Pete Kronowitt, excepts from the "Rabbit, Carrot, Button" Tour Blog Japan & China 2009

Prequel to the shows: why I did this crazy tour thing

Friday, October 9, 2009 at 8:45am

Looking back, it took me a year to plan this tour. To be fair, I spent the first 2 months talking myself into this craziness. This is my second sabbatical from Intel. Intel gives all US-based employees two months off to pursue any endeavor including sitting on a couch or building a school or...whatever. Employees are able to tack on vacation to the sabbatical which is approximately three months. Eligibility for a sabbatical occurs at each seventh anniversary. Our sabbaticals are a great benefit, one that probably entices employees to keep working at Intel a bit longer.

I started considering ideas for my sabbatical about a year and a half prior to being eligible. I considered renting an apartment in a major American city and just living easy. Both New York and New Orleans came to mind. But then I started thinking about this crazy idea. After recording two full albums worth of music, I never had performed twice in the same week let alone consecutive nights. I always believed playing my songs night after night would somehow lessen the original inspiration for my music. Touring is repetitive. You play the same songs night after night. In a well practiced tour, every comment and song is rehearsed. I realize not every tour is like that but that was my perception. I was very wrong.

My first CD was recorded while living back in the Washington, DC area. I happened to meet a brilliant producer through a mutual acquaintance. When I met John Alagia, he was recording some of the best acoustic musicians in the DC area out of his basement and charging $35 per hour. I had been writing songs for 10 years and had a couple dozen songs I would play publicly in open mike nights and at benefits. I met Alagia at his rented Virginia home and he showed me his approximately hundred thousand dollars of recording equipment. But what impressed me was his intuition for good music. He was working with all of the people I loved in the DC area. John was also part of an acoustic duo called Derryberry and Alagia, with his partner Doug Derryberry. John and Doug were working on their album ‘Reinvigorating The Wheel’ among other local folks like Kevin Johnson & The Lineman and Jimmy Laundry. Nobody outside of DC has heard of Kevin and Jimmy but they are awesome. So I decided to spend money I didn’t have on a project in which there were no specific goals with the exception of recording my music. I spent approximately 100 hours in the studio working with exceptional musicians and meeting others who would progress in their music careers getting signed by labels and working with major artists. Doug Derryberry toured with Bruce Hornsby. Matt Scannell, who played lead on guitar on Passive Day and Necessary Evils, was part of a duo called Vertical Horizon. There were signed and had a few hits in the mid-90s. I also met another acoustic duo named JackoPierce (Jack O’Neil and Carey Pierce) who was later signed and recorded an album with legendary guitar player and producer T-Bone Burnett. While working with John Alagia, he told me he found a band who was going to be ‘bigger than the Beatles’ and I should check them out. He also told me he was going to record their first album. So, I did check out the Dave Matthews Band and John did end up recording their first live album. John received production credits and the album was completed shortly before the band was signed by a major label. This meant they all made a huge amount of money by having a high quality live recording at the time they were signed. John kept getting production credits on subsequent albums. Since then, John has produced some big albums. Alagia produced John Mayer and Jason Mraz’s big albums. He also produced Ben Folds, and others.

So, back to making my first CD. Generally there are two approaches to record a professional quality album. You can essentially record a live performance of a band and mike each instrument. This method is for well practiced bands. Each musician is then secluded into a separate room and each instrument has its own microphone. The second recording method is what we utilized to record my CD. The base tracks, normally the drums and bass, are recorded first and then every other part of the song is recorded separately including guitar, lead vocals, percussion and other instruments like organs, lead guitar and finally back up vocals. Each of these individual recordings begin as a single track on the song and are later combined. The more instruments and vocals on a song, the more tracks. This is a primary reason it takes 100 hours in a studio to produce a high quality album. John had a great array of available musicians and John scheduled a core group to play on my CD. Once you record each individual instrument, you need to mix parts and volume for each song. for example, the principal vocal track should be prominent, and audibly just in front of the musical instruments, but not overshadowing them. Once the mixing is complete all professionally recorded music is ‘mastered’ which means the volume quality is consistent for all of the songs on one album. In the meantime, you need to create artwork for the CD album and inside portions of the CD and manufacture the CDs.

Then once all this work is done you have a product. In the outset this was just a recording project. I had not viewed my CD as a product. It was blood, sweat, life, love, friendship…but a product? I called the CD “Phases of the Heart”. I threw a CD release party and played a few times after that. I never marketed the Phases CD. I even had an offer to distribute it but didn’t pursue it. I was mentally exhausted, financially drained and never did a thing with the Phases.

This is a long way to say…I didn’t do any marketing or promotion with Phases. I was proud of the work but had a day job in which I worked my butt off. I didn’t regret it. I had other priorities. And I never even wanted to tour playing music. I went through this process a second time with another producer. In 2003 I recorded “Threads” with a producer Pete Snell. After Snell toured with Lyle Lovett as his guitar player he built a good business recording Los Angeles musicians in a small studio about 3 blocks from my house. I didn’t put the same amount of time into the Threads project and let Snell drive a bit more of the creative process. The result was the CD did not represent my vision for the music. Some of it was better than I could’ve dreamed but other cuts were not for me. I did a modicum of promotion and we threw a fantastic CD release party. I hired all of the musicians who played on the CD and played at a big venue. It was one of the best nights I’ve ever had. I had a ball playing my music. I was Barry Manilow for a night. But we only played that one night.

In early 2005 it appeared digital distribution of music was imminent. I revamped my website, re-recorded a few tracks and then re- released my third CD, ‘elements’ at the end of 2005. My idea was to take the fully produced songs on Threads and parse the music back to the sound of an acoustic trio. The idea came from a rough cut of my wedding song, ‘Now It’s We’. When I released the CD I did a small amount of marketing and only played a few times. As a matter of fact, I’ve only played out a few times in the last 5 years. I enjoy playing shows but the preparation requires an enormous amount of effort.

Finally I can talk about my sabbatical. A year and half before my second Intel sabbatical I started thinking about the places I could go. It goes without saying two months without work is a rare opportunity. At first I had to talk myself into doing the tour. I knew I wanted to do this but felt it was crazy, middle aged crisis kind of stuff. What finally convinced me was a simple concept. If I didn’t do it now, I would never tour. I’d never know what it’s like.

I contacted one of the musicians who played on my first CD, John David Coppola. I knew John from college. We lived on the same dorm floor and were in the same fraternity. I had played with John probably 10 times before. For my first sabbatical, John David Coppola came with me to Paris and we played a club, a few cafes and in the metro. Actually I’ve played more with Coppola than any musician. John’s parents are professional classical musicians and essentially brought John into the family business. John went on to play all kinds of music and did an outstanding job creating tasteful, upbeat bass lines for my acoustic songs on Phases. John didn’t hesitate when I asked him to go on the tour; not for a moment. The tour would not happen if not for my friendship with John. This tour John and I have developed a rather amazing musical and personal bond.

I decided I didn’t want to tour Topeka and Wichita, or even Portland and San Jose. I wanted to do something a bit more fun. After a bunch of research, I found a promotions company, Shalestone Music, which caters to foreign artists interested in touring Japan. Shalestone is run by an American named Duane Levi. Duane was exceptionally responsive on e-mail. So, after much correspondence I committed to it. Then we went through the back and forth of securing and then losing gigs. All of the clubs had contract commitments and held between 40 to 60 people. Shalestone also puts on the only bilingual music event in Japan called the Kansai Music Conference. I scheduled my tour to coincide with the conference so I applied and won a spot in a music showcase.

In the meantime, I was working with a few friends to find a location in Beijing. I was fairly far down the path with one friend, Amy Jiang, when she received an offer to work for the United Nations in New York. Amy put in so much work and I learned much about Beijing from her. Then an Intel colleage, Jessy Huan (her Chinese name is Wei Huan) stepped in and found a 1000 person club called the Star Live. We negotiated, signed a contract and submitted lyrics for government approval. In China you apparently need to obtain approval from the Communist Party before being allowed to play. This entails paying a large fee, submitting your translated lyrics and committing not to deviate from an agreed to play list. At least, that’s what we were told by the venue.

Playing a 1000 person club is a bit different then playing for a packed house of 60. I now needed a drummer. Heck, I need a show! So I placed an advertisement on Craigslist. There was a total of 3 music ads on Beijing Craiglist. I was not successful at finding a drummer in other ways so I thought I’d give it a try. A day and a half later, a guy named Elliot contacted me. Apparently Elliot had played in a bunch of bands, just graduated University of Pennsylvania and was going to Japan in mid-August. Oh, and Elliot also speaks Japanese and Chinese fluently. I could not have found Elliot if I had been specifically looking for him. After talking to him on the phone he agreed to tour in Japan and fly to Beijing for the big show. I set up Elliot’s payments so he would receive a larger portion for the Beijing gig so he had something to work toward.

Holy crap. I have a tour.

Then I needed to figure out how to get people to come see some older American guy play his old songs. I listed my shows on Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm, Jambase, Reverb Nation. Next I hired an internet promotion company to send 6,000 MySpace invitations to be my friends and let them know I will be touring Japan. We agreed to target acoustic Japanese bands as fans may appreciate my music. I started out with roughly 300 MySpace friend and now have a total of 2,100 friends. Over 800 of these new friends are located in Japan. I put in quite a bit of time in trying to communicate with people on MySpace. Through MySpace I met talented artists and made a few new real life friends but the number of MySpace friends who came to a turned out to be nominal. One person I met via MySpace, prior to doing promotion, was Tomie Sunaga. More about Tomie in my Cafe Mono gig posting.

Here is a sample of a MySpace friend who accepted my friendship: 【デビッド】 D e a t h accepted your friend request.

View 【デビッド】 D e a t h's profile: http://www.myspace.com/479152443

Send 【デビッド】 D e a t h a message: http://messaging.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=mail.message&friendID=479152443

Let me know how it goes if anyone sends a message. I chose not to engage. I’m just holding off for a bit longer.

As I told more people about my tour I was, and still am, overwhelmed by their encouragement and support. My neighbor Jason Yim and Evelyn Ballesteros sent friends to see shows. Tom Burns is a friend I work with at Intel and his wife Soohaeng Oh attended one of my shows in Tokyo (more about Soohaeng in the Kazefuka gig posting). The world has shrunk so incredibly fast. Immediately before I was to leave for Japan I saw someone walking my neighbor’s dog named Kahn. Kahn had just had an operation so I asked if he was doing ok. It turned out one of the people dog sitting for Kahn, Carol Tan, was living in Beijing. Carol is from Singapore but living in Beijing for the past three months and I met her right outside my house. Another person I met was Zhang Yan, who goes by Shushu. Shushu is a blogger who works for Chinese internet giant Sina.com and had spent a week at Disneyland. Shushu speaks almost no English but I had my new Chinese iPhone app and we had a lovely conversation about why Americans are so fat. And Shushu had evidence by way of numerous pictures of obese Americans.

In one more example of support, my neighbors helped create my tour name and logo. Janet Greenberg drew the cute bunny while Alan Kupchick, Jeff and Catherine Nemeroff helped come up with the concept.

But the most important support, without a doubt, came from my wife. Natalie didn't just allow me, she encouraged me to do this wacky, crazy thing and I am forever grateful.

I learned it is possible to find new friends in the virtual world using social media but nothing replaces meeting someone in person or a friend recommending that they check you out. And nothing prepared me for the support I received by friends in China (see the Star Live posting; to be posted soon).

Tour logo by Janet Greenberg Tour name: Alan Kupchick, Jeff and Catherine Nemeroff

First Night, and photos from Pete's solo performance Show 2, September 17: Live Bar Kids.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 7:04pm

... John David Coppola flew into Osaka on Friday night so Elliot and I took the JR train to pick him up at the airport. After getting in we went to the Kansai Music Conference kickoff party at a different Sam & Dave’s location. Apparently there are three locations. The band which was playing when we walked was at the end of their set and the next band was Semi-On, a mix of high energy folk and gypsy songs with violin, electric guitar, drums a very attractive lead singer and great bass player. They did a raucous, fun version of ‘Drunken Sailor’. After their set we met and chatted with a few of the band members. Apparently they are from all over the world. Semi-On met and is currently living in Nagao. Then a 7 piece band with three singers went on the stage. They played an almost interesting 70s style soul minus much of the soul. They needed one lead singer to get their set moving but the players were good.

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: the wall and view from the stage Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: Elliot walking into the club

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: Elliot during the sound check

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: Hiro and Sola

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: This is Dale Campbell. First you need to go to his MySpace site and listen to his cover of Billie Jean (Michael Jackson). http://www.myspace.com/dalecampbell

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: Now, check out Dale's YouTube so you can see him play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swG9g8LnaDM Amazing. Dale played second on the bill.

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: the spotlight actually works for me

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: longview

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: definitely an uuuuh sound Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: for a tiny club they had an amazing light system

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: yeah, closeup

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: the Master (club owner), Shin Norio

Live Bar Kids in Toyonaka: Elliott and Hitomi on the train

Show 3, September 19: Alfredo’s English School

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 7:16pm

Mamico, our tour manager and interpreter accompanied John and I to play a few songs for an English school. The students meet once a month to practice their English at a dinner party at the top of a building. The purpose of us playing was to promote the conference and our showcase the following evening. We hung out with the students, had dinner with them and talked for about 90 minutes. Then we played Passive Day, Now It’s We and Pickin’ Up the Pieces for a very receptive audience. There were about 25 students and two Western teachers, from Bristol, England and San Diego. It was a pleasant evening and very mellow. None of that staying up till 5am that all of those other tour musicians do....

Earlier in the day, John, Elliot and I sat at a very small park and practiced the set for the first time. We were out there since we couldn’t get time in the rehearsal studio. The practice went well and we were able to work out a few rough spots but we still needed to be plugged in to hear the sound. Tomorrow we would get our chance.

On Sunday we went to the Cat’s Walk Studio which was just 4 blocks away from the Sunny Stone Hotel. After 30 minutes of setting up we had a solid 90 minutes of practice.

we seem to be temporarily lost looking for the English School . *compliments of John David Coppola Just after John Copola arrived in Osaka, we were off to play for a an English School to promote the shows.

John felt a bit naked without his bass but did some great harmonizing.

The whole group at the English School *compliments of John David Coppola

walking out of rehearsal *compliments of John David Coppola

Show 4, September 20: Blue Monk

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 6:10am

As part of the Kansai Music Conference, I was selected to play a showcase at the Blue Monk. There were approximately 60 artists performing in showcases throughout the conference. I won the performance slot out of group of 7 acoustic players. That alone was kind of fun.

The Blue Monk’s sign out front: Jazz.Live.Curry. The club is named after Thelonius Monk and, like many of these Osaka venues is tiny. The master of the club is a thin wiry fellow who sported a fedora and horned rim glasses. His wife, Keiko, tended bar. They seemed to be fairly serious throughout the evening.

Luis Hannibal opened with a solo acoustic set singing mostly in English but also had a cover song in Spanish and an original in Japanese. Most of the audience of roughly 20 people was there to see Luis. He reminded me of a Puerto Rican Mark Wahlberg with the same shaped face and wide smile. He used fairly intellectual lyrics for his English songs but exploded with emotion when singing in Spanish and Japanese. A good solid set.

The second act, Kouta Matsudaira, was caught in traffic and late. Kouta finally appeared during the end of Luis’ set to a big round of applause. He was a sight. First off, he is tiny. He had a full dark leather coat, his dark hair overflowed beneath his beret with a small brim in the front, a touch of a goatee, large thick round glasses and bright yellow shorts with suspenders. His guitar was stunning, an old blues guitar with beautiful metal work. Then he opens his mouth and squeaks of words comes out in a high pitched, mousy voice. With John’s help, Kouta removed his leather coat and had a colorful checkered shirt and odd suspender shorts which was previously hidden by his jacket. My thought, either Kouta was going to be a complete farcical experience or moderately amusing. I was wrong. Kouta played amazing rhythm and lead in a 40s blues style with updated melodies. The highlight was a memorable English chorus for his third number: “My life like bug. I’m so happy, My life like bug. I’m so sad”. Kouta barely spoke English but repeatedly said he loves music and it showed. It’s hard to convey how memorable Kouta’s look, his playing and this song were. Really a great set.

And, this is a performer’s worst nightmare: following an amazing and memorable performance. I was actually a bit nervous.

Surprise, surprise, the Blue Monk is a small venue and has an even small stage with no drum kit. No drum kit means Elliot had one snare drum, one symbol and a few tambourine thingys on the floor. This was the first time we played together in front of a crowd. At Elliot’s suggestion we started with a slow number, Without You. I like the idea because it was so different. I started out even slower then normal and hammed it up a bit. Then, the bass and percussion starts with the chorus and it successfully transitioned to people being into my set. What a friggin’ cool feeling. We followed with our standard playlist. Haunted Heart was received very well. The reason why Haunted Heart works so well is the beginning is full of clear breaks and makes the band look tight. People actually gave the woohoo at the end. Then, the vocals on Like A Glove sounded very good in the room. At least it sounded that way from the stage. Like A Glove also has great breaks in the chorus and is upbeat to keep things going. Then just as I started Passive Day …it happened again. I broke a sting! I was flustered in the least without Dale Campbell (my roadie) to fix the string. Elliot and John told me to play through and I did and it went ok. No one offered me their guitar and it was the first time I changed a string on a stage…in I don’t know how long. I was actually excited to change the string… Then we played the Ballad of Pete & Heather after introducing the song. I believe Ballad was a highlight of the set. Then changing the pace, John and I played together on Follow the Leader. It was so great playing with John. I was able to have more freedom to hold off on lyrics and change the pacing a bit to stress portions of the song. We followed up with Drink and then 1 Can’t Love 42. But Now It’s We was likely the best song of the set. I had a strong performance and the song received the loudest applause. Then we played Inventor of Love and Pickin’ Up The Pieces. Our last song was She Gives which we had practiced for the first time earlier that day. The show had some rough spots but it was a great feeling. The pacing of the songs was great. The trio really felt good. This is what I wanted to experience. It was an unbelievably amazing sensation.

After the set John and I used the free wireless to access Skype and call home. My MySpace friend, Hitomi, had come to this show mostly to see Elliott but it was good to have a fan there. I started talking to the proprietors and we ended up talking about dogs (of course). I showed the Keiko and the master about two dozen pictures of Walden and with each one they would both gasp with joy. It was so nice to see these serious people light up.

The master made a recommendation for a sushi place about 1 KM away and we decided to walk. At the end of the street there was a collection of police and then we saw Duane standing there. Apparently Duane had hit a girl on her bike with his bicycle. The girl had injured her ankle and the ambulance was just leaving the scene as we walked up. But, the girl was likely fine as she was able to stand on her own.

We finally made it to the sushi restaurant and had these huge slabs of Hamachi, Maguro, Toro and Unagi (yes, I know we should not have Unagi due to it’s farm raised but only after being captured in the wild)! Sitting a few seats from us was this Japanese fellow had fallen asleep at the sushi bar and his head was tilting his glass. John and I both rushed to take the picture but he moved before we could snap it. As we left an American woman came in with a Japanese guy. She spoke Japanese fluently was a character having brightly bleached blond hair and wearing a fedora. To vastly understate it was a great night.

John David Coppola completed the trio during my third show in Osaka. We played a showcase in at the Blue Monk for the Kansai Music Conference. Blue Monk in Osaka: Trying to stay away from love songs, Hanibal Luis sang in English, Spanish and Japanese. Then broke down at the end of his set with a new song.

Blue Monk in Osaka: one day you will all hear Kouta Matsudaira. Till then this picture will need to suffice. He is the Japanese equivalent to Tiny Tim except that he is amazing guitar player and has more than one catchy song. It's not a fair comparison because he is just amazing to watch.

His debut CD should be complete by the end of the year.

Blue Monk in Osaka: I couldn't resist posting one more picture of Kouta Matsudaira. *compliments of John David Coppola

Blue Monk in Osaka: Kouta Matsudaira, me and someone who wanted their picture taken. Did I mention I love Japan? *compliments of John David Coppola

Blue Monk in Osaka: My camera battery died so this is the only picture I have of the Blue Monk gig. But we have audio! It was a fun show. The three of us really came together.

Blue Monk in Osaka: the mod squad Julie, Link, and Pete

...or Elliot, Hitomi, Pete and John

Show 5, September 23: Kazefuka in Tokyo

Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 12:15am

This was truly an amazing night. All of the performers were exceptional and our set was the best of the tour. Another thing was becoming apparent. It seems there is some magic ingredient within Japanese culture to produce large numbers of high caliber musicians.

There were a total of four acts at Kaefuka and each had their unique genre and feel. We had played together with Dale Campbell and Hiro & Sola at the Live Bar Kids show earlier in the week which led to a great night of music, and fun. The familiarity created more of a friendly atmosphere for everyone in the club. A big curly wig was passed around to several of us before the show. We all were familiar with each other’s music but also had spent time outside of the show attending other venues or having meals. A new MySpace friend, Otogen, came to the show from Kamakura which is an hour plus train ride. Otogen is also a musician and has some very nice instrumental music. (http://www.myspace.com/otogenmyspace)

Before getting on stage I received a very large plastic cupie doll as a gift from Soohaeng Oh. Soohaeng is married to Tom Burns, a good friend of mine at Intel. We came up with the clever name ‘strange baby’, placed it in front of the stage and were simultaneously amused and creeped out by it. Later I shut the doll in my hotel closet and then carted it with my barely manageable luggage back to Osaka. It did allow us to get more than our unfair share of Japanese people staring at us.

The first up to play was a solo acoustic act named Hamaken .Hamaken is a cross between Roy Orbison, Elvis and Jim Morrison, and throw in a booming voice which rattles the glasses on the bar. Hamaken has some cool songs, wicked guitar leads and a commanding stage presence. I’ll throw another name out there but my friends may disagree. He could be a Jerry Lee Lewis (sans legal issues and piano). He did shake, rattle and roll the place. (more about Hamakan’s band later).

Our little trio played after Hamaken. This was, by far, the best set we played. We were tighter as a band and held our own with the other great musicians on the bill. This was the reason I wanted to go on tour, to feel this. Now It's We was likely the highlight. The brush drums were similar to the recording and it seemed throughout the tour this song resonated partly due to the way the lyrics are easily understood. At the time, any minor issues were overlooked because we all were excited after the set ended.

Next on the stage was Dale. Dale had a similar performance to Live Bar Kids. In other words: awesome. Dale has a great stage presence and wonderful music. If you didn’t listen to his stuff with my last post, you need to go now and check him out. You can find tutorials from Dale's percussive style on YouTube. You should be able to find it easily by searching videos using 'Dale Campbell'

Sola and Hiro played the headline slot. Sola sings and plays violin. She has a lovely voice. Hiro is exacting with his guitar skills. Together they are wonderful. Numerous musicians told me how Hiro helps foreigners play in Japan.

Music and Japanese Culture At first I believe there must be something in Japan’s water which creates such fantastic musicians. I hear almost every Japanese child learns to play a musical instrument, When you walk around the metro or the street musical instruments are being carried - everywhere. There are many, many small clubs with expensive sound systems and reasonable attendance. Here is something novell, the audience actually listens to the music and pay high prices to see the shows in these small clubs. Another interesting fact is the Japanese music industry has the only vibrant business model in the world. I’ve heard estimates in the next two years Japan will surpass the United States in digital downloads.

Like all artists, each of the performers we saw builds upon musical references in global popular culture. But there is something else happening with the level of artistic interpretation which makes the music fresh and new. This was evident with Kouta Matsudaira from the Blue Monk gig to Hiro & Sola and Hamaken. Wait till you hear about Tomie Sunaga (upcoming post for the Club Mono gig).

The funniest thing which happened this night resulted from a series of seemingly unrelated discussions with a flight attendant. Apparently Elliot had started talking to this woman who is a flight attendant for ANA (All Nippon Airways). It appeared he was hitting on her but I doubt he would own up to it. Then Dale offered Elliot a drink. Dale also offered a drink to the flight attendant as well. Unknown to all of us, apparently the flight attendant was having some argument with the guy who brought her to the club. So that is when I stumbled into it. I had not seen any of this. I talked to her for 5 minutes and then she asked me to play a bit more guitar so John and I eventually wound up back on stage with a female violin player. We were actually kinda jamming to some of my songs (this never ever ever happened before; not just on this tour. I never jammed to my own songs). We did well for the first few songs which were not normally included in our set, We should have ended with a successful version of Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl. But I insisted on playing Country Roads. It was kinda deflating when I failed to figure out the song but C'est la vie. After we were done playing, I went back to where I had been sitting all night and talked to the ANA attendant again. This is when the funny thing occurred. It was late and getting near the last trains for the evening. She asked me if I wanted to stay. I was certain she meant ‘stay’ at the bar but when I answered ‘yes’ she jumped out her chair, ran out of the bar and started asking my friends what she should do. Yep, apparently she thought I was hitting on her. All she asked me was, ‘do you want to stay?’ We all left fairly immediately after this and laughed about it during the train ride back and for several days after. Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: This wig was passed around to a bunch of people before the show. There seems to be some pictures of me floating around out there with it on.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: with strange baby (*who is still with me back in Osaka) yes, we are getting more people staring at us.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: Hamaken is a cross between Roy Orbison, Elvis and Jim Morrison and throw a booming voice which rattles the glasses on the bar.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: the rocking trio...

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: from outside the club

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: more evidence we played...This was the best set we played. We all were excited after the show.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: the incredible....John David Coppola (and Elltiot's head. Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: This is Soohaeng Oh who was great enough to come to the show. Soohaeng is married to my mentor and one of my best friends at Intel, Tom Burns. Soohaeng was also nice enough to give me STRANGE BABY!

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: Dale put on another great show.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: You can find tutorials from Dale's percussive style on YouTube. You should be able to find it easily by searching videos using 'Dale Campbell'

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: Sola and her great pipes

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: Sola (left) and Hiro (right). Sola also plays violin and has such a lovely voice. Hiro is exacting with his guitar skills. Together they are wonderful. Hiro is also one of the great local artists who helps foreigners play in Japan.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: Hiro on stage.

Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: after we finished playing we actually kinda jammed to some of my songs. A girl who played a mean violin did a great job following along. Kazefuka gig in Tokyo: great parting shot

Show 6, September 24: The Café Mono fiasco in Tokyo

Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 3:36pm

Before Café Mono opened there was a line to get in the show but not for me. The line was there for the headlining act, a boy band duo named Little Turtles. By time the show started the club was standing room only. This was the only show where I had friends, co- workers and new MySpace fans show up. Evelyn Ballesteros had invited a few friends…which was so amazingly cool.

Even for Japanese small bars, Café Mono has an incredibly expensive lighting system. Mono has a small, elegant white interior lined with vertical strips of polished wood. When we arrived, the club had small tables but were removed and replaced with chairs arranged in rows to accommodate more people.

Tomie Sunaga played first. Tomie and I met via MySpace. After exchanging some mail, Tomie invited me to play a gig with her. Tomie has a beautifully sweet voice, is wonderful with melodies and a great guitarist to boot. Her crystal clear voice and pop sensibility was unmatched by others we met. She has a great acoustic Japanese pop song about how love grows larger similar to the cherry blossom in bloom. The song is called April. Do yourself a favor and check out the song. http://www.myspace.com/tomiesunaga

A painter and videographer felt compelled enough about her April song to create a very clever video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g02RbEpAaTo

We were second on the bill following Tomie but things went terribly awry during our set. Elliot had been employing some free interpretation of my songs in past gigs but this performance made me reevaluate things. At Café Mono Elliot’s symbol was right next to me and every time he hit the symbol it was incredibly distracting. The set started with Without You. I normally begin the song slowly with guitar and vocals carrying the tune with the lower portion of my vocal range. Then at the first chorus the drums and bass begin a bossa nova groove. I felt we had this song down and it did go well. But our second song, Passive Day, was another story. We should have played this well but Elliot started playing much more than a simple 2:4 beat. John and I kept the song together but more than the symbol the overall drumming was terribly distracting. I bet it was distracting for the audience as well. By the third song, Haunted Heart, it was obvious things were not going to go well. Haunted Heart should have been the strongest song of the set. It normally begins with drums, bass and guitar hitting the same beat followed by a series of pauses which, I believe, help the song stand out. From the second beat there was a miss and, as the song progressed, Elliot started getting more creative during the song. He was playing the drums loudly and doing complex arrangements which we had not practiced. By our fourth song Like A Glove, I started to feel uncomfortable as the club and lights were hot but it was the issues with the drums which were causing me the most discomfort. Elliot had starting playing bass drum parts and rolls not consistent with the song. He wasn't completely out of time with the song but it was all new and that symbol right next to me was driving me crazy. I’m not a jam player. I hired Elliot to play my songs and provided him all of the recordings. This was a becoming an new artistic expression for him. At one point during the fourth verse of Like A Glove I stopped playing guitar to indicate things should get quieter but Elliot didn’t notice. During a performance visual cues are as important as audio. Later, Elliot told me his eyes were closed for most of the set. He was busy being creative. It didn’t end there. On the Ballad of Pete & Heather Elliot was also playing stuff that was not appropriate.

We did have a few good songs in the show. The song Drink went well and one clear highlight was Follow The Leader where John and I played together with no percussion, of course. An exceptional highlight was Tomie joined us on stage to sing background vocals on 1 Can’t Love 4 2. This song uses brush drums and we did come together.

Since John had recorded the show with a digital audio recorder I was able to listen to this and past shows and be a bit more objective. I listened carefully to the Kazefuka show and heard issues I had not remembered. Kazefuka was a better performance than Club Mono but, essentially, the percussion was far too complex for the songs. I was surprised at how well I held it together. I had thought the show had been worse. I remember looking out at the audience and seeing many of the audience watching Elliot. I was embarrassed.

Though I wasn’t happy, this is the touring experience I had expected. I fully knew and, in truth, desired to have rough patches. This tour was not just about playing music but about the experience of playing music on the road with all of the good, bad and ugly. I am certainly was getting my fill. I don’t want to overstate the negative because I was having an amazing time. After the show the bar owner serves Japanese cake and a few beers to the players as his own tradition. It was a nice touch and allowed the players to have some time to talk. Then John, Elliot and I had a post gig dinner with Kaz (Kubo Kazuhiro) who is a musician who also has some rockin’ JPop music: http://redpop.jp/. His CD ‘rainbowing’ is quite good and worth a listen. I bought the dinner. We had missed a train earlier in the week which meant we needed to take a taxi which cost us an extra $15 US and it was getting late. I had mentioned several times we probably should get going but Elliot insisted the trains would be running. When the trains stopped this time, the taxi cost me another $38 US. Add insult to injury, then sprinkle wasted money and I become a bit bitter.

I spent several days listening to the recordings John had made of the shows. There were some bright spots but there were many times when Elliot was experimenting during the gig. I spent a year planning and thousands of dollars on this tour. In a few weeks I go back to my job. This is a one time thing for me. I called Elliot and, in a 45 minute discussion, I let him know he would not be playing the last gig.

Now we had to find a drummer in Beijing.

Cafe Mono gig (of course): has an incredibly expensive lighting system. It's a small space. When we arrived the club had small tables but they removed them and arranged chairs in rows to accommodate more people.

Cafe Mono gig: Tomie Sunaga played first. Tomie and I met via MySpace. After exchanging some mail, Tomie invited me to play a gig with her.

Cafe Mono gig: Tomie has a beautifully sweet voice, is wonderful with melodies and is a great guitarist.

Cafe Mono gig: the talented Tomie Sunaga

Cafe Mono gig: Check out Tomie great music at http://www.myspace.com/tomiesunaga

One artist (painter and videographer) felt compelled enough to create a video for her song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g02RbEpAaTo

She has a great acoustic Japanese pop song about how love grows larger similar to the cherry blossom in bloom. The song is called April. Do yourself a favor and check out the song. Cafe Mono gig: This is the first gig where Elliot was next to me which meant the symbol was right next to me. We started the set by playing Without You. The song starts our slow and allows me to draw the audience in. I felt we had this song down. Our second song was Passive Day. Another song which we had down.

Cafe Mono gig: the third song, Haunted Heart, should have been the strongest but the beginning of the song was not together. Then Elliot started getting creative during the song. He was playing the drums loudly and doing complex arrangements which we had not practiced.

Cafe Mono gig: By our third song I became more concerned. Elliot had starting playing bass drum parts and rolls not consistent with the song. In drummer speak, he was not hitting the 2/4 beats. He wasn't out of time on the song but he symbol was also right next to me and distracting. At one point I stopped playing guitar to indicate things should get quieter. It was also hot in the room. Very hot. When you combine hot with uncomfortable bad things happen. Later Elliott told me he felt more comfortable because the Kazefuka show went well and was being creative.

Cafe Mono gig:

It's vital for band members to have visual and audio cues. I have dozens of pictures from the gigs and Elliot is not looking at me or John. He even told me he had his eyes closed through most of the gig because he was enjoying it so much.

Cafe Mono gig: one highlight of the show was Follow The Leader. John and I played together with no percussion. of course.

Cafe Mono gig: Then on the Ballad of Pete & Heather and Drink, Elliot started playing stuff that was not practiced.

John had recorded the show with a digital audio recorder. I was surprised at how I held it together. I had thought the show had been worse.

Cafe Mono gig: one exceptional highlight of the show was Tomie joining us on stage to sing back up on 1 Can’t Love 4 2. Cafe Mono gig: but this is what I signed for in doing a tour. This is part of the experience I wanted. The good and the not so pleasant. This tour is not just about playing music but about the experience. I am certainly getting my fill. And, I'm having an amazing time. I wouldn't have done it any differently.

Thanks to Evelyn Ballesteros for inviting her friend Mayuko Kataoka. And thanks for forwarding the pictures!

Cafe Mono gig

Cafe Mono gig: the imitable and awesome Mamico, our tour manager, took great care of us during our time in Japan.

Cafe Mono gig: Mamico did the "Don't take my picture dance". I have twenty pictures like this :)

Cafe Mono gig: after the show we had Japanese cake and a few beers at the club.

Cafe Mono gig: post gig dinner with Kaz (Kubo Kazuhiro) who is a JPop musician and has some great music: http://redpop.jp/

Show 7 & 8, Beijing – Star Live and other happenings

Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 9:57am

Fast forward to the end of my time in Beijing: As I checked out of the Hotel G, I told the woman at the reception desk “I will miss Beijing.” By the time I was in the taxi with all the belongings I could carry, I was enveloped by sadness. The fantasy tour had become a reality, with all of the deep and rich experiences I had dreamed about. But, it was all over in a flash. In three weeks I had traveled with longtime friend John, made new friends across two countries and seen familiar faces who provided me incredible encouragement and support.

But, now back to my arrival at Beijing. The first thing I had to do was find the replacement for Elliot(our drummer in Japan). Before I began the sabbatical, I had asked a few drummers for contacts in Beijing. Back in California I had met a drummer named Darius Minaee at a small outdoor festival. Through the magic of Facebook, Darius had introduced me to a Beijing-based drummer, Jimmy Biala. Unfortunately, Jimmy couldn’t play the Star Live date and instead recommended a few other drummers. One of those was Zac Courtney. Zac is an Australian who’s been living in Beijing for the last 2.5 years, though he had been coming to Beijing for about a decade. Before practicing, we first met Zac for a few drinks and got to know one another. My bass player, and friend since college, John David Coppola had once told me I would know within the first 30 seconds if a drummer would work. When John and I finally had that first practice session with Zac, it took me 25 seconds to know. We later heard him playing Jazz and realized just how awesome a drummer he was. Zac is also quite multidimensional. We discovered that Zac and his wife Sofie have a penchant for high quality tea and a keen eye for the intricacies of Beijing culture. At our practice session with Zac, John and I received an intro course on tea with a tasting. The tea was good enough I was actually tempted to develop my palate. And on that note, though I never been a drumming enthusiast or thought I’d utter these words about any drummer – if Zac is playing, go check out the band for the drumming alone. I promise it will be worthwhile.

Hotel G Having secured the drummer, John and I had the luxury to enjoy our accommodations. And literally, we were blown away by the rooms at the Hotel G; it was spacious, a great location for clubs and centrally located, but most importantly, the people and service were outstanding. Our rooms were on the same floor at the hotel business center. Normally the business center is not something to write home about, but a funny thing happened there. After we used the center for some internet access, I started playing a song with my guitar, for the two girls who ran the center. Then, an older woman joined us and John and I played another song for her. Turned out she was the general manager’s mom. She called her son Alex, the Hotel G’s general manager, and we played another song for him. Then Alex called the PR and hotel managers and it turned into a spontaneous concert.

Coincidently, as a result of events and celebrations around the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party, the jazz band scheduled to play the following night couldn't get their equipment to the hotel due to road closures. So, Alex asked us to play instead. Alex is a good natured, tall guy from the Brittany region in France, who seemed always to be visible in the hotel. The Hotel G staff coordinated a gathering for the French ex-Pat community living in Beijing and while we did play, there was no equipment, which meant no amplification, no microphone and no sound for the guitar. Add a loud audience and essentially, we were ignored. A couple stood directly in front of us, so John and I spontaneously made up new lyrics suggesting the couple move from blocking us. Ahhh, the French. Ironically, as we performed the bar’s flat screen TV played the “Invisible Man” -- a perfect match for the Invisible Band we had become. All that said it was fun. And yes, we played for drinks and food. It turns the hamburgers we ate, were possibly the best in Beijing.

Show 8: The long awaited Star Live show The tour’s culminating show was set up by a great friend and colleague from Intel, Jessy Huan. Jessy put untold hours into contacting the venue and coordinating the many changes, which subsequently ensued. I owe her a debt of gratitude. Without Jessy, the Star Live show wouldn’t have become a reality.

We had our sound check at 7pm sharp and practiced a few songs, including one for a guest vocal performance by Intel colleague Edward Wen. The Star Live show itself, had a bit of a late start due dinner running long. We had gone to an ex-Pat restaurant in Hu Tong (an up-and-coming area of Beijing where older, smaller buildings have been renovated into upscale restaurants and clubs)..Earlier Jessy had stressed we needed to start by 9pm, but Zac was totally relaxed and exhibiting that rock-n-roll-we-start- when- we-start ‘tude. Frankly, I was fairly relaxed too.

When I returned for the Star Live show, there were a few 6 six packs of warm beers, (really warm) waiting in the dressing room. The Star Live itself is a large venue and had been set up with tables, with a few stools around each. The floor was filled with people. There’s also a second floor, which is used for VIP seating. Just before the show, when I tried to find Jessy, the bouncer wouldn't let me into this area. Yeah, stardom isn’t what I expected.

John and Zac arrived just a few minutes after me and quickly found the table full of warm Chinese beer. By 9:25 pm we had taken the stage. Jessy provided a rather rich and long introduction to everyone in the band. It was very nice to have background info shared, but though I couldn’t understand the specific words, it sounded more like an intro for business meeting than a concert. Maybe this is the Chinese way?

Once the intros were done, we kicked the show off with the following set list: 1. Passive Day 2. Like A Glove 3. Now It’s We 4. Haunted Heart 5. Without You 6. Ballad Of Pete & Heather 7. Follow the Leader 8. Drink 9. 1 Can’t Love Enough 4-2 10. Necessary Evils 11. Inventor of Love 12. The Cure Is The Key 13. Go Wild-n-Passionate Thru Life 14. Pickin’ Up The Pieces 15. Encore: She Gives One highlight was Edward Wen’s guest singer performance. The original plan was for me to sing the first verse and chorus. Then Edward would sing the second verse in English and a second chorus in Chinese. Next I would repeat the second verse, and together, we would sing the final chorus. It was really cool to have ‘Without You’. In Chinese ‘Without You’ also has three syllables, pronounced ‘may yo knee’. But, when we were ready to sing ‘Without You’ Edward didn’t appear on stage as planned. When I asked where he was, his voice came over the loud speaker. So we ended up singing the song with Edward’s disembodied voice from where he stood on the balcony. Despite that, it went over well with the audience.

The last song of the set was ‘Pickin’ Up the Pieces’ and we had worked in a noticeable musical break to include a line about China:

“Well, my heart lies all the way from home to DC Some people are surprised to find that parts of my heart still lie in …the PRC”.

While there were a few minor, rough spots, we played a great show and people were incredibly encouraging after the concert. My decision to use an alternate drummer turned out to be the right one. Before I walked off stage, I received a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers from Shushu, the blogger from Sina.com (see Prequel entry). Then everybody posed in every configuration possible for the obligatory post-performance photos. Finally, we had a post-show get together at the Hotel G bar.

Here’s a link to video of from the Star Live’s ‘One Can’t Love Enough 4 2’ on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAbXuKri-4

My flight out of Beijing was scheduled to leave at 8:45 in the morning, which meant a 5:30 am wakeup time and only about 40 minutes of sleep.

In the wee hours after the bar closed, John and I had hung out till about 5 am. We ended up walking to a 7-11. John bought some peanuts and a spicy instant noodle, which turned out to be awful, while I got an ice cream bar and dried mango. We were both squeezing the last drops out of the trip with this Chinese ‘junk food’ binge.

Beijing had been nothing short of amazing. My great friends supported me beyond anything I had asked or expected. So many new friends grew out of the ties strengthened with people I had previously called acquaintances. We saw great sights, ate incredible food, shopped and bargained, wandered everywhere, drank lots of Chinese beer and lived the life of touring musicians. We even became minor celebrities -- at least in the hotel. It felt odd whenever John introduced us as musicians but it was great to have a new way to see myself. After a year of planning, 3 produced CDs, so many incredible experiences, the touring portion of my sabbatical had ended.

Now, time for Vietnam….and I’m taking so many good memories with me, but I will always feel that parts of me will now always be in Beijing. ~Pete

Star Live - the signature pic a fantastic night at the Star Live

Star Live - the incomparable Zac Courtney on drums

the band at the Star Live

Star Live - the incredible John David Coppola

singing 1 Can't Love Enough 4 2

we filled the floor of the Star Live

Star Live - John and me. Zac in the back.

Star Live - another view of the crowd

Star Live - John Star Live

Star Live - I received a huge bouquet of flowers. On my left is Jessy Huan who put the show together. (THANK YOU JESSY) and to my right is Liwei who brought friends to help sell CDs and shirts (and THANK YOI Liwei)

the band post Star Live show

Star Live - this show would not have occurred without Jessy Huan. Thank you so much Jessy. I can't express how much this night meant to me.

Star Live - Edward Wen, contemplating his great solo performance on Without You. Edward sang a verse and then sang a translated Chinese version of the chorus. But Edward was a ghost as he sang it from the balcony!

Star Live - Zac Courtney and his lovely wife Sofia

Star Live - The manager of the Hotel G, Alex, and friend Clara show off their new Rabbit Carrot Button tour shirts.