Honestly, though, I'm just very obsessed with chords. When I find it, I'll then take it into my DAW and correct things like the voicings where I can't play them with my own fingers, for example. Whenever I'm about to start working on a track, I'll usually just jam out on my piano and synthesizers to find an interesting progression. Moe Shop : I almost always start with the chords. What’s your starting point when you begin to work on a new track? Moe Shop : There's a lot of people I'm going to miss, but lately, I've been inspired so much by artists like Ujico*/Snail's House, Yunomi, Hakushi Hasegawa, Mameyudofu - all the new generation of talent in Japan has been super inspiring to me. In recent years, what are some of the artists and music you’ve been following? That being said, music is universal, so I do find that when I send over a track, and they give it a listen, there's a level of understanding that allows us to progress. Sometimes I get lucky, and the other artist can speak English, or I have a friend help translate my vision for the track. I don't speak much Japanese, so I have to find ways to work around that. Moe Shop : It might seem obvious, but there's definitely the language barrier hurdle. In recent years you have collaborated with many Japanese artists how is the collaboration process? Since all my influences and collaborators are out here, it just made sense for me to be here. In 2016 I came to Tokyo for the first time for a DJ booking, and then I just kept coming back - in 2019, I finally decided to make the move to Tokyo, sharing a living space with all my friends out here. I already had the funk and house influence from my parents, but listening to Japanese music - ranging from anime songs to artists like TeddyLoid, Tofubeats, or even Vocaloid artists like kz(livetune), all of this helped shape my style. Moe Shop : While I was still a teenager, I was really into anime, and that was ultimately how I discovered a lot of the earliest Japanese songs and musicians to influence my style. Your artist name “Moe Shop” reflects the Japanese influence on you and your music how did all that come about?

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