PWRFL
POWER

By Mike Baehr
Photo by Lauren Max

FOR Seattle-based Japanese emigre and solo artist Kazutaka Nomura, freedom is a goal and a guiding principle. The singer/guitarist who records and tours under the name PWRFL Power (pronounced “powerful power” and falling in line with trend of redundant indie names — see also Hot Hot Heat, the Magic Magicians, Fiery Furnaces, etc.) explains, “I have been trying to make my life spontaneous and raw. I am cutting off my cell phone service, don’t own a single book or CD and am always traveling. I am trying to do more human interaction and party like the ‘60s.” When asked if he considers himself a bohemian, Nomura looks the word up on Wikipedia then responds with an enthusiastic affirmative.

Born and raised on Hokkaido, a northern island of Japan, Nomura began studying guitar at the age of 13 and came to the United States at 18 to continue his musical studies at Cornish College in Seattle. “I originally wanted to study philosophy like Wittgenstein and Derrida,” he says, “but I realized it’s too hard to understand in a second language and doesn’t get you friends. One day at a community college, I played some classical pieces in the lobby and managed to make some friends. And I figured ‘this is what I need to do; I’ve got to make music.’”

Playing for two years with the improvisation-based trio Na, he toured the East Coast three times before his Japanese expatriate bandmates’ visas expired and they had to return to Japan. Now an accomplished and virtuosic solo guitar player who seamlessly combines classical, jazz and pop styles in his playing, Nomura is enjoying a new sense of freedom in his music as well. “I love how much control I can have and how easy it is to set up shows without caring about my drummer’s work schedule when I play solo!”

Despite the seriousness that his formal academic training implies, Nomura focuses now on what he describes as “silly joke songs like I just did about the flu (as I am having it right now).” Indeed, PWRFL Power’s songs are diaristic and infused with satirical humor, with titles like “Coffee Girl Song,” “French Toast Song,” “Brush Your Teeth” and “Let Me Teach You How to Hold Chopsticks.” “I don’t know if ‘serious about music’ is the right way to put it,” Nomura confirms. “I would say I am honest and flexible about music. I will try anything musically interesting.” He further explains, “My study in classical guitar, composition, jazz and improvised music allows me to talk with more musical vocabularies for sure. It’s the same as learning languages; if you know more words, you can say what you wanna say more accurately.”

With Nomura’s confident musical fluency and stripped-down approach to both life and music, it’s easy to imagine him plugged into his MacBook (his one worldly possession), recording songs wherever he happens to be. Yet he’s traveled to Nagoya, Japan to work with Noriaki Watanabe at Studio Qoo on all of his recordings to date: his self-released discs Injured Fruits, Electrified Fruits and Extra Ball, and his self-titled full length, released last month on CD by Slender Means Society and on vinyl by Aagoo.

Outside the studio, audiences have embraced PWRFL Power’s unusual combination of virtuosic playing and extemporaneous humor. In Seattle, Nomura won the 2007 Block Star Contest by audience acclaim, a victory that awarded him a Main Stage slot at the Capitol Hill Block Party and an appearance in an animated television commercial for Esurance. The Block Party performance led directly to PWRFL Power being picked up by Slender Means Society - Nomura says he woke up the next day to find an email from label head Zac Pennington.

Yet according to Nomura, people tell him that his music is an unusual fit for the Seattle music scene and he himself doesn’t know any other musicians he feels a kinship with. “It’s not necessarily about fitting into a certain scene to me, it’s more about how I explore musical and artistic possibilities, and how I present it to as many people as I can,” he says.

Nomura’s goal then is to simply keep doing what he is doing: traveling, meeting people, sharpening his craft and being self-sufficient. “Heroes don’t have heroes. I am trying to be your hero, so I try not to have one,” Nomura says. Thinking harder he continues, “Maybe this Japanese scientist Noguchi Hideyo? He had an interesting life. The favorite part of his life is when he spent all of his scholarships on drinking. Still, he was a ground-breaking scientist.”

www.myspace.com/pwrflpower