Hey guys! As some of you know I have spent about two years in retirement after a pretty active and hectic career in the USA as a professional Shamisen player which spanned nearly a decade of my life. After creating and introducing my own original blend of Shamisen and rock, funk and metal (or Shmetal as we refer to it here on bachido) in bands like God of Shamisen and estrdasphere I moved back to Japan where I more or less stopped touring, making CDs and doing big concerts. However this past year and especially this past summer have been inspirational times for me and have more or less inspired me to become active as a Shamisen player once again! Visits from Anne L. , Grant and Shmoolik from bachido were tremendous motivaters as well as Norm’s gathering and the new Monsters of Shamisen CD (my first recording experience after almost three years out of any studio work ) pretty much marked my “Return” into the life of a Shamisen player.
Well in addition to all of this I want to announce I now have a new band. We just coudn’t think of a good name so we ended up going with the first words we could come up with… Psycho Party! (we are trying to get paying gigs as a party band for events etc.)
I play both acoustic and electric Shamisen in this band, as well as guitar. We just started playing and yesterday was our third gig. We set up our stage in an airplane hanger and performed all throughout the day for the annual AIR SHOW in Misawa, Japan. Problem was it meant that we were in constant competition with the airplanes. Trying to play Shamisen against the sonic boom of fighter jets was quite an “interesting” experience to say the least!
Anyway I just wanted to share with you guys here on bachido what I have been up to lately. My plan is to post some clips here once I acquire and upload them. I know a few tunes were caught on film but haven’t gotten them uploaded yet.
So stay tuned right here for some Psycho Party video clips (hopefully soon) and Bachi On, everyone!
). Ganbatte man!