I always like to look back and rediscover where I first encountered some of the guests I’ve invited to the blog. I still can’t believe it’s been a bit over eight years since I first came across mvns.
Before I knew of their YouTube channel, yaoiboi92, I knew them as the Discogs user I could trust to find some bit of music I couldn’t track down anywhere else. In my decidedly old-school ways, whatever research I used to discover new music or tunnel through countless musical rabbit holes somehow always led me back to their listings.
With time, we put two and two together, and I confessed that I’m the person who runs this fair blog. For a while, we traded and shared new music—doing digitally what, in the past, would have required befriending someone in person. That Ken-Ichiro Isoda album everyone loves? Sourced from a CD I bought from them. An early F/S favorite of Japanese private press fourth-world music? A generous share on their part.
I think that that for most people who’ve encountered mvns’s Japanese music shares in some shape or form on myriad file-sharing platforms, there’s a good chance that those shares—featuring detailed album scans, lossless audio, and an actual document tracing their lineage—were painstakingly archived by mvns. In an era when many play fast and loose with what they share online, mvns is one of the few who treat music archiving with the respect it deserves.
As for me, I look back on that brief time when we had a conversation of sorts through this medium we all call music—that’s what I appreciate. Without going too much into detail, I think mvns is one of many unsung anonymous benefactors who serve a greater purpose and deserves a huge thank you from all of us if not a bit more recognition. As I do my best to introduce you to new music, I believe today’s guest offers us a great example of how to handle ourselves in this new world where we have so many platforms to share music.
So, now, years later—long after their early YouTube channel evolved into something else and our orbits set us on different paths—I feel a certain gravity pulling me back, wondering if I could get another ping from mvns’s world, trying to understand just what inspires or motivates them, the person behind all that great music they share, whether there or elsewhere.
And without further delay, here’s my conversation with them and a great mix showcasing some of what makes them tick or as they stated, “pulled tracks from their collection to create this mix of lesser known 90s-00s tunes and adjacent from hip-hop/R&B → new jack swing → deep house with some surprises thrown in. Play loud and come ready for a dance.”
mvns Interview
F/S: I think the best way to start this interview is simply by asking you to share whatever you like about yourself. So, mvns, what should we know about you?
mvns: Thank you for having me. I am a social epidemiologist with a focus on health disparities and healthcare access research. In my free time, I run the YouTube channel yaoiboi92 and its two side channels (B-sides and Alunan Nusantara), where I upload a selection of vinyl records, CDs, and cassette tapes that I digitized and scanned. I primarily focus on Japanese and Indonesian music that were not available online or only in low quality.
F/S: Does your work as a social epidemiologist influence how you approach your music archiving or sharing efforts? Do you see any parallels in whatever you do with whatever you do on your channel or Discogs listings?
mvns: I always joke that the majority of my friends are not from my field, but from my hobby/dives into music. So, they are essentially separate parts of my life, but I’d say the ethos and politics from my day job bleed into what I’m doing—that is, help increase access, looking at things in as full context as possible, et cetera.
F/S: One of the reasons I really wanted to reach out to you is because I wanted to learn a few things about how you discover music. Can you describe your connection to music?
mvns: I don’t make music, so it’s about mutually sharing and appreciating art with others at the end of the day. It’s also to expand one’s own horizons or make oneself be seen and heard through music.
F/S: What initially sparked your interest in all the music you share now—do you recall the first record or CD that started your collection?
mvns: I grew up in Indonesia, in a household where music was not a focal point of our lives. So, while I always had an interest in listening to music, what I knew was a lot of pop and rock charters that would play on TV and the radio, alongside ballads from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Around sixth grade, my mom introduced me to hip-hop, my dad put Faye Wong’s Sing and Play 唱遊 into the car CD collection, and a close family friend gifted me “lounge” compilations—Café del Mar, Hôtel Costes and the likes.
I’d say all of these events helped spur my interest in music outside the mainstream. I would be digging through the CD stores in the mall, first Disc Tarra (RIP) and then the Aksara bookstore, which used to have a small, but curated import CD section of indie and electronic music.
While I don’t remember the very first CD I bought, I remember two albums that I bought explicitly because I wanted to share them at different times in my life. First, in high school, my close group of friends did an informal “CD swap” club. I bought Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and ‘Round About Midnight on CD to lend to my friend who is a jazz fan. Second was the item that started my current collection, and it was Omar Souleyman’s Haflat Gherbia. I was late at night studying for summer classes in college and I stumbled upon Björk’s radio show where she played a track of his, and I was hooked. There were no lossless files for this CD in Soulseek, so I took the jump at using my Discogs account for the first time to purchase one.
F/S: Was there a particular moment when you realized that you had to share the music you had with the rest of the world?
mvns: I spent a lot of time on Soulseek when I was really into electronic music and quickly realized the gatekeeping people do on vinyl rips and rare tracks. You can of course buy the records yourself, but they can be incredibly expensive or hard to find. Additionally, not everyone has a turntable or means to acquire one. I fear it became this vicious cycle of an online file trading economy where people seemingly only benefit from trading each other rare files.
As a friend said, referring to a Kotaku article on this topic, “there is no significant merit in not sharing it freely besides the clout of hoarding something other people don’t have…it is not worthy of respect.” Thus, it became a goal of mine to afford a setup that would both satisfy my audio quality needs and allow me to share music with people who may not have the setup to digitize themselves.
Lastly, what made me commit to my current workflow was Discogs user sqrl, who would post his rips of rare free jazz LPs to the inconstantsol blog with very clean full LP artwork, and he advised me to buy an A3 scanner.
F/S: You have a few YouTube channels, can you share what made you start these?
mvns: I realized that if I don’t at least organize things into their own buckets, the main channel, cluttered as it is already, will become even more unnavigable, and where audiences may not necessarily overlap. B-sides was started at first to contain the multitude of min’yō and other traditional Japanese music I digitized, which then grew to also contain Indonesian folk and other miscellaneous music I digitized. Alunan Nusantara was started as a channel dedicated to Indonesian pop music only.
F/S: What do you think makes a piece of music worth sharing, even if it might not initially seem significant to others?
mvns: I try to do the library approach where I simply share them regardless of worth, since they are already in my hands anyway. Sure, I will prioritize certain releases over others due to requests and musical preference, but ultimately I will fall back to that sharing ethos.
F/S: How do you typically source the rare records and CDs for your collection? Do you rely on local shops, online marketplaces, or other collectors?
mvns: A combination of all of them. But I have to say I deeply appreciate the people who recommend me music to purchase and fellow collectors who freely lent me their own copies to be archived.
F/S: Are there any sources or particular record stores that have been goldmines for your collection?
mvns: When I first started seriously collecting, I really admired the selections from Chee Shimizu’s Organic Music, Yusuke Ogawa’s Universounds, Eiji Taniguchi’s Revelation Time Osaka, and Cédric Lerouley’s An’archives. This was around 2016-2017 or so. When I got to doing things myself, it’s been a lot of Yahoo Auctions, HMV, and Disk Union and setting up alerts over there. And close friends, collectors, and dealers who help me source things. Otherwise, it’s a lot of happenstance—local finds and things I stumble across and buy solely due to interesting artwork or performer credit that jump out to me.
F/S: How do you decide which albums to pursue? Do you research artists or genres beforehand, or is it more about stumbling upon hidden gems?
mvns: I would do some research and/or ask friends on what to pursue and to educate myself about a scene, genre, era, or instrument. Sometimes it is a particular arranger, producer, or one specific player that I’m pursuing. Sometimes it’s solely due to it being in a particular label or series. If I do stumble upon a hidden gem along the way, that’s a plus.
F/S: What criteria do you use to determine if a record or CD is worth adding to your collection? Is it based on rarity, condition, or historical significance?
mvns: I usually don’t let items I’ve ripped linger in my collection, as I’d rather sell them so I can use the funds to buy another record. But whenever I decide to keep something, it will be a combination of all three, but mostly my emotional connection and memories associated with the music that is the final deciding factor.
F/S: Let me touch a little on something I really appreciate about what you do. I am in awe of how much importance you place on not just capturing this music in high-fidelity but on everything else — album covers, liner notes, etc. — that rounds out a release.
You mentioned focusing on music that’s not available online or only in low quality. What drives your passion for capturing the album artwork and liner notes in such high fidelity? What drives you to make certain albums accessible in such high fidelity? What do you feel is lost when this isn’t done? Is there a personal or emotional aspect to why you preserve these records in such detail? I know, from personal experience, that it can feel like there’s a big tangible monetary price to do so and that’s without including the cost of buying high-end audio interfaces, software, and other stuff.
mvns: As I usually have no way of contacting the artists for first-hand context, or asking people who lived through the periods the music was released in, the best I can do is for the music to be shared in full. This means a great sounding, near endgame rip alongside all the material it was packaged with. Especially for rarer releases, where we wouldn’t know when they will show up again. All are done in the hopes that it can serve as a starting point for people to explore further. It’s also neat to have a replica in hand—albeit digitally—that one can read through and hear in (I hope) hi-fi.
F/S: How do you decide which albums or CDs to feature on your channel? Do you focus on specific genres, artists, or eras?
mvns: I’m relatively genre agnostic, but I would say the musicianship, historical importance, and rarity comes into play when deciding to post to YouTube.
F/S: Most of us — Who knows? Maybe less than I imagine…know how to rip a CD. However, sharing CD artwork, records or cassettes in their totality, that’s not so turnkey. Can you walk us through your process for digitizing and presenting records or CDs, from capturing the visuals to ripping the audio?
mvns: Ripping CDs are pretty straightforward—there are guides online for making “100% log/cue” lossless rips that I follow. Tapes less so, as I may need multiple passes to clean out residues and splice together different rips to create good-sounding audio. Vinyl records take more time in prep and process, as I vacuum clean and resleeve everything, and once ripped, removing clicks and pops can take a long time. Scanning is more an exercise in patience, but usually that’s the time where I get to listen to music just for listening’s sake.
F/S: Speaking for myself, I always felt like I had a certain responsibility in sharing what I do. Do you feel similar? Do you have that same sense of responsibility to preserve this music and its associated materials for future generations?
mvns: Definitely. I hope by sharing, others can share it further. Or better, get inspired and start their own efforts. Preservation efforts where the source is gatekept by a few select people are too fragile in my book.
F/S: How do you navigate the cultural significance of the music you share? Do you see yourself as an advocate for these cultures or their histories? Do you think there’s a responsibility to educate listeners about the historical or cultural contexts of the music you share?
mvns: I’ll stress that I am no musicologist, and I don’t necessarily have the training and/or experience to properly contextualize the material I share. I am not Japanese, or born in the culture, and as much as I am Indonesian, I did not live through the ‘80s New Order period aside from stories from my family or books I read. I am merely bringing the material to more eyes and ears, and I won’t advocate for certain cultures and their histories because there are certainly people with lived experience or more knowledge than me.
Sharing in full was a way for me to provide as full of a context as I can for others hopefully more knowledgeable than me to study or interpret. However, I started writing blurbs to introduce what I share in order to clear up the narrative a tad—I have had cases of people misinterpreting, or worse, inventing their own canon that can get laden with orientalist viewpoints of Asian music.
F/S: What kind of feedback or connections have you received from people who discover music through your channel or through your Discogs listings? Have any artists or other collectors reached out to you after seeing your work?
mvns: Due to the nature of what I’m doing, I don’t promote myself, hence I don’t hear much from others. People sometimes learn after the fact that the channel and who I am on Discogs or in-person is one and the same. Most of what I receive are simple thank you’s which I’m already grateful for. However, I have been approached by labels in the past, who wanted to use my rips as a base for reissues. On the rare occasion, artists do reach out, being surprised people still listen to their old material. I also get inquiries on equipment from others curious about how to replicate the quality of my rips, and I have given advice on equipment choice and troubleshooting for folks wanting to do similar efforts.
F/S: Is there a holy grail record or CD for your collection, what would it be, and why? Who knows, you might have already found it? If so, what did you feel when you did?
mvns: I don’t particularly have one, as for me, there are many expensive and rare items, but also there are way more accessible ones that are currently underknown. So, I try not to subscribe to the grail mentality in order to be able to listen to and archive more music.
F/S: Do you ever see yourself collaborating with other archivists, labels, or artists to amplify your preservation efforts?
mvns: My friends, including some who run their own archiving efforts and YouTube channels (e.g. MartyMcFlies v2, saftere saftere, walter, cheezblur, where did she fly) have been constantly collaborating behind the scenes with me on this effort—be it organizing who rips what or sharing equipment. In contrast, aside from a few labels who I got to know due to in-person connections, I haven’t been collaborating much with labels and artists for preservation efforts, as again, due to the nature of this work, I stay on the down low.
F/S: Where do you see your YouTube channel heading in the future? Do you have any big projects or goals in mind or is this outlet something else for you?
mvns: I’m continuously improving my workflow and speed in which I process digitizations. This would be important when I eventually get to processing the large, multi-LP box sets in my collection. I am also gearing up to do more mixes and have been practicing in my free time. In the future, I hope to upgrade my setup, perhaps starting with a new cartridge model, stylus profiles, etc
F/S: You’re shining a light on music from Japan and Indonesia, among others. How do you feel about your role in preserving what could be (in theory) cultural artifacts lost to time?
mvns: I’m filling a niche; I do a high fidelity preservation of more obscure music that not a lot of people dabble in.
F/S: With the rise of online platforms, has your approach to sourcing records and CDs changed? Do you feel there are still advantages to hunting for music in person?
mvns: Absolutely. With online shopping getting more and more unaffordable nowadays, I’ve increasingly fallen back to hunting in person or direct with other friends and collectors. In my experience, this has led to long lasting relationships that I arguably cherish more than the records I stumble upon.
F/S: Beyond improving your workflow and equipment, do you ever dream of expanding your preservation work into other mediums, like videos and art?
mvns: Unless circumstances change, I’m not seeing myself doing so, as that’s an entirely new workflow and significant equipment investment to commit. There are also others already doing such work.
How do you hope your work will influence the next generation of collectors and music lovers?
Hopefully more appreciate the value of high fidelity beyond simply being an audiophile terminology and the importance of understanding the context in which particular music works are made in and the curiosity to research deeper.
F/S: After years of preserving and sharing music, how has your relationship with music evolved? Has this journey changed how you view your own role in the music world?
mvns: Definitely fostered a deeper appreciation for music and the many different forms it can take and be presented as. Like, DJs massaging and rinsing tracks in a mix, for example.
F/S: What keeps you motivated when the process of digitizing, researching, and sharing becomes tedious or challenging?
mvns: Getting inspired by others—Roger Bong’s Aloha Got Soul, Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan’s Chinatown Records 華埠錄音, Indonesian music archive and database Irama Nusantara, and Mo’min Swaitat’s Majazz Project are some examples of what’s been keeping me going lately. And can’t forget the Music From Memory label by Tako Reyenga and Jamie Tiller (RIP), whose Dip in the Pool 12” reissue was a turning point of my deeper dive into Japanese music outside city pop. And I’ve been going out more to shows and DJ sets—supporting friends who perform, seeing old and new acts doing their thing—all great times to reaffirm my love of music.
(Editor’s note: I’d like to thank to mvns, for sharing their time with us and all the embedded images found in this post. For those interested: you can find them on Discord and make sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel.)
Guest Mix By mvns
Tracklist:
Shams Dinn – Oliyahe [198X/2018, Smiling C]
Zooco – Grow-Mellow-Flow [1999, Heat Wave]
Jimi Shijimi (ジミ・シジミ) – Shijimi No Onna (シジミの女) [2011, Emi Records Japan]
Sanpei Hayashiya (林家三平) / Tetsutaro Sakurai (桜井鉄太郎) – Jungle House 3 Gas [1992, Tm Factory]
Lesette Wilson – Strictly For The Streets [1993, Atlantic]
Rush (ラッシュ) – Trouble! [1988, Eastworld]
Sanpei Hayashiya (林家三平) / Tetsutaro Sakurai (桜井鉄太郎) – Yume No My Girl (夢のマイガール) [1992, Tm Factory]
Funkahips All Stars – Boogie Woogie Dance [1990, Cbs/Sony]
Da’ Ron – Can You Satisfy Me [1990, Chi Sound Records]
Unreal – Nairobi (Tribal Dub) [1993, Ct Records]
Yanti Aryanto – Mana Tahan [1993, Musica]
The Nick Jones Experience – The Keys Of Life (Tyrone Payton’s Quick Mix) [1992, Massive B]
Human Soul – Delight Of Love (Vibraphone Mix) [1991, Glamour]
Joanna Graham – Special [1990, Souz]
Nagisa Cosmetic (ナギサ・コスメティック) – I Am A Computer [2004, Contemode]
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