INABA/SALAS on J-WAVE Radio: Pre-Show Interview Summary
Feature 
Yesterday in Japan, Koshi Inaba and Stevie Salas appeared on the J-WAVE radio program 「SAPPORO BEER OTOAJITO」 for a live interview on LINE LIVE. The event, hosted by Japanese-American radio personality Chris Peppler, was facilitated in English and Japanese and can be viewed in archive form here. Keep in mind this is for the pre-show segment, which does not include the usual live audience.
The stream began with the below commercial for the album that featured two new songs: 「AISHI-AISARE」 and 「OVERDRIVE」. Notably, the program closes with an alternate version that swaps the order (also included).
Peppler kicked off the segment with introductions prior to asking the two whether they felt this was a “project” or a “band”. Salas jokingly interjected to add that, “I don’t know if you know this, but he has a pretty big, famous band already.” He continued by responding to an inquiry about the origin of the project, saying, “Sometimes as musicians you want to get together between your regular work to get re-inspired.” The source of the album’s title was described by Salas as something that has a groove that’s “chubby”. Stevie compared the etymology of the phrase with “that’s phat“. The idea of depicting a pig on the cover came from the Nashville, Tennessee recording sessions where the studio owner’s pet pig chased Koshi around at one point.
Stevie also humorously recounted the time when he and Koshi first hung out over twenty-five years ago: “Many, many, many years ago [in the early 90s], he came to my house with Tak, in the Hollywood Hills. Tak and I used to go out and do a lot of drinking. Koshi doesn’t drink so much, but he was drinking with us this time. Me and Tak were talking, talking, talking and next time I look over, Koshi is asleep—in the night club. So I carried Koshi, on my shoulders, while he was asleep, all the way out and up the hill to my house. I laid him on my couch on a pillow and gave him a blanket.” Koshi laughed and clarified, “But, no blanket.”
“Koshi is one of the greatest rock singers in the world and I’ve worked with the biggest rock singers in history, if you think about it,” and went on to mention some of those he’s worked with in the past, including Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and Justin Timberlake. “Koshi is one of those greats that mostly only people in Japan know about because he sings in Japanese. But, if you really are an artist, then you know he is one of those top, top guys.”
The new INABA/SALAS collaborative album CHUBBY GROOVE is due for release on January 18, 2016. You can pre-order the album at the usual places: [YesAsia] [CDJapan] and [Amazon Japan]. Their joint tour “CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017” kicks off January 25 and runs through a showing at Diamond Hall in Nagoya on February 20.