When DJs Sara and Ryusei Kishimoto took the stage at a Grammy Awards party in Los Angeles in February, the audience of artists and hardened music executives had to pick their jaws off the floor. Taking a short break from primary school in Japan, the brother-and-sister act 'tore the place up', according to one reviewer, before shyly waving to the crowd and heading back to their hotel for a cup of cocoa. At 1am, it was well past their bedtime. 'It was fun having all those people listen, but the best was being able to go to Disneyland the next day,' recalls nine-year-old Sara. She was 'very nervous' at their first performance outside Japan, she says, 'but when it was over people came and complimented us, which was kind'. Sara and her seven-year-old brother Ryusei are the latest musical prodigies to break out of cyberspace, where they have quickly earned a cult following. A YouTube clip of the siblings, tiny hands in a blur as they scratch behind a bank of turntables in their Osaka home, has scored almost 2 million hits and attracted offers to perform in New York, Australia and South Korea. Their parents refuse most gigs, but tonight mum Akemi will be watching from the wings at the Dragon-i club in Central, where the pint-sized scratchers have been invited to tear up their first Hong Kong audience. Don't go expecting nursery rhymes set to phat beats. These kids know their music, inheriting a love of old-school soul, funk and disco from their father, Eiichi, a furniture-maker and former amateur club DJ. Sara and Ryusei's favourite artists read like a turntable who's who: DJ Aladdin, Grandmaster Flash, Jazzy Jeff, Q-Bert and their hero, pioneering Filipino-American scratch artist D-Styles, who will be playing alongside them at Dragon-i. 'I think people are going to be surprised by these kids,' says D-Styles on the phone from Osaka, where he is practising before the Hong Kong gig. 'They're really amazing. Sometimes I think I'm playing with two professionals, they're so good. They have a natural rhythm and a good ear for music. And it sounds like they're having fun; not forced at all.' Sara started deejaying as soon as she could reach up to her father's turntable and has been scratching for nearly seven years. Her brother made it a double act, although not without its share of friction. 'We argue over whose turn it is on the tables or how long each should play,' she says, giggling. 'They're like any two bratty kids; they fight a lot at home, though you'd never know it to see them on TV,' says Eiichi Kishimoto. But he has one golden rule: don't scratch Dad's precious collection of 5,000 vinyl records. 'They have their own. When we started, they were given a turntable with old needles and some records. I told them: 'These are your toys, these are mine.' When I was younger, I didn't scratch records, just played them.' Kishimoto, 42, says he thought little about his children's hobby until he entered them in an online turntable battle. 'You could see that some kids were better than others.' The pair soon caught the attention of Japan's DJ community, made their debut on YouTube and were off. 'The other kids think its sugoi [amazing] that we are on TV and in commercials but I don't think they really understand what we do,' says Sara. 'But little by little some of my friends are saying they want to try being a DJ too, so some understand a bit better than before.' So far, Sara and her brother's turntable skills have earned them more attention than money, but that could change. According to their management company, STokyo, the pair could make up to US$5,000 a performance in bigger venues. But they have yet to decide whether to make a career out of their hobby. 'We're just enjoying this and not thinking too deeply about what comes next,' says Sara. 'It's a tough way to make a living, especially scratching,' says Kishimoto who, like any parent, tells his children to focus on school and practise at the weekends. So what can clubbers expect at Dragon-i? D-Styles predicts that the threesome will do a 30-minute set, split equally between him, Sara and Ryusei. 'It's a bit like jazz, with two or three saxophone players trading bars. We'll do a question and answer thing. I think people are going to be surprised by these kids. They're good!' DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei, supported by D-Styles, Dragon-i, UG/F, The Centrium, 60 Wyndham St, Central, tonight, HK$300, tel: 3110 1222
