The Tak Arikushi Trio

Tak Arikushi – guitar
Debi Botos – guitar
Alex Fournier – bass

COVER: $20

Growing up, Tak didn’t hear much music around the house. Music wasn’t really a part of the day-to-day in his family. But when he discovered it, he fell in love. He taped many songs off the radio with his tiny little radio/tape machine listening through a tinny-sounding speaker. A few years later he was gifted a CD player sound system and what he heard through the speakers blew him away. Subtle nuances in the music were revealed to him, and the new sounds hit him hard.

Fast forward a few more years and he picks up the guitar for the first time. The music classes at his school taught him how to strum a few chords to songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Leaving on a Jetplane”. After quickly mastering the school lessons, he moved on to his obsession with the band Metallica as a reason to challenge himself to play with virtuosity.

It wasn’t until he was 14 that he had one of the most profound experiences with the power of music. One morning at school he was called to the principal’s office and sent home because of an emergency. When he arrived home, he was told his mother passed away in her sleep. Not knowing what to do, he eventually found himself with guitar in hand and playing a song dedicated to his mother. The catharsis he experienced as a teenager made him realize music’s power to heal and change people.