How has Fuji Rock been?
I’ve enjoyed just hanging out and seeing the culture of the festival. You know, every festival has its own vibe to it, it was cool to go out and see the stuff in the forest and kinda see different areas where people can chill, where it gets crazy, the whole food vendor area was nice. Tried a bunch of different foods, it was cool.

You’ve played a lot of festivals around the world, does Fuji rock hold up to the competition?
Absolutely. Some people might be intimidated by the size of the festival, what it takes to walk from one place to the next. And although that is true, ‘oh man, we have to walk 20 minutes to get to this thing’ instead of like 4 minutes. It really is, at the end of the day, for the musical experience, for both the band and the listener, it makes it worth it. We’ve played festivals before where it’s literally two stages facing each other and, like, basically a soccer field in between, and one half is watching one side the one half the other. I might be playing a ballad and there’s a DJ on the other stage. You just completely lose the vibe. As a musician it can be hard to focus and give your best performance. But here, in a lot of ways they have curated the festival grounds so the artist can deliver their best performance by having some of that kind of isolated feel. You really know the people who came are there to see your show and are there for that experience. Of course you still might have people walk by and catch a little bit of the set, I mean that is the nature of a festival, why festivals can be great, but here there’s a little more intentionality in the way things are set up both for the listener and the performer, which I really appreciate.

You and some of your associated acts like Vulfpeck and the Fearless Flyers have a strong following in Japan, especially amongst musicians. What do you think draws you together?
It is hard to put my finger exactly on it. I think in general what I’ve noticed is a lot of Japanese musicians and Japanese muso-fans appreciate a different type of attention to detail, a different level of appreciation for excellence. I mean, of course I think that spans across the culture as well. I’ve just seen the way some cats are making coffee and I’m like, you care. I go to a restaurant and see the way someone is preparing something and I’m like, you care. Even the way this festival is programmed and set up, people care. And one thing I’ve noticed about Japanese fans and musicians around here is people really care about seeing an artist with a real vision and a real fingerprint, something that feels very intentional and with an attention to detail. Like with Vulfpeck, there is definitely an aesthetic, a specific sound to it and a specific community and universe of its own. A lot of Japanese artists who I’ve talked to kind of appreciate having all those things wrapped up into one.

Being an instrumental musician, is it easier for you to connect to audiences that don’t speak English since there is no language barrier?
I think that there are certain barriers I don’t have to deal with with instrumental music, and there are certain barriers that I’m definitely up against. I think in general people like to connect with the human voice, it is easier for the general person to connect with something when there is a very specific story that’s being told to them. I know these words, this story is being told directly to me, I know how to interpret it. With instrumental music, I might have an intention behind writing a song, for example I write a song and I am envisioning this vast frozen landscape in Minnesota, looking out on a frozen lake. There is all this space and there is all this white. And so I’ll write a piece of music that comes from that vision. And then someone might listen to that song in the middle of a desert, and they’ll look out and see a horizon line with a bunch of reds and browns in this vast expanse of nature. They’ll think this is exactly what this music was created for. And they’re not wrong at all. They can connect with it in a much broader sense, where if I wrote words about a frozen lake, nobody in the desert is going to be able to connect with it in that moment. I can write with a certain intention in mind, but when it is out in the world it is yours, yours to interpret.

Thanks for talking to us today Cory. Do you have any parting words for all the Fuji Rockers out there?
Thanks so much for having me! I’m so thrilled to be here for my first time. I’m excited to share my experience with those of you who came. I appreciate all of you who have messaged me over the years to come to Japan. I’m finally here and I couldn’t be more excited!