Few people have heard of the name Little More. Some people might have heard the name as a title of a magazine, and some people might recognize Little More as a distributor of films. Little More is a company which first started as a publishing company, and has expanded their activities on a large scale to music and film industry. We were lucky to be able to interview the CEO of Little More, Mr. C.P. SUN.
Interview by Uleshka & Kyoko
Translated by Junko
How many people do you employ?
There are 17 of us in this office, and there are another two in Tractor Entertainment Inc.; the company that runs our music section. I think it’s better to have less than 20 people when you organize a group for producing something. You might be able to remember their names if you had more than 20 people in your group, but would you be able to remember what they like or dislike, and what they do on their days-off? I think it is very important to know that kind of information when you produce something as a group, and it becomes difficult as the size of the group gets bigger. The ideal situation is that we act as a “family” while we pursue profit as a company.
Little More work atmosphere
the press- ladies
Who picks up artists when you publish art books and photo books?
We have six editors. They just need to say “Let me do it, I will get it done!” when they want to try something. I would go, “Okay, do it”. There are no meetings about “What we are going to do”, or “Who is going to do” at all. The person in charge needs to be ready to let someone else take over as soon as they drop the ball, though. (smiling)
So this means people can enjoy freedom at work, but they undertake a lot of responsibility at the same time, doesn’t it? Do you get any requests from the artist-side on the other hand?
Yes, we get many from big artists to unknown ones. We have a look at every piece of work they send to us regardless of how famous they are.
It seems you mainly deal with Japanese artists?
Contacts from overseas have been increasing lately. We get many messages through Internet. It is hard to gauge the quality of their work on a computer, though.
president Sun during the interview
staff member stamping invites
The ex-CEO of Little More, Masakazu Takei, has left and set up his own company called Foil. Would you tell us a little about what happened?
The magazine, “Foil” is what he wanted to do for a long time. He is a kind of person who wants to stick to one artist after he has been inspired. For example, he met Rinko Kawauchi, and he began hoping to do everything for her including art-management. It made things difficult for him when he needed to deal with other artists. To me, a publishing company should be something like a park where people can get in and out freely, and shouldn’t be exclusive. Since we found there was a slight gap between our views, I suggested that he leave Little More and establish his own company. Then he did. He is still good friend of mine, though.
Little More not only produces magazines and books but also music and films. It must be difficult to deal with so many things at once with such a small group of employees. How do you get things done?
We don’t “try” to handle it at all, we are just doing what we want to do. If there is someone who wants to do music, he can do it. It is good that we face all these diverse challenges. In fact, I want to become a jack-of-all-trades. My dream is that we publish a novel, produce a film based on the story, then our staff plays the leading parts in the film, costumes are provided by “THEATRE PRODUCTS” - a clothes shop that we have invested in - advertising is done by “miracle VOiCE” - an advertising company that we also have invested in - and the actress releases a CD from our label. I believe that we will be able to produce this kind of “media-mix” with our “family” one day.
film rolls stored in the basement
Mr. Fujita from Traktor Records showing us around
I think you’ve pretty much done something like that?
I’m still scared, though. If we do everything ourselves, the risk becomes much bigger, right? I don’t know why, but I feel that a girl like a goddess will come down to us someday, and everything will begin rolling with her being in the center.
Listening to your stories, it sounds you have achieved what you are now with no problem. Were there any?
Always!! One was our art gallery (the first Little More Gallery was shut down on May 5rd, 2005.) We kept it if we could. It’s getting really tough for publishing companies. You know, it is really true that people don’t buy books these days.
Since when have you felt that?
Every year, but I felt it strongly last year. I think it has been occurring in every country, not only in Japan. I attribute it partly to the progress of technology such as Internet. The weak just can’t survive.
Don’t you think that there will be some who leave computers when it comes to the saturation point?
Uhh.. No, unfortunately (with laugh). People really don’t buy either books or magazines. It’s like a trend of pop music in this country. Things which appear in a top 10 chart make a big hit, but the others end with very low sales. The gap between them used to be much smaller before, but it is huge now.
BROOCH- book cover
BROOCH- flipping through the transparent pages
It might sound strange because I work with an online-magazine, but I really like paper media such as books and magazines. Look at this book “BROOCH.” - I think this is great. You can see the next page through a paper since the material is so thin. This is something we cannot do with computer. We might be able to do something like this with animation, but it is still not the same. The paper material gives you a joy of turn pages.
Thank you. In fact, BROOCH is getting very popular now. I think we have to do things that only paper can do. There are many things that are better shown on web, though. We are entering the period when things for paper media and things for web-site are separated clearly.
I often find books published by Little More overseas. What kinds of book are popular there?
I would say, an artist, Yoshitomo Nara, is very popular in Asia, especially in Hong-Kong. Street style and graffiti art books are hot in the U.S. We have recently published “NAMI” and “BROOCH” in Europe. Also, we are planning to remake “BROOCH” in English version because I think the book is something that everyone can understand and enjoy easily.
NAMI- book cover
NAMI- some waves inside
Would you tell me about what you are going to do next?
I’m thinking of doing something new in the basement of this building instead of Little More Gallery. Actually, a photographer, Katsumi Omori, has his workshop today. Then, we will have a photo exhibition by Panda Kanno, “Panda-chan,” from July 15th through August 7th. I want to use this Little More basement for many purposes such as exhibitions, concerts, plays, etc… Talking of music, we release a CD called “Nishi-e-higashi-e” on September 7th.
**I’ve heard the latest film of Director Toshiaki Toyoda who did films such as UNCHAIN, and 9souls is coming up soon?
Yuya Honda: Nishie Higashie, Little More records, 7. Sep 2005
Hanging Garden, directed by Toshiaki Toyoda, screening Oct 2005
“HANGING GARDEN,” staring Kyoko Koizumi, is coming in October. Then, we will begin working on a new film with Mr. Toyoda in November. Many young stars will be appearing in it. I am not supposed to talk much about it, though.. We’ll see.
We are looking forward to it. Well, thank you very much for today.
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