Sneak Peek: June Kuramato Podcast 

June Kuramoto remembers her early jams with multi-instrumentalist Dan Kuramoto when they founded the band Hiroshima.

June Kuramoto: So what he (Dan) and I originally did was jammed Koto and flute since he played flute together. So we would play that together, assimilating the traditional way where I played traditional Koto music and he would improvise his flute over my pieces. And that was the start. But I said, but that's beautiful and it works, but we wanted to do something more. So he encouraged me to improvise. And I go, "Improvise? What's that? Write me the music and I'll transcribe it, and then I'll do whatever." But he goes, "No, listen, play what you hear." And I go, "I don't hear anything." And he goes, "No, you got to listen." And that was the blood, sweat and tears of beginning of learning to open up and to really throw away everything you learned… And so, you have to sort of swallow your ego and your pride and start all over. And that's how Hiroshima began with this new sound of incorporating Koto.