When I go to house shows in Seattle there is a special someone I expect to enter the scene rather late, with his perfect elfish haircut and his mischievous smile prominently displayed. He's a thin, effeminate musician in the tradition of David Bowie, though his music is less bombastic. No matter that everyone else has noticed him too, creeping in through the back door of a chilly basement or downtown loft, I always find myself whispering to the person next to me, "Kaz is here!" when he finally shows up at midnight.
He enters meekly but immediately greets everyone. In fact, Kaz (a.k.a. PWRFL Power) knows everyone in Seattle pop music. And after his second round of U.S. touring this spring—especially in NYC—he knows quite a few people across the States.
Precocious, charming songwriter Kazutaka Nomura has been making music—and friends—in Seattle since he moved here at the age of 18 to study music composition. Born to a somewhat famous architect in Japan, and currently leading a day-jobless artist's life in Seattle, Kaz might be the ideal subject of a class-based critique on transnational elitist art culture.
In stark contrast to the proliferation of "Outsider Folk" musicians, I would label Kaz, "Insider Folk." He has everything but a major label deal.
Despite his breeding, I find his acoustic melodies and clever words so charming that his lyric "my dad has some buildings I can have" fails to stir animosity on my part. When I go listen to him play, I remember that everyone who listens to as much music and me, him, or probably anyone reading this article, is part of a privileged cultural milieu.
At the end of a week of reading music blogs, going to art school, and working that dead-end job, we're all just young people riding this magical wave called pop culture until circumstances force us into something more serious, political, or profitable.
Along these lines, Kaz makes folk music without naiveté—his romantic songs are practiced pieces of distilled happiness or even abject escapism. Unlike many folk musicians he's not, as Simon once Garfunkel once sang, "looking for America." He lives in America: the American of Seattle/NYC/West Coast underground pop.
Last time I saw PWRFL Power was during January at a house in the Central District. It was the tour kick-off show for his first East Coast tour. He closed a night that also featured Seattle DIY music favorites Little Party and the Bad Business and Generifus. Kaz, setting down a drink, played a set that was as virtuosic as it was stunning. His many EPs and CDs on various indie labels are simply attempts to capture the auditory magic of Kaz and his guitar live on stage.
In the last year, Kaz has gone from obscurity to being featured in major local music publications, TVs appearances, and big concerts. PWRFL Power's biggest breaks have come from both intimate house shows and the massive summer Capitol Hill Block Party. Last summer he won a competition at Block Party to be animated in an Esurance commercial that will be aired locally during American Idol in the next few weeks.
Along with a slew of West Coast dates, Kaz plays Seattle at various clubs and houses on the 9th, the 14th and the 23rd of May. See his Myspace, http://www.myspace.com/pwrflpower, for details.