At the time, the Japanese music scene of the 1970s felt pretty flat to Daisuke Hinata. "But (then) Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) and Plastics came out, and we thought the market would open up for more new sounds," the Los Angeles-based musician tells The Japan Times. Along with three Japanese classmates from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Hinata formed the band Interior, an outfit dabbling in a sonic space between ambient sound and early New Age.

They went back to Japan and tracked down Haruomi Hosono of YMO to give him their demo, which he liked. He then produced and released their music via his label.

"After the success of YMO, we were a bit confident of Japanese original ideas in the international music world but I thought it was too early for everyone to understand," says Hinata, who has enjoyed a strong career working with the likes of Tetsuya Komuro and Michael Jackson.