by Brad Rose

At the age of thirteen. I like this number. I was born on the thirteenth of April.

Dawson Prater somehow gave me an e-mail when he was in Japan some years ago. That day, there was a gig at Off Site, which is a venue in Tokyo and where I had been organizing a series of improv concerts every month. I left a message to the hotel he was staying but he got it late at that night, so he couldn't make it. Later, he said he had tried to find my first solo acoustic guitar album "Relator" in Tokyo but in vain. So I sent it to him and he just seemed to like it fortunately. He sent me a long e-mail about how he liked the album. I was glad to hear that. Sometime after that, I got an offer to participate for the compilation.

I wonder how many people use it on the situation like this. I know John Russell uses it and Derek Bailey used Martin D-18 on "Drop Me Off at 96th". But as long as I remember, no other guys around me have seemed to use it for improvisations up until now around in Tokyo. I started to use it mainly after the "Relator" recording. At that time, I wanted to get a more country-bluesier sound, with using slide bar, etc. It was kind of challenging for me as well. But I thought it came as a good result. So I have used it in the "Meeting at Off Site" series, thinking it fitted to that tiny space of the venue as well. I used to use contact mics and magnetic pickup to amplify it so far. But I kind of quit it now that I play in a large hall. This is more like the attitude of classical musicians. It is good that they don't use a PA system. If necessary, I will put the audience closer to me on the stage. I sometimes play the electric guitar at loud volume, so I don't want that loudness only when I play acoustic. Not sure about how I am appealing as I use it for improv. It is kinda strange that the acoustic guitar is generally so popular as the electric one but not so many guitar improvisers use it.

Maybe people think they can make strange sounds easier with the electric guitar and some stomp boxes. If so, I say it's too easy that way.

The original concept came from my idea that I knew I had to record something for the label and I knew it would have done after the recording. So, from the point of future view, it already pre-existed before the recording just in my head. I kind of believe in this idea, that music pre-exists slightly before it gets realized. It doesn't mean that I trace it. Music pre-exists so that I can hind-exist.

The main concept for the recording session was that I just sat and played for forty five minutes. I just did it and it came as the album. I played ten pieces and dropped two. Actually, there was no secret but only concentration and diffusion of the consciousness on this job.

Maybe there is some. But I kind of try not to play like that. I tend to play more practical, just avoiding looking too mysterious. There might be some kind of easy going way with easy mysticism in the music market. I would respect the music with real spirituality. It is not a thing of purpose but the result of activity.

There were no lows actually even if I had to ride on trains for nine hours a day. I like to travel alone just with my guitar. Sometimes I played it in a train compartment when no one was there.
Well, every organizer was more than great, so nice to go on tour there. Most of the concerts, I played solo, mostly electric boogie sets this time. But I also had a good opportunity to play a group ensemble with great players at a festival in Austria and gigs in Portugal. Another collaboration was with Greg Malcolm, a Kiwi guitarist who has just released a nice vinyl album from Belgian "K-RAA-K" label. We recorded for "Extrapool/Korm Plastics" project joint called "Brombron", in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It will be coming out next spring. We tried some open tuning experiments and also did some Steve Lacy tunes with two acoustic guitars. Personally, it was good to go to Portugal for the first time. Good weather, good coffee, and good people. Another nice experience was that I played an acoustic guitar without any amplification in a big venue, surrounded by a 200 person audience in Glasgow. Just wanna appreciate for people having kept quiet. When you go on tour, you gotta meet so many people who concern it. Here I would like to thank all of them for making it possible.

I think it's Dawson Prater of the Locust. I don' t know if it fits to the album or not. Some of my friends said the face of this "Haniwa" (a burial mound figurine of ancient Japan) looks like me. Not sure myself though. Dawson might have found this image from somewhere. He said he would find a "Haniwa", a Japanese thing. But for me, it seems like it came from somewhere in Central America, like Aztec civilization. I didn't mean any ancient civilizations by the word "Pre-Existence". But I just like it and am okay with it. It might be giving people some other impressions of the music more than I thought it would. I think it is funny enough.

Yes. I will be touring the U.S. and Canada next June. L.A., San Francisco, San Diego, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Montreal and maybe Toronto. Still trying to make it to Texas. I hope to come there. I am probably going to play both an electric and acoustic set.

This word has a wider meaning depending on the context. The closest one to me might be "To live simple, without waste of energy".

Two live CD-Rs are coming. They are more like my official bootlegs. One from a Portuguese label called Esquilo. The other will be out from Utech in Milwaukee. Besides the project with Greg, there will be another release of an acoustic duo with Donald McPherson from New Zealand. This will be out as both CD and vinyl from London' s Bo' Weavil. From that label, "Pre-existence" will be also out as vinyl next May. I would be participating for a guitar compilation which Mike Cooper will release from his own label. A trio live recording at a festival in Wellington, New Zealand in 2004 with Oren Ambarchi and Alan Licht will be coming from Antiopic. Also besides these, I will be starting to make volume 2 of the boogie album. Still other projects with Jeff Gburek and Jozef Van Wissem are waiting.

It would be nice if any readers of this magazine could provide me a good Martin guitar at a reasonable price or just lend it to me for gigs in North America.

Photos by Dean Roberts, Haruka Watanabe, & Jenny Ward