Basic Folk 128 – Kishi Bashi

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Kaoru Ishibashi who is known as Kishi Bashi, is a violinist, guitarist, multi instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from WA state and VA. He got a really interesting start in music because he went to Cornell to study engineering, ended up flunking out, and kind of realizing his true path in music. He went to Berklee College of Music to study film scoring, started playing in bands, moved to NYC, and the rest is history. He has an incredible fluency in rock, pop, and experimental styles, that is refreshing and uplifting. All of his music is energetic, sort of hypnotic, and brings you into his loving arms. When you talk to him you realize that he is incredibly creative and critical, but also hopeful. His work deals with how we can, in a practical sense, bring compassion into our daily lives. It was so cool to talk with him about his outlook on life, his music, his family, road trips, and traveling. Something I was really excited to talk to him about is his recent film/music projects about the internment camps that the US government subjected Japanese Americans to during WWII. He has done a ton of research at these sites and the resulting work is breathtaking.

K’s video for “Wait For Springtime”

The latest Kishi Bashi EP, Emigrant