Nostalgia

Rhythm guitarist

Believer

The Pink Guardian

About Nostalgia

AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Toronto
ETHNICITY: Grenadian
RELIGION: Christian

FAVOURITE ARTISTS: ONE OK ROCK, GFriend, Frederic, FliP, Official Hige Dandism, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Burnout Syndromes, Nico Touches The Wall, Stereopony, The Oral Cigarettes, Centimillimental

FAVOURITE ANIMES: Digimon, Attack on Titan, Given, Haikyuu!, K-ON!!, Angel Beats, My Hero Academia, Sound Euphonium, Assassination Classroom, A Place Further Than The Universe, Bocchi The Rock!

MISSION: To guard dreams and inspire other beginners to chase their musical endeavors seriously <3

My Performance History

While I may be new to guitar, I have been partaking in performance arts since childhood, such as keyboard, clarinet, and viola. I got to perform independently on the piano at church and viola at school.

My choir performed at Roy Thompson Hall, and my drum line performed at Massey Hall, Juno Hoops, and other events in my city, Toronto. I also took part in our school’s Little Shop of Horrors musical production. I’ve also danced and performed at as cheerleader.

With the anime cover band I created (Chromatic Dreamers Band Project), I got to perform at the Japanese Culture Centre during the Pretty Heroes Convention twice, at See-Scape hosted by Dolly Momoiro’s Idol Revolution hosted at See-Scape, and at Mississauga Celebration Square for Japan Fest 2023. More recently, I’ve been recruited to be the guitarist for a church plant.

All in all, I’m someone who values being part of a team, whether as the leader or as a member. I am someone who practices diligently to ensure I can play a piece perfectly and consistently. I know how much pressure the stage adds, so I prefer to be prepared and be someone my group can rely on.

I also have some backend experience as I’ve assisted with my old church’s A/V booth for a couple years, and learned production (Fruity Loops) back in school. I was just gifted FL Studio recently and I started releasing some original instrumental music.

Packed & Ready To Go

Since my main goal as a guitarist was to perform, I have invested quite a bit to insure I had the tools required. I know how to clean and change strings for my guitars. As of April 2023, I own these items:

GUITARS: Ibanez S Standard, Epiphone Les Paul Special, Jasmine Acoustic-Electric.

GUITAR ADD-ONS: Roland Mini Cube Amp, Snark Super Tight Chromatic Tuner, Capos.

PEDALS: BOSS Distortion, Amazon Overdrive, Sonicake Noise Wiper, FLAMMA Preamp, DONNER Reverb, Delay, and Mod Square.

PERFORMING TOOLS: Variety of Earplugs (2 Loop Quiet, Bernafon Molded EarPlugs, Disposable Foam Plugs), Soundbrenner Core Steel Metronome/Tuning Watch, Getaria Wireless Guitar System

RECORDING TOOLS: Focusrite Scarlett Interface, Audio-Technica Condenser Microphone, FL Studio

As for learning songs, I can get through and remember most songs in a day (less than an hour for just rhythm/chords), but I do prefer at least 3 days to really familiarize myself with the song itself and work out the kinks. If the song is faster or contains new chords and complex progressions (which is common in Japanese music), I would like at least a week or more.

Anything truly is possible if you believe in yourself, trust in God, and take action! Let me prove that to you.

- Nostalgia

My Musical Autobiography

Music Exposure & School Life

Growing up, I was exposed to various kinds of music. My father had a box full of records and he’d play Michael Jackson, The Four Tops, Saturday Night Fever, Bob Marley, and even some Italian artists. My mother would play female greats like Mariah Carey and Celine Dion on her CDs. I’d be exposed to Gospel music at home and at church every Saturday/Sabbath (SDA). My older brother would blast his hip hop and rap music, and my lil sis came to love R&B and soul. Of course Pop was always on the radio, and I’d hear Calypso and Reggae at extended family parties and on trips to the Caribbean.

In elementary school, I had yet to hear anything I truly loved and connected with outside of Gospel music. Regardless, I loved music class and playing instruments, and I didn’t mind hearing some classical pieces as well! My parents both played the keyboard casually, and they put me in keyboard lessons for a few months when I was about 5 or 6. I later had my own Yamaha keyboard which I could learn songs off of.

I learned to play the recorder in elementary school, and later clarinet from Grade 6-9. I was in my high school’s drum line for 2 years, and also took after school viola lessons with a teacher for on year. Music was never a popular subject among my peers, but it was my favourite class, and I was involved in other extracurriculars that surrounded music like choir, music council, drama club (for a musical one year), and cheerleading.

How I Got Into Japanese Music

As mentioned earlier, I was exposed to various genres and artists in my elementary years, but nothing really appealed to me. In Grade 6 (Middle School), thanks to a music group project, I was introduced to Hilary Duff and she is the first non-Christian artist that I would consider myself a fan of. She had more encouraging and positive music, and I found out I really loved rock/pop-rock. I came to love other Disney channel stars and groups like Cheetah Girls, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, Camp Rock, and High School Musical.

The same school year I discovered Hilary Duff, I decided to give Digimon a second chance. My brother watched it, but it was probably the only show that my 5yo self found quite terrifying. I watched Dragonball Z and Sailormoon, but Digimon had ugly monsters with missiles, and the kids would actually be scared and get hurt, and they were crying to go back home to their mommies. Thankfully, Digimon was on a channel I didn’t watch, as I was a YTV, Teletoon, and later, Family channel kid, but Digimon aired on Fox Kids.

So when my family had the internet for a bit, and Youtube was live, I watched the series on there and I fell in love. The kids were very relatable, and it taught me a lot of positive morals and lessons. After a while, the ‘Digimon Japanese Opening’ kept popping up in the recommendation section. I decided to check it out and I was blown away. Compared to the simple rap version that was used for English, the Japanese was musically intriguing, and the lyrics were very beautiful. The future openings were just as amazing! I had to do research and that’s when I found out the show, along with all my other favourite childhood ‘cartoons’ were actually anime from Japan.

This was a huge pivotal moment in my life. I got very curious about Japan and why they were able to create such beautiful music and touching shows that had a lasting impact on me. I’ve been obsessed with the little island since. While I did continue to watch anime now and then (it was hard due to lack of internet over the years), I was definitely more interested in the music. Digimon confirmed that rock music was truly my favourite genre, BUT it needs to be combined with very interesting chord progressions, along with meaningful and/or encouraging messages.

It was very hard finding Japanese music and artists then, so my main source was through animes. If I heard an opening or closing I liked, I would try to find other songs by that artists and download them on an MP3. Some of my first favourite artists were Kouji Wada, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Yui, and Puffy Amiyumi. It was quite hard to explore as I didn’t always have internet at home over the years, but it was a humble collection. I also discovered more songs and artists through arcade games like Dance Dance Revolution, and through Japanese dance covers.

In high school, after really getting into the Angel Beats soundtrack, I was a little annoyed. I really wanted to understand the lyrics without always having to look up translations. And that was my trigger to actually start learning the language. My last 2 years of high school, I printed out all I could find to study at home and I made great progress. Then, in my year at York University (1 year scholarship), I took a Japanese class which I aced pretty easily as I had a decent foundation beforehand. It was a great opportunity to finally practice speaking and to ask questions.

Why I Picked Up Guitar

I retired from music in my final year of high school because I figured I didn’t have any natural talent, wasn’t proficient at any instrument, and didn’t have a future in it anyways…but something was always drawing me to it. I really loved music and thought it would be cool to master an instrument. I did pick up violin, ocarina, and harmonica, but since they were quite loud, I couldn’t practice at all since I shared a room and lived in a small apartment. I even tried bass for a day as I still had a band dream, but I really didn’t care for guitar and there was no space for drums, but I didn’t see the appeal back then.

2016 was a weird year for me. I had no internet at home, so I would usually play the Wii or just waste my evenings lying around. After playing Guitar Hero in the arcade for a bit, I decided to buy a used version to play at home on my Wii. Later that year, I also ended a relationship and no longer had anything to do on the weekend. I did really like Guitar Hero, so I considered learning the real thing, but I was always very against the instrument. It felt like everyone could play it, and I didn’t want to work hard just to be average…but I still had my band dream and thought it could help me bring that dream to life. So after enough consideration, I bought a used guitar in early 2017.

When an electric guitar is unplugged, It is quiet enough that you can hear it but it wouldn’t disturb others, which made it easy to play everyday after my evening shift, even with my sister sleeping in the same room, so I played it daily. I printed out what I could at work, but thanks to the layout of the fretboard, I was able to see patterns for the first time and actually apply music theory I learned in school. I was able to and used my previous music theory to create music and improvise for the first time. I was ecstatic and felt a spark I never felt with a previous instrument and I was excited about the potential of guitar, having an instrument that could play solos and chords, and that was easy to transpose.

My Guitar Learning Journey

The journey has certainly had it’s ups and downs. 6 months in, I wasn’t sure where to go next so I invested in private lessons. He saw a lot of improv potential the first and second class, and he sent me home to learn a song by ear for homework. I came back learning it in the lower frets which is the only place I really played so far. I also couldn’t really hear the use of bends or slides just yet, nor did I ever really play with distortion to practice muting since I always played unplugged.

When I played my cover for him, He said it was ‘all wrong’, showed me where and how to play it, and expected me to play it on the spot at full speed. I did my best, but would always be flat on a bend or an open string would ring out. He said how I’ll have to start from the beginning with my guitar playing and I got discouraged. I said I’ll come back when I learned what he taught, but I just didn’t really care to play anymore, so I packed my guitar up.

The next couple years was enlightening for me. I did my first solo trip ever to Japan in 2018 and got to see my guitar friend on stage again. In 2019, I got to dance on stage with Dolly Momoiro and the THS dance team, and went to my first concert to see my favourite band, ONE OK ROCK a few days later. I was feeling inspired, courageous, and I realized, the band dream didn’t wasn’t as far as I thought. So for my 2020 New Year Resolution, I picked up the instrument again. We had internet at this point, so I was exploring Youtube, but it was overwhelming. I started getting Guitar Trick ads and gave it a shot, and it’s been one of the best decisions. Short and concise videos with a clear learning path, and it helped me fill the holes in my foundation. A bit after, I started my Instagram, Key2Nostalgia, where I’d upload clips of what I was working on and my currently playing ability.

Covid started a bit after, and I decided this was a great opportunity to get the band thing going. I knew it wouldn’t be just a few months, so what better time for people to practice than when they are forced to stay home and paid to do nothing? I found a couple alliances who were down to join me, but couldn’t find another as they wanted to meet before committing. I did play quite a bit in this time, but also took months off to build my career, work on this blog, and try other business ideas, but it’s certainly been a lot of growth as I put the band dream together.