The really strong key thing always comes direct to your heart. Even if it's a visual thing it doesn't come to your eyes! Even if it is a listening thing it doesn't come to your ears, it goes directly to your spirit!

When you play with someone you can feel the chemistry with, just the first show is already magic.

For me I always need to have two sides to me when I play! I need to be a performer and at the same time the producer. So I need to be somewhere up in the air and producing my music. I can't just be the performer; otherwise I can't see the whole view. I need the big view!

I really think that martial arts and music are very close to each other and both require a lot of focus and improvisation because you don't know where or when you're going to get kicked!

Some artists just go and play, and I have no objections to that - but I don't like to do that. People take their very precious time to come to my concert, and they give me the opportunity to share two hours of their lives. I want to do the best I can, for visuals, sound and everything!

Music came first and I started to jam with people I couldn't communicate in their language. Then, because I could make friends thanks to music, they started to talk to me. Then I started to learn English.

I started to listen to Japanese jazz musicians when I went to high school. Some people I listened to were Yosuke Yamashita, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe.