(PART 2) GTC Collective and What It Brings to the Scene
READY FOR OPEN AIR #1
GROW THE CULTURE kicks off a candid interview series with the people behind our Tokyo-based underground dance music culture, starting with founder Hisaki (Midnight Runner) and maidable.
Event
[No. 001]
(PART 2) GTC Collective and What It Brings to the Scene
READY FOR OPEN AIR #1
GROW THE CULTURE is a Tokyo-based collective sharing underground dance music culture inspired by the UK sound system scene.
Ahead of GROW THE CULTURE OPEN AIR 2026, taking place on 7–8 November, we’re launching an interview series with people who have been part of the GROW THE CULTURE journey.
In Part 2, Hisaki (Midnight Runner) and maidable talk about GTC as a collective, its approach as a label, and a message for those coming to OPEN AIR for the first time.
→ (Part 1) Creating a community experience that transcends events and genres
⑤ GROW THE CULTURE as a Label
Hisaki: I wanted GTC to have its own releases, especially since maidable and I both make music ourselves. We wanted to start a label where we could put out our own tracks without too much pressure, while also releasing music from artists we rate.
maidable: I guess that’s something we can do in our own way because we see things from an artist’s perspective too. Although we’re both pretty slow at finishing tunes, haha.
Hisaki: We do a fair bit of sketching, but getting tracks over the finish line takes a while. Not ideal, really. Anyway, the first releases we put out at the end of 2024 were GTC-001 and GTC-002.
maidable: It’s been well over a year and a half since those releases came out, but people are still giving us good feedback on them, which I’m really happy about.
Hisaki: HALU was playing my track “Melting Point” loads when it first came out. I reckon he’s played it more times than I have.
maidable: Since then, tracks from GTC, including Hizuo’s releases and even some unreleased ones, have been getting played out quite a bit too.
Hisaki: We released Hizuo’s GTC-003 in August 2025, and we’ve just put out GTC-004, almost exactly a year later.
maidable: The label is also focused on the local scene, so we want to keep building it up by bringing in artists who are actively doing things around Japan, especially those in our own circles.
Hisaki: Once things settle down a bit, I’d like to start accepting demos too. I’m also working hard on my own album, which I’m hoping to release through GTC around December.
maidable: Looking forward to it. I need to get back to making music myself, too…
Hisaki: maidable, you really need to make more tunes.
maidable: I’ll take that on board… haha.
Hisaki: We’re both seriously slow at finishing tracks, but people like Hizuo and Oyubi are incredibly productive. Oyubi’s around my age, so seeing how much music he gets done really motivates me.
maidable: His latest album is a great example. I’m always impressed by the quality of his work and how original it sounds.
Hisaki: That album was so good. It balances this distinctly Japanese sense of atmosphere and humidity with the dry, stripped-back textures of dance music. And on top of that, it has this real sense of journey that you can only get from an album as a format.
maidable: It’s a sound and texture that only he could create. We want to keep putting out releases through the GTC label series that really showcase each artist’s individuality and originality. In the long run, I think that’s what will help the local scene in Japan grow, too.
⑥ GROW THE CULTURE as a Team
Hisaki: We mainly use Discord to communicate as a team, and only recently have we started clearly defining everyone’s roles. It’s made things a lot easier.
maidable: At first, it was more like whoever could do something would just do it. That worked well enough for a while, but there was a period when a disproportionate amount of the workload ended up falling on Hisaki, which I felt bad about.
Hisaki: I was partly at fault for not putting things into words properly either. But after the first edition, I really started to understand how important teamwork is, so we gradually began delegating more responsibility.
maidable: Since mana and snobo joined the team, we’ve felt that even more strongly. Now that everyone has their own responsibilities and a better grasp of their area, I feel like we’ve become more united as a team and created a really positive cycle.
Hisaki: snobo has genuinely grown the most this year, haha.
maidable: His DJ set in Korea was top-notch, too. When he told me he felt he’d grown since joining GTC, honestly, it made me happier than hearing the same thing from a junior colleague at work, haha.
Hisaki: Over the past few years, rather than dividing things up by specific tasks or categories, we’ve focused on establishing clear decision-making rules first, then delegating responsibility based on those. I’ve been pretty insistent about this distinction: anything that’s a one-way door, meaning a decision that’s difficult or impossible to reverse, needs to be checked and decided by me. Anything that’s a two-way door, meaning a decision that can be reversed, you can just go ahead and do it. I feel like that approach is starting to pay off.
maidable: Of course, Hisaki and I still make a lot of the decisions ourselves, but I’ve definitely noticed that everyone on the team now brings their own ideas and opinions to the table much more than before. I think we’re gradually shifting from a group of individuals who happen to come together and do their own thing to a team that works together as one.
Hisaki: Ultimately, I could do all the creative work for GTC myself if I really wanted to. But that would defeat the purpose. We’ve made a conscious effort to build a culture where we value relying on others, by consistently practising the idea of asking someone else to do something you could do yourself.
maidable: That won’t change if we bring new members into GTC in the future. If anything, it’ll become even more important. We’re still a work in progress as a team, so there’s plenty we want to keep improving.
Hisaki: My basic mindset is to approach every decision assuming that I’m probably wrong about something. That’s why open and equal communication is so important. Neither top-down nor bottom-up. I want to keep developing an environment where everyone can discuss things on equal footing and approach the same issue from the same perspective.
maidable: In that sense, we also want to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable disagreeing with each other and speaking up when they see things differently. Keeping quiet just to avoid conflict might make things more comfortable, but it doesn’t necessarily mean genuine trust has been established.
Hisaki: People often get the wrong idea, but I genuinely don’t get angry, haha. Even if a serious mistake happens that can’t be undone, blaming the person responsible won’t make anything better. What matters is how we improve things as a team to prevent the same mistake from happening again. I think we’ve gradually developed that mindset together, although we used to get into arguments quite a lot when we were less mature as a team.
maidable: Well, I guess we’ve both mellowed out a bit since the early days, haha. But yeah, the idea of “hate the sin, not the sinner” is important.
Hisaki: When you make it about the person, people start hiding things. Nobody likes getting told off. We need to focus on how to improve things going forward. Otherwise, the conversation isn’t constructive.
maidable: And when things work that way, both the way we think and the roles we play become increasingly dependent on individuals. For all these reasons, I believe GTC will continue to grow into a better team.
⑦ A Message to First-Timers at GROW THE CULTURE OPEN AIR
maidable: First of all, if you have even the slightest interest in this year’s OPEN AIR, we’d love for you to come down. And that goes for the food and stalls we’ll be announcing soon, not just the artists and music.
Hisaki: The venue is genuinely amazing. It’s out in Ome, but you can get there from Shinjuku in about an hour and a half by train and bus. Festivals and raves are often held pretty far out of the way, so that’s a big plus. You can also turn up without bringing any gear of your own, so I’d especially recommend it to people who’ve never been to an outdoor event before. Think of it as a tutorial, haha.
maidable: You don’t get many outdoor events that you can just drop by so easily. And you get to enjoy things in a completely different way from an indoor club, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds.
Hisaki: The biggest difference between an outdoor event and a club night is the level of difficulty. There are some pretty hardcore raves out there, haha. But I think OPEN AIR has plenty to offer even if you’re already experienced with this kind of event.
maidable: Exactly. As long as you’re prepared for the temperature changes, I think even first-timers can have a great time. We’re making sure everything is properly prepared on our end, too, so we want people to feel comfortable coming along.
Hisaki: Warm clothes and a comfortable pair of trainers should be enough. Once you’re dancing and moving around, it doesn’t actually feel that cold. It also helps that there isn’t much wind.
maidable: The venue’s unique layout, surrounded by trees, probably has something to do with it. Even though it’s up in the mountains, you don’t really feel the harshness you might expect from a mountain setting.
Hisaki: And if you book a bungalow, you can just go and sleep in a proper bed when you’re tired. You can be lying there thinking, “I’m trying to sleep over here, and the music’s so loud!” haha.
maidable: We’ve got more group tickets available this year, so I think it’d be great to grab one with a bungalow and come along with a group of friends.
Hisaki: You can come solo and make new friends, or just enjoy the whole thing on your own. If you’re on the fence about coming, feel free to get in touch.
maidable: I’ve actually heard stories of people meeting at the venue and then going on to start their own DJ parties together. That makes me really happy.
Hisaki: If OPEN AIR can be some kind of starting point for anyone who loves music, that would mean everything to us.
maidable: Exactly. As I wrote in last year’s OPEN AIR announcement, there’d be nothing more rewarding as organisers than seeing this party become someone’s starting point and watching new stories unfold from there.
