce yourself a little to the viewers so they can learn a bit more about you and who you are? - Well, you know, as they said, I've sung a couple openings for anime, anime,

- I'm losing my words here because talking is not my job. - I mean, yeah, you sing. - I sing. - You have a much more lovely voice than we do. We just talk shit all day and that's our job. - But today is my sort of YouTube W day. - Oh, wow. Oh, you're debuting today. - Yeah, so maybe I'm gonna be a YouTuber from now on.

- I did see you did a YouTube live stream at one point. - I did, I did. I would love to do more stuff on YouTube. So this today is sort of my challenge day. And I'm really looking forward to uncovering a new sort of me.

- Exciting new adventure. - Exciting new adventure. - The amount of pressure she just dropped on us. - Exciting new adventure, that's gonna be my new song, lyrics. - Oh wow, oh God. - But yeah, 'cause I was curious, like obviously you've done anime openings and you do your own original music, but how did you get your start in that?

- Oh, that's a really long time. You really wanna go there? - Yeah, yeah, sure. - We got the time. - We got the time. Let's just jump right into it. - I thought about looking at the Wikipedia page. - Oh, no, no, no, don't go there. - I wanna be like the viewer and experience everything about you. - Yeah, exactly. - That's great though. - So tell us everything. - Yeah, don't go to Wiki. Get your information from the real story. - Yeah, first hand.

- Well, I started off, well, I've always wanted to become a singer since I was little, but I started off actually on the internet. So I was an internet singer. I did a lot of YouTube, right? That goes back way back to history. Even before all this like YouTube boom happened, I was a YouTuber. - What year, what year, what year? I gotta ask. - Oh, what year? Way back when it's like 2000 in like,

- Back when you had to favorite the videos and give five stars. - Yes, yes. And like, no matter what you did, you never got money for it. - Yeah.

- So back when it was a four by three aspect ratio. Oh, OG YouTuber, brilliant. - Is that when you started, Garnt? - I mean, I started at kind of the beginning of YouTube. - You started like 2006, right? - 2007. So YouTube launched in 2006 and I made my first- - It was late 2000s. So I was just on YouTube. I did my own original songs, uploaded videos and-

Then I started, you know, Japan started getting into the sort of movie internet. - Into like the culture of everything. - Culture.

- A full Japanese, half Japanese? - I'm full Japanese. I was born and raised in America. My parents are both Japanese. So I'm kind of a hybrid. - So bilingual as well from your age. - Bilingual, but I'd say I'm like my roots are the stronger roots are America. So I still find a lot of Japanese things really like

- I mean, we've talked about the weird things we find about Japanese culture all the time. - I saw that video this morning. I watched it before coming here. So I'm good to go. - She did her research. - She probably did more research than us. I feel bad now.

- Well, I mean, 'cause like, Connor's the kind of person who's like, I don't read the Wikipedia, I'd rather just hear it from the person. But like, I thought I would just dive slightly into the Wikipedia and kind of ask you for like- - That's the research bench. - Yeah, yeah. - I was like, "Wiki, I'm site the Wiki." But like, I'm the kind of person who like goes to the Wikipedia and then asks the person to confirm it if it's true. 'Cause you know, a lot of times Wikipedia is full of shit. You know, they just write whatever the hell they want.

- I don't think I've ever even checked my own Wikipedia. Cause I'm scared. - That's a level of restraint I can expect. - I'm scared to see what's written on there. - I've checked, I don't have a Wikipedia. I have like a YouTube Wiki or something. - That's like bullshit, I don't want that. - The amount of misinformation on that is just off the scale.

There's like a list of, I think like my best friends in order on that Wiki page. And it is like the most botched list I've ever seen. - Stuffed friends. - Yeah, exactly. - But like, I was looking at your Wikipedia and one part, one aspect that I thought was really interesting was how you got started, right? And it was like, you started off by covering anime songs, Vocaloid songs, and then

Really specifically it said covering Avril Lavigne songs. - Is this true? - Is this true? - Well, I've done a few of her songs, but I wouldn't say I'm a huge Avril Lavigne coverer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I've done like two songs. - Yeah, but it's weird because the Wikipedia made it out to be like, you were like the ultimate cover artist for Avril Lavigne. - Oh really? - It's specifically named Avril Lavigne along with anime

- I have an Avril Lavigne genre in my Wikipedia. - Yeah, for some reason, yeah. I mean, like, but then again, like, you know, when I saw that I was like,

- Okay, that kind of makes sense because you kind of do have like a very like early 2000, like Avril Lavigne. - But I do love her. I've been listening to her music, but I wouldn't say I'm like- - An Avril Lavigne cover artist? - It's like turning into an interrogation. - That's pretty- - Are you really? - That's really big for me, but yeah. - Yeah. So like what made you like upload your first songs? Were you just like passing time or did you just, was this your outlet?

- Well, there was a time in my, this is pretty deep. This is pretty deep. - Okay, we got time. - There was a time in my life where I was completely like introverted. I was a stay at home kind of person. Even before all this Corona happened, COVID-19 happened, I was a stay at home person. - Right there with you. - Yeah, I mean, you're preaching to the choir now. - Yeah, so this is like my generation right now. So yeah, during that time though, I still wanted to do music. I still wanted to reach out to people.

So I thought, you know, oh, yeah, Internet. Great. That's really bendy. Yeah. And so I started uploading my own songs. And lo and behold, I realized that there was a huge cut out in the world that I could reach out to the Internet. So that was my start.

- What was like your influences for some of your early songs? Was it mostly like anime and Vocaloid or was it just- - Or was it Avril Lavigne? - Or was it Avril Lavigne? - Yeah, there we go. Avril Lavigne, definitely. Can't live without her. But yeah, definitely I listened to a lot of different types of music growing up, even from Disney to like British rock, American rock, anime music, J rock.

Like, I'm a huge widespread listener, so I wouldn't just narrow it down to one genre or artist. Right. But, yeah, anime was a huge...

- Start for me because anime music was my introduction to the Japanese culture, just like you guys. And so, yeah. - I mean, what confuses me almost is how do you go from doing covers to then actually being the one singing the anime opening? What does that process look like? How do you go from there? - I'd like to ask someone that question.

- To be honest. - If you don't know who does it. - There's probably so many people out there on YouTube or on Nico Nico or whoever, like all these who are just like, if I just keep going, I might end up being the one singing it, right? - That's the thing. Like you have to just keep on doing it because that's what I did. And you know,

Whether you end up where you end up, it's, I don't know. But if you don't continue doing what you're doing, then you're never gonna get there. - So does someone scout you or did you go sending in auditions or like what was the process like to, I guess even get, I guess, recognized by a company?

Or just get signed, I guess. Yeah, before I started, though, I always thought that you had to reach out. You had to go there and get it yourself. But if you keep doing the things you do and you really enjoy what you're doing, then you're going to shine and people are going to listen to you and people are going to notice you. So if what you're doing is...

right for you then i think that someone out there is gonna find you and in my case i was lucky enough to be found by my director who supported my debut so okay well when was this was this through youtube or through nico nico it was through nico nico okay so nico nico is like japanese version of japanese youtube right was it focused on anime or was it just everything it was like vocaloids at the

- Oh wow. - But I'm not a huge Vocaloid-er to be honest. - Me neither. - I wasn't even like, you know, I wasn't that knowledgeable about Vocaloids, but I was just covering Vocaloid songs in English. - Okay. - Oh, okay. - So that was my big start covering Vocaloid songs in English. - On Nico Nico? - On Nico Nico. So there weren't a lot of people doing that back then. - Yeah, I don't think you have much competition on Nico Nico because they were,

Like I think there's a small dedicated community on YouTube who translates and does English song covers of anime songs and Vocaloid songs, but I've never heard anyone posting on it on Nico Nico mostly because nobody can figure Nico Nico out. - There were like two people covering Vocaloid songs in English, but those people were not native English speakers. So I was listening to that and I thought, "Hmm, there could be something I could do."

Because I'm not that great at Japanese, but I'm great at English. So why don't I just do that in English? And so I started doing that. And then the Japanese people were like, oh, this is new. They were like, oh, Eiko Jozu. Yeah, exactly. They're like, why is

- What's a toek school? - So, you know, that kind of sort of boosted up my views. And then after that, after the Japanese people started watching, then my songs started reaching out to the overseas community,

So it was sort of like a, I don't know, a ripple, you know, out into the world. Yeah. So would you like, would you say that you were bigger on Nico Nico than you were on YouTube back in the day? Or is that where you found your growth? Before I started Nico Nico, I was, my listeners were more on a YouTube level, but then from Nico Nico, it wasn't.

it went like boom. So I think my crowd started bigger on Nico Nico. - Because what's always fascinated me is the difference between say like the YouTube anime culture and just Nico Nico in general. I feel like- - Nico Nico is like a different planet. - Yeah, to me as like a Western anime fan, I see some of the stuff that's going on in Nico Nico and it just one makes zero sense to me and two seems to have some of the most talented creators I've like ever seen. - Oh yeah, definitely.

And nobody's heard about them 'cause they're on this one Japanese website that no foreigner can ever figure out. - It's also insane with Nico Nico as well 'cause like I used to go on Nico Nico quite a bit, like even before YouTube. And it's just, yeah, as you said, like,

for some reason creators on Nico Nico are just on a different level and none of them like do it to, you know, for like ad revenue or anything. They literally do it out of passion. And like, and you know, like so many like Utaites and like seeing a Japanese singers are all found on Nico Nico. - What's an Utaites? - Utaites basically, do you wanna explain what an Utaites is? - Oh, you can do it. - Utaites is basically like someone who does like covers of Vocaloid and anime and stuff like that. Basically it's like, YouTube has its own version of Utaites called Utaites.

- Oh, I think I have heard of this. - Yeah, yeah. So basically it's just like an amateur singer who does covers of anime and stuff like that. And then a lot of them get major record labels like,

- So how long were you uploading on Nico Nico before you got like any kind of traction? - I was completely newbie. So there were so many bigger, greater Utaites before me doing their thing. And I just started and I uploaded, I happened to upload my first videos, I think it was like 2000, really late 2010 into 2011. And then 2011, early in 2011, I got,

I noticed by my director. So it was like a few months. - Oh wow. - And so I have no friends on Nico Nico. Yeah, and my probably Nico Nico Wikipedia thingy, my barber is really like short and sweet. - I mean, 'cause you were on it for like not even a year. - I'll be honest, if someone contacted me like four months into YouTube, be like, listen, I wanna give you a record deal. I'd be like, this sounds like a scam.

Yeah, I thought so. I thought so. But I got a direct sort of contact through a creator. Oh, okay, okay. So who is called a Vocaloid P, a producer. So confusing. Yeah, I know. The words on Nico Nico are like really sort of...

- Niko Niko is a different planet. - I'm trying to, I mean, it's like when you're on TikTok, you're like, what the fuck is happening? Why is everyone taking sea shanties? What's going on? - I haven't even got that far because to me, I've always known about the Vocaloid community, but as someone who's quite ingrained to the weeb culture, I had,

the Vocaloid fad just kind of like went and went by and I had no idea about anything that was going on in that community. - Legit the only way I could understand like half the memes that were existing on Nico Nico was to just like bite the bullet and go on 2chan. I was like, cause it's all just there. So I was like, oh fuck, I guess I have to go into this cesspool to understand it. And even then I can only understand maybe like 30% of it before I was like, I just don't get this. I just don't get this at all.

- Yeah. - So like what was the difference between like say Nuka Nuka culture and uploading to YouTube for yourself?

- Well, like you said, Nico Nico is very like a closed community. Everyone is understanding they're like, you know, friends on there and it's like a parallel universe. - Are people nice on that platform? - Very nice, very nice. - Wow. - Very nice but I wouldn't say that I'm too knowledgeable about it. So yeah, but I just think that it's like a universe in itself. So they kind of move along in the world at their own pace.

That was kind of different from YouTube. YouTube is very open. It's worldwide and there's so many people on there. - Yeah, 'cause I feel like because Niconico is so focused on the kind of like the anime and weeb side of the community that it feels much more closed off and especially with the Japanese speaking as well.

But that just makes me wanna get into it more because it seems like an untapped gold mine. - Are you sure about that? - I mean, I don't know. I don't know. 'Cause from the outside looking in, there seems to be like such a gold mine of content there. And especially people getting scouted professionally on that platform just shows that there is

real talent in that platform. - Honestly, I'd say some of the best anime based memes have all originated from Niko Niko. - Is Niko Niko still a thing? - Yeah, absolutely. - Is it still popular? - Niko Niko is huge still. - Really? - Yeah, it's huge. - Especially in Asia, it's big. And I'd have to say though, the talent on Niko Niko is amazing. - Unmatched, unmatched. - That's why I think all these record labels. - What? - Katakawa owns Niko.

- Oh really? I didn't know that. - Wow, thank you. - Such a great platform. - I'm not endorsed to say that at all. - I'm curious, how do you then, okay, so you get signed, right?

- How long is it before you're given this opportunity to voice an anime opening? And are you allowed to tell us about that process and how it went? - Yeah, of course, I would love to. - We have no idea. We've never heard of anyone's firsthand experiences of going into that kind of stuff. - Oh, wow, yeah. Actually, I've never actually just really looked back and thought deeply into this, but for me, I wouldn't say that this goes for every artist, but for me,

The first time my director contacted me wasn't to give me a record deal or label record deal to make a debut. It was to do a collaboration on a song, a cover song that was going to be on a compilation album. This record label was going to release. And so I sort of collaborated with them to put one song on there. And after that, I,

The director said, okay, so we've done one song together, but what about we do a full album, a debut album together? So that was sort of my start. And from there, it was about a year, I think, that we went into sort of creation of this new, my debut album. And original songs had to be made. And so...

It was about a year that it took from me from meeting this director until releasing my first album. Okay, so this album was purely just original songs that you had to write within that year? Yeah, I did a few cover songs since my fan base was based on Nico Nico, so I did a few Vocaloid cover songs in English.

I released a few original new songs. And then after that, I released the album. And then my first single actually came after that. So my first anime tie-up was later on, a few months later.

- Okay. - So was that, was recording the album as well like the first time you were doing like studio work or was it even in the studio? - Oh my gosh, first time in an actual studio. Oh my gosh, that was crazy. - How was that? - Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. That was like nerve wracking to the extreme. - Oh yeah. - Especially because it was Victor Studio. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It wasn't like a small sort of indie studio or anything.

- Victor's studio. - It's like a major record label. - Was it like multiple people at the other side of the glass, like just watching? - Exactly. Oh my gosh, me alone in the booth and then all these like official looking people, scary people. - Were you given like direction and everything like that? - Exactly, exactly. - It's like the first time I voice acted in like a proper studio 'cause I always used to just do it like in my house in front of my own. - Exactly, I was a complete garage bender. - Yeah, right? And then all of a sudden you have headphones in me like, "Can you just do that again, please?"

this is weird. I hate the fact that people are watching and I can't see them. Exactly. And what I love about doing DTM GarageBand was that, you know, if you hated the take, you could retake it like a hundred times. Yeah. And, you know, it was completely like, you know, your pace. And if you wanted to perfect it, you could perfect it. But when you're in the studio and there are people directing you and doing your recording for you,

they kind of tell you what to do. And even if you don't like your take, you have to use it or like- - And there's like a weird pressure where it's like, I could do this a hundred times, but I feel bad for making them wait. - Exactly. - Because that's paid studio time, isn't it? So you feel pressure to have to kind of

take them like optimize the time you have because you've only paid for a certain amount of time. - You don't wanna do like another take with like the back of your head being like, oh, the director fucking hates me right now. - When I was doing a lot of voiceover in London, I would like, I had this bad habit, right? Where I would flub a line instead of like just letting the line be bad and just like ask, can I redo it? I would just say like, fuck at the end of the sentence. So they couldn't use it.

'cause it would be like, "Fuck." And then they couldn't use that. But then they started getting angry at me. They're like, "Don't do that." 'Cause we wanted to use that. We were gonna splice it together. So I had to stop doing that. Even though I liked being able to be like, "Nope, I don't like that take. "I'm gonna ruin it. "Let's do a new one." - So that was the huge difference, I think, from becoming amateur to professional was that

From that moment on, you are doing your singing or your work for someone or for work. So it's an official thing and it's not just for fun. It's not a hobby anymore. Yeah. I guess how was the transition? One of the biggest transition is obviously getting paid for your work. Because I feel like you started off with this being a hobby. How did it feel like getting your first paycheck, doing what you love or doing?

or how did that feel? Um, you know, like, but the weird thing about music is that it, it always continuously feels like a sort of hobby. And so it's probably different from another sort of type of work where you go there every day to the office work and, and it just doesn't feel like work. Like even when I'm doing my singing career, I'm always having fun. I

I love doing what I love doing. So it just never feels like work for me. - That's the dream, isn't it? - It is. - Doing what you love and loving what you do, right? - Yeah, I mean, 'cause for me, like I do my hobby for my job. I talk about fucking anime, but there are definitely some days where I wake up and it does feel like work.

- And it's usually like mornings where I'm like, okay, I have things to do, but I really don't wanna do it 'cause it's gonna feel like work. Fuck it, I'm not gonna work today. - The beauty of being self-employed baby. - Exactly. - So when you made that album, how was that kind of like distributed? Was it aimed at like Japanese audience? Was it aimed at like English audience? Like what platforms? I'm just, I'm curious about the whole process and how it was kind of like aimed around, yeah.

In the beginning, our platform was based in Japan. We were, you know, releasing stuff, especially anime, you know, is based in Japan. So our outlet was sort of to the Japanese audience, but...

- Somehow, little by little, the global community grew to know about me and I began doing sort of event lives and things overseas as well, like in Asia and America and Germany, Australia. I went to Australia as well, so yeah. - I'm jealous. - As the only Australian in this room, I have to go, yeah. - Are there any Australians in the house? - Me!

- Good day mate. - I don't want to hear your British accent. - Did you do the good day mate on stage? - I did. - How did people take that? - I had to do it. - Who told you to do it? - No one, I just wanted to do it. - Is that like a thing that you do for like different countries that you go to? Like, do you learn how to say like hello or whatever in like different languages?

- I try to, but at the same time, like I'm usually like restricted time wise. So I don't have much to talk, but if I had time to talk, I would probably do a lot of- - Hey guys, just gonna talk for 15 minutes before I perform. That's okay. - Yeah. - Like Kanye West. - No time to sing, sorry. - So how many places have you performed out of curiosity now?

mostly in Asia, but America, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Germany. Okay. Whereabouts in America did you go? San Jose, California, Atlanta, Georgia. It's like anime conventions? Yeah, anime conventions. Oh, okay, okay. And,

and New York, which is my home city. - How was it like performing in your home city? - Amazing. Yeah, it was amazing. Going back there felt like going home. - I felt that like two years ago when I went back, 'cause I'm from Sydney in Australia. So like we have a convention in Australia called Smash.

- Yeah. - Yeah, like big anime convention. So like getting invited there as a guest just felt so much better than like any other con experience I've ever been to. 'Cause it was like going back home and being like, "Look how much this city has grown." So amazing because I went to Smash in 2013 when there was like,

2,000 people, 3,000 people, something like that. And the year I went, there was, I think, maybe 50, 60,000 people that went to the concert. Just seeing how much it grew. - That's insane. - Was like, you know what?

I love my city. The city's pretty freaking dope. - One time you feel patriotic. - Yeah, yeah. One time we were like, "Horsey, Horsey, Horsey!" - Meanwhile, I just see an open field and I'm like, "Wow, that's a home." - That's awesome. - That's a lot of sheep right there. - Yeah, you'd probably feel amazing though if you were like invited to a con in Wales though, right? - Mate, there's like no con. - There's one. - I would like to get invited to a con in Brighton, but like the UK con scene is just,

- Non-existent. - Really? - Like it's yeah. - As you would never, never. - Because we have, I think one big convention which is not even a convention. It's like MCM and that's more like an expo and that's like a comic gaming films and also anime expo. - Oh, right, right, right, okay. - This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Going online without ExpressVPN is like not having a case on your phone.

Most of the time, you'll probably be fine, but all it takes is one drop and you'll wish you spent those extra few dollars on a case. Did you know that your data is valuable? Yes, even you, your data is valuable. And hackers can make as much as $1,000 selling your personal information on the dark web. I don't think you want that. And it doesn't take much technical knowledge to know how to hack someone. A smart 12-year-old could do it.

I can't though. Every time you connect to an unencrypted network in cafes, hotels, airports, your online data is not secure. Let me tell you a little bit why ExpressVPN is the best. You see, it would take a hacker with a supercomputer over a billion years to get past ExpressVPN's encryption. And it's super easy to use. Just fire up the app and click one button to start getting protected.

And it works on pretty much every device, phones, laptops, tablets, pretty much anything you have. So you can always stay protected on the go. And it's also rated number one by tech reviews like CNET and The Verge. I'm traveling around the world right now and especially VPN has genuinely been saving my ass. I like watching TV shows and it's very annoying that I have accounts in Japan and when I travel, it does not like it. So being able to just spoof that I'm in Japan or in any other country to watch any kind of content

is very helpful. So secure your online data today by visiting expressvpn.com slash trashtaste. That's E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash trashtaste. And you can get an extra three months for free. That's expressvpn.com slash trashtaste. Thank you to ExpressVPN for sponsoring this video. Back to the episode. Were you a convention girl before you started making music? Actually, I've never been to a convention just by myself. So that was a huge, big culture-like thing.

- It's crazy. - I feel like it's, it would be scary to go to a convention by yourself. I don't know about your guys' first convention, but- - I mean, I didn't go until I started YouTube, so. - Really? - Yeah, yeah. Because I mean, well, I mean, besides Smash in 2013, but I was already doing YouTube back then. Like even then, like I had to be like, "Anybody in my area that knows anything about anime, I don't care if you've only watched like one episode of Dragon Ball Z, you can just come with me please 'cause like, I don't wanna go by myself." 'Cause it's fun.

Like even at a con with like a couple thousand people, it's just daunting going on your own because it's like you get there and it's like, okay, there's a bunch of people who probably like the same stuff as I do. But there's a part of me that feels really weird just going up being like,

- So you like anime, huh? You can't really do that. - I totally understand what you mean. 'Cause I don't know how to properly break the ice. - Yeah, right? - It doesn't happen in the UK that no one talks to each other. When someone talks to you in the UK, you're like, "Whoa, what the fuck?" - I feel it'd be so much easier in America because there's already like this stranger friendliness going on, right?

Like you can just talk to someone on the street and they'll probably reply back to you. - Probably if you go to an anime convention in America, people would approach you sometimes. - Yeah, right? - If you're just wearing a cool cosplay or- - It did not work like that in Australia. - No, not in England at all. - I've never done cosplay before. - Have you never? - No, have you? - I haven't. - Well, I've done quite a lot. - Really? - He kinda does that for a living in a sense, yeah. - I've done it like once or twice. - I'm not very good.

- When they say I do it for a living, that's very sarcastically. - This episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. - So boys, I have a confession. I know we've been living in Japan at all, but I don't watch anime on TV here.

- What? - Because I still need it subbed. - What? - And that's why I use Crunchyroll to watch my anime using ExpressVPN, 'cause Crunchyroll is blocked here in Japan. - I actually do that too. - Yeah, I sometimes do that too. - I need the subs, man. What do I just do? Learn Japanese? No, no. I'm wondering, Garnt, what shows are you watching? - Right now, I am watching "Jujutsu Kaisen," "Slime" season two, and many more. "Ex-Arm" as well.

- But the good thing is ExpressVPN lets you change your online location so that you can control where you want sites to think you're located just by opening the app, selecting a location, tapping one button to connect and refreshing the page to access thousands of new shows and movies just like that. - That's crazy, that's crazy. Choose from almost 100 different countries. Watch Studio Ghibli films on UK Netflix, watch anime on Japanese Netflix, watch Doctor Who on UK Netflix and see many, many more. - This also works on any streaming service from Hulu, BBC iPlayer, YouTube,

- And many more. - You can stream in HD, no problem. No buffering or lag. And it's compatible with all your devices, phones, laptops, media console, smart TVs, and microwaves. No, it doesn't work on your microwave. - Not only does it let you change your location, it also encrypts your data and lets you surf the web safely and anonymously. That is why you should choose ExpressVPN over other VPNs. - So go to expressvpn.com/trashtaste to get an extra three free months for free. That's expressvpn.com/trashtaste. - That's crazy. You sure?

That's what the script says. - Wow, okay, well back to the video. - All right, so if you had to start cosplaying, who would be your first cosplay? - Actually, I have no idea. Any recommendations? - You should do a cosplay of either a Batum character or an Arpeggio character. It would be cool if you did a- - Batum, none of the characters are cool.

- Wasn't there one female character in Batuu? - Yeah. - That's all I remember. - It was the blonde hair girl, right? - Yeah, in a school uniform. - Well, that's what I'm saying. I feel like Arpeggio would be a lot more cosplay friendly 'cause it's actually interesting and looks cool. And it would be dope if,

- Say hypothetically you sang the arpeggio opening in cosplay of an arpeggio character. - Oh my gosh, that's really like- - That would be meta as fuck. - That's very cheesy. - It's cheesy but you know con goers would fucking fall over that. - Well, outside of just like anime that you've sung in, like what are some of your favorite anime characters that you've-

would like to cosplay, I guess. - I don't know, but... - Like looks aside, just anyone that you like. - I don't know. - I'm putting you on the spot here, I just realized. - Do you watch much anime now still? - Lately, I haven't been able to watch much, but I've always, like in the past, one of my favorite series have been like "Full Metal Alchemist"

- My favorite. - God is notorious for not having watched it. - Really? - He's notorious for not having watched it. As he should, 'cause it's an amazing anime. - It's all right. - We're not gonna get into that. - Yeah, we're not gonna get into that. - But I usually get into anime through the music. I've always been a music lover. So, you know, any anime with really good music hooks me on and then I start watching it. But I usually watch sort of like adventure series where the main character is like a guy or a boy or whatever.

or not very like Moi Moi series. - Right, right, right. - I feel as well, like it makes sense with Full Metal Alchemist 'cause the openings in that are bangers. - So many good openings in it. - I haven't seen Brotherhood yet, but the first Brotherhood opening is fucking legendary. - Oh yeah, and also, you know, the Asian Kung Fu Generation opening as well. Like, yeah, it's so much good music in that.

- When I listen to anime opening songs, I can't figure out why I like them. I just like the noise. I'm curious if you have like a, like you must have like an ear for it, right? Like what makes like a good anime opening in your opinion? I'm curious.

- If it's sung by me. - Exactly. - You can say that as well. - I'll keep that as a memo. But no, I used to listen to anime openings before I made a debut. So what sort of hooked me on was, number one, it's really catchy. Number two, it captures the mood of the anime very well.

And I don't know, but number, I don't know. What makes an anime opening? - I don't know, 'cause I have no clue. I thought maybe you could answer that. - I feel though, you kind of answered that. It is all about like, if you just personally like it, it sticks in your head and if it fits the theme, right? - Usually though, it's sort of, what do you call it?

sort of, you know, individual then- - Unique? - Unique, yeah. Then it sort of stands out and when something stands out, then like it catches your attention. - Yeah, because I remember when I was in school, I watched a lot of anime and people would ask me the question of, "What are the music you listen to? Who are your favorite artists?" And I go through like my iPod or something and it's just all fucking anime openings. - You went past me the walks. - And I'm just like, "Oh, there's this really like,

underground Japanese band called like Asian Kung Fu Generation. You probably haven't heard of them. - That was the thing though, right? It's like there was some kind of like level of like superiority in a sense being like, yeah, yes, I listened to underground Japanese music. You probably never heard of them.

But now I feel like everyone listens to anime openings or anime music because everyone figures out that it slaps hard. - Now the superiority is listening to a band that's done an anime opening, but listening to all the songs that aren't in the anime. - Exactly. That are like every other song on the album. It's like, you only know the opening. I know the rest of the album.

- No, it's like I've recently gotten into like a lot of different artists who are like in like J-pop and J-rock who have not been in anime openings or have not done anime music but sound like they should have done anime music. And I feel like a lot of those people and bands really came up from the Vocaloid community. And I don't know, that's why there's so much I don't know about the Vocaloid community but everyone seems to have come out of that community and have this,

kind of genre of music that just kind of appeals to we. I can't like quantify in words, but it's the kind of music that I just love. And I don't know what that genre is. Maybe you tight days. - Yeah, I guess it's like, yeah, I know what you mean though. It's like, even if the genres are completely different, there's just kind of like a stylistic or like something about it where it's like,

- That sounds like it belongs in an anime. Like you can very quickly tell like with Japanese music, if something is like made for anime and something's not made for anime. There's just some quality about it that I can't grasp where it's like, that you can tell the difference in that. - But one thing I did realize after making a debut as an sort of anime singer was that anime songs and anime songs

well, I don't know how do you say, but regular J-pop or J-rock, there is a distinct difference. And, you know, a lot of people tend to like faster paced, really like energetic songs and animes because you're limited to one minute and 30 seconds of opening and it has to catch your attention. So usually the ballads are saved for endings and the really fast, which is why I started singing like BPM 200 and,

I'm just like dying in the studio. 'Cause I've never sung BPM 200 and after that all my songs became like really high paced. - I think I tried playing some of your songs on OSU and my mouse couldn't keep up with me. So I mean, what does that say? - Just like instant carpenter. - I'm like Jesus Christ, it's going so fast. - Yeah, so I really don't recommend, I mean like money wise, yeah, please do sing my songs at karaoke, but I don't recommend like singing my songs at karaoke because of the,

sort of level difficulty. - If you're having a hard time singing them, I don't know how some people, how us peasant normies are gonna be able to sing it. - I personally would not sing my songs at karaoke. - It's like when you get like two drinks in, you're like, yeah, I think I can do Eminem. And then you do it and you're like, I didn't remember this many lyrics. Where were all these? I thought it was just Slim Shady stand up. - But it's not just Eminem, it's like the really long, like four verses Eminem. - It's seven minutes long, the song? What? I thought it was three.

- I was through. - Alternatively, where you choose a song and you think you know the lyrics and then you realize you only know about two sentences from the chorus. And then there's just this awkward one minute where you're just kind of like humming along to the verse even though you have- - Is it annoying being a singer and then having to go to karaoke? 'Cause they expect you to like kill everything instead of just, you know,

- I have a secret. I sang my own songs at karaoke and they have a really weird system where they like to- - Like the midi soundtrack? - No, no, they have this weird system where they like to give you a score of how good you sing. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I turned that off, I don't wanna know. - And I sung my own songs and I got like a 60%.

- I was like, well, like I have a three-dimensional fire. - Someone out there is on the leaderboard. - Exactly, I was like, wow. - It's like when Charlie Chaplin entered like a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest, it came in third. That's like the equivalent. - Like the points where they score you are really,

are very distinct and I tend to like do arrangements and do weird stuff with my songs. So I don't sing it exactly like I did at the studio. So that automatically like- - Those games do like the pitch, it's truly off pitch, right? So it's just like, you could just go,

and it'll give you like- - It's just like very basic SingStar pitch. I don't know how they score. I'm a bad singer, so I've never scored well on any of those kinds of karaoke games. - Well, I turn it off. I don't want it on. I don't want to know how bad I am at singing. It's very bad. - Have you ever been in the group who hasn't known that you were a singer or, and then you just start singing your own song and they're like, wait a minute, you sound just like that person singing the song. - No, I can't be 60%.

- Actually, ever since I made a debut, I haven't been to karaoke because singing became my career. It's difficult to do it for fun now. - Yeah. I mean, it's just work for you. - And when I started singing, I automatically feel like I'm on stage. So I think that's a little bit heavy for the karaoke goers. - So you thought we were having fun.

- Having a private concert right here. That's a little bit of a flex, right? Going to a karaoke and singing your own songs. That's it. That's a bit of a flex. - So if I do happen to go, then I usually am the one like just putting everyone's songs into the machine. - Tambourine. - Yeah, I love doing the tambourine. - I guess though it would be such a weird pressure to go to karaoke with you. You absolutely kill your songs and be like, "Oh fuck, now we're gonna do sexy back." It's just the difference. - Yeah.

- I wanna know when you started doing the anime openings, how did that affect the album that was already out and how like you were, I guess your like level of fame, if you will, and how it all kind of, did you see any like results from doing anime opening? - Definitely. I think my fan base sort of changed. Of course my original fans stuck with me loyally, very loyally.

As they don't live in Japan. Yes, exactly, which is really an amazing thing. But at the same time, I started out with my fan base being mostly girls because on Nico Nico, I think a lot of the fan base was very female-based. My fan base was female-based. But after I made an anime debut, so Batum...

arpeggio that made my sort of male fan base yeah and that was huge when I went overseas and did concerts I was really happy to see that my fan base my audience was kind of like hybrid you know like everyone was there not just like females like anyone could enjoy yeah exactly and so you know and I always have loved rock and roll so you know I think it's not necessarily a gender-based

music genres. So I was really happy to see that my fan base was growing globally and diversity. And so that was huge. - You kind of went through a similar thing, right? Like you went from like a primarily female fan base to more of a hybrid now, right? - Yeah. - Was it like similar to you where it's like, you just kind of saw that like if diverse- - He didn't have an anime to-

- No, no. - Jumpstart is- - Well, I mean, yes. - He just went from black butler. - He mostly jumped off one. - Yeah, exactly. - So to give you a rough example, I basically used to pretend to be a British butler. Isn't that fun? - How do you pretend to be a British butler? - Well, you just turn up the British accent more than usual. So you'd go like, "Oh, I suppose I could talk like this." - Okay. - He was an actual living anime avatar for a while.

- Yes, I didn't use to like show my face much, just do stuff like that. But I mean, anyway, that as you can imagine, that kind of thing would attract more of a female audience than a male audience. - Exactly, which is why my fan base is female because I didn't show my face in the beginning. And my voice is pretty low for a female singer. So a lot of people didn't know my,

And so they assumed there was a huge fan base that assumed that I was a young boy. - Right, right, right. - You can imagine the shock. - You know, you can imagine the shock when I did my first concert probably. - Like what the fuck, I wanted a young boy.

- I'm sure there were audience people like that. So, but you know, after I started showing my face though, my fan base started to become more diverse and not just, you know, to one genre. - How did like, I mean, did you ever used to have fan interactions? And if so, how did that change when you went from that audience? 'Cause I noticed a very distinct change in how my audience, I suppose, behaves and talks to me when it went to more male. - Yeah.

But personally, I didn't have much interaction with my fans until my conventions and my lives. And so I don't really have a comparison between...

between my Nico Nico days and my debut days. But definitely I love being able to interact with like my listeners right now. This is amazing. I love being able to hear them, hear their voices directly. And so like, I have no regrets about like going open with my identity and stuff. - Do you feel like it really hits you when you go to a convention and you physically see the people that are in front of you that you're performing in front of? Because,

for us YouTubers, we see a number and the number kind of just means- - Doesn't mean anything. - Means nothing. - You don't see a face. - Yeah, we don't see a face. And then we try to like, even trying to quantify in our heads, just, it doesn't mean anything until we go to a convention and we actually see the amount of people in front of us and we're like, "Oh, these people all know me? Jesus Christ, that's a lot of people." - It's kind of insane how it's like a million views on a YouTube video seems so much

so much smaller than physically seeing a hundred people in front of you. - I know. - It's such a weird dichotomy how that works. And it's like, yeah. And it's like, you know, like we could be happy with all the views we get on all the videos, but at the end of the day,

you can't see anything, right? It doesn't mean, it doesn't really mean anything. I mean, it means something, but it doesn't mean as much as it should. - It's not as weighty. - Yeah, exactly, exactly. - Before you debuted, had you ever like performed on a big stage before or anything like that? - No, my first ever concert in my entire life was in front of 2000 people. - Wow. - A solo concert. - Oh my God. - And so when the curtain went up, I almost like, - Hi guys. - Yeah, I was like,

- Just went up two octaves right there. - So like I almost died on stage. - What's the biggest crowd you've ever performed in front of? - It was at an event, Anisamas. And so that was probably like 10,000 somewhat number of people. But when it becomes that sort of number,

You can't see the faces, so it's like a sea of lights, like, pen lights and people. And so you don't become nervous anymore. It's just like...

it's more nerve wracking when you're in a small venue and you see every single face and they're all looking at you. - It's the eye contact that really gets you I find. - Because we don't have that experience. I mean, like what's the biggest amount of people you've done a panel with? - I'd say AX, right? - AX I think, I mean, Garnt and I hosted in front of like three, yeah, two, 3000 people. And that, I was shitting my pants. - Yeah, I hate it when you make eye contact with someone for like two seconds and you're like, do you reckon they noticed?

- They 100% noticed. Was that weird? That was weird, right? - Could you imagine doing a panel in front of 10,000 people? - I would like to not. - Yeah, I would like to not either. I gotta ask, do you ever get, is it like, do you ever get nervous before going on stage? Do you ever get used to that?

I'm not a huge person, like a nervous person. So I'm usually pretty like excited to go on stage. And I'm like, I'm going to have fun. Woohoo! This is my home, you know? Yeah. So I really don't get nervous. But when I do get nervous, though, you know, it doesn't, it's every time I do get a little bit nervous. Yeah.

I love being on stage. - Because I feel for me, I don't know if it's nerves, but I just, it's the waiting that kills me. I just wanna get on stage whenever I have like a panel scheduled or whatever and there's a lot of people, I just feel like once I get on stage, I'm gonna be fine. But before that, I'm just restless. - It's like you're backstage and you just hear the murmur of the crowd, right? That's when it's the most nervous. But the moment I start like going up the stairs, it's just.

- That's exactly true. Like I hate the waiting of it. The waiting is the most nerve wracking point. Once you're on stage, then you just gotta do what you gotta do. - Did you discover like the first time you were on stage, was it like a aha moment? This is, I love this. - Oh, I thought, yeah, this is definitely where I wanna be. I'm so grateful to have this chance to actually do what I love doing.

I don't know. It's just, I'm so, this is perfect for me. - 'Cause I assume it's kind of like a trial by fire 'cause you said you had no stage experience before 'cause I can only imagine some other artists who just kind of didn't take to the stage as well would have fallen flat. - I went on stage in Japan for a video recently where I did like a visual K video and it was awful. I hated it because it was like 30 minutes

30 people, so it was very intimate, right? And like, because it also COVID, no one was allowed to like move. Everyone just had to stand. Which makes it even worse, 'cause I wasn't doing anything, right? I was just head banging. But anytime I stopped and made even like a millisecond of eye contact with someone and they were just like, I was like, oh my God, I'm awful, I'm terrible, I'm ruining the whole thing. Yeah, needless to say, I was not happy about it. - It's like doing a performance in front of your family, right? And they just like being like,

- But at least your family, you know your family's gonna have your back no matter what. - I figured out, when I have to go on stage and do something to actually be good at it, that's when I get nervous. 'Cause I'm like, people have expectations. When I know that it's okay to be bad at it and that's the whole joke, yeah, I like that. Because it's like, all right, I'm just gonna be a clown. That's what they came up with.

- And I guess that's like the benefit of like, you know, doing a panel for us. Is that like most, if not all the people who are attending it know us enough that even if we fuck up slightly, they'll be like, "Oh, that's just him being him." - I have no talent. So what am I gonna do on stage? - But I find,

only really you know my career took off in Japan so I'm not an American based singer but at the same time I grew up in America and I've been going to concerts in America and I did realize after my debut that the Japanese sort of entertainment industry is completely different from the American 100% 100% different and the sort of

Expectations in Japan are very high. You have to be perfect. A lot of people require perfection as part of the job. So that is always very nerve wracking to be able to have to sort of think, oh, I have to perform perfectly on stage, but that's impossible. - I feel like it's even like that when you're ordering a drink at Starbucks here, they think like, oh my God, they're gonna hate me. I didn't put the little straw in. And it's like, no, no, no, it's okay. I feel so bad, they're freaking out.

But I mean, how is the difference between performing in Japan and say America? - You know, like in America, I feel that when I go on stage, it's like a live, it's really like a live thing. It's a live experience. You're with your fans. You don't, it's nothing is planned. You know, your set list is planned, but everything else is like,

- Got a lot more freedom. - Yeah, it's freedom, it's up to luck. But in Japan, I think even the fans are very loyal in the sense that they really want you to do your best and they're always like hoping to do your best. But so it's the expectations are completely different. I do love performing in Japan as much as I do love performing overseas as well. But at the same time- - It's just a different experience, right? - Yeah, I feel that Japan is more based on like just

doing things absolutely to the best as you can and always being, you know, just perfect. - Has anything bad ever happened on stage or something that you didn't predict that you'd kind of just had to deal with on the spot?

- Luckily I haven't had huge misses, but I'm always like the fear of missing messing up is like here. So like- - That's healthy though I think. You gotta have that right? If you're too complacent, you won't do your best. - But it does appear as nightmares in my dreams often.

- You wake up in a cold sweat and you're like, "Oh, what if I fuck up on stage?" - I don't know how many times I've had nightmares where I completely messed up my lyrics. Or like, I don't even know my own songs on stage. Or like, I'm like, "What am I doing on stage? I don't even know what to sing. I don't know. My lyrics are completely washed out."

So I think like somewhere in my head, I'm always like, that's a fear of mine, messing up on stage. - So like, how is, I suppose, how has COVID kind of affected your schedule? What'd you, like, what's a day in the life of Nano? What'd you do now that, you know, you can't go on stage? - What are you up to? - What am I up to? - What's up to?

But like I said, though, as like a regular like nano, not like a musician, I'm a very stay at home person. Yeah. This is very like not not too different from my comfortable. Yeah, it's not too different from your comfort zone. But last year in 2020, I had a lot of overseas events planned. A lot of my own tour was actually canceled last year due to COVID. So yeah.

Um, in the music industry though, COVID has really taken its toll. Yeah. Um, and that's not just to me for all the musicians and entertain entertainers out there. So we're, we're really struggling in that sense to be able to find new ways to, um, reach out to the audience and to give back to the audience, you know,

even without being able to directly interact with them. But that's, I think, a good sort of start for us. Yeah, because I assume that being at home, have you had more time to work on new music? Yeah, we've been doing a lot of creating at home. So we're trying to use our at-home time wisely. We've been creating music and getting ready for when the time comes when we're able to do it.

- Gonna be a hell of a comeback. - Yeah, hopefully. - Honestly, like once like COVID is gone, like the amount of concerts that are just gonna pop up out of nowhere, everyone's like, I don't have the time to go to all these concerts, right? - There's gonna be so many events that I want to go to when things start opening up again. My schedule is gonna be so packed. - But with non-work related stuff. - I just wanna go to the cinema. - You can't even get popcorn, it's so sad. - I know.

- You can go to the cinema and you can sit next to other people now. But the reason, it used to be to socially distance with one seat. Now you can sit next to each other. But the drawback is you're not allowed to have popcorn. - Oh no, then I'm not going. - I never buy popcorn. - It's the best part of the theater.

- I hate it because like, as you saw earlier, I go to the toilet all the freaking time. - Yeah, me too. - So like when I eat popcorn, I get thirsty. So I have to drink, but then I have to go to the toilet and I'm gonna miss some of the film. So I almost, I've learned my lesson now. Like I have the bladder of a five-year-old boy. So I'm just gonna not order popcorn. - Little trade secret. So when we record Trash Taste, we have to take a break every 30 minutes to reset the cameras.

- Me and Joey go to the toilet basically every time during the breaks because we have a very small bladder. - Embarrassing, embarrassing.

- That's what I know now. It's just like, I'm just not gonna get popcorn anymore. I love it. Like if I'm with someone and they have a bucket of popcorn, yeah, I'm taking that shit. - Popcorn is the one food that I don't buy for myself, but when someone offers me it, I never say no. - I'll always take it. - I'll never offer you my popcorn. I wanna eat that now and I'm eating all of that. - Wow, rude. Should we take a break? I do actually need the toilet. - This episode is sponsored by Custom Cast.

an app available on iOS and Android devices that let you achieve your dreams of becoming a virtual... - Cute anime girls! - Not what I was about to say, but yes. The custom cast app lets you create your own customizable virtual avatar. - In the free basic version, you can create your own high quality 3D avatar in just a few minutes. You don't even need a phone number or a social media account to register. - Hello, gentlemen.

You can customize your avatar with many different hairstyles, clothes, backgrounds, body sizes, etc. You can always choose to be a kawaii anime girl like me and Garnt. Or you can try and make your character look like you, but cooler.

Like me. I can't get over how cute you look, Joey. I know, right? You kinda look like an older sister, God! And we're not related by blood. What the... Get out of here. Anyways, if you feel like going all out, you can also make in-app purchases to unlock tons of unique features. And if you want to use your avatar to stream, all you have to do is select the stream button on home, and you're all set to make your VTuber debut. Your face will be detected by the virtual camera on your device, and your virtual character will move based on your facial expressions and movements.

such as tilting or turning your head. - You too can become the waifu or hasbando of your dreams since both girl and boy avatars can be created. - So check the links in the description below to give it a download. And now I'm sad I'm gonna have to go back to my real persona for the rest of the show. - Thank you for sponsoring this episode custom cast. Now back to the episode. - So like you talked before about, you know, the pressure of performing in Japan because they expect perfection. And we've talked before on this podcast by like

idol culture in Japan and how they kind of expect perfection, not only like on the stage, but off the stage as well. - Like as a person. - Yeah, you really get put on a pedestal here, it seems like. What's it like in your position? Do you feel like you have the pressure to be like perfect in every aspect of your life or do you just not give a shit? - Well, during, for example, like the concerts themselves are completely different, like I said. Japanese audiences tend to sort of enjoy

the MC talking sections a lot. And so they like to hear about like your private life and what you're doing. And like, they like to hear you talk, but then they, uh, for example, the overseas audience, they just want to like have the music, play the anime opening. Exactly. So, you know, I end up not talking much on stage when I go overseas, but, um, yeah, I think in the Japanese industry though, they, they have like,

they have exactly image of what kind of concert they want to do. And then you do that exact kind of concert. And then also the fans have like a very, they like to like make you a character. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of character sort of thing. So,

It was kind of interesting though. I became a nano character in the beginning and I tried to sort of live up to that expectation but then I realized that it's kind of impossible. So little by little, I'm becoming a lot more freedom and right now I'm just me. Have you ever had any uncomfortable situations arise from trying to be more yourself and the fans wanting this perfect image of you?

- Well, I did sort of think about like, is this what sort of character Nano would do or say or not? You know, that kind of thing. - That's weird, 'cause you are Nano. - Yeah, exactly. - What would the fans think that I would do, I should do that? - What is like the main difference between the character Nano and like you as just Nano? - It was really sort of distinct because I didn't show my face in the beginning. - Right. - And so anything that sort of showed like a personality. - On stage as well?

- On stage I did, but in photos. - Right, right, right. - So I never showed my face in photos and stuff. And so anything that sort of showed a characteristic of myself, human side of Nino. - So if I'm understanding this correctly, they created a character, not like, did they make a law around it or was it just how they perceived the way you would act off camera? - It was kind of like my artist image as well. So my director also wanted to go in a direction where I was,

not too open, I was more mysterious. And who's Nano? Are they a boy or a girl? - Japanese audiences love that shit. They love the mysterious characters. - Because you can then apply based off the music. You can think like, "Oh, I think they're like this and they must be like this." - But actually it did help me focus on my music more.

because I didn't have to think about what I looked like, what my image was like. I could just focus on my music and not focus on the other aspects, the visual aspects. Yeah, because I feel like a lot of people forget that in the music industry, sometimes a lot of image is just as important as the music as well. So being able to focus on the music, I feel is a big advantage because that just means you can just focus on what you're really passionate about. Mm-hmm.

It's always like, you know, they always think that, you know, people on like, uh,

and X Factor and American Idol. - American Idol. - Because they're too humanized to us and that we see them way too similar to ourselves. They don't work very well as pop stars 'cause they're not larger than life characters. So I feel like in almost some aspects you kind of have to like not tell everyone about everything about yourself 'cause they're gonna think like, oh, well, I know everything about that. She's like a normal everyday person. But it's like, man, oh my God.

Oh my God, mysterious person who's amazing at music. - Perhaps now that I'm completely myself. - The facade is gone. We are breaking the fourth wall now. - Yeah, I saw like, it's very similar to like, I read like this article on how the reason why Daft Punk hides their faces now. It's because like, yeah, it's exactly the same thing. It's like, they just want to like completely focus on the music. They want to like,

basically cut off the connection between the person making the music and the actual music. So now the two members of Daft Punk, they can do whatever the fuck they want in their personal life. And no one can say anything otherwise, right? - They could be at their own concert in the crowd and no one would actually know. - But that was so convenient because I could go anywhere and do anything without people realizing who I was.

So I could go to the convenience store in pajamas and be like, hoo-hoo. - Would you do that when you had your face in it? - Oh, definitely, I still do.

- Have you ever been noticed or like recognized in Japan? - Actually, no, I haven't. - Really? - Wow. - What if you have, but they just didn't come to you? - Yeah. - What if they're all Japanese? - From a distance. - On my Wikipedia, does it say that I do it in convenience stores in my pajamas? - It does now. - Nana was spotted on so-and-so date in her pajamas at a family mart.

- Was it TMZ that does that now? Is there like a Japanese TMZ or I don't know. - Just seem like the YouTuber TMZ. - What's the YouTuber TMZ? - It's like YouTuber TMZ. - Oh no, I have seen that. - It's really creepy. They like follow like the 13 year old. - Or tube filter, right? - Something like that. - Something like that. - They stalk like the 13, 14 year old TikTok stars and just ask them questions.

- It's mostly in LA, right? - Yeah, of course it's LA. - Yeah, 'cause I see some of those TMZ YouTubers now and I get this image that just LA YouTubers live on a different planet. - LA just works differently from the rest of the world, I'm pretty sure.

But I spent so much time, you know, not having an identity. So for like years and years, I spent doing music just, you know, without an identity. So now that I do have an identity and I'm more free now, sometimes I don't know who I am.

Sometimes I'm like, you know, lost at that point, but- - Yeah, this is getting pretty deep. I totally get it though. - It's like, you know, it is a very uncomfortable thing where you're like, "Hmm, am I the character that people think I am?" - What is? - This is stressful.

- Because I've experienced like something similar doing YouTube where I don't know if my personality, because my personality has shifted in like the 10 years I've done YouTube, but have I shifted because I've done YouTube or have I shifted because of my own personal reasons? I don't know. - The way I try and like tell people, at least I think I tell myself this to like, this is right, right?

I think I present like an image of myself that is like me on my best days. 'Cause obviously you get sad, you get those days where you don't wanna do anything and you're a little not fun. - You show your human side. - Yeah, you're not fun to be around. Obviously I'm not gonna show that, but then it's like, am I lying by not showing that? Like, I don't know, I hate this. - Exactly.

'Cause I feel like that when there's a camera, I feel like I have to be in like the good mode, the entertaining mode where sometimes you just don't feel like being entertaining or talking. - I just gotta like take the smile pill, right? And just be like, "Yeah, I'm on camera now, hey." Yeah, it's tough. And I feel like I can completely see why, especially on the YouTube side, why there has kind of been this like kind of,

I've almost seen as like a growing thing of faceless YouTubers just because I think people are starting to realize the kind of not risk per se, but you know, the demerits to like showing your face and showing yourself on camera. - It's way more pressure. And I've noticed that since, because I,

I started off with most people not knowing much about me and then Trash Taste started. And now I'm on camera every week and it's something that I just haven't been used to at all. - I'm just lazy. I just can't be bothered going through all the effort of like hiding my identity. - But you know, like I said earlier though, I think the Japanese industry, the entertainment industry used to be very sort of strict and they expected you to sort of portray an artist image and so like idols and like-

It would be a huge scandal, right, if they were dating someone. But thanks to YouTube and this recent sort of generation, a lot of musicians and entertainers are starting to become YouTubers. I think that's a huge plus because they're realizing that they can be themselves more and still work. And be human. Yeah, and be human. And people are actually looking for that now. And so this is a huge, big sort of...

you know, plus for the entertainment industry. And I think it's a good change for us. And I feel it's a chance for us to be more of ourselves and to really put out, you know, our own messages into our work. Did you have any control over your own like artist image or was that all? Not in the beginning. This is my first time actually talking about this and I would love to talk about it. Okay. Let's go. Let's go. No, but everything,

in the beginning of my career because I was completely an amateur. I wasn't... Like, usually rock artists start doing their stuff before their debut. Like, they do small lives, venues, tours. They have a fan base. But for me, like, day one that my fans, you know, made a debut with me was my day one as well. Right. And I didn't do lives before that. I didn't have media coverage, anything out there. So it was just Nico Nico. And so I needed...

I needed direction. And so my director made sort of this image of what kind of artist I should be, and I tried to sort of be that to the extent that I could. So in the beginning, though, everything was completely like, you know...

Decided for you. Yes, decided for me. And I didn't even know what I wanted yet as a musician. Yeah. So I couldn't say, you know, hey, I want to do this. I just wanted to sing. Yeah. Right, right. And that's how it normally is. Artists just kind of, a lot of things I noticed about artists is that they just want to focus on the art and they have no idea about how to market themselves or branding. So it really helped me to have the direction. Right. And to be told like, you know,

Everything other than the singing part to do, how to do this, how to do that. They taught me about the entertainment industry. They taught me how to do lives. They taught me how to take artist photographs. They taught me everything. - God, I wish I knew that. - Yeah, right? We just kind of had to like learn on the job and take an array of the most awkward photos that have ever been taken. - In the beginning it was so sad because I didn't show my face, but I had to take artist photographs. I was always wearing a hood.

And so I was like standing in front of the camera wearing a hood and not showing my face. And I was like, you know, this could be anyone else. It could be a mannequin and no one would notice. Does it have to be me? You know, that kind of thing. And even in my promotion videos, I didn't show my face. And so my neck was always like this. And by the end of the video, I'd be like, oh, my neck. My neck.

So, you know, that happened behind the cameras. And there were a lot of things that were difficult in the beginning. Right. But now that I think about it, it was really funny. It was really funny and fun. And it helped me learn about a lot of things.

- Did you ever have to that point where you had to like work on your signature or did you have a good looking signature to begin with when you signed things? - I just used, I still use to this day just a regular like cursive signature. - I'm so jealous. - I literally just do like four circles and bam, monotony. - I would love to have a cool looking signature but I don't know how to do it

- I think Joey out of all of us has the coolest looking signature. - Which is hilarious because I came up, that signature- - Really, show me your signature. - My signature? Do we have like a thing? 'Cause like I came up with my signature, I think in like, it was the first con I ever went to. It was basically the first time I ever had to sign something. Like someone came up to me and was like, "Man, man, man, I love your work. Can you sign something?" And I'm like,

who the fuck wants a signature from me? - You made that up on the spot. - I made that up on the spot and I was like, you know what? Good enough. This is gonna be my signature for the rest of my career. - While Joey's doing his signature, because I remember the first time I got asked to do my signature, I looked like a deer in, I looked like a lost deer in headlights. Look at that. - That's my signature. - That looks cool. That looks like a proper artist's signature. - I could sell that on Yahoo.

- I literally, I was like, okay, what is like a distinct thing about a signature? Lots of like unnecessarily long lines, lots of like over to the point where it needs to be illegible basically. - Let me show you how it's done, Joe. - So show me your signature. - Mine I think is in between the middle of those. - And I was like, okay, I can't just like write the anime, man.

- I can see that you probably came up with that in first grade. - That looks like C, C-Dan. - Am I looking at Rorschach image here? - Listen, you think when Picasso was in the museum, he had to put up with this shit? Listen, let me explain, all right? You have the C, the D, and then I just do whatever.

It's always like I do the C and D and I give up. - This is like, you know, okay, I'll do it. This is like when the kid brings back a drawing. - Yeah, this is like when the kid brings back a drawing to their parents when they're like three or something and the parents have to act impressed. Like, "Oh, you did this? Oh, it looks so good." - It's not even that, it's just like, "Put it on the fridge, I guess." - When I'm signing the packages in Japan, they'll be like, "Oh, full signature, please." And I'm like, "Oh, of course, of course." Then I just do that. And they're like, they look at me like, "What was that? That wasn't full signature."

- That's mine. It's not as good as Joey's, but- - That's pretty clean. - That's pretty clean. - It's okay. - Hold up to the camera. - It's okay. It's okay. It's not bad. - Yeah, see, I can read that and be like, yeah, that clearly says gear. I look at this and I'm like, who's Dan? - Honestly, this is cleaned up a lot because- - You get a unique one every time. This is bullshit. Why would I want this? Everyone else has this. - I thought the one thing- - Do you wanna do yours while we're waiting? - I thought the one thing that differentiates between like a regular signature and an artist signature is like they have some kind of like thing in it. - Yeah, see, that's clean. - That looks good. That looks good.

- But you know, I'm actually looking for- - Put it up to the camera. - Yeah, see that's clean. - No, I'm actually looking for a new signature

- So you guys can think of one for me. - I got you, say no more, I'm gonna call you. - So like wait. - Which kind of style do you like the most? - One hint I need is a lot of like- - A lot of squiggles, I like the squiggles. - A lot of pointless lines, right? - More lines equals higher IQ. - But my name is pretty difficult to do that with. - I mean, just go as cursive as you can. You're like, this is,

- Put on the top hat and the monocle. - I go for the doctor approach. - I kinda like this one. - Yeah, right? See, see? - Yeah, I kinda like, see Dan? - See Dan. - See Dan. - Pointing at my signature, by the way, we could get that on the record. - Yeah, I kinda like this one.

So maybe I'll just like get rid of the O. - Right. - Just go CNN. - It's more C I think. - I like that. - That's good. - That looks like it says chon. - Chen. - Chen. - Oh yes, my favorite artist, Chen. - I'll have to ask my staff though if this passes for the- - Do you have to get your signature approved by your staff?

- Not usually, but in this case, probably. - What is this bad? It's like, oh God. - I gotta ask, have you guys ever had a fan ask you to redo a signature? - Yeah, I have. - 'Cause I've had that before. And that's why, because my signature looks a lot better than they used to, because before it used to look something like this. And I remember I put this on like a photo

on like a guy's shirt, 'cause he wanted me to sign a shirt. And he dead ass looks at that. And like, he was like,

- Can you do that again, please? I can't read that. - I got a good one for you. Can I have the pen? - All right. - So I was at a bar with a friend in the middle of nowhere in Japan. And for some reason he thought it'd be entertaining to tell the person at the bar that I was a YouTuber. I normally don't want to do that. - I hate it when they do that. - Because it's just like, you're not gonna get it if I show you and you're only gonna be impressed by the numbers and not what it actually is, right? So it's like, don't do it. So he does it. Anyway, so I'm like quite drunk and they're like, can you please? For some reason they brought out a Shikishi at like 2:00 AM. And I'm already pretty drunk.

- They hand it to me and I'm trying my best to do this. - Yeah. - Right? So all I do in the end is just this.

I do this and they were like, whoa. And I'm like looking at my friend, I'm like, I can't believe they're taking that. And they hung it up on the wall in front of me. And I doubt it's still there. They must've taken that down. - Well, it's like the signature that we did at AmiAmi, right? AmiAmi is like a figurine store in Akihabara. It's like one of the biggest ones. And at one part of this store, they have this, just these,

of like maybe like 50 shikishis from like artists and like figurine, like sculptors and stuff like that. - Like proper mangaka's. - Proper mangaka's and stuff like that. And we did a video there and they were like, "Hey, can you sign a shikishi for us? 'Cause you filmed here." And I didn't take into account, I didn't actually think they were gonna hang it up next to all these amazing looking shikishis. - I just assumed my signature's worth nothing. - Yeah, right. - Yeah, yeah. - So we were just like, "Fuck it, let's just do it." Like they're probably just saying this to be nice. Let's just do it. Turns out I went back like a week later,

up there on the wall next to these incredible looking skishees. And it just looks like absolute dog shit. - It's the macaroni art next to like the banks. - Yeah, it's pretty appalling. - I was like, fuck, it was the first time ever I was like, fuck, I wish they'd just take that down. I don't want this clout. - It's like that horse meme where you have like a really professionally drawn horse and then the last third is just like a kid's drawing.

- That's our drawing in AmiAmi. But every time someone goes there now they take a picture and tag us. - They take a picture and they tweeted at us and we're like, please don't remind us of this. - Just the shame just gets more. - Japanese artists have such amazing signatures and they're all good at drawing. And so I've always felt like that's a huge complex for me. Why is everyone so good at autographs? Is there a class?

- That's why I was genuinely curious. Do you guys practice this shit? 'Cause I had to make mine up on the spot. That's why mine looks complete ass. - I've never like just practiced or like, you know. - I'm still trying to figure that out. - Because I feel like when we all like first had to do signatures, right? Like it kind of came out of the blue.

Like you weren't expecting it. - I feel like a signature shouldn't be a burden. And when I ask a Japanese person to do a signature, it's like, give me 15 minutes and a red bull and I'll be done. It's like, no, no, no, no. You just do like some swiggles. I don't care, just slap it. I don't know what, just, I feel bad when their drawings aren't really delicate. I'm like, this is just gonna like be in like my wall somewhere. - I think the highest pressure for me is signing a shikishi.

'Cause a Shikishi, there's a lot of white space in the Shikishi. And there's only so many ways I can make it look good. So like, when I have to draw my signature big, it's like enlarging 100 by 100 pixel image. It's like Minecraft quality that we're talking about. It's like 360 YouTube.

- And it just looks bad. - Because we're so used to doing like the corner of an anime poster so that it doesn't go over. - You know, ever since I made a debut in Japan, like I've had to have, you know, signature is often. And one advice from me is how to fill it up is just draw a lot of stars.

- That's why my, she's always full of stars because I don't know what to do with the white face. - Yeah, but that's the problem, right? Is that like, we have three people who just cannot draw to save their life. So it's just like, do I like draw an anime character? But I don't want to get like deviant art quality, like anime character next to my signature. So it's like, what do I? So that's why like, at least with my signature, my one saving grace was just like the cat face.

I have to add something to this to make it unique. And one thing I've always found with Japanese artists or just voice actors or whoever is that they always have their mark of identity. I'm just like, what's it for me? I'll just put a fucking cat face on it. - I think the reason Japanese artists and entertainers have artwork with their signatures is because they have to sign . And they have to fill up the-

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Exactly, yeah. - Basically just put a cat face or make up an emoji apparently. - Or a star. - Or just lots of stars. This is a problem that 99% of viewers will have zero relationship with. - Really relatable topic. - First world problems.

So you grew up in the US your whole life. Exactly. When did you come to Japan for the first time? I've been coming back to Japan like pretty much every year when I was little. With your parents, right? Just to go to my grandparents house and stuff. And then I went to, I came to Japan in middle school and

And I experienced Japanese school education for the first time in my life. - How was that going from American school? - It was completely out for me because even though I can speak regular sort of everyday Japanese, I can read or write up to par. - Am I allowed to ask this, but why were you going to school in Japan? Like, what was there a reason? - Well, that's the music thing. I wanted to become a musician in Japan. So I came to Japan to do music.

And I still had to go to school. So I went to school, but I went to regular school, which was a huge mistake. And I didn't go to international school or that kind of thing. - How was that? Why was it a mistake? I'm curious. - It's just that I couldn't keep up with any of the education and I was a complete loner.

So I didn't have any friends. - I was gonna ask, is it hard to make friends when you're like a transfer student? - I think it's impossible to make friends. - This is such a lie. Anime would have you believe that the transfer student is like a transfer student. - Everyone wants to know the transfer student. Why would you lie to me, anime? Because like there's that one scene where it's like,

a transfer student from overseas who's like, "Oh, they can speak English." And then during the break, they're fucking all over that transfer student, right? Like, did that happen to you at all? - Big surprise here. And I'm gonna give you a huge sort of reality check, but as an anime singer, anime is not exactly real.

- No! - I respect your opinion, I do. - But I'm gonna live in my anime reality. - I will choose to- - No, I hate to break it to you guys, but no. - You mean you didn't sit in like the far corner of the classroom next to the window? - I was...

- Well, actually, since I came to Japan and then I started the school at a very weird time in the sort of year. So I was like in the corner and so I couldn't make friends and I couldn't keep up with the studies and everything like the culture was completely. - Right, right. - Yeah, it's quite different from America. - I guess for you as well, it's like doubly a pressure because you're full Japanese. - Everyone expects me to be Japanese.

You know, if I looked sort of American, probably people would be like, you know, Japanese is okay? But no, people would be like completely normal. You know, they expect me to understand completely everything. So that was a huge sort of stress for me mentally. How good was your Japanese when you moved here? I could speak it, but reading and writing was terrible.

So Japanese is technically your second language. Yes, it's technically my second language. And I didn't like actually officially study Japanese in America. Right. Okay. And so you were in Japanese school until...

- High school then? - No, just for less than two years, I think. - 'Cause you were like, thank God. - No, and then I just gave up and then I went back to the States and then I finished school there. And then after I finished school, I came to Japan and started my career, so. - Okay, what is the Japanese education system like compared to the US? Because I've thought about like, because I was also, I was raised in the UK, that was where my education system is.

I can't imagine having an education in Asia because the culture of the Asian education system just seems like a lot of pressure. And that's something that I'm not a fan of at all. I think, you know, in Japan, I've only been...

as a student for two less than two years i can't say i know everything but at the same time i think they're very like like studying based like everything is about uh studying studying studying and it's very difficult um to be a loner in school in japan like it's you have to have your sort of niche and you have to have your place and you have to have friends in order to really um feel like

- So who are like the cool kids in Japanese schools? Who are like the popular kids? 'Cause in like when I was growing up, it would be like the people who are good at sports or like the jocks and stuff like that. Who is like, who are like the prop, what makes you popular in Japanese schools? I've always wondered about. - I think it is different in Japan. Like it doesn't necessarily mean like,

you have to be like the most fashionable or anything. But in Japan, it's more if you're outgoing and you're also smart. - Right. - Educationally. - Yeah. - Well that's how anime got right. - I noticed there's a big difference because when I was growing up in the UK, if you did well in tests, that's like a black market. Like, whoa, you studied for an exam? Look at this fucking nerd. Whereas in Japan, it's like, whoa, you studied? Oh my God, you're awesome.

I think, you know, that kind of thing is different. Yeah. Like if you're an all-rounder, if you're good at a lot of different things and you're pretty much, you know. The image of perfection. Yeah. You're just good at everything. Japan loves perfection. Yeah. Yeah. I think they sort of exert perfection in the anime as well. Like the anime is, they sort of depict perfection in animation. Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you don't have to answer this question if you don't want to, but did you ever have like any negative experiences like bullying because you were like foreign or? - There wasn't exactly like direct bullying, but people didn't know how to interact with me because they, because it wasn't international school and they weren't exposed to foreign people. They, at the time though, even now, of course there are a lot of foreigners in Japan, but at the time there were like, if there was a foreigner walking around in Shibuya, people would be like,

- Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's still like that in some cases. - They didn't have an immune system for like English and foreigners. And so, you know, just the fact that I came from the US and that I was an outsider, people were like, "Oh, I don't know how to interact with them." You know, "Do they know the same language?" You know, they didn't really know how to interact with me. So even though I was really outgoing and I'm a people lover,

No one really wanted to, you know, sort of interact with me like directly. - Yeah. - They were very shy. - Yeah. - Japan is very shy. So that was one of the biggest stresses for me. - Yeah, I definitely noticed that, especially recently, I feel even just like looking like, you know, going out into the town and stuff like that, you do see like,

- Yeah, because like when we were in school, like I never went to a Japanese school either because I just didn't really want to, I heard terrible things about it. But you know, back then it was like, yeah, if you look any different at all, because it's such a collectivist society, you're just not gonna fit in, like no matter how hard you try. So I'm like, I'm not even gonna bother with that shit. But like nowadays, like, you know, the other day I saw like a bunch of high school girls in uniform and a

And among like the three or four Japanese girls, there was like one girl who was just like clearly like African-American, like black. So it's like full on. And I was, and they were like just hanging out with her. Like it was nothing in my head. I was just like, hell yeah. Finally, like kids actually like are starting to understand in Japan. I'm like, you guys took your fucking time. - So if I came to Japan now as a teenager and went to school, I'd probably have a very different experience. - Yeah, definitely.

- This video is sponsored by Mack Weldon. - Mack Weldon is a premium men's essentials brand that believes in smart designs and high quality fabrics and offers a one-stop shop for men's basics. - Hell yeah they do. - After taking a brief hiatus from outdoor activities and workout routines, it's time to get back to the grind with new spring essentials from Mack Weldon. With body mapping technology and fabric mesh zones. - What? What are those? - Well, let me tell you guys.

Mack Weldon's stealth boxer briefs, I do actually own them. They are just in the wash, 'cause I run them. - Wait, is that the ones that I'm wearing? - Those are not the stealth, Jerry. You would know the stealth if you actually worked out as hard as I do, 'cause they are so goddamn comfortable. They don't smell, they're amazing. - They're perfect for everyday wear or to be layered underneath workout gear like this smelly bastard.

And for the sweatpants you can wear outside without feeling like you're wearing sweatpants at all, check out Mack Weldon's new ACE line. - Socks, shirt, hoodies, underwear, polos, or active shorts, Mack Weldon promises comfort and a consistent fit. And it also looks great and feels great from working out, going out, going to work, or on a date. Mack Weldon is for everyday life. - With a wide range of customized fabrics that can keep up with you no matter what your day looks like. And with the Weldon Blue totally free loyalty program, level one gets you free shipping for free.

- Damn, that is insane. - That's a long ass time. And once you reach level two by spending $200, you get 20% off every order for the next year. - And don't forget about the Mack Weldon guarantee. - Oh God, I didn't know that. - They want you to be comfortable for you. So you know what? If you don't like your first pair of underwear, you can keep them and they'll still refund you. - So for 20% off your first order, visit MackWeldon.com/TrashTaste and enter the promo code

That's macwildon.com/trashtaste, promo code "trashtaste" for 20% off. Mack Wildon, reinventing men's basics. Back to the episode. - No, 'cause I feel like it's extra pressure as well because I kind of relate to that where, like, I feel like if you were like American or something or, you know, something that, you know, your blood isn't from Japan, it would be a lot more exotic. But because you're 100% Japanese,

coming back to Japan, you feel like a foreigner in your own home sometimes. 'Cause I felt like that when I went back to Thailand, right? Because people like foreigners in Thailand, but for me, I feel like I'm a foreigner in Thailand, but it's kind of like a disappointment because

I'm 100% Thai, but so they expect me to be fully Thai and fully fluent and fully understanding of the culture and everything. But when they see that I'm not, they're just like, ah, okay. So you're not one of us, but you're also not cool for being a foreigner either. - It's like double disappointment. - Yeah, I don't get the advantage of being either thing. - This Thai man would never wear a turtle neck. What is this? - I can completely relate because I grew up in America, but I lived on the West Coast.

for most of my life. And so there were very few Asian people. And at the time, though, the Japanese boom wasn't persistent yet. So no one really liked Japan yet. Everyone was like... The Asian people were all one category. It was like, you're Chinese, you're Japanese, you're the same thing. And so I felt very like...

sort of left out in the community. I didn't know my identity there. And so then I came to Japan and then I experienced the same thing where I didn't have an identity. I wasn't completely Japanese. I wasn't completely American. And people were still not used to having foreign people in Japan yet. And so my timing is just completely off my entire life. - 'Cause like, I mean, when I was growing up in school, like I was, I swear the only guy who was interested in like any Asian culture and it felt really weird 'cause like,

no one gave a shit. Everyone just cared about like the football that was on. - Yeah. - Cool, cool. - I mean, but like now it's almost like, you know, there's almost like a fetishization of like Japanese culture. - Exactly. - People love Japanese culture. - So if I grew up in the States during now,

- I feel like I grew up in the wrong era. Cause like kids now find anime cool and shit. And I'm just like, bro, where were all these kids when I was like secretly watching anime. - When we were growing up, you get bullied for watching Dragon Ball Z, but now you get bullied for only watching Dragon Ball Z. - We can talk about this for another two hours.

- We can make another YouTube video just for this topic. This is an important topic. - Yeah, honestly, because it's like, 'cause I felt that way too, like in Australia, because I was the only kid with any kind of Asian blood in him. Like I don't look Asian, but when you're in a school that is 99.9% white,

even that 1% of Asian look sticks out like crazy. - Yeah. - So, and then I had the exact same thing over here. Like I don't look Japanese at all. So when people fuck, when I would say Konnichiwa, they'd fucking Nihongo Jozu me in the face. And I'm like, it's not hard to say Konnichiwa bro. Like I can say so much more. - I still hate that. - I can say so much more, but you don't even give me the opportunity to,

give that to you. So it was like, what the fuck do I do? - It's funny how times has changed because I remember talking to my cousin who has a son who's going to school now and he's really into sports. He's like a super jock basically. Kind of like the opposite of me. - Giga jock. - Giga jock basically.

But I remember she was telling me about how he got bullied in school, right? Because he didn't- - For being a jock? - No, no. Yeah, for being a jock because he didn't play Fortnite. So this- - That's so funny. My mom was telling me the same thing. - So my younger- - Are you serious? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my younger nephew, he got bullied for not playing Fortnite. So one day he decides to play Fortnite and then he still got bullied because he had the default skin.

- Yeah, my mom works in a primary school, like kids for like, I don't know, ages between six and 12. She was telling me that these kids were getting bullied 'cause they didn't have any skins in Fortnite. - And I'm just like. - I was like, 'cause when I was growing up, when I was that age, it was always the kid who was the fastest. - Yeah. - It was like the coolest. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But when I actually became the fastest kid, it wasn't cool anymore. And I was like, what the fuck?

- Fuck! And then, you know, I was always good at video games and I got bullied for playing video games. But now I would have been like, I would have been so cool in school, man. - We all go through that thing, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Chasing, you know, the trend and trying to be cool. - No, no, no, no, we were ahead of the generation. - Yeah, yeah. - You were so fast that you outran the trend. - I quickly realized, I'm like, fuck everyone else. I like what I like. I'm gonna do what I like.

- We set the trends now. - We the trends now. - I'm curious, 'cause like I said earlier about like people loving Japan now, what do you think about people who like think of Japan as a utopia? Like this kind of perfect society? 'Cause people give me shit when I say like bad things about Japan. Like, if you don't like it, just leave. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm just British. I just complain about everything.

Yeah, sometimes I find it very interesting. Like, what is so great? You know, it's not that Japan has changed so much recently. It's just that suddenly it's become a utopia. So I just think that Japan is very unique, even in Asia. And there are a lot of things that Japan does originally, like, you know, anime and J-rock and J-pop and all these culture things that Japan originally did that is...

that is now widespread in the world. So it's not that Japan has changed or anything. It's just that those little things are being noticed in the world. - I guess it's just like, it's more so just like the, like it's more exposure to like over glorification

- I think so. - Because now we know that Japan does all of these like unique things that are very different to Western countries. It's suddenly better, quote unquote. - Yeah. - Yeah, of course, like there are a lot of things about Japan that are just more efficient. - I don't know what is so, I mean, I love matcha, but I don't know what is so like heavenly about matcha. - Do you like matcha? - I do, but I understand that it's good, but I don't know

- In America especially, they treat matcha like a brand of cocaine. - Japan does too. Japan has matcha everything. I'm pretty sure there's like matcha toilet roll that you can eat. - No, but what I'm saying is that in America, there are so many things in America, like so many, even if it's a hint of Asian, they're just like, yeah, we gotta have matcha something. - No, there's more matcha in Japan. - Of course there is. - There is more matcha in Japan. - There's too much matcha. Why is there matcha everywhere? What's up with that? - The way the matcha is like,

marketed towards like the Americans. It's like this exotic thing. It's a unique taste. - Because matcha is like an official Frappuccino taste. - Yeah. - Is it? - Yeah. - Like around the world. - Yeah. - Around the world. - I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. - 'Cause you don't get Frappuccinos, Garnt. I'm the only one out of the three of us that will get a Frappuccino. - 'Cause you've turned more white since you've moved to Japan, Garnt. - What it is, Garnt, it is what it is, okay?

- Globally, the world likes green stuff, like wasabi. It's green. Matcha, it's green. So if it's green, it's probably gonna- - Puke green. I love that. - I love that. - Is that just it? Is that what it comes down to? - That's the only reason that I can come up with. - Green tea. I mean, that's kind of just matcha, isn't it? - That's all matcha is. It's just tea. It's just green. It's just green stuff. - Honestly, I'm gonna say, I think matcha slaps and I'll be the one in the corner who will defend matcha. - No, no, no, don't get me wrong. I like matcha. - No, matcha is good. Matcha is good. - Matcha is good.

- It shouldn't be like, it shouldn't be like sold. - Connor's just like, finally, someone who's somewhere I belong. Oh no. - So much is just like the tip of the iceberg, but there are so many things about Japan are being discovered and are being like utopia eyes. - So like, - Bidet should be.

- Exactly, there are a lot of things about Japan and Japanese culture that I think rightfully so should be put up on a pedestal. Like bidets for example, right? Like, I mean, fuck, you experience a bidet, your life has basically changed for the better. As we discussed in an earlier episode. - Heated toilet seats. - Japan has normalized heated toilet seats. - What are some great things about Japan that you find really like amazing? I would like to know about that. - Okay, for me personally coming from Sydney,

Sydney has one of the worst fucking public transport systems in the world. Like I've discussed it in a podcast before, but like just having coming to Japan and being like, okay, the schedule says the train's coming at exactly 2:57. And the fact that I can go to the platform at 2:56 and the train arrives exactly one minute later is like, if it came on time in Australia, you'd think something was wrong.

You'd think the bus driver had like a gun to his head being like arrive here on time. 'Cause otherwise just never comes on time. - There's two sides of Japan for me because I love the convenience of Japan, but there's two sides of the convenience. 'Cause there's one, there's the daily living because just living in Japan, just the daily side, daily living side of Japan is so convenient, it's so easy. And then there's the business side of Japan, which is like the exact opposite of convenience.

So I, but like just living here, I feel like I get the best of Japan because I'm self-employed. So it's way more convenient just to live here. - It drives me insane that like how intensely they'll pursue politeness here.

Like to a point where it makes everyone's life inconvenient. Like I was saying about business, they'll keep people in the chain and of the business that shouldn't be in the chain. Like there'll be middlemen in everything just out of like courtesy. And there's a point where I'm just like, come on, this is ridiculous. Like we can talk to about ourselves. Like, no, no, you have to go through the five middlemen who introduced each other. - It's like, bro, do I really need to get approval from the boss's boss to just go get some lunch? I just wanna go. - Yeah, I mean, but I mean, the things I love,

I like the safety, you know? - Oh yeah. - Living in London is kind of sketchy at times. - Speaking of sketchy, we've got to talk about America, right? - Oh right, right, right. - Yeah, New York to Tokyo has to be worlds apart. And then also, being from the UK, we're not known for our culinary excellence. So it's nice having food that tastes good all the time.

- At a reasonable price. - But I'm scared because I was very good at eating just like potato. I'd be like, "Oh, this is amazing, isn't it? "It's just a potato." - Exactly, but when you come to Japan, you become really like gourmet. You expect everything to taste good and you're like,

- Yeah, to me pizza was anything with cheese, bread and tomato and I was pretty happy with that. - Exactly and oil, butter, anything with butter cheese on it is good. - And then yeah, now it's like, this is stone baked, right? Oh no, oh no, oh no. - And it's omori sauce.

- Is it locally grown? - Is it locally grown? - Which prefecture are these strawberries from? Oh, really that prefecture? - Oh no, no, no, no. - Embarrassing. - It happened. - What do you mean it didn't cost $1,000 for one strawberry? Get that out of here. - Every time I go back to the UK now, the hardest,

I have to adjust to is just going to like go through like my Uber Eats or the local restaurant guides like to my area and just seeing nothing that's appealing to me. Unless I travel all the way up to London in the city center. - Takeout's really good here. Takeout in the UK it's like, which greasy food do you want? - Yeah, it's like you get a choice between kebab, kebab pizza, chicken burgers and that's- - I like chicken burgers.

- I mean, I like chicken burgers as well, but there's a time and a place for chicken burgers. - What about you? What's the best thing? What's the best thing of both? Like, what do you like most about America? What do you like most about Japan? - Well, you know, the thing that I liked about America was that it's really diverse. You know, you could go anywhere and really just feel at home.

- It's friendly too, I really like the friendly name. - It's very friendly and you can have conversations with anyone. - Yeah, it's very open. - But in Japan, it's hard to get friendly with people. I think it takes time. People are more sort of shy and have that one wall between. - You feel like you have to break down multiple barriers to really get to know someone and even then it's quite hard. - It takes time to be able to call someone a friend. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's one of the differences I feel. But there are a lot of things I love about Japan as well. You feel safe. You know, you can trust everyone most of the time. Yeah. Most of the time. Yeah, you can trust, you know. And the quality is always, you know...

very high for anything, not just food, but for any kind of service or, you know, it's great. But I think that you get spoiled in Japan. So once you start living in Japan for a while and you go overseas, like everything feels slow. Everything feels, you know, like not that far. - Suboptimized. - I almost understand why some people just don't travel outside of Japan. I'm like, why would you? Like, what are you gonna do? - Things just work here. And that's what I love about Japan. It's just,

Everything you didn't think about works and then except for business side, but just like I said, everything outside of that just perfectly works. - I didn't realize the London Underground was, I mean, I knew it was dirty. I didn't realize it was that dirty until you go like- - Oh, I knew that. I knew that. - 'Cause you get like the, you know, you get the railway to the airport in Japan, it's ultra clean. You get on your plane, you get home, you have to get the Underground to go home. You're like, oh God, there's shit everywhere. - Well, I mean, you're from New York, right? Like the New York Subways are just like another level.

- I normally feel safe on public transport, but the underground, the subway in New York really tested my ability to feel safe. - Yeah. But even in the music industry, like concert wise, I realized there was a huge difference. Like when I went to,

San Jose to do my first concert. Like, you know, it was American style concerts. So we were already used to doing the Japanese style and then we went to the venue and then it was lunchtime. So in Japan, you know, even if it's lunchtime, if there's a lot of work done or, you know, no one just

strays off, you know, goes to their own lunch break or anything. And everyone, like, if you have an hour, that means you have about 30 minutes. Right, right. After, like, cleanup and everything. But back in the States, it was 12 o'clock. Everyone disappeared.

And then no one was there. So the Japanese team was there waiting to, you know, it was like, Oh, what do we do? And then we're okay. So lunch break is one hour. So at one o'clock we come back and we do rehearsals again. So we were, we were planning on that, but then like the camera people and the lighting people like didn't appear for another hour or so. That sounds like an American comedy. But the amazing thing,

- The thing is, even though they don't like, you know, do all that preparation stuff. - Yeah. - Like the show, boom, they do their thing. They do their thing. They don't need rehearsal. They just boom, they do their thing. - God damn. Most conventions I've been to, there have been like technical difficulties on like every panel that I've hosted. - Yeah, you got it easy. - My flight, a technical difficulty.

That's how the world works. And Japan is just very perfectionism. - They're just like a little too overcautious at times where it's like, why are you stressing out about this? You don't have to have 17 rehearsals. One or two is enough. How many rehearsals do you have for a Japanese concert? - It depends on the event, but we do definitely, we do a lot of rehearsals beforehand and we'll do like,

Like before the shows, we go through like, it's called genipro, but it's a rehearsal where you do it exactly like- So basically just a dress rehearsal. Yeah, the show, exactly how it's done. And you probably need to do that two or three times. Bloody hell. So when you perform a concert, you're not just performing it once. You're performing it like four times. Exactly. In secret, most of the time. When it's a big show.

- It's only the last time that counts. - Going back like a million topics, going back to the, 'cause I'm really intrigued about the whole anime opening process. How do you, so from complete start to finish, how do you get the call where you're like, "Hey, there's a show, it needs an opening." How does that all go? And then how does the process go? You write it, I just wanna know everything about it.

'Cause I feel like we haven't actually talked about the process, it'd be a waste not to. - I think it depends on the artist, but if you're signed with an anime based label, then there are a lot of types that need artists. So they're always looking for it. And it depends if you are the one that sort of offers or they offer for you, it depends on the situation. But once you sort of,

get an offer or you get a, you go grab an offer. Then that sort of starts into the songwriting creation. And then you write all of it. Yeah. You have to make it from zero usually. Okay. So, um, that begins there. And I wrote all the lyrics for my songs, not all the melodies, but, um, all the lyrics. Do they give you any input on any of that? Like,

like the anime producer. - Do you have like any source material? Do you write around that or was it just? - Usually we start writing when the series isn't complete yet. So we only get like a really brief description. - So what was it like for something like Batum? What do they say? Just like. - Oh, Batum was actually a manga before the anime. So that really helped. - You got to read all the manga. - You read the manga and you sort of, they also have hints like this kind of song or that kind of song. And then,

Um,

You try to fulfill their expectations there. But Batum, for example, No Pain, No Game, we had a lot of freedom with that song. So they really probably didn't expect that kind of sort of upbeat kind of song. And so, but everyone really like, so it stood out in a good way. I think it stood out and they were like, wow, we weren't expecting this in a good way. I mean, I think I can speak on behalf of the anime community being like, it's bad.

- Most people, if not all people only remember the opening to the show. - So is that like a one take, here's a song I'm done or is it like they constantly are always like, can you change this? Can you change this? Can we try this? - Sometimes they have very like,

detailed sort of descriptions for what they want, but sometimes it's just completely free. So with Batum though, uh, we had a lot of freedom, so we didn't have to adjust or redo a lot of things. But for other songs, for example, there are a couple of, um,

retakes or recreations or there are some songs that I've done, I've written that have completely disappeared. - Okay, right, right. So when you do an anime opening, who owns the rights to that song? Is it the, did the anime people just get like a license to use it in the anime and you retain everything? Or like, how does that work? If you know. - It might be the label, right? - I think the label has- - Yeah, you're just like, I don't know, I make music.

- The label has the song rights. And so when the song is used, the rights belong to the label. - Because I think Flying Dog was like, and correct me if I'm wrong, it's like a major label that was primarily focused on like more anime music. So like a lot of like anime, like OSTs and like openings were usually started and owned by that record label. So like- - I like how you're looking at Connor like he's gonna know what you're talking about. - Oh shit bro.

- No, I'm telling you because you probably don't know. - Yeah, I'm just telling you. Because I was, again, I was reading your Wikipedia and said, you know, "Flying Dog" and stuff like that. - I did a bit of research. - I did a bit of research. No, because I was always interested in as well of how I guess rights and distribution works for anime songs because I feel it's completely different to an artist just releasing their own album. - Yeah, I always wondered 'cause a lot of the songs wouldn't have, you know, wouldn't,

blow up without the animated back of it. So I wondered if there's a system that like, there was like co-ownership or like, I'm just pretty intrigued. I didn't know if you knew. - Yeah, it's very complicated. Like the rights thing is just, is, is, is. - It just sounds like a nightmare. - I've always had issues, like YouTube issues with like rights and it's always a mess. - Like, you know, in Japan, everything about the rights is huge. You know, like you can't say certain stuff on TV. You need permission for a lot of things.

- Yeah, we've experienced that. - Yeah, I can imagine. - Japan fucking do you have permission hell is just like never ending. - The approval chain is just fucking a mile long. - I never, like there were so many things. It's like since working with Japanese companies, did I notice, I was like, oh, you need approval for that? - Because it was the first time that I had, that I experienced like taking off a label off a water bottle

- To drink it in front of media. In America, I never even thought about that. - Yes, I openly drink Evian water. - So, you know, like taking the labels off at events or like that is completely Japanese culture. - I noticed that the first time actually when I was watching like a Japanese TV show and I noticed that the water bottle on like the desk or whatever was like mosaicked out. And I'm like,

"What the fuck are they drinking? "How bad is it?" - Is this hentai water I'm drinking? Like loli water? - What is in this water bottle that they have to censor it? - I mean, they'll show you shots on TV and it'd be like Shibuya and everything is blurred except for like two people walking. It's like, why are you even showing this? Just don't show it anyway. It's 'cause all the brands in Shibuya and all the billboards have to be like blurred out. - It looks like a JV shoot in Shibuya.

- It's odd, 'cause then two seconds later it'll cut to a shot where everything's shown. And I'm like, there is no consistency on this. I'm so confused. There must be some rights going on where it's completely flip-flopping and yeah, I don't know, it's bizarre. - How did it feel like the first time you watched an anime and just heard yourself singing before the anime started?

- Oh, it was really nerve wracking. I was probably peeing my pants. - 'Cause you were pretty much living the dream that I think a lot of like, especially like Western weebs want where they're like, "Yeah, I can sing. One day I'm gonna sing in an anime opening."

- It's very surreal. It's very surreal. It didn't really like hit home until a lot later. - 'Cause do you, I assume when you are producing the song, you don't actually get to see the animation opening of like what they put to your song. - So exactly the first time that, well, actually I did see like a sample of the opening, but the first time I actually saw the official, like finalized version was on TV. So it was probably like the same as you guys. I was like in front of the screen, I was like,

- What the hell? - What the hell is happening? - I hear my voice from the TV. - Do you normally skip anime openings? Am I allowed? - I usually, well, sometimes. - Industry secret. - Sometimes, but yeah, I try to watch it. - If I like it though, I'll watch it definitely. - Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with skipping anime openings. Yeah, I said it, I fucking said it. - Yeah, sometimes they're bad.

- Yeah, let's be honest. - As an artist, right? When Netflix gives you that skip intro button, does your heart like die inside a little bit? You're like, oh no. - I try to not imagine how many people are skipping my- - How dare you skip my banger song.

- Because now that you work in the industry, has that changed the way you kind of like, not only view anime music, but just music in general? 'Cause like, as someone who works in anime YouTube, I can't look at anime YouTubers the same, or like I can't view it as just,

to be entertained anymore. I can't shut off that part of my brain. - I think it has sort of destroyed a bit of like the enjoyment of part of it because everything that concerns like music right now becomes a job for me. So I start listening to like, you know, it's hard to just listen to it for my enjoyment. I do find that. - 'Cause sometimes you see someone who does something fucking great and you're just like, damn it. I wish I did that. I wish I could do that. - Don't always tell me.

- Yeah, I get that every time. I'm just like- - Why didn't I come up with that? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right, exactly. - It's like, I love this video except for the fact that I didn't make it. - Yeah. - Like I wish I'd have made that. - Yeah, I mean, I love you- - I was going to do it. - But this person did it before me. God damn, I hate this person but I fucking respect this person. - They totally stole the idea that was just in my head.

Is there like a, I guess like very general question. Is there like a Japanese artist that you would ever want to like collaborate with in the future? Oh, there are so many, but especially recently, I feel that I want to do more collaborations. And, and so, you know, um,

Like there are a lot of artists. - Yeah, I don't think we asked like who are some artists that you like or respect? - Japanese or Western? - Japanese or Western? Well, you know, I- - Avril Lavigne, of course. - Avril Lavigne, right up there at the top. - You have to live up to that. No, but I do really respect her music, but also like artists like Miyavi.

- Oh, yeah. - Oh, but one amazing thing that happened this recently is I collaborated on stage with Flo. - Oh, wow. - Oh, okay. - So that was a real dream come true for me. So that was amazing because I was a listener of theirs. - How did that happen? - I have no idea.

- You just turned up to perform and Flo was right there. - I woke up and I was collaborating on stage with Flo. No, but it was an event. And it was an event and the event side said that, hey, it would be great if you collaborated on a cover song with Flo, which was which was a runoni kenshin anime opening.

So that was amazing. But the thing is, we met for the first time during the only rehearsal that happened right before the actual stage. Oh, wow. Right.

- So that, we didn't have a lot of time to, you know, get to know each other. But it was amazing. And these kinds of miracles do happen when you're working like this. So, you know, that's always exciting. - It seems like you've just had a lot of great opportunities that you never kind of like aim for. It just kind of happens. - That definitely.

- I have to say that a lot of the miracles that happened were unexpected in my career. - Yeah, next step for you though is collaborating with Avril Lavigne. - Let's see if we can make it happen. - So I have to ask, do you watch any YouTubers?

- I have made a YouTube watching debut. So I'm just a newbie right now. So I'm starting to search for good channels and I actually, I'm planning to start my own channel as well. - Oh, okay. - I'm sort of studying right now. I'm watching you guys and I'm studying. - Well, I can't sing. I can't cosplay badly. What are you doing on your YouTube channel?

mostly like half of the things I plan to do are going to be music based but half of the things are going to be like just for fun just for you know having fun with my watchers and me being me yeah so yeah any advice

- That's a loaded question right there. - Click bait. - If it's you singing, just make it sound crazy. - Yeah. - I sang every song ever. - Yeah, titles and thumbnails are like your bread and butter. - What do you recommend I do? - Actually, I'll tell you what you could do. Anime opening singer reacts to anime openings.

- Tell me that's not gonna do well. - Professional anime opening. - That would actually do really well. - That would do really well. - Where you like break down being like, okay, this is why this is a good anime opening. This is why this is a bad anime opening. And like, you can, 'cause you have the authority to say that, right? As someone who's made,

As someone who's made multiple anime openings. - What are some of your favorite anime openings? If you can say that. - I really do enjoy, like I said, Fullmetal Alchemist. I mostly like all their songs and just, I'm a rock artist. So I like rock based songs a lot. - Do you just listen to the music or do you pay attention to like the actual visuals and animation with it as well? Or are you just like, okay, this is a good song. I like the song.

- I think first I'll listen to the song and then I'll watch the visuals, but then I end up just listening to the song itself. - Yeah, that's me as well. I feel that's the case. It's like, yeah, if you just like a song, especially as well, like if you like a song, at least for me, I'm like, "Ooh, I've never heard of this artist before. I'm gonna delve into everything else that they have." And then nine times out of 10, you realize,

- Yeah, there's probably a reason why they're known for this song. - But I think, you know, I do think YouTube is about being real. And so I wanna do, what I plan to do is to show like behind the scenes stuff of a lot of the music industry. Like what I can, there's a limit to what I can show, but I will try to show

you know some of the down and dirty stuff you know that people don't know about like in the recording studio or like behind the stage in my concert yeah yeah and all these things and so i think i'm i really want to just show people what the music industry is about yeah because what made you want to start youtube because this is very different from the image we talked about earlier of just like you know the mysterious nano it's exactly the opposite of what i've been doing yeah yeah

So is it just you trying to find something new, trying to do something different? That too, but also it's just that I feel that it's more fitting in the generation to not be perfect. Up until now, everything about music was being perfect, but in this generation, it's solely about showing what's not perfect. And people are more interested in the imperfections of the entertainment industry. So hopefully I can...

you know, been singing for years and I have seen, you know, behind the scenes stuff. So to share that with the world. Yeah. That'd be super interesting. Yeah. Cause I feel that's like a very unique position to be in as well. Like we can't just rock up to like a concert of yours and being like, Hey, we're backstage.

- I'm on stage right now, this is what it looks like. - Without going through leaps and hurdles of approval and stuff like that. - And I do feel that that's a big reason why YouTube has grown so large in recent years is because people feel a connection with YouTubers because they see the imperfections. They see that they're not this,

perfect idol or perfect artist that, you know, we, a lot of us came up from the same background and I know you did as well, but it might be hard for someone to like relate to that when they don't know all the intimate details of your background, where you came up from.

So yeah, it was very interesting hearing your story today. I mean, sometimes it is scary to think that, you know, showing people like, you know, the sort of like the mistakes and stuff with the recording studio and stuff. But at the same time, I think that there are not a lot of artists who are willing to show that side. So, you know, I'm going to throw away my pride and try to be real with people, you know, show that, you know, recording does take a lot of effort. There's a lot of, you know,

mistakes and redos and, you know, it's just effort, effort, effort, effort, effort. And then the CD is created. So it's not just, you know, you sing it, you record it, you put it together. Yeah.

I'd be surprised if there's many people out there who actually think that, that it's just like, damn, she nails it every time. I mean, there might be some just amazing people who nail it in, you know, just one take, but it's just, you know, it's real life. So I'd love to be able to share that side of that sort of effort with people, you know, how much effort does go into making one song. And,

and one concert. And so, you know, hopefully people will find that interesting. And I might, you know, do a few weird parodies. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'll be very interested. I might sing my own anime songs with the cosplay.

- That'd be dope. - That'd be dope as well. - Hopefully your channel will be ready by the time this episode goes up. - Yeah. - If it is, link's in the description. - So he's like, when were you planning to debut your channel? - March 14th, I think, or March, somewhere around there. So hopefully it'll be ready before that. And then yeah, people can sort of maybe click on it.

- So if her channel is up and ready, it's gonna, you can click on the link in the description to subscribe to NaNo. And I guess that'll be a week after this episode airs. So keep an eye out on that for that as well. - I already feel really at home right now. So maybe I can just park here. - Yeah, yeah. - Maybe I can be the fourth guy. - You can be one of the boys. It's okay. - I think I need a Trash Taste opening.

- So maybe after this time, I'm gonna like just happen to appear every time, you know, like fourth, fourth, fourth. - Yeah, definitely. Well, we'd love to have you back on sometime. - I would love to be back. - I think, you know, if you're gonna be a YouTuber, you should do our outro for us. That's a very crucial part of being a YouTuber. - Oh really? - Like an outro song? - No, no, no, no, no. Outro for the YouTube video. You know, you have to say like, like, comment, subscribe.

- Oh yeah, you gotta get used to that. - You gotta get used to that. - YouTuber coaching session right now. Okay, so all you have to do is look at the camera and go, "Hope you guys enjoyed the video. "Be sure to like, comment and smash the like button." You have to say smash by the way. - It has to be smash. - You can't just say like hit the like button. No, it has to be like a- - Smash the like, hold in the smash the like button. - Can I practice here? - Yeah, go ahead.

- Everyone watching YouTube, thank you. That was Nino. You have to smash the like button. - I didn't expect that. - God damn. - Now you have to. - Now you have to. - And if you're like us, you have patrons who are watching right now. - Look at all these lovely patrons. - Look at all these lovely patrons. - Thank you so much, patrons. - Thank you so much.

- You're a natural at this. - Spoken like a true YouTuber. - You're gonna be starting drama in no time. You're gonna still be great. - Awesome. - Stage two, I'll help you practice the apology video as well. We'll go through that. - But yeah, if you guys would like to support the show, then make sure to go over to patreon.com/trashtaste. Also, yeah, I almost forgot our own Patreon URL. Also follow us on Twitter, the subreddit and listen to us over on Spotify. And of course go check out everything on,

- Where can they find you? - Where can you find me? - Instagram, Twitter, what do you have? - Spotify. - Twitter, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube. - All those links will be in the description down below. So make sure that you smash them. - Smash those links too. And the like button. Smash them.

But yes, thank you very much for coming on, Nanno. - Thank you so much for having me. I had a lot of fun. - Very insightful. - I don't know if what I said is, you know, any- - It was usually terrible. - Yeah, everything will be cut. - This is gonna be a five minute podcast. - The first two minute episode. - It was really insightful. Thank you so much. - Thank you so much. - Thank you for coming. Hope you had fun as well. - And hopefully I can, you know, join you guys again. - Yeah, definitely. - Yeah, absolutely. - And I will definitely be going to one of your concerts eventually.

- Thank you so much. Please do come. - When you are back performing again. - So if you see one loud Gaijin in the back, it's gonna probably be me. - If you see three loud guys in the back, it's gonna be us. - And you guys will of course join me backstage. - Of course. - And join my YouTube. - Of course it was implied, right? - Of course, of course. - But honestly, I would love to collaborate with you guys on YouTube someday.

- Dude, that'd be awesome. I'd be more than down for that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But yes, that's been this episode of Trash Taste. Hope you guys enjoyed it and we will see you all next time. - Bye-bye. - Bye.