“Yea, yea, complain all you want. I can procrastinate as much as i want here, it is my blog after all.” - Anonymous
Once upon a time, in a land far far away, lived a young man with a passion for drums. Of course his drums were in another land, far away from the land in which he lived but likely closer to the reader of the article. And so the lengthy story begins..
Jamming - I love it, and have missed it dearly in the first few months in Japan. I even bought a guitar to try to ease the pain.. but with no avail. For those of you who don’t know me that well, I have been playing drums on-and-off for about 7 years, the last 4 of which have been pretty intensive. In Canada I played in a band.. but it broke apart as I left for Japan, leaving my heart in the same state - broken. For the first few months I soothed some of my drum cravings by going to music stores and playing on an electronic drumkits on display for about an hour (got kicked out twice). Of course this didn’t compare to playing in a band where the music actually had energy people playing the instruments. Something had to be done.
The local music scene in this country revolves around these places called practise studios. They’ve got all you need for a jam - amps, microphones, and a well kept drumkit with a standard setup, all at an average cost of $7 CAD/hour per person. I decided to wander around these studios and collect some drummer-wanted posters in hopes of a jam. After, I asked the people hanging around the joints about where other nearby studios are, and before you know it i wandered into about 4 studios in one night. I emailed some bands with my information, interests, and previous experiences. I waited. Soon enough 5 people replied and i scheduled jam-dates with all of them.
During a good jam-session music definitly overcame the communication barrier that i had with many of the guys. I got to play Funk, Punk, Pop, and Rock with the bands which was definitly sweet. Eventually i decided to team up with a band called SilverVein for more of a long-term gig - they were the most organized of the bunch. It’s hard to give a clear definition of the style.. but its something around “hard rock”.
We’ve been together for about 6 months now. The band’s name has been changed to Igrushka (russian: toy) We’ve played a total of 5 shows so far and have a few more booked for the first months of 2008. Our live performances have been getting more nad more energetic (even with some double kick drum thrown in) so if anyone has the opportunity i’d love for you to come to a show. We also plan on recording a few songs in the early months of this year, so check back for updates if you are interested.
The guys in the band are great, and we have become good friends. They are by far my closest set of Japanese friends - with whom i get to practise speaking. The very sad part about the story is that i plan on leaving the country in several months, and that means the band’s gotta find a new drummer. All good things must come to an end, i guess. I will enjoy it while i can.