Friday, April 11
The ferry ride to Vancouver, under a perfectly clear sky, felt like a breath of fresh air. I snapped a shot on my film camera of a flock of seabirds skimming the surface of the water. Out on the deck, I spotted the members of Etran. They speak French, so we usually exchange just a few light greetings whenever we run into each other. But they always return my smile—and that alone makes me happy.
During the drive to Vancouver, Mikey put on Neil Young’s Harvest. Listening to music in the place where it was born—of all the ways to experience sound, I think it might be one of the best. After all, sound is nothing more than a vibration in the air, and what better air to carry those vibrations than the air of its origin? (Technically, Neil’s from Toronto and Harvest was recorded in Nashville, but hey—who’s counting.)
We had a bit of time before the Vancouver show, so we stopped by a record store and a music shop in town. After about an hour of browsing, we were about to head to the venue, The Pearl, when Ikeda suddenly said, “I think there’s a shop nearby that specializes in wind instruments—I wanna check it out.” He disappeared for a while and came back empty-handed. Turned out it was a repair shop, not a retail one.
The venue was impressive—good acoustics, a built-in VJ setup, and a capacity of around 500 or 600. Probably the highest-spec space we’ve played so far on this tour. A room like that gets you hyped up whether you want to be or not.
While we were doing individual sound checks, Ikeda started looking flustered. I asked what was going on, and he said his saxophone wouldn’t make a sound. Something inside had broken. He quickly explained the situation to Mikey and then called the repair shop he’d just been to. Even though it was almost closing time, the technician said he’d come out to the venue to take a look. Honestly, it felt too perfect to be a coincidence.
Sure enough, the sax got fixed just in time for the show—and the set turned out to be one of our best yet. While we were standing by the merch table afterward, the technician who had saved the day stopped by. We gave him a heartfelt thank-you and handed him one of our records as a gift. It really hit me then—how each little encounter like this is helping shape the journey of our tour.
That night, we sold 2,080 CAD worth of merch—about 1,500 USD. Our remaining costs now stand at around 9,600 USD, finally dipping under the 10k mark. Even so, in yen, it’s still nearly ¥1.5 million. Since Canada doesn’t support our digital payment setup, these two shows were a bit of a gamble—but we made it through the bottleneck. I felt like we could breathe again.
Saturday, April 12
We crossed the border again and decided to stop in Seattle for lunch. We found a burger joint run by Asian staff that served up something really tasty.
One thing about driving in the U.S.—you can park in designated shoulder areas for a fee. It varies by location, but around $2 an hour seems standard. We always use this method when we’re hanging out in town, but today, things went sideways. After we ate our burgers, we had about 30 minutes left on the meter, so we dropped by a nearby record store. Mikey got so deep into crate-digging that he lost track of time. When we got back to the van, there was a slip of paper stuck under the windshield wiper.
Mikey cradled his head in his hands.
It was a ticket—a $65 fine for going over the time limit. A completely avoidable expense. Lesson learned.
Our fifth stop on the tour, Portland’s Wonder Ballroom, might’ve been the best venue yet. Spacious stage, a big floor, solid security staff, and even a decent green room. The only downside was the small merch area. But the hospitality? Top-notch. They even handed us $150 in cash for dinner. You’d hardly believe this was America.
Sound setup was a bit tricky—the shape of the room made the low end boom too much. We worked with the PA over a long stretch, tweaking things little by little. In the end, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to feel comfortable playing.
We were initially given just 30 minutes to perform, but we negotiated an extra 10 minutes and secured a 40-minute set. Overseas, they’re usually flexible with this kind of thing—but only if you speak up. If you stay silent, your rights just slip away. Communicating fairly is essential when you’re trying to share your music. We’re not just here to visit America—we came here to play.
The Portland crowd? Especially the ones up front—they were incredible dancers. It’s a culture town, and you could tell many in the audience already knew us.
After the show, I packed up my gear and rushed to the merch table—only to find a massive crowd and… no one manning it. Mikey had disappeared. I scrambled to start selling, but by then, Etran’s set had already begun, and the crowd drifted back to the music. We really dropped the ball on that one. We’ll need to rethink our process going forward.
Even so, people came back during and after Etran’s set, and we managed to pull in $2,300 in merch sales. Given the crowd and the size of the venue, I think we could’ve done even better.
That brought our remaining costs down to $7,300.
But then—one big oversight surfaced. We hadn’t accounted for the profit share owed to Ground Control, the U.S. booking agency who put the tour together, and to our manager, Go-chan. That meant an additional $2,700 had to be added to our costs.
Recalculating everything, the total tour cost now stood at $18,700. Subtracting the revenue from our shows so far, we were left with exactly $10,000 in remaining expenses.
With nine shows left, we’d need to average $1,112 in profit per show to break even. The venues will start getting smaller as we head south, but we’ve still got some big ones lined up—Oakland, L.A., and Austin Psych Fest among them. If things keep going like they have, we should be able to come out ahead. And that’s a relief.
To be continued next time
Click here to see the article in the series.
maya ongaku US TOUR dates 2025
Apr 08 Seattle, WA, US｜Neumos
Apr 09 Bellingham, WA, US｜The Shakedown
Apr 10 Victoria, BC, Canada｜Wicket Hall
Apr 11 Vancouver, BC, Canada｜The Pearl
Apr 12 Portland, OR, US｜Wonder Ballroom
Apr 14 Chico, CA, US｜Argus Bar + Patio
Apr 15 Oakland, CA, US｜The New Parish
Apr 17 San Luis Obispo, CA, US｜SLO Brew Rock
Apr 18 Jacumba Hot Springs CA, US｜Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel
Apr 19 Los Angeles (LA), CA, US｜Teragram Ballroom
Apr 20 Flagstaff, AZ, US｜Coconino Center for the Arts
Apr 22 Santa Fe, NM, US｜Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery
Apr 23 Oklahoma City, OK, US｜Resonant Head
Apr 24 Austin, TX, US｜APF 25: Kickoff Party
maya ongaku
maya ongaku is a three-piece band formed in 2021 by Tsutomu Sonoda, Ryota Takano, and Shoei Ikeda, hailing from a coastal village near Enoshima, Japan. Rooted in an organic, psychedelic sound that feels both grounded and untethered, their music draws from collective improvisation and the atmosphere of their local music scene.
The band’s name—maya ongaku—is a coined term, not taken from ancient history, but imagined as a landscape beyond the visible frame, hinting at the spiritual and the unseen. The group sees their beginning as a kind of spontaneous emergence—like life arising from non-life—something that simply happened, without pretense or planning.
In May 2023, they released their debut album ‘Approach to Anima’ via Guruguru Brain and Bayon Production, followed by a successful EU/UK tour in November and a domestic tour across Japan in December.
Their latest EP ‘Electronic Phantoms’ was released in August 2024. That same month, they hosted “rhythm echo noise” in collaboration with WWW, inviting Dutch artist Felbm to Tokyo. The band was also named Best Breakthrough Artists at the inaugural TOKYO ALTER MUSIC AWARD 2024, a new platform highlighting emerging voices from Tokyo’s independent scene.
maya ongaku has performed at major Japanese festivals such as Mori, Michi, Ichiba, FFKT, FUJI ROCK, Asagiri JAM, and FUJI & SUN. Internationally, they have appeared at festivals in Korea and China, steadily expanding their presence in Asia and beyond.
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