Fatblueman for Fatbluefans

What’s Fatblueman?

Fatblueman is a music group from Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, consisting of a handful of talented musicians from around the world capable of a wide range of sound. Thanks in no small part to judicious use of YouTube to promote their band (and the fact that their music rocks doesn’t hurt either), they’ve managed to attain a bit of notoriety in Japan and around the world, and are likely on their way to attain at least a little bit more.

There’s a good bit of info about FBM here and there on the net, but it’s a bit spread out. One of the goals of this site is to bring it all together in one place so that fans and fans-to-be can more easily find it and learn about the best thing to come out of the Nag since tebasaki.

Is something missing from this page? If you know something I don’t, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Members

Note that in Japanese names, when spoken in Japanese, the family name comes first; however, when we’re speaking English (as we are with this page), the order is typically reversed so the family name comes last, as in English names. The list below preserves that tradition, no matter how strange it may be. (English does not similarly flip Korean or Chinese names, which are also “backwards…”)

John Janzen once joked that Fatblueman consisted of “essentially me and any friends I can get to play with me on a given day.” But at least since the release of the Back to Winnipeg album, Fatblueman has steadily consisted of:

  • John Janzen (JJ): Lead singer, guitar, general frontman (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). He’s a university-level English professor for his “day job.”
  • Tom Fallon: Bass guitar, backup vocals (New York, New York, United States). Besides Fatblueman, Fallon is also in a group named Iznit Obvious and has done solo work as well.
  • Hiro Hirashiki: Guitar, bass (Hackensack, New Jersey, United States)
  • AC Blackstone (stage name for Eishi Kuroishi): Drums, Cajón (Osaka, Japan). When not playing with Fatblueman, AC plays Christian music and makes Christian-themed art as well. “Eishi” is similar to how the letters “AC” would be pronounced with a Japanese accent, and the Japanese characters which spell out “Kuroishi” (黒石) literally mean “black” and “stone;” hence Eishi Kuroishi is also AC Blackstone.
  • Hiroko Iwase: Violin, backup vocals (Aichi, Japan). Hiroko is a classically-trained violinist, though clearly she doesn’t mind rockin’ it every now and then. After she and Tom Fallon suffered a disastrous break-up, she apparently has been reluctant to play with the band at major shows, and now may no longer be a member.

Friends

  • Secret Ocean is another Nagoya-area band. The sound from this two-man group is a bit different than FBM’s; lo-fi and acoustic, with breathy emotional lyrics. However, they occasionally share a stage with FBM at shows, and John has posted videos and blog posts about them. Check out their sound on their YouTube channel.
  • Marlow often helps in editing FBM music videos and such.

Official sites and such

Wow, that’s a lot of sites to keep track of! So I’ve created the Fatbluefeed, which aggregates the blogs plus all members’ YouTube channels into one handy feed. Check out the posts and subscribe via RSS.

Interviews and such

  • Interview with John Janzen at SeekJapan, circa early 2008
  • Around early April 2008, an interview with John was conducted by CBC Radio for their “Manitoba This Week” podcast; however, it doesn’t seem to be available on their site anymore.
  • JJ was interviewed again for Episode 1 of the Japan Podshow podcast. Skip ahead to about the 36th minute to get straight to the interview. John explains where the name “Fatblueman” came from, and also talks about selling music versus giving it away for free.

Albums

Back to Winnipeg

FBM’s first album, released March 16, 2008 or thereabouts. Initially it was only available as a physical CD and MP3 download via online music store CD Baby, but later appeared on the iTunes Store, and then later was made available to download for free - though it’s still available for sale at the places linked above if you would like to toss a little jingle into Fatblueman’s fatbluehat.

Tracklist:

  1. Hope
  2. Back to Winnipeg
  3. Which Road Takes Me Home
  4. Loveletter
  5. Not Good Enough
  6. The Greatest Thing
  7. Couldn’t Get the Girl
  8. Mary Jane
  9. That’s What I Want
  10. Throw It Away

Back to Winnipeg (the song)

Back to Winnipeg is somewhat of an anthem about the experience of being a foreigner living in Japan. Winnipeg, Manitoba is John Janzen’s hometown, though he attributes the phrase “That’s it! Back to Winnipeg!” to an episode of The Simpsons.

The lyrics discuss a couple of lines of employment for low-skilled foreigners in Japan. Many Japanese couples are opting for a Christian-style wedding instead of a traditional Shinto-inspired one; those who are actual Christians can have one performed in their churches, but most others will opt for a ceremony performed in a church-like facade, with a lay officiant who often dresses in a pastor-like suit or robes and performs the ceremony with song and prayer like a real pastor would. To add to the exotic-ness of it all, these officiants are often foreigners. Hence: “I’m rushing on to the next fantasy/put on my holy robe/I get my check and I leave.”

Also, many English chain schools in Japan have a reputation of hiring just about anyone who is a native speaker of English and can meet the bare minimum requirements to attain a visa as a teacher in their schools, even if they have little to no formal experience or training as a teacher. (I was one of these people.) Lessons at these chain schools are often criticized (even by the teachers themselves) as being more about entertainment than education. Hence: “But I know that don’t really matter though/Because it’s all a show/We talk a whole lot more than we actually know.” However, many foreigners who attain these jobs in Japan and stick with them for a couple years sometimes stay in them for longer than they would really like to, because they fear that they will be able to get as secure a job back in their home countries due to their lack of skills; hence, “I have a feelin’ if I don’t leave now I might be here to stay.”

The vaguely nonsensical lyrics in the beginning are inspired by “Engrish” phrases spotted in Japan, some of which are seen on the music video.

Which Road Takes Me Home

John explains his thoughts about this song in this blog post.

Christmas in Japan

A “mini-album” released around the holiday period of 2008. Download it here.

  1. Fat Blue Christmas Swing Medley
  2. 清しこの夜 (Kiyoshi kono Yoru) (Silent Night)
  3. Christmas in Japan

For Christmas 2009, the album was re-released (so to speak) on Jamendo, a music site. This time, Christmas in Japan and Kiyoshi kono Yoru switch order, and the silly “dance remix” version of Christmas in Japan is added to the end.

Christmas in Japan (song)

Another collaboration with other YouTube stars. Japan’s Christmas traditions are inspired by those of the west, but with a few unusual twists which are touched upon in the song; KFC is a traditional Christmas meal, and it’s a popular night for lovers to go on dates (and make use of love hotels). See John’s post about the song for more.

While writing the song, John solicited suggestions for ideas to put in the song. The bit about the George Michael song was inspired by my submission; during my own Christmas season in Japan, I was quite disturbed by the prevalence of George Michael’s hideous “Last Christmas” song everywhere I went.

Christmas in Japan is easily FBM’s most-viewed video, nearing 500,000 views on YouTube.

Check out the “Translations” section below for a translation of the Japanese bit near the beginning of this song.

Still A Long Way Off

Still A Long Way Off was “released” on music site Jamendo on the 14th of December, 2009, as a free download. It’s also available for purchase on iTunes if you’d like to support the band and get some super high-quality AAC audio files instead of MP3s.

Tracklist:

  1. Incomplete
  2. Hope It Turns Out Alright
  3. Mary Mack
  4. That’s What I Want
  5. Take My Heart
  6. Shenandoah
  7. Just don’t forget about that
  8. Simple Symphony
  9. The Great Unknown
  10. Bubbling Up From The Ground
  11. My Song 6

Back to Back to Winnipeg

You may have noticed that That’s What I Want makes an appearance on this album as well; and Hope It Turns Out Alright is actually Hope with a longer name, but over a minute and a half chopped off the song itself. Both of these songs are very different mixes from how they appear on Back to Winnipeg.

Mary Mack and Shenandoah

Mary Mack and Shenandoah are actually classic Scottish and American folk songs, respectively. In Mary Mack’s case, a classic fiddle pairs up with a rockin’ electric guitar and the lyrics are delivered with hip hop-like cadence. Shenandoah is a more traditional rendition of the song.

Take My Heart

FBM’s first original song (mostly) in Japanese. A beautiful ballad; the version that appears on this album features John in a duet with a female singer (not sure who that was yet), and if it doesn’t knock your socks off, you have no soul - even if you can’t understand most of the lyrics. But if you want a translation, JJ has posted one.

Just don’t forget about that and Bubbling Up From The Ground

These two songs were written by John to support HOPE, a charity devoted to improving infrastructure in impoverished and disaster-struck areas of the world. Apparently, the non-title-casing of Just don’t forget about that is correct.

My Song 6

This song previously appeared on YouTube under the title Garageband Collage; its music was made entirely of sample from the music program GarageBand. Apparently its name comes from the name of the GarageBand project file on John’s computer; by default, the first song will be titled My Song, then My Song 2, then My Song 3, and so on.

Videos

Back to Winnipeg

  1. Hope
    • Hope, music video with Japanese subtitles.
    • Hope, a fan-made video featuring clips from FBM’s live performances on the street and in clubs.
    • Hope, an acoustic jam session performance with Hiroko on violin instead of a piano. Note the Fatblueman logo on the back wall.
    • Hope, a cover by a fan.
    • Hope, with John and his sister Diana.
    • Hope acoustic at 7th Café
  2. Back to Winnipeg (See long-winded description below)
  3. Which Road Takes Me Home
  4. Loveletter
  5. Not Good Enough
  6. The Greatest Thing
  7. Couldn’t Get the Girl
  8. Mary Jane
  9. That’s What I Want
  10. Throw It Away

Christmas in Japan

  1. Fat Blue Christmas Swing Medley, a medley of traditional Christmas songs
  2. 清しこの夜 (Silent Night)
  3. Christmas in Japan

Still A Long Way Off

  1. Incomplete
  2. Hope It Turns Out Alright (See Hope under Back to Winnipeg above)
  3. Mary Mack
  4. That’s What I Want (See under Back to Winnipeg above)
  5. Take My Heart,
  6. Shenandoah, an American folk song done in a more traditional folksy style than Mary Mack
  7. Just don’t forget about that
  8. Simple Symphony
    • Simple Symphony, an unusual video blending videos of John’s children with random public domain video clips.
  9. The Great Unknown
  10. Bubbling Up From The Ground
  11. My Song 6

Album-less (so far) originals

Covers

Translations and transliterations

What follows are my attempts to translate FBM’s Japanese songs, or the Japanese bits of their songs, into English. It should be noted that these are my unofficial translations and that I still largely am outclassed by Japanese toddlers when it comes to my Japanese language skills, so take these translations with a grain of salt. Okay?

Take My Heart

My crappy translation has been removed from this page since JJ has posted hiss official translation on his blog and showed me just how wrong mine was.

Christmas in Japan

Thanks to Chiyomi for emailing me with a more accurate transcription of the Japanese lyrics for this part. I’m pretty sure she’s got them closer than I did - she’s AC’s wife!

Japanese Romanized Japanese English
日本のお祭り大好き nihon no omatsuri daisuki We love Japanese celebrations*
向こうのお祭りも mukou no omatsuri mo Foreign celebrations too
そうすりゃゲット出来るんだ sousurya getto dekirunda By doing so, we can get
ダブルプレセント daburu presento Double the presents

* 祭り (matsuri) can also mean a festival or a party - a good time, generally speaking.

For the English lyrics and an explanation of what they refer to, check out this post by John about the song.

About RGR

Ray Gun Robot is the personal site of Garrett Albright, a fairly decent web developer living in northern California. Find out more about me or check out some projects I’ve worked on.