Interviews, scene reports, reviews and event coverage in English from the former kaala.jp, June 2015 to January 2020. Surviving copies are reachable through the Internet Archive; current writing continues in the Journal.
Primary sources
from the floor.
KAALA has documented Japan’s heavy and extreme underground since 2013 as a participant: producing shows, touring bands, filming sets, interviewing musicians and organizers, and keeping structured records of bands, venues and events. This page explains what survives, how to use it, and how to reach us for interviews, source material and fieldwork contacts.
How this record is kept
Participant observation, with the receipts.
Everything KAALA publishes about itself distinguishes first-party recollection from independently inspectable evidence. The History names KAALA’s role in each milestone and links the surviving source. The Press page labels every item as independent coverage, an external interview, an edited collaboration or a KAALA-authored contribution.
Directory listings are not counted as events KAALA produced. Documentary footage is not treated as promotion. Imported records are not relabelled as KAALA releases. If you are studying how a scene documents itself, that policy is part of the record too.
What survives
Long-form interviews with musicians, organizers and visiting bands, plus regional reports. Episodes survive on YouTube and SoundCloud; the recovered numbering and gaps are stated on the History page.
Full live sets, mini-documentaries, music videos, the Korona Nights livestream series and the Fukushima documentation project. Footage is identified by band, venue and date wherever the record allows.
Structured listings maintained between 2015 and 2020: roughly 3,200 band, 1,200 event and 430 venue records across Japan. The counts describe the information platform, not bands KAALA represented or shows it produced. A cleaned export for non-commercial research is available on request.
Live photography from Tokyo and regional live houses. Published selections appear on Visuals; the full archive is available for research and editorial use on request, with credit to the photographer.
Independent coverage, interviews and KAALA-authored contributions in outlets including The Japan Times, Decibel, Invisible Oranges and Unite Asia. Each record is labelled so independent reporting is never confused with first-party claims.
What KAALA can speak to
Questions we have worked inside of.
Matt Ketchum founded KAALA and has worked across its publishing, radio, events, touring, label and documentary activity, while performing in Tokyo bands. Interviews are available in English or Japanese, by video call or in person in Tokyo.
- Live-house economics and survival, including ticketed livestreaming during COVID-19 (Korona Nights, 2020–2021) with documented venue and producer revenue splits.
- How English-language discovery infrastructure, from translated listings to structured band and venue data, changes who finds the underground and how.
- Music tourism: designing and guiding a ten-day underground fan tour in 2018, and what visiting fans actually want from a scene.
- Routing and logistics for international bands touring Japan, and the unwritten rules of live-house booking, guarantees and door splits.
- Regional scenes outside Tokyo, including Fukushima and Aizuwakamatsu, Nagoya, Gunma, Sendai and Osaka, and how they relate to the capital.
- Punk, zainichi identity and policing in Japan, the subject of reporting KAALA co-produced with Invisible Oranges in 2017.
- DIY labels, distros and the economics of niche longevity, from Butcher ABC and Obliteration Records to Kaala Records.
- Documentation ethics in small rooms: what to film, what to leave alone, and how credit should flow to the people who make a scene.
Prior interviews and profiles
Independent profiles and external interviews from the labelled press record. Each answer in an interview remains a first-party statement.
LaMaLi
Kaala Founder Matt Ketchum Interview ↗
An early video interview about the Tokyo extreme-underground project and the thinking behind KAALA.
Decibel Magazine
Bringing Metal Tourism From America to Japan ↗
Joseph Schafer profiles KAALA’s ten-day underground fan-tour model and The Tower Vol. 2.
SealCast
Matt Ketchum of Kaala Music ↗
A founder interview covering KAALA’s event database, hosted events, tourism and tour-logistics model.
Tranquilized Magazine
Matt Ketchum Interview: Livestreaming Under COVID ↗
Takamasa Kato documents the test-stream revenue, venue split and emerging Korona Nights plan.
The Japan Times
Promoters Push Online Concerts to Save Live Houses ↗
David Cortez profiles KAALA-produced Korona Nights within the fight to sustain Japan’s live-house culture.
Kokoro Media
Exploring the Japanese Underground Music Scene with Kaala Music ↗
An eleven-minute profile of KAALA’s fan-tour and band-tour access to Japan’s underground.
How to cite
Cite the page, the date and the role.
Use KAALA Music as the corporate author. Individual articles are by Matt Ketchum unless a byline says otherwise. KAALA has also published as Kaala, Kaala Music, Kaala Records and, from 2015 to 2020, at the former domain kaala.jp.
- Current site
KAALA Music. “Title.” kaalamusic.com, day month year. URL.- Former kaala.jp (2015–2020)
- Cite the Internet Archive capture URL rather than the former domain, which KAALA no longer controls. The History links archived copies for each milestone.
- Kaala Radio and film
- Cite the YouTube or SoundCloud item, its title and its upload date. Where a performance date is known it appears in the title or description.
- First-party versus independent
- Where this site marks a claim as first-party recollection rather than independently inspectable evidence, please preserve the distinction in your own work.
Access and use
Public now
On request
- The full live photography archive, with photographer credits and dates.
- Unpublished interview audio and performance footage.
- A cleaned export of the 2015–2020 band, event and venue directory data.
- Introductions to musicians, organizers and venue owners, made with their consent.
- Fact-checking of claims about KAALA, its events and its releases.
Terms
- Quote KAALA text with attribution and a link.
- Credit images as “Photo: KAALA” with the photographer’s name where given.
- Non-commercial research and student use is free. Broadcast, exhibition and commercial use is by arrangement.
- KAALA does not speak for the bands. Ask them, and we will help you reach them.
For researchers, editors and producers
Request an interview or source material.
Tell us who you are, what you are studying or reporting, and what you need. We answer research and press mail personally, or write to matthew@kaalamusic.com directly.
Research & interview inquiry