Tetsuo Sakurai: A Bassist's Life

2024/05/16

This May marks the 45th anniversary of my album debut during my second year of university with "Casiopea," a band I formed in high school. I entered Keio Shiki Senior High School while thinking about a life where I could continue doing what I love, something I've felt since middle school. During my university years, I released five albums, including overseas recordings, and continued my professional career immediately after graduation. I am living a life without compromise. I strive every day to continue my active career until the very end.

Looking back, life has certainly had its ups and downs. However, as long as you stick to doing what you love and making people happy, whatever happens isn't much of a problem. Changes in band members or fluctuations in income can be worrying if you let them be, but as long as you have enough to get by, it's better not to worry so you can focus on what you want to do.

My musical activities are simple: I compose by envisioning emotions, practice believing in the success of the concert, and give my best until the performance ends. I decide who I want to perform with and repeat the cycle of creative work and performances. Whether they are Brazilian or American, if I hold a strong desire and visualize the people I want to collaborate with, it usually happens. Musical activity is fundamentally teamwork, so when everyone works together in the same direction and good relationships are established, the result is often not just addition, but multiplication. When I can share such moments of joy with co-performers, staff, and the audience, all the previous hardships vanish. I have accumulated these small moments of happiness for 45 years. Whether the audience is dozens or tens of thousands, I simply move forward, doing my best without hesitation or fear. When I started playing the bass at 13, I couldn't have imagined my current state of mind at 66, but now, with all this experience, I am conscious at a cellular level of managing the mind and body that have been performing for over 50 years, in order to spend every day at my best.

After turning 60, I formed a band called "Katsushika Trio" with drummer Akira Jimbo and keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya, with whom I worked in "Casiopea" during the 80s. Resuming musical activities with these brothers-in-arms, with whom I spent ten years in my 20s making numerous albums (including overseas recordings) and touring domestically and internationally, has been incredibly fun. With the support of many in the music industry and our fans, the scale of our activities is expanding year by year. After all this time, I feel a mysterious cosmic power at work.