There is a battered cardboard box in my bedroom closet. It's full of cassette tapes that I never listen to because they bring back memories of when I tried to be a rock star. I was living in Tokyo, teaching English and killing time. The attention I got as a Caucasian male, as well as my daily boozing and the piles of money that were lying around for the taking, made me believe that I also had what it took to be a successful pop musician. The tapes in that box contain recordings of my band's rehearsals, ideas for new tunes, and almost every live performance we did.
I went to Tokyo in 1985, the peak of the Japanese economic boom. Actually, it wasn't a boom; it was a KA-BLAMMO, a never-ending detonation of dancing and beer and Suntory whiskey and free food and cash and methamphetamine and shyly tittering Japanese girls who didn't like to kiss but would bed you so fast that you almost felt violated. Anything was possible. Anything except finding an entry level job at a trading company. I was a history major barely conversant in Japanese, and bilingual Harvard MBAs were being turned away because Tokyo was overflowing with foreigners desperate to learn the Japanese magic touch. Since I needed a work permit, I decided to teach English until I could find my dream gig doing some kind of business thing. At the school, a Canadian teacher named Steiv found out that I played bass and asked if I wanted to start a band. It sounded great. I'd been in a cover band in college and really missed the unique communication that came from playing music with someone. There were hundreds of live music clubs in Tokyo, the engines of the orgiastic night life; we would get chicks and make a fortune.
Steiv was a guitarist-singer-songwriter. His songs were like faster, bouncier Roxy Music crossed with Peter Gabriel.....click here to continue

Custom MusicMan StingRay that I had made in Tokyo--I bought a stock right-handed StingRay and had the neck, pickup, and electronics put on a custom-made body

Carvin R600