- To start, could you please introduce yourself? We’d also love to hear a bit about your label, Star Creature, and your role as Managing Director at Numero Group.
I'm Tim Zawada, coming from Chicago in the USA. I'm here on a little tour with the record labels Numero Group and Star Creature, both based out of Chicago. We're visiting record shops, doing some live music and some DJ sets afterwards. It's actually just wrapping up, so we're just finishing. This is my last day here in Japan.
Star Creature is a record label focused on modern interpretations of boogie, funk, soul, and disco—mostly inspired by the late ’70s to early ’80s. We also touch on some other Chicago-centric genres of music, DJ-friendly stuff, house music, etc.
Numero Group is an archival label focused on music from the past, ranging from the ’50s through the 2000s, across all genres. It's probably best known here in Japan for the “Eccentric Soul” series. Recently we've also been doing a lot of ’90s emo and indie, along with different rock reissues. So it's kind of everything across the board.
- Could you tell us about the theme or concept behind this DJ set?
It was kind of a mixed bag. I wanted to play a few records that are important to me. I also know a few people here in Japan, and as I mentioned, we just wrapped up a run of DJ gigs. During those shows, people came up and told me they liked certain songs, so I wanted to make sure to bring some of those back and replay them. At the same time, I wanted the set to represent a little bit of everything we do—whether that’s boogie, disco, or soul. Before leaving Japan, I thought it would be nice to create a few lasting memories by replaying some of those records, reflecting the connections I was able to make on the dance floor and at the different spots we played.
- Among the records you played today, were there any tracks you were especially excited to play or particularly wanted to introduce to the audience?
So there were a few records I really wanted to make sure to play. I know this might not air for a couple of months, but I wanted to play a couple of upcoming Star Creature releases—some white labels.
I played a release from a band out of Denver that’s coming up. It’s a cover of “DJ’s Delight,” and it’s really nice. I actually don’t even have the finished record yet—I only have the test pressing.
I also played another one from Saucy Lady, who was born and raised here in Japan but has been living in Boston in the US for a long time. On Star Creature we’ve done more than ten records together. The upcoming one is her cover of Carly Simon’s “Why”, and it’s one of my favorites, so I wanted to make sure to play that.
Another unique and cool one is by another Chicago group called the Chicago Funk Band. I played the test pressing of a seven-inch that’s coming up. The song is called “No Communication.” It was originally by a band called True Transfusion, and this is a cover of their song. The original True Transfusion track has actually been reissued by the Numero Group, so it’s kind of a proper Star Creature and Numero Group collaboration—Chicago Funk Band on the A-side and an edit of the original True Transfusion on the B-side. I wish I could have played both sides, but I only played one.
- Besides the ones you just introduced, you also played another record with quite a special story behind it, right?
Yes. This is a cool one—probably one of the more special records. It’s by an artist named Lionel Abel, from Barbados, though he also has connections to Guyana.
I actually got this record on eBay about twenty years ago. I bought a big box of 45s, and it turned out to be an amazing selection—lots of funk and James Brown-type stuff. There was a small stack of records that stood out and looked a little different. When I checked them out, I noticed they were all non-US records, and they all had a little “C. Hodge” autograph on them. At the time, around 2006, it was really hard to find information about records like that online. Discogs was still pretty early. Eventually I found an old GeoCities site with a little information about music from Guyana. The record stayed in my collection for about twelve years.
Then in 2018, when I was in Barcelona doing some gigs, someone stole some records from my bag. They weren’t record thieves—they were just looking for camera gear or something. When they realized it was only records, they were disappointed and threw them away.
A couple of years later someone found the bag, looked through the records, thought they were cool, and put them on Discogs. At the time this one was extremely rare—honestly, for many years I thought I might have been the only person who had a copy. Tetsu, who’s here with us today — Tetsuro Muraki, the owner of RÁDIO CULTURA — actually found it when it was listed on Discogs and bought it from Japan.
Later I tracked down the seller who had found the records in Barcelona. He sent most of them back to me, but he said he had already sold this one to a guy in Tokyo. He gave me Tetsu’s email address, and after I explained the story he was kind enough to send it back to me. That was about five years ago.
Now when I come to Japan and post on Instagram, he messages me saying, “Welcome back to Japan. By the way, I have a store now—RÁDIO CULTURA.” It’s a great shop on the east side of Tokyo—art, coffee, everything. Very cool.
So what started as a cool story of finding a record, then turned into a bad story of losing it, eventually became a great story of getting it back and making friends around the world. So in a way, it turned out to be great that the record got stolen—because now I have even more stories, friendships, and connections.
We also share other interests besides records—motorcycles and things like that. And on this tour I’m here with the Numero Group, and one of the artists playing is The Album Leaf. Tetsu used to be in a band called SEQUENCE PULSE that actually opened for The Album Leaf about twenty years ago here in Tokyo. So our worlds have kind of collided in multiple ways over the years. So I started the mix with this record in honor of Tetsuro and the new friendships I’ve made here.
- I imagine that as a DJ, there are often expectations for you to play rare or unknown records. What kind of standards or personal philosophy do you bring to your DJ sets?
As far as playing unknown records, I think that’s actually a great thing. It’s one of the best ways for a DJ to show their personal taste or style. If you’re not just playing what everyone else is playing, you’re searching for things that are a little different, maybe even a little weirder.
When you play in a place like Japan, where people are very receptive to new or unusual sounds, you can really feel how excited people get when they hear something for the first time. Normally in a club, you play a familiar song and the crowd goes crazy. But sometimes in Japan it almost feels like the opposite—when you play something unfamiliar, people go crazy because they want to know it. They want to discover it, to learn about it, and to hear something they haven’t heard before. I think that’s really cool.
- Approximately how large is your record collection?
I'm always trimming and adding and don't really keep track but right now something about 6000 12"s and LPs and 4000 7"s
- What genre are you most deeply digging into at the moment?
I like late 70s through mid 80s - different disco, boogie, jazz-funk, some modern soul is my core interest but I like new wave, synth pop, post punk, proto house, balaeric, cosmic. I also really like new music inspired by those genres and house music.
- How do you usually go about discovering obscure records?
Mostly through traveling, going to record stores, hanging out with other people that are into records.
- As a deep record digger like yourself, how do you view Japan as a country?
From my perspective as someone coming from the US, Japan feels very top-tier in terms of quality. People take what they do very seriously and really immerse themselves in it. They’re the kind of people who are willing to dig a little deeper and embrace some of the less common aspects of the record scene—whether that’s stranger or more unusual records. A lot of the record stores here are also incredibly well curated. People are very knowledgeable, very supportive, and very respectful of the culture surrounding the music.
- Star Creature has released music by Japanese artists as well. Do you have a Japanese section in your personal record collection?
I have some Japanese Records but I don't sort anything like that. I have a couple genre sections for LPs that I don't use for DJing but everything else get's sorted by BPM of my favorite track on the album at the moment.
- Are there any Japanese musicians or records that you’re particularly fond of?
A majority of my favorite Japanese musicians are contemporary. Saucy Lady is someone I've been lucky enough to work with for over 10 years promoting her music and she is a big favorite. One of my favorite records we've ever released on Star Creature is from June Chikuma - it was a very different release for us but many of our fans really fell in love with it. There are a few artists that I always stop and check for whenever I see their names - Yuki T-Groove, Sauce81, DJ Kawasaki and Yuki Monolog - all are always delivering top notch releases. This past trip I found many more nice records from new artists so I will probably expand my list a lot now.
- For many dedicated music fans in Japan, Numero is a very special label. Of the releases you’ve been involved with at Numero, which one feels the most personal or memorable to you?
I think Eccentric Boogie is my favorite. I worked on that one with my good friend Kool Hersh and there are a lot of favorites there. Another would be Skyway Soul: Gary, Indiana because I grew up between Gary and Chicago and I think the compilation spans a wide range of very excellent soul music.
- Star Creature now has a history of over 10 years as a respected label. If you were to choose one release or even a single track that best represents the label today, what would it be?
It would be impossible to choose but I think still to this day everyone's favorite track would be E. Live - Do Me Like That. I've spoken with many fans over the years that heard that song and then became a fan of the label.
- Besides DJing, what stimulates your creativity?
Besides DJing I like making stained glass pieces, quilting and fabric art, dogs, riding bicycles and motorcycles.
- What plans do you have for 2026?
More of the same. Right now I love meeting new artists and putting out new records. For Star Creature, we have some very nice Disco Records from Introverted Funk and MIA plus Spaced Out Krew and even Donnell Pitman plus a lot of house and dance music releases. I'm working with Numero Group on some more very nice 45 Projects that the Disco, Soul and House heads will really enjoy. Lots of records so no pressure to keep up with everything.
- Finally, how did you feel about playing at ELLA RECORDS today?
It was really cool. I was super honored to be asked after meeting Lily (Ella Records) at The Room a couple nights ago. I had a great time playing there with Daisuke Kuroda and Rob Sevier (Numero Group), and then she invited me to do this, which was really nice.
I also checked out some of the other videos in the series—I saw the one with Marie Kimishima, who’s here with us today, and it seems really popular. It was actually kind of hard to decide which records to play. In some ways it’s easier at a club, because you walk in, see the crowd, and immediately get a sense of which songs will work. Here it was more like, “Play whatever you want,” which almost feels like too much freedom. But it was really fun. I hope people who watch the video on YouTube enjoy some of the music and discover a few records they like. And hopefully I’ll get the chance to do it again the next time I’m back in Japan.
