It’s impossible until it happens

Months ago, I stumbled upon some old posts on X dating back to May 2018. They were from Japanese users sharing my song “The Things” from Small Music From Broken Windows. It was completely unexpected. After doing some digging, I discovered that one of my favorite artists – Mr. Yukihiro Takahashi – had played the track during a radio show on NHK. I was incredibly flattered, and honestly, I had no idea.

I had actually spoken with Yukihiro a few times. Back in 2014, he ‘almost’ made a guest appearance on my album Dime Novels. I’m a nobody, but he was incredibly kind. In true Japanese fashion, he never actually declined my offer, but he never accepted it either. It didn’t matter, though. We stayed in touch, and when Small Music came out, I sent him the promotional video for “The Things”. He replied, saying he liked the song.

Well, little did I imagine that he enjoyed it enough to include it in his playlist. I managed to track down the recording, and I got incredibly emotional hearing him talk about the track and mention my name.

Fast forward to December 2023, when I received a message from Steve Jansen, a frequent collaborator of mine (most recently, he appeared on my album Dormiveglia). To my surprise, Steve wanted to involve me in a demo track he had recorded back in 1982 with the Yukihiro Takahashi band, during a break from their tour. The track had been left unfinished ever since.

I jumped at the opportunity. Yukihiro’s music is incredibly dear to me, and I thought this would be a wonderful way to honor his memory.

Here are Steve’s own words about the song and its history:

Recently I mentioned that I had a cassette tape from over 40 years ago when The Takahashi Band of 82 made a demo track for a potential TV commercial. The track was only worked on for a day or two and then abandoned. I think we all had a busy year and for whatever reason this recording was discarded.

I also talked about sharing the recording one day just for nostalgic reasons, however the mix was a very basic end-of-day progress mix and no vocal part was conceived. Sharing it in this form would not do the potential of the work any justice.

The track began with chords and synths that Yukihiro Takahashi recorded, the basic building blocks of his composition. I added the drum part. Having been intensively rehearsing and performing Takahashi material this triggered a distinct blend of my own style as might appear on tracks such as ‘The Art of Parties’ and Yukihiro’s style on tracks such as ‘Glass’. Haruomi Hosono added his brilliance on bass, as well as Masami Tsuchiya overlaying guitar parts and Hajime Tachibana adding a saxophone solo.

Fast forward over 40 years….

At the end of 2023 I sent the demo to singer/songwriter Marco Machera, someone I’ve collaborated with a few times in the past and whose vocal style I felt would compliment the music. Yukihiro also enjoyed Marco’s music, including it on his own radio show. I asked Marco to consider adding a vocal which he was happy to do, also composing lyrics too.

I used an AI program to break down the stereo mix of the original cassette recording into individual tracks (this is a relatively new technology and although the quality struggled it allowed for a little bit more flexibility with the mixing and blending of new overdubs). The performed parts were retained, and to which I recorded some additional instrumentation as well as joining Marco on the chorus vocals. I made a new mix of the track. So what we have here is the finished piece: “Impossible Until It Happens”.

Marco and I share this as an homage to Yukihiro who passed away this time last year and is greatly missed. We can feel the essence of Yukihiro’s writing style in this track and we hope that you enjoy it.

So, I’d say it truly is a case of “it’s impossible until it happens.” In a way, it feels like coming full circle. I really hope you enjoy the song, and of course, I want to thank Steve for giving me this incredible opportunity.

Yukihiro lives on! Listen to the track here.
You can read the song lyrics’ here.