Keeping Great Music Going in Fukuoka. Record Shop BAGISM

What first drew you deeply into music?

Yabubayashi

I had listened to J-pop since elementary school, but I think I really started exploring different kinds of music around junior high. The trigger was a classmate and his older brother. Through my friend, I was able to discover the kind of Western music that university students were listening to at the time, and that had a big impact on me.

Back then, I was listening to punk bands like Fall Out Boy, Sum 41, and Green Day, as well as indie rock and alternative bands like The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys. I think that was around 2010. It was a time when the way people listened to music was shifting from CDs and iPods toward streaming.

In high school, I also started listening more to Japanese indie bands and rock music. I played in a band too, but listening to music, talking about it, and going to shows gradually became part of my everyday life.

When I came to Fukuoka for university, I joined a light music club and went to live shows about four times a month. Around my third year, I started working part-time at Tower Records. From there, I think I began focusing more on music that was newly being created.

I would look through new release information sent by labels and listen to anything that caught my interest during breaks. Overseas rock and pop, soul, R&B, Japanese indie music. New music was coming out all the time.

I worked at Tower Records for about four years. Every day, I was exposed to information about new releases, listened to music that interested me, and thought about how to present it in the store. Through that experience, I think I developed a sense of not only “buying” music, but also “introducing” and “supporting” it.

Was there a moment when that feeling of “introducing” and “supporting” music turned into action?

I think that was exactly what happened with records. At the time, Japanese indie bands were starting to release records. I remember buying my first record even though I didn’t even own a record player yet.

If you can listen to something on streaming, that is fine in many ways. But I had this feeling that I wanted to support active artists by buying a physical object. With CDs, sometimes you just import them into your computer and that’s the end of it. For me, the experience of playing a record felt more right.

At first, I kept a little distance from records because I thought, “Once I start buying them, I won’t be able to stop.” But then I bought a record player, and after that, the brakes were completely gone. Haha.

While working at Tower Records, I would order the records I wanted myself. A few records a month at a time, my relationship with music gradually became more physical.

It was around that time, while I was working at Tower Records, that this shop opened. On the day of the pre-opening, I skipped lunch during my one-hour break and rushed over here by bicycle. I bought a record, and then I told the manager at the time, “If you ever hire someone, please hire me!” It was the first time we had ever met.

I heard later that the manager told people around him, “A crazy guy just showed up.” Haha.

After that, I kept coming back again and again.

What made you want to come here that much?

BAGISM had the image of the kind of record shop I had always wanted to run someday.

A place where you can drink while talking about music. A place with DJ events and connections to live houses, where people who enjoy music in Fukuoka can casually gather. A place where relationships between people spread through the shop. BAGISM had almost everything I imagined in a record shop.

At the time, I also felt that there weren’t many places in Fukuoka where you could buy new vinyl records. You could buy them at Tower Records, order them yourself, or buy them online. So when I saw the shelves here, I was genuinely moved.

Maybe those feelings came across, because eventually I received the baton from the previous manager and began standing behind the counter at BAGISM. By helping out in the shop, I gradually learned about buying records, running events, and everything else by watching closely.

The previous manager was in a punk band, so he had a strong DIY spirit. The interior was made by hand, and there was this attitude of “Let’s do what we can by ourselves.”

More than anything, I was struck by the way he worked hard while still having fun. I want to be like that too.

What do you value when creating the shop?

There are people in Fukuoka who listen to all kinds of music and buy a lot of records. Some people even go all the way to Tokyo or Osaka to see overseas artists when they tour Japan. I want those people to know that there are interesting places in Fukuoka too.

At BAGISM, when an overseas artist has a Fukuoka show, we may bring in records by that artist or reach out to people who might be interested and say, “Let’s go see them together.” Compared with Tokyo or Osaka, overseas artists do not come to Fukuoka that often. That is why I want to help make each of those shows exciting as a shop. I feel that is something BAGISM should be doing.

Recently, we organized the Fukuoka edition of the Japan tour by the New Zealand band Phoebe Rings. Rather than having everything end inside the shop, we want to connect with live houses, DJ events, and artists active in Fukuoka, and help music move through the city. In that sense, we are trying to play the role of a small hub.

There is also a simple joy in handling new records: the fun of following something new. New music is born on top of everything that came before it. You can follow not only the music itself, but also the human side of the artist, the environment around them at that moment, changes in labels, and so on. That feels very alive to me.

And with artists who are active now, you can go see them live. Being able to experience something happening in the present is really exciting. New records carry the time of the present. You listen to the music, buy the record, go to the show, and then wait for the next release. Following an artist as they change in the same timeline you are living in — that is one of the unique joys of new records.

What kind of place do you want BAGISM to become from here?

At live houses and DJ events, I meet people who have kept playing in bands for years, or who have kept DJing for a long time. Of course, I think everyone wants to succeed in some way. But I also really feel the joy and coolness of continuing to do what you love. As a way of life, I think that is really cool.

For BAGISM, I would like to hold more in-store performances such as solo acoustic shows, and create more events beyond DJ events. I also want to use outside venues and create experiences that connect back to BAGISM in different places — things people remember as fun. I want to make things that I can enjoy too.

Great music is still being created today, both overseas and here in Fukuoka. There are also people in Fukuoka looking for interesting music. If that is the case, then I want to create a place that stands between them. With a DIY spirit, and with help from the people around us, we will keep building that place.