You can preorder the single at Rough Trade now. Amazing.

Japayork first poked his head above the pop parapet at the start of 2010 with free download ‘Our Now’ – which generated a pleasing level of blog buzz – and the original demo of ‘Teenagers’, which has become a high-octane pop thunderer for its single release. According to its creator, ‘Teenagers’ is about “the epic feeling of togetherness”.

‘Teenagers’ was written – as most of the best songs are –  after a night out, and was completed in around sixty minutes. The night out in question had started in a Mexican bar with a load of mates who’d all turned up after a day working in jobs they didn’t really want to be doing. Everyone got trolleyed. Notes Japayork: “Even though you might not be your happiest when you’re stuck at school or stuck at work or stuck wherever, as soon as you see your friends and drink a bunch and dance a bunch, everything seems fine for a while. It’s about coming together to forget what we did today, or yesterday. And it works.” The healing power of booze, ladies and gentlemen.

The single comes with an extraordinary b-side in the form of ‘Lydia’. ‘Lydia’ is about all the ladies Japayork has ever met.

‘Teenagers’ is produced by Japa’s longterm collaborator Fabien Waltmann; ‘Lydia’ is the first fruit of sessions with Tim Powell, whose credits include Girls Aloud, Pet Shop Boys and Ed Drewett.

Japayork at a glance:

★    It’s hard to pin down 22-year-old singer, producer, graphic designer and man about town Japayork. Over the last years he has gone on record claiming to be from Holland, Uraguay, Japan and – inspired by a trip when he was 17 – New York. Sometimes when people ask him where he is from, he replies, “the future”. How do people respond? “They usually say, ‘oh’,” he says. Japan and New York proved particularly captivating for him hence, as they say, the name.

★    He’s lived in London for a year and a half. “There is always something happening,” he says. “There’s always movement.” He clearly hasn’t been to Chiswick.

★    Within a month of arriving in London Japayork went to a party in an abandoned factory. During the evening’s jollities the entire party was gassed and, when unconscious, mugged. “It was,” he declares, “a bit of a weird one.”

★    Japayork says things like: “last week I went to an art show and the man who sold me my ticket was dressed as Hitler with his cock out”.

★    He displays his favourite vinyl on the wall at home, a bit like Dorian Gray but with Robert Palmer, Steely Dan and Thin Lizzy, and without the inconvenience of having to go in the loft. Japayork’s penchant for Ladyhawke, The Presets and Yeasayer is also evident in his tunes.

★    For the ‘Teenagers’ b-side the titular ‘Lydia’ is an amalgam of “all women in my life who I’ve known closer than as a friend” (he means shagged). “It’s even about the passion you can have from fighting with the girl or guy you love. That’s Lydia to me. It’s about loving and fighting, and how sometimes the harder you fight the stronger your love is.” Is Japayork a good boyfriend? “I think,” he says after some thought, “I’m a bit of a nightmare.”

★    The medals Japayork often sports have not been awarded for services to pop musicianship, although one day those medals will surely come. The ones he wears now are just bought from Army Surplus stores. He also takes watches and clocks apart then makes jewellery out of them, although these items are something of an acquired taste.

★    Is there an album on the horizon? Yes there is. “There’s not a lot of small songs on the album,” Japayork says. “A lot of the songs will be close to anthems.”

★    By playing gigs everywhere from squat parties in London to Hugo Boss parties in Moscow, Japayork has already started picking up fans. One international fan messaged him recently to announce that having made the trip over from France, had just arrived at Kings Cross, had no money for a hotel, and would be staying at his for the week. Ever the gentleman, Japayork obliged. Another ‘sounds like it has been made up for a press release but is actually true’ story involves Japayork customizing his bicycle using pictures of naked girls nicked out of phoneboxes (as one does – talk about chopper bike etc etc) then chaining it to a lamp post. An hour later he returned to find four security guards threatening to arrest him; he had chained up his bike outside the Russian Embassy.’LOL’.

★    Why, you might wonder, does Japayork – as a creative person – choose to express his creativity through pop music rather than, say, baking a cake? “Well,” he says, “I do that as well. And the cakes are very nice.” Of music, he recalls that in his early teens “a voice inside me said, ‘I need attention’.” Now he is on stage quite a lot and gets that attention, and quite right too.

It’s a song about getting drunk and being generally carefree even when life is a bit of a rum old do.

Basically we love the song so much that we’re putting it out as a single at the start of December.

More details, as they say, ‘here‘.

Alright, settle down, it’s Rosanna video o’clock. MySpace are premiering the ‘Waterfall’ clip AS WE SPEAK and jolly pleasant it is too.

In other news, you can now pre-order ‘Waterfall’ from Amazon. Click here to pre-order ‘Waterfall’ on that bit of the internet.

And there we have it.

What a relief.

This is the thing to click.

http://www.popjusticehi.fi/downloads/runawayrocketboymix.mp3

Hurrah.

It features Del Marquis from Scissor Sisters on guitar and backing vocals and you can download it here, free.

http://www.popjusticehi.fi/downloads/cryatfilms.mp3

We like this song a lot.

It’s called ‘Love Part II’ and it is about being in love then not being in love then being in love again. In fact, as the song’s lyrics explain, “I’m in love again”.

How true.

It sounds like this…

…and there are more details here.

If you simply cannot wait for the release and would like to own the b-side, ‘Cry At Films’ (featuring Scissor Sisters’ Del Marquis), click here and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Hurrah.

*For the purposes of this please ignore the free download single thing he did a few months ago which officially DOESN’T COUNT. Nor does the stuff he had out as Rod Thomas.

It is a lovely song about lovely things. There’s plenty more information about the ‘Waterfall’ release here.

Rosanna recently put a version of ‘Waterfall’ on YouTube.

Delightful.

Fancy a download of the single’s bonus track, ‘Runaway’? It’s your lucky day.

We need something to put on this wall. Any ideas? If you send us something nice we will send you a HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE  Popjustice Hi-Fi badge in return. We are at Popjustice Hi-Fi, Unit 1Q Leroy House, 436 Essex Road, London N1 3QP.