Why do we write songs? To know that we are alive.”
Accompanied by notes emanating underneath fingerless gloves and illuminated by the orange tint of a golden hour Arkansas sun, violinist and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi, who performs as Kishi Bashi, provides a soundtrack to the now desolate Jerome War Relocation Center. It is a place whose history that seems to match the cold: one of ten sites used for the forced relocation of Japanese Americans shortly after Pearl Harbor. A smokestack stands as a visual reminder. The frost seems to fit the memory too.
In that cold, Kishi Bashi improved and created “Theme for Jerome,” part of the 2019 album “Omoiyari” and now embedded into a feature film of the same name. Brainstorming first in the car, of course, and then creating a song that included a Japanese melody, Kishi Bashi knew he needed a “song that would be a hybrid of a standalone song and also underscore for the documentary aspect.”
From tunes that are both song and score, to diving into being Japanese, American, and both at the same time, from creating a film that is simultaneously a documentary and a song film, the world of “Omoiyari” is a dual one, where hybrids, combinations, pairs, and more live, breathe, and sing.
The musical film experience “Omoiyari,” directed by Kishi Bashi along with Justin Taylor Smith, graced the SXSW program in two formal ways, a film and a live musical experience, though the reverberations will likely extend beyond those two opportunities. As shared with The Knockturnal, the film seems to live in multiple spheres as a documentary film, song film, personal film, and a history documentary. “We really struggled to figure out: Is this a music doc? Is it a history doc? Is it something in between?” Kishi Bashi shared. “We ended up settling on somewhere in between.” That in-between includes footage and conversations with Kishi Bashi’s family, live shows at multiple internment camp sites, segments from news programs, and a symphony performance in Miami, the latter of which was very inspiring for Kishi Bashi.
Can we live between worlds? Can we sing a different type of song?”
That in-between also “reflects the dynamic of this country right now,” Kishi Bashi shared. With Donald Trump’s rhetoric that drummed up conversations around Japanese Internment camps and the current political climate, the “dynamic of the country right now,” the film itself, as stated by Kishi Bashi, was started a “musical journey and spiraled into a conversation.” That conversation infused itself into the takeaways of the film. “In one way, I’m hoping to cultivate empathy…And then for minorities, I hope it empowers them to feel unapologetic about being a part of this new identity. So it’s like a mixture of those two,” Kishi Bashi explained.
Upon viewing, it’s clear this film is special; a one-in-a-million mixture of crisp, clean, meaningful, and intention-based sound paired with dynamic, seamlessly crafted, and impactful visuals. The film strikes up adjectives of all kinds, enveloped by a meaningful score: personal, energetic, professional, purposeful.
In the theatrical world, a song happens when you can no longer speak. Songs need to be motivated. They happen when the scene, feelings, and more can only expressed in a musical way. Words fail. Now imagine a whole film motivated in this way, you’ll end up with “Omoiyari.”
On “A Song For You,” Kishi Bashi sings “You’re meant to have a song for you.” And with “Omoiyari,” Kishi Bashi has provided a beautiful, meaningful, and impactful song for his own story, that of his family, and hundreds more.
Featured image: Kishi Bashi improvises a song at the site of the former Jerome War Relocation Center in Arkansas. Image from the film.
