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Tomoko: I came here as a student first but I came for language. Then I found this music school. You can learn how to sing! I was in the vocal course. I got interested in music production as well. I started writing songs and making my own album. Oooh, so you're a triple treat. Why do you think students want to come here?
Many students come from Asian countries looking for what they can do and they find themselves. I didn't believe what I could do in music. Now after four years I'm the school manager, and have a work permit from the Canadian Government. You're in!
Yes.
Ashley Ingram: With three students, in my living room.Was it hard to be recognized as a school back when you were conducting classes out of your living room?
I have always found it difficult to tell people what this school is about exactly. It occured to me that you are the first Western journalist that have come in here.
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I did very well in Japan. I was producing a Japanese artist here, a man called Kazu Marayama--he owns Bits magazine. He said, "Why don't you teach Japanese people? Everyone passes them by." At that time I wasn't thinking of doing a school; I got out of California and was so jaded. I felt I could start again with no one around me.So how come you chose Toronto?
I kind of got the feeling that America was killing me. So when I came here to visit a friend, and I hadn't been here since the early days, Toronto was completely changed for me. I loved it. I saw a Black women with an Asian guy, a Russian with a Brazilian, a this with a that. I saw people getting along.Yeah, we get along alright here.
Yoshi: Six or seven monthsAre they really hard on you?
Of course sometimes, how can you say it, "I hit the wall"? Do you like it at this school?
I really like it; I don't want to leave.What kind of music do you play?
Folk music. Live folk.
Justice: Two years.What do you think is the best thing about the school?
It's getting us out there, into the mainstream. Asians in Hollywood.What do you want to do?
Music production. To the level where I am respected by black people.That is a decent goal.KATIE HEINDL(Photos by Carl Heindl)
