Some kids run away and join the circus. I did the next best thing: I hit the road with a rock band.
I have enjoyed every job that involves music: roadie, record store clerk, studio assistant, sound designer, and more. Since the turn of the century, I have been practicing the craft of audio engineering and performing my own music, all while bouncing between Canada, America, Germany, and Japan.
Between 2009 and 2014, I was a founding member and guitarist of the Tokyo-based noise-rock outfit Crypt City. During that time, we independently released two acclaimed LPs, three 7" singles, and one live album, all of which I recorded and mixed. We toured Japan regularly, sharing the stage with such celebrated acts as Melt-Banana, Zeni Geva, envy, Discotortion, Lostage, and Z.
In 2013, I joined Tokyo's venerable Tsubame Studio as a staff engineer. This gave me the opportunity to record some of the most exciting young bands in Japan, including Detrytus, blue friend, and Rebel One Excalibur.
Currently
I live in Toronto.
I have an ongoing relationship with Tsubame Studio as their first remote engineer. I also work in a freelance capacity from my home studio in Toronto, where I continue to write, record, mix, and master my own compositions.
I am honored to be on the star-spangled roster of With Lions Productions, through whom some my music is available for your music supervision and sync licensing needs. If you are interested in licensing any of my music, please get in touch with me!
Next
I am currently in the preparatory stages of a new musical project that will apply non-traditional elements - such as the Arabic Maqam harmonic syntax and the rhythmic fluidity of Japanese Satsuma-biwa - to the rock idiom. This project is the musical facet of a larger investigation into cultural hybridity, an investigation which includes my forthcoming talk at the Tuning Speculation III conference in November, 2015. My wager is that hybridity is most potent when it is mildly unpleasant. To flirt with expectation, only to subvert it, invites both artist and audience to enjoy their dis-ease. There is wonder in discomfort and vigor in confusion. My hope is that, in exploring uncanny soundworlds, the audience will return to their own lives a little more curious, speculative, and open to possibility.
Photo by Yuki Shiokawa Akase