Hello friends and fans of first president of japan!
People ask me about our songs and I am not interested in being mysterious.
Photo by Alec Sutherland
I started first president of japan
because I needed to take a break from the stand-up scene but still wanted an outlet to perform my writing.
Shifting from joke writing to songwriting has been both fun and difficult (fpoj is NOT a ‘musical comedy band’ - we are very very serious 😜). Fun because I can write a song about any time of my life, or about a feeling, or spew rage without having to make that much sense or justifying it with a punchline. Difficult because I am a meandering wordy nerd and can’t always fit all my musing in a verse-chorus.
As an avid reader of essays, I have toyed with the idea of getting into this game (RIP Catapult) but getting over that “okay but why would anyone read my writing” has been debilitating. Then, Mona Eltahawy of FEMINIST GIANT (subscribe! subscribe!) told me that I can start by seeing this as fleshing out the world that is first president of japan, and oooh boy nothing gets me going more than world-building. Yes let me tell you about the songs, let me tell you how shows went and when we’re playing next, let me tell you how I make our merch! I am mediocre at TikTok (I’m working on it!) But I’m happier writing. And here we are. Who knows, maybe if I do a good job, it’ll help with our band fund 😅
Also, I got a C in my sophomore English poetry unit because my teacher thought “some of [my] word choices don’t make sense within the context.” (i.e. We had to write a love poem and I used the word “spewing” - does romance not SPEW?) Was she not just being a White lady telling me that my perception of the world was incorrect? That they “don’t make sense within the context.” Within HER context? The context in which her imagination of what I could be experiencing was so limited she decided it was wrong?
So maybe this Substack is mostly for me to air such grievances and give you some more insight into MY context.
Thanks for being here, and hope to see you at our next show 🤘🏼