We were lucky to catch up with Sean Ibanez and Kena Sosa recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean and Kena, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Sean: I started kit drumming as a teen, and heard taiko for the first time form a Kodo concert in 2001. I immediately wanted to learn and join a group. That didn’t happen until 2004 when I moved for graduate school and joined Dondoko Taiko of Fort Worth. From there I delved in, learning what I could about taiko from the group and from the internet. I joined a second group, Dallas Kiyari Daiko because I felt I didn’t have enough time to practice and perform. Shortly thereafter I applied to study with the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble in Hawai’i. That was a tough year. The most important thing I learned, both through taiko and my masters degree in Sculpture, is that you have to take the learning upon yourself. No one is handing out the knowledge and the skills. Your mind and your time need to be focused on what you want. To speed up my learning? I wish I’d learned kuchi-shouga sooner. For playing taiko, the language of the drum is called kuchi-shouga, and we’re taught the music through that oral tradition. We learn to the speak what we play. I didn’t learn this until I moved to Hawai’i and I wish I’d learned it sooner because it was a big hurdle to teach my self that practice.

Kena: I got my start in percussion in the high school drumline, playing bass drum then snare. I first saw taiko when I was an exchange student in Kumamoto, Japan in college. I was in awe of it but never thought I’d have the opportunity to learn, that was until I moved to Dallas. I was volunteering for the Japan America Society when I found out a local taiko group, Dallas Kiyari Daiko was recruiting. I leapt into action and joined. What I didn’t realize at the time was how much I would have to unlearn to begin learning true taiko style. Taiko involves the full body, it embraces the spaces between notes and fills them with movement. It is a true experience. I gained a lot from my time with that group, but more than anything a love for taiko. Years later, I reconnected with Sean who had started his own taiko group with new original songs. I jumped at the chance to create. Since forming Goisagi, I have been driven to get my skills to the next level, even writing my own music. What a journey it has been.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Sean: Goisagi is a taiko ensemble with members from around DFW. Each of us has a different background, day job, etc, and taiko is what we pursue in our off time. Taiko is Japanese drumming (the word taiko meaning large-bodied drum), a combination of traditional rhythms and methods combined with modern improvisation and choreography. Most times people think of drum group and think jam session: a bunch of drummers percussionists just vibing off one another. While there are improvised elements in taiko pieces, most of the music is choreographed and designed. Each section knows their part, what its should look like, how it should fit with the other parts, interlacing to create the music. What sets us apart from other local acts is that we write all our own music, choreographing it and workshopping our ideas as a team. While we all know other pieces from other groups–famous or otherwise, and have learned to play traditional pieces, we aimed to make our own sound and look from the start. Part of that was done because Kena and I both met in Kiyari, and we didn’t want to be borrowing music or stepping on the toes of other groups in DFW. We saw a niche, had an artistic vision, and worked hard at it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Sean: Pay them. While that sounds obvious or ridiculous, there’s a propensity for festivals and venues to expect to find free performers or to lowball you because they don’t have a budget. It’s extremely frustrating to train, compose, choreograph, and prepare for a 30-45″ performance for nothing or a hundred dollars. As a team of up to 7 people, we have a lot of overhead and a lot of equipment that needs care. We rent a space to train. While we may be often seen as a cultural practice, that doesn’t mean that we should be prepared to do it for the love of the craft. Indeed, that’s why we started it, but nothing lasts without that income. That said, we have several venues and contacts that work their ends off to help us, to get us classes to teach, and annual performances (looking at you Rita and Nansii). We’re so thankful for that.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

Kena: I think it’s difficult for people to instinctively view art as work unless they are artists. If you put together a five minute song, performance, monologue or film, a non-creative may view and enjoy it for five minutes. However, the creative understands that there are at minimum weeks, but actually months or years it took to come to this point to provide the five minutes of art, intrigue, and expression as an artist.

It likely took years to develop the skills to perform a song to the level the audience heard. It took hours of rehearsals at that level of artistry, or in the case of film, it took days of filming and then weeks of editing, correcting and preparing. It probably took weeks of emails back and forth to organize and come to an agreement on the performance and additional time to promote it. That five minutes of joy cost the artists a lot of life and they chose to pay that cost to bring it to you.

That being said, it was created with all it took for that artist to become who they are, so please show support and understand that you are seeing a destination photo, a quick snapshot, but it is our lifelong journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @goisagi.daiko
• Facebook: goisagi.daiko
• Youtube: @goisagidaiko4749
• Other: Our album ‘Alight’ is on Spotify. Just find us under Goisagi.

Image Credits

Alyssa Quinones
Mayuri Patel