A new video from Youryokutai Club is out on YouTube! Our first acoustic version of Umigame no Yume! Check it out now:
This video is from our show at musica hall cafe back in April. We’ve released two other videos from this show, so if you missed those be sure to check out the playlist.
Huge News Everybody!! I’ve started a new music project!
Allow me to introduce “Byron Drive”
Byron Drive is a new music project I’ve started with friend and incredible vocalist BD. I’ll be handling the music and track making side of things, while BD provides the haunting vocals. Look forward to some incredible pop, soul, and r&b music.
Our 1st single “Redemption” is now streaming in all the usual places. And is available for download if that’s what you like to do. Click here to see the list!
This past weekend my band Youryokutai Club had an incredible show with local band, and good friends, Lunchbreak. We played an hour set each at musica hall cafe, a great cafe and restaurant that often holds acoustic events and hosts local artists’ work. The perfect venue for an intimate night of music. We weren’t expecting a very large turnout, but we practically sold out the cafe! So a big thank you to everyone who came to the show! It turned out to be a really special night.
We decided to have a little fun with our songs this time around and we brought a guest to help us out, violinist Yutaka Suzuki!
We’ve worked with him before, both as a guest musician at our shows and in the recording studio. He’s featured alongside cellist Brian Grimm on our track To Aru Manatsubi no Soucho (An early mid-summer morning). You can check out the music video for that below.
We also decided to have some fun with our arrangements. Playing with a full band set, a more acoustic style with cajon, and a version with me playing piano instead of drums! I think it definitely worked in the cafe atmosphere, although I was pretty tired from all the instrument changes. I’d love to do a set all on piano sometime…we’ll see.
Our next show hasn’t been announced yet, but we’ve got some big news on the horizon so keep an eye out!
Earlier this month I headed down to Tokyo with sleepy.ab for a show at Shibuya Club Quattro. It was a quick two-day trip for us, so sadly there was no time to do anything around town. But we were playing with local band People In The Box, and we had a little time to talk and relax before and after the show.
We flew in the morning of the show, which was pretty nerve-wracking considering how temperamental winter can be here in Sapporo. But we got lucky and there weren’t any weather related problems so we arrived at the venue just in time for our sound check.
Our set was first for the night, so there was only a little time between the sound check and the actual performance. But we did have enough time to eat a little lunch box the organizer had prepared and laid out for us backstage. Sorry to say I didn’t get a picture of that, but it was delicious. Fried chicken, steamed veggies, rice, a little pot sticker, a mini spring roll. The works.
And then we were ready to play. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a full standing-room-only house completely packed, probably since 2019, and the event was sold out. What a sight to behold.
And then we played.
After our set we headed out to watch People In The Box play. They sounded incredible, but it was hard to see anything from the back of the room. After the show ended we said hello to everyone at the merch table for about 30 minutes. After that we had to go pack up our gear and then we could finally head to the after party! Then a slightly tipsier journey back to our hotels, and, the following morning, back to the airport via a strange bird-themed monorail…
From the airport it’s about a four hour journey back home, again no snow-related delays. The weather gods were smiling upon us this time.
I’m heading back to Tokyo this weekend with sleepy.ab for another show on the 25th! This time in Shinjuku, sharing the stage with “peridots.” So come out and say hello if you’re in the area! Details can be found here:
is this thing on?
We’re back baby!!
I had to move the site to a new host and sadly I lost a bunch of content along the way. But the silver lining is that I get to redesign everything and start fresh!
This is just a little post to let you know why things look so sparse, but it will start to fill out soon.
Contact forms, show info and tickets, newsletter sign-up, and this blog are all live and should be working! And I’m finally able to start blogging again!
Exciting times.
