And Koivisto doesn't mind if she doesn't make the scene
Abstract
This is a story about how some girls do a lifelong band and break up after releasing one less than legendary album. The better side of this is that they still meet up and no one regrets anything, mostly.
The title is a blatant plagiarism of the famous Dire Straits song. I'm a fan.
Characters
Founder, vocalist / percussionist and sometimes drummer of the dissolved band Shirokaba Express Service. Protagonist.
Fully understood what she wanted about music and had a peaceful fallout with the other members that thought differently.
Uni mates with Whyte and Sagawa.
Came to Hokkaido for uni and majored in forestry.
Still makes music in her free time under another name. Many of those are sung by vocal synthesisers because she 'can't be too arsed to do all the vocal post-production stuff, that's for pros'.
Koivisto basically means 'Birchwood' so you know there's something to do with the band name.
Emi Whyte-Iwami / 岩見咲
Another founder and bassist of the said band SES. Main perspective.
English father and Japanese mother. And despite being brought up in Obihiro she speaks good English albeit with some heavy Midlands influence inherited from her father. She speaks good Japanese too.
Major was computer science but she was kind of pessimistic about the jobseeking perspective, so decided to drop out and play music for a living.
You should now realise the band name is a random and probably bad pun of its founders.
Sagawa Jun / 佐川純
Founding member of SES. Played the guitar and also took over the vocal responsibilities after Niina Koivisto left.
Also uni mates with Koivisto and Whyte, but a bit less acquainted. Majored in biology but essentially didn't care about that.
I kind of realised the band name has to be more bad as a pun so there are now three persons involved.
Shibeuchi Asami / 蘂内あさみ
Less of a founding member but technically a founding member of SES. Plays a range of brass and woodwind instruments, but mostly trumpet.
A bit strange to have a wind instrumentalist in a post-punk band but here she is. And she was not from the same uni as the other three. A session jazz player at different venues, she was personally acquainted with Whyte and to a lesser extent Koivisto.
Apparently a musician would appreciate being full-time over having to also work at instrument stores and bars part-time. So she basically jumped at the chance of going pro.
Her name is not part of the band name but I would assume the family name is extra rare. In fact it's more supposed to read Shibenai but for that was too Hokkaido her family changed the reading. Before she was born.
Kondo Miyuki / 近藤深雪
After 9 years of session and touring drummers the new SES finally gets a regular drummer and she is Kondo Miyuki.
She's young, just out of high school, got accepted by a musical uni, and literally at her own crossroads.
Plot
9 years ago, Niina Koivisto left the band she founded because she wanted to at least get a bachelor's degree. The other co-founder which is Emi White-Iwami thought otherwise, favouring the option of dropping out and going professional.
The story
A week ago I received a message from Niina Koivisto. Said she was coming down to Tokyo for work, but with enough free time to sneak a concert and a late drinking party into her schedule. Of course I said yes and I offered her one of those promo tickets. And not unexpected she replied that she already booked her own. What you would expect from someone like Niina Koivisto. And by the way as long as I've known her she never drank anything alcholic. It'll be a
'I heard you finally got a replacement for me', she also wrote. Which is true, and was probably all over the promotions about our new album tour. She also asked if the new drummer would want to join the party or not, so I had to check.
In all honesty, I didn't think Kondo Miyuki, which was the new drummer, have any grudge against Koivisto. In fact, I thought on Miyuks' end there was also some desire to know more about this mysterious figure that always will be part of our band. But I checked with her just to make sure.
'Sure, why not? And I've always wanted to ask Ms Koivisto some questions.' was the reply from Miyuki, just as what I thought. So I forwarded that to Niina, and not much later a table for 5 at the usual place was booked.
And now we're at the place. Me and Sagawa. We live together now and we've been together after the show today.
Asami just texted saying she'll be one tad late because of trains. Miyuki is already waiting at the entrance.
'Smashing drums, Miyuks. Just what you're capable of.' I give her some deserved praise for the performance earlier, and Sagawa nods in agreement. A slight blush emerges on Miyuki's cheeks. 'Why don't we get inside?'
'Is that alright? I mean... Ms Koivisto is still not here?'
'We're way beyond that sort of formalities. Plus, she'll be happy if we have the initial meat on the grill when she arrives.' I ask the receptionist to take us in.