AmPm, who celebrated its fifth anniversary on March 16, recently announced their plans for 2022, including the release of their first album, the launch of a new project, and more. On June 24, they released “Tokyo On My Mind feat. Nathan Hartono,” which you can listen to here. The concept behind the song, a collaboration with Singapore-based artist Nathan Hartono, is “a morning in Tokyo,” fitting the album’s theme of travel.
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AmPm, a masked duo of Japanese musicians, was launched into the spotlight in 2017 when its debut single, “Best Part of Us,” was immediately snapped up and highlighted by music streaming services. Since then, the two have continued to release dance music singles, joined by various guest vocalists. They’ve also worked with numerous collaborators, both through remixes and by providing their music for use by other artists. They’ve been busy in the real world, too, performing at major music festivals in Japan and overseas.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a hamper on their activities over the past two years. Last year, the duo launched a new project that fought back: a series of releases of classic-style dance tracks, each named after a different city around the world. The project was one truly befitting the globetrotting AmPm.
Writer Jun Fukunaga spoke to the duo on behalf of Billboard Japan about their newly announced project, their journey over the five years since their debut, and their plans for the future.
If you had to sum up, in one word, what the last five years have been like for AmPm, what would it be? Also, of the things you’ve failed to accomplish during this time, which stands out the most?
AmPm (Right): In a single word, the last five years have been “unexpected.”
AmPm (Left): In that sense, the past five years have provided us with insights about what kinds of challenges we need to take on in the future. I don’t know if we’ll be going back to our roots from here, exactly, but we’ve seen the importance of getting back in touch with where you started, so I think we’re at a point where we need to think about that.
What about what you’ve accomplished? What stands out the most there?
AmPm (Right): We accomplished so much over these past five years. We performed live overseas, we collaborated with various other artists to write new songs, we provided music to other artists. That said, it’s not like we had our sights set on all of that when we first started. It’s more like we’ve looked back and realized how much we’ve done.
AmPm (Left): AmPm’s initial concept was to be both an artist and a director, working with different musicians. One of the things I’m happy that we’ve been able to accomplish over these past five years is that we’ve been able to do business helmed by AmPm, even if small-scale. That is, we’ve been able to continually give back, economically, to the artists that have worked with us.
Last year, you started a new project in which you’ve been releasing classic-style dance tracks named after cities around the world. What does dance music mean to AmPm? What kind of potential do you see in it?
AmPm (Left): Because of the pandemic, people might hesitate to go clubbing like they used to, but for us, clubs are like our homes. The kinds of encounters you have in clubs aren’t really the kind you have in day-to-day life. Creative people would go to clubs, searching for something, and we liked the way people made connections in clubs. When we were playing overseas, it was dance music — music which came from those clubs — that connected us.
That’s why I think dance music has the power to transcend barriers, sweeping away language barriers and racial lines. Those experiences we’d had were what led to this project. We decided to go back to dance music because of our desire to enable people to make instant connections once the pandemic is over.
AmPm (Left): No matter where in the world you go, you can connect to people through dance music. I think that’s one of the powers of music. In that sense, dance music is like a common language through which we can connect to others.
2022 is AmPm’s fifth anniversary year and you plan to release a new arrangement of your debut song, “Best Part of Us,” called “Best Part of Us Anniversary Mix.” You’re also planning a world tour and on top of that you’re releasing your first full album. What should fans look forward to in this album?
AmPm (Right): Travel is what brought AmPm together in the first place, and it’s what has allowed us to meet so many creators. However, looking back on the past five years, I don’t think that has really come across. Through our album, we hope to really convey that to our fans.
There’s no way of knowing when this pandemic will end, but I’m sure everyone has some place that they’d like to go. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, travel’s just not a possibility. That’s the reality a lot of people face, so I would love it if when people listened to the album, it made them feel like they’d gone on a little trip. We’re also planning to release a few singles from the album before it drops, so I hope people are looking forward to them.
AmPm (Left): I think it’s precisely because of the state of things in this world that there’s a need for a new “Best Part of Us,” and why I want to release a song that would connect people around the world. If a lot of people listen to it, that will, in itself, create opportunities for bringing people together. Of course, we want to see this ourselves, too, so that’s another reason we need to do it. That desire is what’s guiding us as we make our music, so we hope everyone enjoys it.
Last year, AmPm drew a lot of attention as the first musical artist in Japan to release a piece of music as an NFT. Now “NFT” has become something of a buzzword, and people are far more aware of NFTs than they used to be. I understand you’re planning a second NFT release this year. What kind of potential do you see in NFTs?
AmPm (Right): I think that, more than musicians, who already have a copyright system, NFTs will present a lot of opportunities for creators in other genres which lack those copyright systems.
For musicians, I think that instead of releasing NFTs that consist of music alone, NFTs that also include video or graphics will be more impressive and exciting. If we see more collaborations like that in the future, it’ll foster mutual success for creators in different genres. That’s the potential I see for NFTs.
AmPm (Left): Since the advent of subscriptions, it’s now become totally feasible, for example, for a Japanese musician not to be appreciated in their home country but to enjoy a lot of support in Brazil. So, given that, since NFT transactions can be handled completely online with anyone in the world, I think NFTs have the potential to provide artists with revenue sources other than subscriptions.
That said, I still think that the potential is small if you’re talking about music alone. That’s why I think that the music would need to be combined with a video with a sense of narrative, creating new content. In the future, when artists sell NFTs, I feel that they’ll need to create teams that can produce stories using video and graphics, even if these are just small-scale works.
What’s your vision for the future as an artist?
AmPm (Right): We’ll work hard in our real-world activities, of course, but going back to the intersection of the real world and the online world, we’d also like to take on the challenges of the metaverse and virtual space content.
AmPm (Left): Our masks make AmPm highly anonymous. Ultimately, we could even have simultaneous live shows in Tokyo and Osaka. The metaverse would enable us to fully leverage that potential, so we also plan to focus a lot of our efforts in that area in the future.
This interview by Jun Fukunaga first appeared on Billboard Japan.