Kotori
Future Music Art Politics Culture
Los Angeles, USA
3253 S. Beverly Dr., CA 90034
Email: wasim@kotorimag.com
- Category: Art, Culture, Music
- Periodicity: Quarterly
- Language: English
- Format: 216 x 279 mm
- Circulation: 20,000
- Price: $ 3.99
- Web: http://www.kotorimag.com
Founded in 2003
Where the future of music, art and politics collide to define a neW and necessary pROgRessIve culTuRe. Kotori is a magazine devoted to keeping readers informed on socially conscious artists in the increasingly collaborative fields of rock, hip-hop and electronica.
Kotori is dedicated to providing its readers with insight into an emerging culture defined by progress towards a globally cooperative and
environmentally sound way of life.
KOTORI is a different kind of magazine for a different kind of generation.
Exclusive Interview
We’re pretty unique in the sense that we see each other face to face maybe once per issue.
What is your magazine about?
Where the future of music, art, and politics collide to define a new and necessary progressive culture.
Kotori is a magazine devoted to keeping readers informed on socially conscious artists in the increasingly collaborative fields of rock, hip-hop, and electronica.
Kotori is dedicated to providing its readers with insight into an emerging culture defined by progress towards a globally cooperative and environmentally sound way of life.
Kotori is a different kind of magazine for a different kind of generation.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Savin’ this one for the movie…we’re not quite your average bunch. If you happen to Google us, well, we deny everything!
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
It takes us about 2 months to produce a single issue. In addition to full time day jobs, we spend 6-8 extra hours per day, and weekends, to produce this baby. Our core team consists of 5 individuals: myself, our co-founding managing editor, two associate editors, and an art director.
We’re pretty unique in the sense that we see each other face to face maybe once per issue. One of our associate editors is in Ohio, one is in New York (who we’ve never even met face to face), and we are based in Los Angeles. Thanks to the internet and a central server, we all have our assignments and goals broken down and upload final files into the server. Our art director pulls them off of there and works his magic.
That is, of course, until we can quit our day jobs…
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Every step has been equally important. It’s like going to school or raising a child. But you get more sleep when you raise a child.
What are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
A thirst for something new, exciting, relevant, positive, fresh, hopeful. A passion and genuine feeling and regard for the contents and the information we put out. A heartfelt and mentally-spawned gut feeling that we have information for people that they don’t normally get that they really should. A vision of a better world than the one we live in now. Soul…we got soul!
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
This is a loaded question…at least the first part. The second part of the question is easy: a marketing and ad sales team. That’s it. We’re creatives, and its this part that kills us. That’s all. Simple. You want in? Pay their salary, well give you points…c’mon…
As for the difficulties, you have no idea. Everything from switching printers 5 issues in a row to almost-legal battle with a monster of a media conglomerate to a cultish like encounter surrounded by coyotes in the California hills to life threatening health situations to holding and coordinating full-time jobs along with it to changing the name after building for almost 3 years to being led through the Smithsonian and the Hopi Indian Tribal Council to get the blessing to use that name to living in a nursery bordering an elementary school and 3 construction zones to having tractors fall into our home to getting cement dumped on our cars. Oh…and the credit card bills…can’t forget about those (as much as we try to). Uh…sorry…I’ll stop now. Gotta save a few things for that movie!!!
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
On every newsstand and bookstore in the nation and abroad. Supporting itself through sales and relevant advertising. A portal and premier pusher in the world of sustainable conscious forward thinking ideals, arts, and actions. A source of real information with real results in creating a world that is very real. A pro-active avenue for a constructive lifestyle.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
They are the kids we went to school with. They are people who love music and care about what happens to our world, and they want to know what they can do to improve and protect it. Most are pretty bored with the banal selection of music and culture that is offered by the mainstream media. In fact THE MAJORITY OF KOTORI READERS WATCH LESS THAN 5 HOURS OF T.V. PER WEEK.
They are the type of people who regularly attend music events, shop at both brick and mortar and online vinyl and specialty record stores, and spend a lot of money in shops that don’t usually pop up at your neighborhood mall. They hang out at independent bookstores, coffee shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants. Most live in big cities, and live a consumer-oriented lifestyle, however many would much rather end up somewhere a little more personal than the giant corporate mega-chains they often find themselves in. In fact, many are yearning to steer away from the mass-produced culture that is consuming the city they live in. That is why they read KOTORI.
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Not part of the strategy, but part of the evolution. Greg Palast said it best when he told us “everything mainstream begins in the fringes,” and in this case, we’re spreading positive knowledge and information and arts that can only help better our future, so regarding the overall progressive energy and aura surrounding the magazine, we sure as hell hope it becomes mainstream…cuz look where the current mainstream has got us…fear-induced self-inflicted shackles…
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
We only reach out to people and companies and ideas we support. We don’t care for advertising-driven editorials unless, again, its ideas and causes and scenes and movements we support.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
No. Absolutely not. TV makes us numb and stooped to reality. Look where that has gotten us (refer to the question about remaining independent from above…)
What is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
Well, to an extent. They, of course, provide us with the tangible product of our hard work. But as far as content and creative development, nope. Not their place. That’s ours.
Which magazines influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
Adbusters, URB, Wired, Foreign Policy, XLR8R, Beatiful Decay. All we’re looking for is something positive and something different. Something that can capitalize on the good rather than the bad. Something that will help change the notion that ‘bad news sells.’
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
Absolutely love the raw naïve urgency of it. Wouldn’t change a gosh-darned thing!
What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
This is a weird question. Not sure how to answer it. You mean to one of the subjects of the magazine or a question we asked ourselves as far as producing this magazine? I guess an easy answer to this question is: “where is the money lebowski??”
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself as a maniac?
Definitely qualify myself as a maniac. If I had any sanity, I would have never gotten into this business.
E-mail interview from “06.10.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
Staff
Editor in chief & Co-Founder: Wasim Muklashy...contact
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