“The salty scent of the tide, the smell of greenery, and the fragrance of oranges are all very nostalgic and familiar to me.”
Kyoto-based producer Stones Taro (Taro Nakano) grew up in a place that feels like it’s been lifted straight from a Nintendo map. Born and raised by the sea, his grandmother’s home sat at the foot of a mountain blanketed in orange groves.
An only child, Taro naturally found joy in solitude. Building blocks, the digital worlds of role-playing video games (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokémon), and novels kept him occupied – forever drawn to activities and media that served up immersive storytelling.
Raised by big-hearted teachers, Taro has fond memories of their students dropping by the house just to hang out, long after they’d graduated. A clear sign of how loved and trusted they were… not just as a people, but also for what they invested in them.
The idea of old students coming back to kick it with those who once taught them feels foreign to me, yet incredibly warm. Mr Scali, if you’re out there – it’d be a treat to have a beer! Unsurprisingly, that educator’s mindset still rubs off on Taro. He takes real pride in hosting workshops, sharing knowledge on songwriting, programming and beyond. “In Japanese scenes, power dynamics and competition can easily become too dominant if left unchecked.”
The music bug hit Taro hard in middle school, all thanks to MTV. The moment he connected with a sound on screen, he’d disappear down a YouTube wormhole, chasing down everything that artist had ever recorded. A gateway for aspiring music makers of that era.
“I didn’t vibe with the Japanese pop of that time at all.” And so, he looked further afield…to bands like Green Day, My Chemical Romance and Slipknot. At this stage, Taro’s life revolved around baseball, and it was groups like these that nudged him to pick up the guitar alongside a wooden bat. What started with stringed chords led to a fascination with UK jungle classics.
“I started digging for Jungle V.A’s (compilations) at second-hand shops. Through my friends, my interests expanded into UK Garage and post-dubstep. The inspiration I gained during that period is really the foundation of my musical style today.”
Taro became Stones Taro in 2014; the lore behind it is cute and littered with imagery. A throwaway thought that stuck like glue.
“There is a game bar in Kyoto called Cafe La Siesta. I spent a lot of time practising my DJ sets there, and it was the owner who named me. He was staring at a Stones Throw poster when the idea struck him.”
Soon enough, thanks to the community magic of SoundCloud, people from across our blue sphere were sliding into Taro’s DMs, engrossed by what he was making. “I was connecting with producers from all over the world… it eventually led to my maiden release on UK label Scruffed Recordings, Digital Vintage.”
I was first introduced to the Japanese artist through his stimulating jungle construction, “Full Train” — a highly technical breakbeat piece, interlaced with sparrow calls and timely bleeps. If electronic music speaks to you on a deeper level, “Full Train” will too.
There’s a perplexity to Taro’s arrangements, built on instruments and vocals finely tuned for impact. Alongside that, there’s a sense of freshness — a squeaky-clean quality to his sound. Take “Illegalized Dub” and “New Mineral”, the A-sides from his recent EP Foglore#1 — fluttering drums, Rastafarian-inspired vocals, and drones cut through the mix like a surgeon’s knife.
On Foglore, Taro shares, “It’s a new series where I’m leaning into the realms of dub techno and dubstep. The concept is a fusion of ‘Fog’ and ‘Folklore’, and I’m really looking forward to exploring this specific atmosphere in my productions and DJ sets in 2026.”
Alongside the inaugural release (with more to follow in this vein), Taro has started delivering mixes via channels such as RinseFM and Outlook Festival. As the description reads on one, “ a textural 3hr odyssey through murky sounds and muddied bass, trying to forge a way through the fog.”
Club music, above all, should get you moving, and Stones Taro’s output has me jiggling at my desk as I work my fingers across the keys. At a more macro level, Taro sees his affinity for left-field genres as a product of his hometown’s collective taste.
“The music scene in Kyoto leans much more towards alternative. I think that’s where the city’s charm lies. Rather than ‘urban’ techno or high BPM styles, people embrace deep house and dub. Not the generic stuff you’d find on digital store charts — listeners here really enjoy digging for the obscure.”
God only knows the treasure trove of vinyl tucked away across Kyoto. While his tastes are shaped by culture and place, his writing isn’t…or at least, not consciously. “I’ve never consciously tried to incorporate Japanese or Kyoto-style elements into my music. I aim for a more ‘flat’ or universal form of expression. My tendency to avoid the mainstream and the importance I place on ambient music and perfect fifths might be my way of reflecting the city’s atmosphere.”
Interestingly, Taro often hears people say his music is ‘great because it doesn’t sound Japanese’, a comment that strikes me as odd from an international perspective, and one I don’t agree with. I’ve never been to Japan myself, but everyone I’ve spoken to describes it as one of the cleanest, most orderly, and respectful places on Earth. I even remember a news story from a few years ago where a journalist left his smartphone unattended in a bustling food mall for over an hour, and it was still there, untouched, when he returned. I feel Taro’s music oozes a similar sense of order and polish you’d expect from a place like Japan.
Away from music software and decks, Taro’s world revolves around fatherhood and his amazing wife, a woman he insists he owes the world.
“My wife probably never imagined her life would turn out like this. Honestly, my whole career exists because of her—her resourcefulness, endless energy, and incredible heart. I miss her whenever I’m on tour.” A. Nakano, if you happen to read this, you’re a superhero: thank you for everything you do to let Taro make the brilliant music he does.
Nowadays, gratitude towards the key people in Taro’s life no longer shows up as a “sudden, intense burst” but rather a “constant, gentle flow”. Becoming a father, watching his child grow up healthy, held up by a Teflon support network (his wife, friends, agent, the promoters booking him, and the labels backing his records), is nothing short of a blessing.
I often find myself pondering the undying love I have for those around me; we all do, yet we rarely express it enough. Take a second to think about those in your life who bring you the most joy and support, a simple exercise if nothing more than to make you smile. Taro’s taking a page out of that very book – taking stock of the currents of gratitude, putting them into words, and sharing with the people they stem from. Doing so, everyone wins.
Gone are the days of role-playing video games and constructing toy structures, yet reading remains a core hobby for Taro all these years later.
“I make a point of diving into challenging books, the kind that force you to stop, think and look things up. I feel like if I don’t keep doing that, my perspective narrows and my vocabulary starts to shrink. It’s my way of keeping the brain sharp.”
The Kyoto native’s hunger to keep learning and keep his mind on its toes is equal parts admirable and motivating. Screen time feels like the be-all and end-all in 2026, and honestly, every time I’m lost in a book, it’s a far more enriching experience than mindlessly flicking through NBA highlights or New York City street interviews. Not that you were wondering, but I’m a third of the way through O Sinners! by Nicole Cuffy. The story follows a young journalist, spiralling from the recent death of his father, who decides to embed himself in a cult in the California redwoods called The Nameless. At the head is a wily Vietnam War veteran named Odo…
As I pen this, Taro is thousands of kilometres from Kyoto on a 4-date tour of Australia with stops at Dayshift Festival (Syd/Eora), Revolver (Melb/Naarm), Solace Bar (Melb/Naarm), plus Echo & Bounce (Bris/Meanjin). Although this is great news for his fans Down Under, I still feel like my music platform feeds are dominated by projects from the “Western world” (Australia, North America and Western Europe). Outside of names like DJ Nobu, Powder and Wata Igarashi, the algorithm isn’t doing me many favours when it comes to others from the Land of the Rising Sun. Call this a public service announcement to buck that trend and go digging for Japanese artists making brilliant dance – some breadcrumbs to kickstart the rabbit hole are Gonno and Yoshinori Hayashi.
In many ways, Foglore feels like a fitting frame for where Taro is right now: somewhere between visibility and obscurity. Not that the ledger really means anything to him. After chatting, what rises to the top is his dedication to the cause and a hunger to be challenged and keep exploring. He’s less concerned with the ‘big stage’ and more interested in shining torchlights into the nooks and crannies of his craft. The work is the path. The path is the work.
Although I conducted our interview through the written word, I got a feel for Taro’s kind and good nature. A man raised by parents who encouraged inquisitiveness and made him believe there is just as much joy in the search as reaching whatever’s at the end of the tunnel.
