With his three-month residency at Town Hall a wrap and a new recording completed, singer/songwriter Tomo Nakayama wanted to do something different to celebrate the release of his album, Fog on the Lens.
The 34-year-old solo artist, collaborator, and recent actor—who can be seen alongside Ellen Page in Lynn Shelton’s 2013 Touchy Feely—came up with an idea for a marathon—an album-release marathon. The one-day event, Tuesday, November 4, will comprise 14 mini-shows at nontraditional venues from a yoga studio to a grocery co-op to a hair salon. If all goes according to plan, that is.
“I have the drives all figured out,” he says. “We’re trying to travel light and still make it a show.”
He’ll attempt the feat—which, sometimes in the span of 30 minutes, will involve setting up, playing a show, packing, and moving to the next spot—with a small crew, including Yuuki Matthews of the Shins, who helped produce the new record. Despite the logistical challenges of navigating Seattle traffic these days, Nakayama is excited about what the unconventional format might bring about.
“I think it’s interesting to people,” he explains. While some of his fans and friends can head out for a late-night show, he says, others have to work in the morning, or are moms with young children. “I wanted to do something a little more smaller and more intimate, at places that weren’t normally [venues] you’d hear music in the background and random live music during the day.”
Though he took to Facebook and his website (tomonakayama.tumblr.com) to announce his plans, he wants to establish a personal connection with the listeners who come out, beyond the web. “We’re really kind of living in a totally different reality, stuck on social media,” he says. “I know [artists] with hundreds of followers who never go out and play shows and meet people.” Playing to a smaller crowd and getting to know his fans, Nakayama says, is “more gratifying to me.”
What’s more, the unexpected surprise of a live music at, say, Lifelong Thrift Store, where he’s slated to gig at 2:30 p.m., will hopefully inspire his accidental listeners to seek out more live music in Seattle. “We’re a close-knit community of people working together to do something unique and different,” he says, adding, “And personal, which I think is the most important.”
gelliott@seattleweekly.com
