 |
 |
||||||||
"Rock Out!"Rafu Shimpo August 17, 2005 By Michiko Tamura, Rafu Staff Writer For the finale of Nisei Week Festival, a group of young musicians will come together to liven up Little Tokyo. "We are gonna rock it out!" exclaimed Kiyoshi Graves, who will perform at the upcoming Saturday's free concert, Next Generation 2, to be held at JACCC Plaza in Little Tokyo. "Little Tikyo is important as a cultural meeting place. It's an honor to be part of the Nisei Week as a Japanese American, and I think it's a tradition that's important to continue." Including Graves, the live performances starting at 2 p.m. feature a variety of Japanese and Asian American artists including Shift Change, M.A.R., Night Shift, Brooke Taylor, Skyler, Immig and Blue Cypress College Crew. After 8 p.m. the outside stage will transform into a dance club, "Rising Stars G4 DA Dance" featuring live DJs. Tickets for the dance, which continues until 11 p.m., are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Performing in the community is a way of informing Asian American audiences that there are Asian American artists who generate real creative value which the community can embrace, Graves said. "There are so many groups and organizations (in the community), but everybody is sort of off on their own island, doing their own thing. I'm curious what it would take to get people more cohesive," he said. Scott Tang, who is also one of the performers at Saturday's concert, agrees, "There are enough Asians in America if we are actually able to get them to support us. If we get them to plug into artists who are talented, hard working in doing things, that would be enough." While trying to connect with Asian audiences over the years, Graves and Tang have organized several shows in communities by leading other Asian American artists. "We've been lucky enough to work with a lot of other Asian American artists who have the same vision as us," Tang said. "But, sometimes it's challenging...some groups want to be isolated and want to stick with their own group, not really support other Asians." As a pianist singer-songwriter, Tang composes music as a way of self-expression. His sophisticated sound is popular with what be dubbed relatively golder generations-people in their mid 20's to 30's. Produced by Philip Kim, Tang recently released his debut album, "Late Night Drives," which is available at www.scotttang.com. "It's a very solid album. We came up with something that sounds professional, but vry alive, very organic," he said. "We've just been trying to geti it out there for review, and trying to do promotional work for it." Siner-songwriter/guitarist Graves reveals a tattoo of the word "hapa" on his arm as proof of pride in his bicultural identity-having a Nisei mother and French-German mixed father. "I probably made my way into music because I was an Asian American, because there's a certain identity issue that I needed to express, and music was the way that I was able to do that," he said. Working with his band members, guitarist Joel Martin, Ian Dukes on bass and drummer Bill Shupp, Graves is currently in pre-production on his album, "Chase," produced by Evan Frankfort. Work day and night, Graves spends his spare moments on music as he dreams of making a living doing it. "It's a juggling act that I can hopefully give up someday. It's tough, but I do appreciate the fact that working taught me to be strong. I'd rather have done it this way that have it all be easy. Every time when I do music it's a time that's precious to me," he said. "(Music) is what I was meant to do. This is what I'm supposed to do. I've been playing for ten years, and there is no going back now. I just have to embrace it because it'll kill me to try to restart things, so I'll just go as long as I can." © KIYOSHI GRAVES |
|
||||||||
