Doug Koyama is one of the most eye-catching figures in local music. He has an unforgettable broad smile. He is often sporting a cascading beard and heavy dose of stormy hair. He has diamonds for eyes that aren't afraid to look at you. He has broad shoulders and a stout build. And from somewhere inside him, seemingly from an inner layer of humanity, out comes a voice so thick and creamy you'd guess it was dipped in blackberry porter before each word is spoken.
If seeing him once wasn't enough to affix him in your mind, this summer you'd see him constantly if you followed the region's music scene. Koyama has been a ubiquitous figure at music festivals and special events all over B.C. and this is one of his busiest periods of the summer.
This weekend, he performs at the Robson Valley Music Festival in Dunster. The following weekend has it at the Music On the Mountain Festival in Fort St. James. He then heads south for Quadrapalooza on Quadra Island and the Serenity Harvest Festival at Birch Island on the Sept. 5 weekend.
He has already been to the Mini Maker Faire in Vancouver, the Tiny Lights Festival in Ymir, the Smithers Midsummer Music Festival, Arts On the Fly in Horsefly, Billy Barker Days in Quesnel, Hootstock in Forest Grove near 100 Mile house, the gypsy jazz event in Victoria called Djangofest, East Vancouver's House Festival, the ArtsWells event in Wells, all the way to Haida Gwaii for the Edge of the World Festival, and now he is back in Prince George awaiting his upcoming assignments from the stars.
He attends these events for the same reason each time - a love of live music, preferably outdoors - but he attends in different capacities. He puts on a riveting stage show, but he is often seen at the front gate taking tickets and welcoming the incoming visitors, or behind the scenes using his graphic design skills to build the event's posters and websites, or on stage between acts being the master of ceremonies.
He has been doing jobs like this for the local Cold Snap Festival dating back to when it was the slowly merging Calico Concerts Series and the Prince George Folk Festival. So how can one solo musician endure so long, and attend so many varied events? It is easier when your music has no language or formal form.
"Without making it sound too 'hippie' for lack of a better word, I create soundscapes using only my voice on a loop pedal," he said. "The loop pedal allows me to record sounds I can make go round and round, then I layer them. A simple sound like a 'Huh' when you do it like this - 'Huh-Huh-Huh-Huh' - by the time you hear it for the fourth time, it's a rhythm. Then I just react from the audience and let that dictate the flow of where it goes. And on top of that I sing in an improvised manner. I like to call it the newest music, because it was born right now, right in front of us all."
The main difference between a bona fide abstract painter and someone who scribbles aimlessly is command of the image. Same with Koyama's control of his freeform abstract music.
Koyama lets himself drift into this current, floating through elements of rhythm and melody without the constrictions of language and using the emancipations of technology. He pipes little vocal seeds into loop pedals and with the push of a few buttons they cycle and layer and take on special effects as Koyama sings through it in a made-up mother tongue that is both nonsense and total sense.
"I truly believe that I have found my purpose, and that is to show people what is possible in that thing we all love called music," he said.
The songs he builds, never the same twice due to the spontaneity, come out of his perceptions of the moment and the countless musical impressions laying in wait inside his mind. He is sometimes a didgeridoo, sometimes a saxophone, sometimes a tambourine, and then when he ties them together with melodic vocalizations it feels like someone has found the hidden trail between the clouds and the bottom of the sea.
What he also does is uplift music as an art form. Koyama behaves like an artist not a preacher. His mission is to show audiences what music is made from at its raw fibers, not look down on pop songs or dissuade listeners from liking the latest trend on the airwaves.
"I do some of those songs in my shows, sometimes," he said, all smiles. "I love to sing Boy For Sale, the Mr. Bumble Song from the musical Oliver. I've loved that song since I did that play in 1972 in Grade 8. It's been my shower song since then. I fairly frequently cover a song called Cod Fisher by a band called Lily Come Down, a simple tune with a simple chorus that allows us all to do an audience participation together.'
He also gets the audience to become the loop pedals. Adding another category of appreciation to what he does with human-directed sounds, he turns off the machines and gets the crowd to do sections of the soundscape instead, proving irrefutably how easy it is and how it waits inside all off us for a chance to come outside and play.
Now that deserves a hug. Who doesn't want a hug? Koyama also specializes in the hug. His logo is the slogan Doug Rhymes With Hug and he famously gives them out for free wherever he goes. It's the physical version of the primal music, he said, turning negative emotion into positive energy through the easy act of affirmation.
The hugs, the peaceful views of artistic power, and a universal presentation that takes listeners to the primal waters of music - what festival wouldn't want that for its audience? Anyone who attends any of the area's live music showcases will likely cross paths with Koyama eventually, and share in the experience.
