Off the Charts
Member and music producer Jeff Miyahara explains the art of discovering the next big thing.
While taking a bathroom break on his wedding day, Jeff Miyahara was informed by the president of Universal Music Japan that his song would be the company’s next hit.
Within weeks, “Kimi no Subete ni,” which the Tokyo-based music producer wrote with jazz singer Juju and hip-hop group Spontania in 2008, had racked up 2.5 million downloads. By the end of the year, Miyahara had paid off his wedding and his mortgage.
“It all started off not only as a dream, but as a way to provide for my family,” says the Member, sitting in his Sangenjaya home studio. “It was a real Jack and the Beanstalk story.”
Miyahara’s musical journey began back in his native Los Angeles. “When I asked my mom for guitar lessons, she found this guy that would only teach me Beatles songs,” he says. “I was like, ‘What I am playing right now on this acoustic Spanish guitar does not sound like Slash.’”
Moving to Tokyo to attend Sophia University, Miyahara, who is of mixed Korean and Japanese heritage, soon immersed himself in the city’s music scene.
In the early 2000s, he slept and ate at the Shinjuku nightclub where he worked, spending his salary on secondhand music equipment. He began recording music for friends of friends and amateur singers.
“I built my studio from the ground up, one pebble at a time,” says Miyahara, who cites Whitney Houston’s songwriter David Foster and Beastie Boys producer Rick Rubin as influences. “I realized I was better at discovering people’s talents and their unique charm.”
His break came when he and a friend produced the theme song for Japan’s national soccer team at the 2002 World Cup. Offers of work flooded in, and he has now produced more than 150 artists.
“We’d have heart-to-heart conversations,” says Miyahara, 41, of his songwriting process with Juju. “I would take emotions and tears and laughter and I would translate that into the sonic equivalent.”
Miyahara has since written songs for boybands Boys II Men and Smap and J-pop singer Namie Amuro, and he was named Nikkei Entertainment’s 2010 hitmaker of the year.
In 2012, Miyahara chanced upon American singer Chris Hart, whom he saw perform on a Japanese TV show. “You have to be able to recognize talent when you see it immediately, and also have the resources to be an amplifier,” he says.
Miyahara says one benefit of making music in Japan is that one-third of consumers still purchase CDs, allowing for Hart to sell more than 1 million CDs since his debut. Last year, though, online streaming revenue bypassed physical music sales for the first time.
Adapting to shifting trends, Miyahara developed an augmented reality album for British artist Maisy Kay. Fans can access concert footage and video interviews, for example, through scannable images in a hardcover book.
“The challenge is always setting the bar a little higher,” he says. “I always want to be on the frontline.”
Words: Nick Narigon
Image: Yuuki Ide
