Tommy Kaneko

Email: tommy@essaylikenephew.co.uk
Tommy plays bass, keyboards, melodica and occasionally the guitar, among other things. He juggles music with architecture, web design and coding. Tommy does much of the producing for Essay Like Nephew. He is proud to be a geek, and sometimes wears thick rimmed glasses. 8-)
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I like producing music for good bands. If you are one maybe I can do some work for you! Get in touch.

Tommy's recent blogs

6Music proposed closure

By Tommy Thursday, 4 March, 2010
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As music lovers in the nation would already know, the BBC Director-General, Mark Thompson has made proposals for the closure of 6music.  I feel very strongly about this, and have been compelled to write a letter to the BBC about this.  Even if Essay Like Nephew are no longer, I feel a great deal of loyalty for the experience they have given us directly, in the case of our radio plays, and indirectly through providing the stage that we played at in Glastonbury.

For those who want to help to campaign against this closure, I urge you to visit this Facebook page as a first port of call.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I felt compelled to respond to the proposed closure of 6Music, as a musician and as a beneficiary of their activities.  I am extremely grateful to the people who work at 6music who support programs like BBC Introducing in bringing new, under the radar music to a wider audience.  Tom Robinson on 6music gave my band our first ever radio play, which gave us a confidence we never had before.  The next year, with thanks to a local BBC radio station, we were playing at the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury (2009), heavily supported by 6music who gave the best acts on that stage prominence.  We met Tom Robinson who gave us the advice and confidence we needed to proceed with getting our music "out there".

Although our band has changed in formation, and are changing direction for our own reasons, I feel an enormous sense of allegiance to 6music and the music culture that they help to foster, and I believe there are many artists who feel this.  The BBC Introducing program and 6music provide a vital and vibrant platform for new acts to prove their worth to the nation.  Names such as The Ting Tings and Speech Debelle are recently "made" acts who owe some of their success to this station.  It is no surprise that established artists such as David Bowie, Lilly Allen and RadioHead have come out to voice their concerns about the proposals.  David Bowie says on his website: "6music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame". - I have always seen 6Music as the station that has taken on what I see as the institution built by John Peel, and I am not surprised that Mr Bowie and other established artists feel the same.  6Music provides a space for up-and-coming bands to break through into prominence, where their music is only judged on merit, not on sales and perceived popularity.  Without it, I fail to see how independent bands can find success, and British music culture will be poorer as a result.

The music industry is today less driven by big budgets and big labels pushing their songs to be played on radio, but more by independent musicians and labels promoting themselves through channels like 6Music, in the knowledge that their music will be judged on merit alone.  The first generation of music acts that owe their success to 6Music and their supported projects are coming into maturation today.  These are the Blurs and Radioheads of tomorrow.  I sincerely fear if 6music closes, several years later, listeners of other radio stations will start to wonder where the new, exciting music has gone.  It would be because that link between the national audience and those who play music without the money has been broken.

I pray that the BBC management, through this consultation, can now see the unique contribution that 6Music makes to music culture in this country.

Thank you for listening,
Kind regards,
Tommy Kaneko
formerly of the band "Essay Like Nephew"

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What next?

By Tommy Wednesday, 1 July, 2009
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Glastonbury was and is a great festival.  It is like no other.  I felt utterly spoilt by the choice of music and entertainment on offer.  Neil Young looked old but put my fitness to shame with his energy.  Watching Blur was like taking part in a mass karaoke session.  Animal Collective threw me into a state of euphoria.  Then, of course there was our show...

Nothing much needs to be said about our performance, some of which can be seen on the BBC website.  It was terrifying, but the excitement kept me going.  A lovely crowd of strangers and friends cheered us on to keep us happy.

Backstage, we met Huw Stevens and Tom Robinson, both BBC radio DJs.  These two are heavily involved in promoting new music, largely from unsigned acts.  Their BBC Introducing project was launched in response to John Peel's and his institution's untimely death, and it has been growing steadily since.  The BBC Introducing programme is supported by a network of local and national radio stations, and they have stages at events such as Glastonbury.

It had been a year since we contacted Tom Robinson, who gave us our first ever radio play.  Back then we had a conversation over the medium of blog, where he gave us some pearls of wisdom to help us navigate through this most uncertain and exciting time for the music industry.  A year on, having built ourselves some more confidence, we talked in person at some length about how to 'make it'.  Tom Robinson is firmly of the opinion that a good band is master of its own fortunes.  Indeed, he feels that there is no need to be signed to a label.

This is a man with considerable experience in the music world, and sees the shake-up of the traditional industry structure to be a blessing for the lowly, unsigned band.  Today, it costs very little to distribute music, over the internet, or in making a short run of CD-Rs.  He suggested that we needed to build the fan-base, one by one.  "Play in your fans' living rooms!", he said.  He gave us more ideas on how to go about promoting ourselves - simple things that are obvious, but never occurred to us.

Tom Robinson, in short, inspired us. Maybe it's not about getting signed.  It's really all about fans.  We're gonna find you.

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