I first met Tetsu in the summer of 2018, when he was playing a gig at Bar Alchemy in Kobe, Japan. At that time, I was living in a sharehouse directly above the bar. One night, I heard someone wailing on an electric guitar, playing soulful blues licks. I was drawn in immediately and when I went down into the bar, there was Tetsu. He had seen a video of my performance before, so he asked if I would join him for that night's gig. I agreed and we played blues and rock cover songs all night. Shortly after that, I returned to the US and didn’t see Tetsu for another couple of years. When I came back to Japan, I was just starting to do recording work at Rudiez Studios and he booked a session. He showed up with an acoustic guitar and played some very impressive original music. This whole time, I had only thought of Tetsu as a blues guitar player, limited to playing Hendrix covers and such, but during these sessions, I realized that he was actually a true artist and a gifted songwriter. Over the course of the next year, Tetsu refined his original music and brought in song after song. Each new song he brought revealed another side of his artistry.