How was the recent West Coast tour? What other plans do you have as a group or as individuals?

Kmetz: Tour was great fun, and I am very thankful to Mark for all the work putting that together! We had great luck with people offering us places to stay and got to see many old friends. Right now all of us are going to be working off and on throughout October on a new CD project for a Japanese release.

Thornton: The West Coast tour was incredible. It was the most shows we’ve ever played together, in a row, and the timing was pretty remarkable. Reptile Records got our CD out, a total rush manufacturing, to meet our crazy tour requirements, so we couldn’t have done it without them.

Individually — Karl’s in grad school, I’m an occasional DJ, and Lee is drumming for another project called Isle of Black, which is a two-piece involving the guitarist from Girth. That stuff is pure shred.
`

Estradasphere is maintaining a low profile for a few months. In the meantime, will Kevin and Lee make GOS their top musical priority? How does the geographical difference (Santa Cruz vs. Seattle) affect the relationship of the two groups?

Kmetz: I don’t know how much of a priority it is for each one of us at the moment. Being far apart is kind of weird, but it seems like the kind of thing that happens more and more these days with all kinds of projects.

Thornton: Estradasphere still does occasional private shows, but it does appear that as a full band they’re on a sort of hiatus. I know that along with traditional Tsugaru-shamisen performance, GOS is a musical priority for Kevin. Lee again is involved in other bands.

The geographical difference definitely gets in the way of random one-off shows, which makes GOS pretty much a tour-only band. We still will do major shows, though, like anime and sci-fi conventions. Anything geek or metal I think we can sneak into, thematically. But for our next projects, we’ll be recording it in pieces — drums in Seattle and everything else in California.

God of Shamisen: www.godofshamisen.com
Reptile Records: www.reptilerecords.com

- Scott Morrow

Pages: 1 2

 Email This | Digg This | StumbleUpon | Facebook
Posted to Music Features on Friday, September 26th, 2008 by Scott Morrow.

Tags: Estradasphere, God of Shamisen, Reptile Records