The “guitar boy” from rural Aichi makes soulful, hand-played house music, and this November he launches his own label.
Hiroyuki Kato is a DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Aichi, Japan. He picked up the guitar at 10 and, with few musicians around him, learned to play every part of a track himself. That habit still shapes his warm, organic deep house, which blends live guitar and bass with soul, jazz, disco and Latin percussion. His 2025 EP LIFE 今 on Italy’s Flexi Cuts sold out on vinyl at stockists including Rough Trade and Rubadub. Hiroyuki is now working with MN2S Label Services to take his music to a wider audience.
How did you get into music? What is your musical background?
I started playing guitar when I was 10, on a guitar that was kept at my grandfather’s house. Every day I played instead of joining school clubs, and people in my hometown started calling me the “guitar boy”.
My hometown was quite rural, and there was no social media back then. Finding other people to play in a band with was difficult. So I gradually developed my own way of working, playing different instruments and creating everything by myself. Club music came later. I learned it by bringing in ideas from the other genres I loved, rather than starting from house itself.
Tell us about your first release and what was special about that one.
“New Period” came out in 2021 on The People In Fog’s album 1977, released by Amsterdam’s Sound Of Vast. I really love that track. My first EP with Flexi Cuts was We Need in 2023. That relationship started simply. I sent a demo to Relative, who runs the label, because our styles seemed close. We still share favourite tracks and swap ideas today.
Tell us about the latest project you worked on.
This November I’m launching my own label, OWARI, with my new release, the ERUCU EP. Having my own label means I can release music freely, and I’m celebrating the EP with a release party at Shibuya Enter on 21 November.
Before that came LIFE 今, my third record with Flexi Cuts. The vinyl has the more live, played material on the A-side and synth-based tracks on the B-side. The digital edition adds extra cuts, which was Relative’s idea, and he also chose the track order.
I don’t plan my compositions. The guitars on “mizuno” and “G Woman” are first takes, and “G Woman” began as a clip I posted on social media. I made the record with the dancefloor in mind, but I’m happy for people to listen anywhere. I spoke more about it in an interview with Nightclubber.
Your studio is in Seto. How does the place shape your music?
My studio is in Seto, and I produce most of my music there. I get a lot of inspiration from this place. My track “mizuno” was inspired by the city itself.
What is the story behind your Retouch Digital series?
I originally started making Retouch Digital edits for my own DJ sets. At first I wasn’t selling them, but as more people asked for them, I decided to make them available.
My selection is really broad. I remix and edit tracks I’ve listened to since childhood, music I enjoy at home and my latest favourites. Some are tracks I’d love to play but find difficult to use in a DJ set, and some are requests from friends. It’s basically something I do for fun.
Tatsuro Yamashita has been a long-time influence. How did his music find you?
My father was a big fan of Tatsuro Yamashita, and that’s how I came to love his music. He has been one of my favourite artists since childhood, and I still love his music today.
I can’t remember exactly which albums I was listening to back then. What I do remember is hearing his song “Atom no Ko” as a child and thinking how incredibly powerful and exciting it was.
Could you describe your musical style and creative vision?
Soul and jazz are at the heart of it for me. My percussion ideas come from Latin and Afro music, my chords from jazz and pop, and my basslines from disco. The acid sounds come from punk, hardcore and noise.
I’m drawn to music that feels organic and alive, rather than a perfectly sequenced structure. Guitar is on almost everything I make, even tracks that end up synth-only. I move between the computer, hardware and live instruments, and I often play synths by hand without strict quantising. Sometimes I record to tape.
There are no fixed rules. Whatever instrument sparks an idea that day is where the track begins. Emotion matters more to me than precision.
My bigger vision is for Japan. Here, house is a niche scene that people have to dig for, while in Europe it feels like part of the culture. I would like house to become as familiar in Japan as pop music.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and beyond?
The big one is launching OWARI with the ERUCU EP in November, so please keep an eye out for it. Here are my upcoming dates:
- 6 November: SHIT @ Normal Imaike
- 20 November: CURE presents Love Injection @ JB’S
- 21 November: ERUCU EP Release Party @ Shibuya Enter
- 30 December: Club JB’S
I make a lot of music. In one year I finished over a hundred tracks, and many of them, including some that aren’t house, are still unreleased. Now I have a label of my own to put them out on.
Listen and follow
- Bandcamp: hiroyukikato.bandcamp.com
- Flexi Cuts: LIFE 今 / We Need EP / Musica Solida Sampler 1
- fellice records: Potter
- Telomere Plastic: Remember Your Days
- Sound Of Vast: The People In Fog, 1977
- Press: Nightclubber interview
- Mixcloud: Hiroyuki Kato
- Instagram: @hiroyuki_kato
- YouTube: Original Track Only DJ Set, Club GOODWEATHER