Iconoclastic keyboard-master Ryo Okumoto soars with Spock’s Beard.
Okay, we’re done. If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably already aware that Spock’s Beard is anything but a Trekkie fan club or William Shatner tribute band. In fact, you most likely know that they’re one of the strongest and most innovative progressive rock bands you’ll ever hear, a fact to which audiences across the world will quickly attest. Drummer and vocalist Nick D’Virgilio, guitarist Alan Morse, bassist Dave Meros, and keyboardist Ryo Okumoto bring no shortage of technical expertise and sophisticated compositional chops to their latest recording Spock’s Beard (InsideOut), journeying from the intensely intertwined motifs of “Skeletons At the Feast” to the somber “Don’t Fear the Reaper” vibe of “All That’s Left.” With a touch as intense as a Vulcan mind-meld, Ryo has his fingerprints all over the disc: His organ and synth hooks power many of the harder tunes, while his solemn piano-work creates bittersweet waves with the ballad “Hereafter.” And don’t forget such memorable solos as his screaming B-3 testimonial on “Here’s a Man.”
Ryo’s a great hang and a highly-gifted, irreverent player to boot, so it’s no wonder we had so much fun catching up with him over lunch before a recent gig.
What was your first keyboard?
When I started playing in Tokyo, my first piece of gear was a Yamaha YC20 organ. Sly and the Family Stone was using it. It had this cheesy, Farfisa-like sound. Leslie speakers cost around $5,000 dollars in Tokyo because of the exchange rate, so Yamaha came up with a rotating speaker that was just one cabinet and one square speaker. The tweeter spun up and down in front of the bass speaker. It sounded really good. That’s how I fell in love with the organ sound. Then I started using flanger, delay, and reverb, and I bought a Hammond L, my very first Hammond organ.
What about the Hammond inspired you?
The Hammond sound. The drawbar combination can create so many different colors, and then you have vibrato, which is incredible. Certain settings can give you more presence. Between that and the drawbars, the Leslie, and the percussion, there’re so many different setups, just like a Jupiter-8. A lot of people think the Hammond is one sound, but it’s not like that.
Speaking of sound, do you have any favorite drawbar settings?
Every single time I play, I change the drawbar settings.
What are some of the nastiest gear nightmares you’ve had to deal with?
Common things, like going to gigs, forgetting the power strip, and not having AC for the keyboards. At one club, they had a cable coming from the air conditioner, so I cut it in the middle, put it in there [gestures as if plugging in wires] and it worked. From now on, I carry extra AC power.
Another time, Spock’s Beard was opening for Dream Theater. At the first show in Norway, our gear did not get there. That wasn’t good, so we borrowed Dream Theater’s instruments and equipment. It’s not the same — it’s not like top-forty dance gig, where you can grab a piano sound and go.
How did you make the move from living in Tokyo to playing with a kickin’ rock band in the States?
I was playing in Tokyo from 15 through 18 in a club, then I joined this band called Creation. They were pretty big in Japan and that was my first break. I was 19. Then I played with Kitaro. I did one CD with him, a couple tours, and then [Kitaro’s record label] Canyon asked me to do my solo record. I was 22 when I came to L.A. to record. My album had Jeff Porcaro, David Foster, Steve Lukather — that was my first time being in L.A. with all those cats. I was blown away, so I decided to move. I spent four years at the Dick Grove School of Music. I took jazz, film scoring, arrangement — this summer I’m doing some Japanese TV scoring, and I’ve done commercials, TV shows, and documentaries for Japan.
My first tour was with The Fifth Dimension, then Barry White, Aretha Franklin, Peabo Bryson, Roberta Flack, Jennifer Holliday, and Natalie Cole for something like five years.
Many of those acts are so different from Spock’s Beard. Did you approach them differently than you approach your current gig?
It’s really the same thing. There were two keyboard plays when I was touring with Natalie Cole, for example. I was doing a lot of strings, horns, organs, sounds, and the other keyboardist was doing piano. That was Terry Trotter and he’s such a great player. He reminded me of Bill Evans.
You cite Bill Evans as one of your primary influences.
He’s so warm and he plays with so much feeling.
Like Bill did, you seem to have a great range of expressive chord voicings, like in the song “Hereafter.” How do you approach shaping your chords as you play?
I don’t think anymore. I used to, but now I don’t. The voicings change every time I play. The main thing I focus on is playing a melody with the top notes of each chord. Other notes go wherever they go.
So you’re focusing on creating a melody with your parts, even when you’re comping?
Yes. When I’m playing a groove, I really try to be a percussion player. I try to create a rock-steady foundation, giving the drummer something to play with. I like rhythm. That’s what I do. [Laughs.] I’m so picky about drummers. When the drummer’s not happening, I leave. I can’t stand it.
What’s the best way to develop voicing abilities?
Sing the melody when you’re playing a voicing. Let it out. That’s what I do. When you’re singing, your body vibrates, and the vibration goes to your fingers. Then, you can be together with the keyboard. Keyboards aren’t like the guitar — with guitars, it’s so easy to be expressive, because you can bend and affect notes so easily. With keyboards, they’re just switches. You’re really just pushing buttons, so you have to have a total connection with the instrument. So sing the melody when you’re comping. Sing the top note. And when you’re playing a groove, think rhythm, groove, groove, time, time.
When you were working on Spock’s Beard, did you have any specific goals in mind?
Just to make a good album. All four of us work in different ways. When I do my stuff, everybody comes to my house. I have all the gear there and we just hit it. When I do my keyboard parts, I finish in one or two days. I’m fast, and I don’t want to take a lot of time to figure out sounds. Just put it down! The idea’s more important than the specific sound for me. When you do it a couple times and get a good melody or a good voicing, just lay it down. It’s going to sound good when you mix it.
Several tunes off of Spock’s Beard are in some tricky-sounding odd meters.
Odd meters are exciting, because you really have to think about it first. Whether you’re playing in 13 or 15, it’s a phrase, a melody that you memorize and repeat. It sounds like playing with the time, but it’s not — it’s a totally different groove. Sometimes, the drummer and bass player play the same figure with the same accents. When that happens, I try not to play with them. Instead, I want to create a different groove and go over the time. If we’re playing in seven and they’re playing four and three, I try to play five and two, two and five. Or sometimes, I put two bars together to become 14. I break it down and make another groove. But when the bass player is doing something totally different from drummer, you lock into the drums.
In Keyboard’s June ’03 article on prog rock, you mentioned that you prefer to write music in eight-bar chunks.
Eight’s the best way to go, since eight bars is one complete thought. It’s easier for me that way. You need discipline just to exercise your creativity and eight bars is easy. Four is too easy, but eight will complete one melody. But don’t stick with that — write a bunch of eight-bar phrases and keep writing. Just keep writing every day and don’t stop. When you look back, you can put it all together. When you are stuck with one idea, you waste time. If you say to yourself, “Another eight!” and then move on, you don’t get stuck with one thing.
What’s the songwriting process like for Spock’s Beard?
Neal Morse, our previous leader, was with Spock’s Beard for six CDs. He wrote all the material. He is an incredible composer. He writes, sings, plays guitar, keyboards. When he left, we had to compose ourselves, so the four of us started writing. This is our third CD without Neal Morse leading. Everybody really started developing the ability to compose and now we all have studios. We do a lot of writing at home, then come together and go over the songs — four different types of ideas coming together.
Sometimes I notate as I write, and sometimes I record and transcribe later. A lot of stuff we come up with isn’t Spock’s Beard. We try to make it sound like Spock’s Beard, but it’s impossible — we are totally different people and sometimes, when we’re writing, we just go with it, come up with one riff, put it down, and develop it. It’s not going to sound like what you might expect from Spock’s Beard, but that’s Spock’s Beard, too. If it’s a good song, we use it. Spock’s Beard is playing, so it is going to be our song. We never know what’s going to come out in the end.
