Be myself and level-up!

Yesterday evening as I was editing some new songs and composing some random themes on my synthesizer, I discovered a new key formation which sounds great. I can't say for sure what the official terminology of this would be as theory was never my strongest point but I would say that it was some kind of variation of inverted 7ths....regardless of what the aficionado's would call it, i'm looking forward to experimenting with this further to create some wonderful new music to makes hearts flutter.

This has come at a good moment actually as i've recently been on a slight downwards incline with regards to my music, every so often I try searching for other producers/singers/lyricists (not always local) who are interested in making the same kind of music that I like because i'd really like to get some kind of collaboration or group going. But whenever I do go looking for these people I end up finding nobody with the same style or enthusiasm and it does bring me down slightly, i've been on the look out for like-minded lyricists to collaborate with for years because even though I do have a bash every now and then it really isn't my thing.

I suppose that one major problem about this is that the kind of style that I want to create doesn't really see the light of day here in England so it's quite a niche genre. The style is known as 'Shibuya-kei'....or simply 'Shibuya Style'....the sound of Shibuya, Japan. Ultimately it's just a name and i've often liked to think of it as 'Pizzicato Pop', it's an uplifting kinda style which I would say is a mixture between pop, jazz (,indie) and dance with slight variations.
My own personal element has always been a touch of the accordion and to have these two blend together would really make me happy. The closest thing outside of Shibuya-kei i've ever heard to something like this was on the song 'The Life of Riley' by The Lightning Seeds.

I first discovered the Shibuya-kei style at the turn of the Millenium when I found Pizzicato Five, one of the pioneers of the genre, the producer Yasutaka Nakata is currently dominating the style thesedays with his numerous groups and songs he writes for other artists (such as Capsule, Perfume, Coltemonikha, MEG, etc.), he's become a big influence for me in recent years.
I sometimes try to replicate the mood of some of his work and usually end up failing completely, but I know that I should just be confident in my own unique style and hope that I will find those like-minded creatives one day....maybe....