Watch Celebrating Chicago: Exploring the City’s Optimistic Creativity with Multi-Instrumentalist Sen Morimoto – Warungku Terkini

[voices harmonizing] [jazzy music]

It’s me, Sen, you’re friendly neighbor.

I’m Sen Morimoto,

I’m a multi-instrumentalist.

Saxophone.

Drums.

Guitar.

Depending on the day, I’ll be at a different studio

playing different instruments, producing.

Probably turn these down.

It’s really an improvisational job, I would say.

[drummy music]

You gotta be optimistic.

[water bubbling] [birds chirping]

I have a hard time describing my sound.

I think it’s not one genre.

My music has an accidental mess to it.

Hardcore beat over this jazzy saxophone stuff.

I love long droning sounds that remind me

of the wind or a river.

I love rhythms that aren’t quantized,

don’t sound like machines,

but sounds like stepping on twigs in the woods.

You can close your eyes.

You can shut your mouth.

You can hold your nose, but your ears are always on.

I live in Chicago.

The city has given me so much.

I claim it as a place of love and family.

And I always have a sense of gratitude for the city

as a second home, as a place to uplift other artists.

But I love the community and city here.

[Collaborator] So now that’s an even four bar loop.

I can’t believe that.

You wanna see my paw?

No, I wanna see your claw. Oh my God.

Last year, we were at my friend Nambdi’s house

and I guess the camera was rolling.

And I jokingly said, I think it was pass me a claw.

Now, anytime people are hanging out

and there’s a bunch of White Claws,

I’m just like, pass me a claw.

[voices overlapping]

[can opening]

I love collaborating with friends.

It’s fun because you got someone

you know you can be honest with.

Everyone that I work with is

totally family at this point.

Off stage and on stage, we have each each other’s backs.

That all feeds into how we play

and really makes it something that you can feel.

Sometimes it feels like you’re on the outside,

looking in, even at yourself

it’s hard to kind of translate those feelings

into hard truths that you can grow from.

I feel like if you could reverse it

and you’ve come to understand the house and it’s your home

and now you’re ready to look out the window

at the rest of the world.

That’s where I’m headed, I think.

[gentle music]