"THE WIZARD" by Kazushi Ota

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I think we would be called a progressive rock band, but as many of you know, that doesn't describe anything. I grew up in the States listening to Led Zeppelin, and our basist grew up on Genesis, our drummer on heavy metal. It was sort of natural that we each liked a different aspect of the then-at-their-peak Rush (around Moving Pictures to Grace Under Pressure). So we kicked out the two female keyboardists (I sure wish I had their pictures with me now), which was good for the music but bad for popularity, and became a trio.

Our basist started playing the keyboard with one hand while playing the Chapman Stick on the other, and when he needed both hands on the synthesizers, I played bass notes with the pedals under my feet. All songs were written by either the basist or myself, and all melodies and lyrics were done by me. But the songs developed under our constant sessions and all three of us formulated the songs. By the time we recorded this tape, we each had so much command over our instruments, it was amusing.

• 1984
• The Wizard of Oz Pt.1
• The Pied Piper
• The Street Performer
• When I Walk Here Again
• The Wizard of Oz Pt.2

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