The hallmark of Kazutaka Nomura’s music is the harmony of beautiful, intricate guitar along an accented tenor singing simple, touching lyrics. Kaz (as he’s affectionately known among his Seattle colleagues) is the sole member of his project PWRFL Power, gaining King County infamy after his song, “It’s Okay” was featured in a commercial for Esurance. He moved to Brooklyn earlier this year. I spoke with Kaz at one of Seattle’s many cafés, near the Seattle Center where he performed at this year’s Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival.

Kellis: Where were you before Seattle?

Nomura: I was living in Japan. I lived there for 18 years and moved here in the summer of 2003. I went to Cornish College of the Arts and graduated in December of 2007 in classical music composition and classical guitar.

Kellis: What are you going to miss about Seattle?

Nomura: People are relaxed here, there’s less stress. It’s quieter  — there’s a lot of noise in New York City.

Kellis: Why did you move out to Brooklyn?

Nomura: I felt like it was time to move to a bigger city and play for a bigger audience. In Seattle, a lot of people know my name, and anyone who’s in that scene has seen me play once or twice. I wanted a change.

Kellis: PWRFL Power is not, really. It’s more of a rock/pop type deal. One doesn’t usually have lyrics like PWRFL Power’s in classical music. How did you fall into doing that kind of music instead of straight-up Bach?

Nomura: I was making a lot of noise music before this project, and got sick of that so I started to do something more “poppy.” I tried to combine things I learned at the college into traditional songwriting styles.

Kellis: Last night you gave your cell phone number out to all the audience to have a funniest-text competition. What was the best one? Which won the CD?

Nomura: This one’s pretty good: “there are two muffins hanging in the oven. One muffin says ‘is it hot in here, or is it just me?’ The other one says, ‘oh, a talking muffin!’”

Kellis: The album’s called PWRFL Power. E*Rock (Eric Mast) did the art. How did you hook up with him?

Nomura: The label (Slender Means Society) owner, Zac (Pennington, of Parenthetical Girls), is good friends with Eric, so when he heard my songs Zac decided to ask Eric for album art, and that’s what he came up with.

Kellis: Did you decide to put it out on both CD and LP, or was that Zac?

Nomura: Zac wanted to do CDs first, and his friends Gabe and Alec in New York who have a label called Aagoo in Brooklyn wanted to do vinyl, so we just did a split release.

Kellis: Some of the songs were recorded on your birthday, is that right?

Nomura: Actually, two EPs I have, “Extra Ball and “Injured Fruits,” were recorded on my birthday last year. It was also Thanksgiving. There was nothing to do so I just recorded. I turned 23 that year, and I think I spent about two hours to record fifty-five minutes of material. I don’t rerecord things — I just do first or second take and
use them.

Kellis: Is there anything on your mind when you write your short songs
versus your long songs?

Nomura: I just keep playing. I try not to think about it too much. I try to look at the audience, to have eye contact with people.That way I can sing to them rather than sing my songs in my
little world.

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