MaiFasu

If you put the covers of all the singles that MY FIRST STORY has released in the past year together, it forms the picture of a crown. December will see the release of the last song.

Disclaimer: Please do not retranslate my work into other languages, as my translation may not be accurate. I am no Japanese or English native.

Photos and source text can be found here.

Photo by Takashi Konuma

優里 花-0714- MY FIRST STORY 2019.10.9

Miracles do happen ~  花-0714 by Yuri[ 優里 ]& Hiro MFS (full version)

This went viral in MFS fandom the day it happened, promoted by Hiro & the rest of MFS team themselves. This is a popular musician’s spot in front of Shibuya crossing. You’ll see many different mostly indie artists performing here on any given day. 

A miracle happened when, as this young singer Yuri was performing 😉 花-0714 [Hanarenai yo], the real MFS team Hiro and producer/manager Nori just happened to walk by. Thinking it would be fun, Nori pushed Hiro’s back to do it impromptu.

Hiro said to Yuri in the middle, “This is so nerve-wrecking!”😂

Hats off to Yuri for keeping his cool professionalism even though he said he was nervous too on Twitter & IG 👍😊.

Dear MFS, can we have a Yuri+Hiro version of  花-0714?

Aah yes..! I want MY FIRST STORY to invite Yuri to duet with Hiro on the next version of 花-0714. He has a lovely voice ❤️. Nice smooth vibrato but still has a certain rocker raspiness when doing the higher notes (kinda like Taka’s vocal quality🙊). Why not have another version of 花-0714🤔? I’d buy it! Come on MFS, give this young man a chance💪😃.

Find Yuri at:

優里

Twitter→@yuuri_official

Instagram→@yuri_music_official

and of course… 

HIRO(MY  FIRST  STORY)

Hello 😊

Hi. Sorry I almost forgot to answer this question because suddenly I got a series of “Asks” about the Moriuchi brothers. Gomen ne!

Google is right. A “Producer” can play various roles depending on the situation. 

Producer

Generally the person who oversees the overall management and runnings of a project till the final outcome. 

NORIHIRO OTANI

In Nori’s case, he can best be described as the guy who turned MY FIRST STORY from an idea into a reality and coordinates the overall management of the band. This includes financing, logistics, human resource, merchandising, marketing, publicity etc.

The one thing Nori doesn’t touch or probably very minimally, as far as I know, is the music. MFS members are fully responsible for that. At least based on what I understand from their older interviews.

It doesn’t mean that MFS was manufactured. Nori expressed a keen interest to do a band together when he met Sho and liked the music Sho was making. But as Sho said in Zenshin Documentary, Nori was more interested in the band management side. Not being a musician.

This was Nori once upon a time 😊

I will outline some of his major functions. This could be lengthy but who knows some of you might want to try a career in artists’ management, eh 😃?

1. Financing

He was responsible to source for the money needed to launch the band in the beginning. Since he was barely out of university himself with not much to his name, he pitched the idea to none other than the one who could i.e GEN who was at the helm of Subciety clothing label at the time.

Besides GEN starting INTACT Records for this purpose, I also think MFS had to give up some publishing rights to their earlier songs to bigger companies in exchange for the financial support. Don’t take my words totally as I could be wrong here but TV ASAHI Music Co. Ltd* does hold a part of the copyrights to the first TWO albums. MFS started to hold full copyrights starting only from the 3rd CD 最終回STORY.

* Refer to the Band Scores from Yamaha Music Media

Being an indie band allows MFS to retain most of the royalties to themselves. STORYTELLER Fan Club is not exactly just a sweet secret space for exclusive fans BUT a fan-supported crowd-funding is what it really is. I am sure Nori is the mastermind behind this as well.

2. Logistics

Arrangement for travels, accommodation, transportation and the crew as well. The paperwork, who does this and that and dealings with booking agents/promoters/venues. Nori may not do all these himself but he can appoint people to handle these under his directions. MFS works closely with JMS for this and the current MFS Tour Manager as I’m writing this is Yuuki Tanimura (iTONY Entertainment which is a JMS subsidiary).

Here are screenshots of Tanimura-san checking out venue availability 😊. With him were Nori & KTR.

Though I’m sure they went as buddies to Australia but I’m not surprised if Tanimura handled the travel matters 🤔

3. Human Resource

Salaries, bonus (if any), insurances, taxes among others. Visas & permits for overseas performances. All these not just for band members but also whoever the crew they employ for any project.

4. Merchandising

Besides discussing with the band members on concepts and designs, Nori would be the one arranging for those items to be manufactured and delivered by the suppliers.　In Nori’s case, he has experienced people like GEN and Kentaro Suzuki a.k.a KTR who know the ins & outs of the industry to show him the rope 😄.

Those who are STORTELLER members can also read Nori’s blog post explaining the decision to come up with Maifasu-kun 2.0 as well. He then set up an online shop at the Official Goods Store for MFS.

5. Marketing & Publicity

MFS basically has been engaging JMS for promotions & distributions from the start BUT when it comes to maximizing what the band can make from every project, you can bet Nori is behind it. 

For examples:

i. Those endless Limited Editions & bonuses that make hardcore fans buy 6 copies of the same CD 😱😂! 

ii. Also those extras at the Tour Finals. With MFS name being “stamped” on everything from food stalls to fun fair games. I honestly think Nori learned this from watching HYDE organizing the Halloween Party 🤔.

All in all, Nori is also the one or at least one of those in the team responsible for turning MFS into the money-making juggernaut that they are now.

How much power/influence does Nori has over MFS?

Well, when MFS dedicated an entire encore of their Tour Final for him to propose to his girlfriend and subsequently deprived the fans of the 3-song performance from the DVD to keep his privacy, then you can pretty much draw your own conclusions there. BIG!

Sorry Nori, I’m still so bummed about the Encore from MMA getting cut out. Especially when watching Teru’s speech and hearing him say, “It has only been THREE songs so far. We have TWENTY MORE songs coming!“. Then we got only SEVENTEEN more songs. The rest would be the sounds of my heart breaking 😭💔.

Okay. 

SHO TSUCHIYA ~ The Sound Producer

Nori being called “MFS Producer” is NOT to be confused with the person at the control console during recording. The band leader Sho Tsuchiya has always been that person from the start. 

However, before his hiatus, the music production credit was usually listed as “produced by MY FIRST STORY”. After his hiatus, they have started listing it with “Sound Producer : Sho Tsuchiya”.

Here is an old photo from the early days of MFS. Look at Sho being hard at work with Nori by his side 😊. The one sleeping is Hiro, still in his school uniform 😃.

GEN ~ Executive Producer

To understand why this man has always been listed in the credits that way, please refer to the “Financing” part about Nori. At the time, GEN was the business savvy one who had the means and capacity to start a record company. He’s responsible for the payrolls of some MFS staff since they are employed under INTACT Records. To the fans, we like to refer to GEN as The Boss 😁.

LM.C has been doing live appearances on different live channels.

Here are some stills.