“Makku ga Sukinano”
- the
story on how the Japanese version was
born.
I thought it would be really
cool to have a Japanese version of “I Love My
Mac”, so in September of 2005, I emailed a
fellow-macjammer by the name of Tadashi Togawa. He lives in
Japan and was the only person I knew who might be able to
help me find a vocalist out there. He agreed to put out a
call in a mac forum and to let me know if anybody
responded.
Well, just a few days later, Tadashi informed me that a
talented vocalist by the name of Junko Okano had been
found! A member of the GarageBand Users Club of Japan, he
told me that Jun was very enthusiastic about taking on the
vocals for the Japanese version. He expressed his hope that
this partnership would yield great musical results.
Even though Tadashi’s english is quite limited, he
graciously acted as the middleman between myself and Jun,
who spoke no English, and as if that weren’t enough,
he very generously offered to take on the translation of
the lyrics. After a short while however, he felt he was
experiencing too much difficulty, so I asked him if he
could post a request for a translator on that same forum,
and that I too would continue to search for a translator on
my end.
Then, in the first week of December, I received an email
from a person by the name of Michael DePaula. He had
emailed me using the contact form on the “I Love My
Mac” song website. He was offering to translate the
song for me! I immediately emailed Tadashi to let him know
that I now had a translator.
Not even two weeks later, Michael had translated the song
from English into Japanese. I thanked Michael and asked him
if he wouldn’t mind my sending his lyrics to Tadashi
to look at. Unlike Michael, Tadashi is a native speaker and
may be able to provide more insight into things like
commons expressions and the like, in order to obtain as
current a translation as possible. Tadashi informed me soon
after that he did indeed make some changes, and then sent
the lyrics on to Jun.
A few weeks later in early January, “I Love My
Mac” (the English version) was released on all iTunes
Music Stores, and the release even coincided with the first
day of the MacWorld Expo. This was thanks to the label I
was working with - “The Lost Records” - and to
the ebroker who pushed it through faster than we could have
ever hoped for. I sent my “team” the news,
along with everyone who had so far signed my guestbook. It
was a very exciting week to say the least!!
In later February, Jun recorded vocals, and Tadashi sent me
the resulting audio files. I immediately loved what she had
done. On repeated listens however, I realized that my
original music accompaniment wasn’t doing justice to
her vocal stylings, so I decided that I must create a new
arrangement. After a bout of flu I was finally able to get
to work on it, changing the instrumentation and feel of the
music to better complement Junko's vocal style. I was
extremely happy with the musical transformation that had
taken place.
Then I sent Tadashi a sample of what I had created, and he
forwarded the sample to Jun. A few days later, Tadashi
relayed to me that both he and Jun liked my new arrangement
very much.
All parties involved soon reached an agreement as to the
eventual release of this new version of “I Love My
Mac”, now appropriately titled “Makku ga
Sukinano”.
This new version of “I Love My Mac” would never
have been possible without the help of all the parties
involved: Tadashi Togawa, Michael DePaula and Junko Okano.
Of course there is also the internet and GarageBand to
thank for making communication between us and the exchange
of information possible. It is my hope that one day
Tadashi, Jun, Michael and myself will all be able to meet
each other in person.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the song!