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On Shonen Club 2007.09.09 Ya-Ya-yah will perform their new song Baby Babe. The song was written by 24-year-old Los Angeles based songwriter Jovette Rivera who also wrote Uchi’s and Kusano’s Playzone 2007 Change2Chance song All the Way.

Here’s the interview I conducted with Jovette earlier this week.

Kamichan: Jovette, you’re a 24-year-old singer/songwriter from Los Angeles, CA. But you’ve worked with AVEXTRAX, toured Tokyo with a solo performance, and even started your own J-Rock band by the name of MARS. Most recently you’ve written the song All The Way sung by Uchi and Kusano in Playzone 2007 Change2Chance, and Ya-Ya-yah’s new song Baby Babe. Your song Calling Your Name will be used by W-INDS on their upcoming album. You grew up and went to school in Monterey, CA. How does a college graduate from Monterey, CA end up in Japan?
Jovette: It wasn’t quite so simple as that. I grew up with Japanese music because I fell into it as a child. I grew a fondness for it that was more than a phase, so I stuck to it, even after I moved to LA for music in 2003. I moved in with a Japanese pop band called SaGa that was signed to AVEX and Wedgelink in Japan. There I made great connections, and did a couple cameos for music videos for AVEX. I met my connection to the Tokyo club scene through my good friend Yuko Isamiyama. The promoter in Tokyo (Toshiya, now manager of Mihimaru GT of Japan) liked my music, so I got some gigs touring around different clubs around the city. Yuko and her good friend Aiko would be my backup dancers. And that’s how I got my first lives in Japan.

K: How did your collaboration with Johnny’s Entertainment come about? Did they approach you, did you send them unsolicited material, or how did that happen?
J: I met a producer and songwriter by the name of Joey Carbone in September of 2006. We clicked and started writing songs together. He has excellent connections in Japan, Johnny’s Entertainment being one of them. So through him I made myself known to JE. They did not approach me, nor did I send them anything.

K: What did you know about JE when you first made contact with them?
J: I’ve known about JE for a while, simply because I know a lot about Japanese pop artists. It’s my job to keep on top of who’s on top, yes?

K: Ya-Ya-yah will be using your song Baby Babe. Have you ever met them or seen them perform? Have you seen their TV program? Or are they complete strangers to you?
J: Ya-Ya-yah, for the most part, are complete strangers to me. I have seen them perform only recently, and before that I had not heard of them.

K: Tell us about Baby Babe. Most Ya-Ya-yah fans, especially those from overseas who didn’t have the chance to see Takizawa Enbujo, haven’t heard it yet. What can they expect?
J: The song I wrote for Ya-Ya-yah, which is now entitled Baby Babe, is a high energy summer style song. Kinda DaftPunk, kinda Ricky Martin. It’s funny though because I too haven’t had a chance to see it performed live. But from what I have seen, the kids did a good job on it, and I’m glad to have written a song for them.

K: Is there any particular reason you wrote that song, or did anything special go through your mind when you wrote it?
J: Well, I wrote the song in the beginning of this year, but it wasn’t until June or so that they chose it for Takizawa Enbujo. I just knew I had to make a high energy disco style song for an “artist”. I didn’t know who. But everything is great now of course.

K: The song was originally titled Summer Life. JE then decided to change that title to Baby Babe. What do you think about that? Does it bug you in any way when they change your song titles or are you like “I don’t care what they call my songs as long as they get performed”?
J: Think about it. I make around 100 songs a year. Typically, 90% of those songs are given temporary scratch names simply so when they are given to the record companies, they can correspond the track name and number with me. I have no special ties to the name Summer Life, so them changing it to Baby Babe was pretty much expected. I do my job, I get paid, they do their job.

K: You’ve done lots of stuff in various music genres. Is there any style or type of music that you’d consider your favorite? Rock, pop, R&B, rap, classical? Or are they all the same to you?
J: Actually I’m more partial to orchestral/rock and some pop. I’m trained classically as a pianist, so I like to incorporate classical music into all styles I write. But I cannot indulge in this too much when I’m writing music for other artists, it’s not my say for the genre. However, in the case of my former band MARS, I will write huge heavy metal power ballads with orchestra and metal and some electronic. X-Japan was a big inspiration to me, along with my first JROCK group, GLAY. But in general, I make all style, rock, pop, hiphop, R&B, electronic, and classical.

K: What are you up to next? Any future collaborations with JE that we can look forward to?
J: Well, the newest news is my song Calling Your Name for the upcoming W-INDS album, but that’s not Johnny’s. I can’t say too much about what’s next until everything is concrete. But you can be sure things are coming soon.

K: And finally, anything you’d like to say to fans of your music?
J: To fans of my music, thank you so much, and I promise to do my best to make the greatest music I can. Thank you for supporting me, and if you ever would like to say hello, I’m always open to people contacting me via myspace or mail. Thank you to Kamichan and the rest of the staff at Littlix.com for this interview, and for your time and support. Have a great day!

K: Jovette, thank you for taking the time to speak with us, and the best of luck for your future career.

You can listen to some of Jovette‘s songs over at his MySpace http://www.myspace.com/jovetterivera so please check them out.

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