Interview: Mike Penny talks shamisen, taiko, viral videos, and the Kubo movie

I recently had a fun conversation with Mike Penny, a fantastic shamisen player based in Los Angeles. I was introduced to Mike by our mutual friend and colleague Kyle Abbott of Bachido, and when I started to check out his online lessons, youtube videos, and eclectic array of music, I became more and more intrigued to talk with him. One of the reasons I can relate to Mike’s approach to music is his ability to incorporate a diverse mix of influences, from European classical music to odd-meter Balkan music to Frank Zappa to the traditional style of Tsugaru shamisen. In the interview, we talk about how Mike got into shamisen as well as his involvement with Bachido, playing with taiko players, creating his many viral videos, and the controversy surrounding the new movie Kubo and the Two Strings. He sent me some of his music and I have included them in the recording. The titles in the order you will hear them are: Sou Da Ne, Leavin’ Fo’evah, It’s a Good Day, and Gan Barou.

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About Mike
Mike Penny has received several awards for his innovative performances and compositions using the Tsugaru Shamisen. In 2007, he received the Japan Foundation’s Uchida Fellowship which allowed him to study with one of Tokyo’s most highly respected Tsugaru shamisen instructors, Toyoaki Fukushi. Mike has given hundreds of public performances and continues to perform regularly as both a solo artist and in various ensembles. He has become well known through his many viral video performances on YouTube, and has gained a following for his unprecedented style of shamisen playing which combines traditional and extended techniques in a variety of musical contexts including jazz, Balkan folk, Western classical, and popular music in a fusion of both east and west, past and future. In addition to performing and teaching private shamisen lessons in his hometown of Los Angeles, Mike is also heavily involved with Bachido.com, the online international Tsugaru shamisen community which holds semi-annual international shamisen camps around the world at which Mike participates as an instructor.

With Mike Penny in Hollywood, July 2016

Mike's YouTube channel

Mike's Bandcamp page

Mike Penny Orchestra Facebook page

Bachido

My most important bachi & sticks for taiko

My most important taiko sticks

I am constantly on the search for new bachi and drumsticks at local drum shops, big music stores, Asano Taiko US in Torrance, Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten in Asakusa, or the marketplace vendors at the North American Taiko Conference. Japan is my favorite place to go shopping because it's very common to see a digital scale in the drumstick section for picky people like me to precisely match a pair of sticks by weight. There are many different materials used to make sticks, including bamboo, kashi (oak), hickory, maple, birch, hou (magnolia), and hinoki (cypress). In addition, you can find a wide variety of mallets, brushes, and other alternative sticks made by a number of different companies. Considering the enormous variety of drums, cymbals, and percussion instruments available to us, it might be easy to understand my obsessive search for the best stick for each application.

What are some of the factors involved with stick selection? This can be a deeply personal topic and each musician will have their own hierarchy of criteria. Here are mine:

1. Sound – the most important consideration. Sometimes it's a simple decision and other times it's necessary to compromise and make it work for a number of dissimilar instruments.

2. Feel – the stick needs to feel comfortable and work for my playing style. I check out the length, diameter, weight, finish, and balance to narrow down my choices.

3. Wear and tear – I make sure the sticks will not cause damage to the instruments. I also match the sticks to the instrument so that I don't have to replace broken sticks constantly.

4. Tradition and uniformity – there are times when it makes sense for an ensemble to use the same sticks in striving for uniformity of sound and visuals. I also consider traditional sticks with historical significance.

One of the workshop topics I have taught is called Taiko Sounds and Sticks, where I introduce ways to get many sounds out of one drum as well as discuss and demonstrate the common materials and dimensions of taiko sticks. My goal is to convey the depth of this topic and share my knowledge so that the participants leave with a foundation in stick selection details. It's a fun moment when someone hears the subtle difference between two similar sticks when I play them side-by-side on a drum.

This photo shows the collection of sticks I currently use. It is very close to the stick recommendations in my article called Ten Useful Sticks For Taiko Players. There are additional sticks I use depending on the situation, but these are my most important ones. The sticks labeled VF RH 36cm is a marching snare drum stick (Vic Firth Ralph Hardiman) that I cut off and sanded. This hickory stick works well in a mixed-taiko set up and has good sound and durability on rims and cymbals.

Taiko sticks labeled

Old bachi from my childhood

This other photo shows two pairs of sticks from my childhood. The smaller kashi bachi were given to me by my first taiko teacher Saburo Mochizuki, and I used them to play the Sukeroku Daiko repertoire he taught to our youth group in Saitama. The larger hou bachi are from a Miyake Taiko summer intensive I took on Sado Island at age 11, taught by Kodo members.

Workshops

Ten Useful Sticks for Taiko Players

Asano Taiko US

Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten

Japan Percussion Center

Interview: radio professional Paolo Pietropaolo talks music, taiko, culture, and audio

Paolo Pietropaolo

I recently talked with my friend Paolo Pietropaolo about ethnomusicology, taiko, radio, audio, and cultural immersion. Paolo is a freelance journalist, broadcaster, and composer who hosts radio shows and has produced award-winning documentaries. We met in Vancouver, BC shortly after I relocated there, and immediately I could sense how like-minded we were. Paolo and I have had many interesting conversations over the years and I think his passion and thoughtfulness come through clearly in this recorded interview. Paolo's body of work is impressive in quality and diversity, and I especially appreciate his attention to detail. You can find his radio documentaries at the links below and I would encourage everyone to check them out. Paolo sent me music samples from his tinnitus documentary we talked about so I have included them in the interview. He told me they “consist mostly of recorded electronic hums (ie, my fridge, computer, etc.), processed hums, keyboards, bassoon, and various other electronic musical elements.”

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About Paolo
An inveterate baseball fan as well as a musician and composer, Paolo has spent much of his life trying to explain the intricacies of the arcane to the uninitiated. After one year of undergrad science at the University of Toronto, Paolo gave up on his marine biology dreams in favour of that most secure of career paths: music. Shockingly, this strategy somehow worked when a taiko drumming gig led to a career in radio. Since 2012, Paolo has been the host of In Concert, the award-winning classical music performance program on CBC Radio 2. Paolo is a Peabody-Award-winning audio documentary producer, sound designer and writer/broadcaster passionate about building bridges through storytelling. He is also a two-time winner of the Prix Italia, most recently for The Signature Series, and previously for the documentary series The Wire: the Impact of Electricity on Music.

Links
Twitter: @paolopp
Website: paolopietropaolo.com
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/paolopp
CBC Show: cbcmusic.ca/inconcert
The Wire documentary is archived here: http://bit.ly/1pBEv9l
Kiyoshi Nagata's taiko ensemble: nagatashachu.com

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