Many people talk about “finding themselves” when they travel. I believe that this is a bit of cliché, but there is some truth to it. When you remove yourself from your normal routine, you suddenly have an opportunity to view your life from a distance, so to speak, and reflect on the decisions you’ve made and the path on which you are headed. Some of my biggest life changes have come after a trip when I’ve realized that my life is not quite moving in the direction it should be.

And the Jet Set Zero experience is no different. I am working here, which keeps me busy, but I find myself with WAY more down time than at home. I have a lot of time to think about work, relationships, goals, what makes me happy, and the decisions I’ve made that have brought me here. This process is really one of my favourite parts of travelling – kind a “refocus” that is difficult to do when you’re busy living your life.

Some background if you don’t already know me: I used to be heavily involved in music. For a number of years, playing the saxophone was my whole life and I was fairly successful with it. I performed with David Foster and toured around Europe, among other achievements. But something happened after I graduated. My original goal was to become a music teacher until a year of student teaching opened my eyes to what a bad fit that would be for me. Then, I wanted to major in performance, but everyone knows how tough it is to eke out a living doing that (so I scrapped that plan – went with my head rather than my heart). I played in all kinds of bands as an adult but eventually that decreased as other responsibilities took priority.

Now, I am a huge music fan who spends a large portion of her money on seeing live music and going to shows. I have a sizeable collection and get grumpy if I have to walk anywhere and don’t have my ipod. Lots of my friends are musicians, but I myself no longer play.

Last night we went to a jazz club here in Saigon. It’s actually called “Sax’n'Art” as it focuses on the saxophone. The moment we walked in and I saw 4 saxs sitting on stands on stage, I felt that familiar tug. “Why am I not up there?” I thought to myself. “Why did I ever give that up? When exactly did that happen?” The main guy, prominent jazz saxophonist Tran Manh Tuan, ripped into one of the best versions of Sweet Georgia Brown I’ve ever heard and I’m pretty sure I had a gigantic grin on my face until the last note. It sounds cheesy, but it actually filled my heart with joy to hear them play – it’s been a long time since I’ve heard that. His sax even had that unpolished look that I love of an instrument that has played a lot of tunes and seen a lot of gigs. Our evening at the jazz club was one of the better nights I’ve spent here.

As they played, I had time to think about my departure from music, and how much I miss it. I think that, among other things, picking up that saxophone again is one thing I will attempt when I eventually return home. And I have travelling to thank for bringing that to my attention.

Behold! True Believers actually do have a website:

http://www.myspace.com/beholdtruebelievers

So that shows what I know. Go check it out, and guess which of the songs on their page I’m thinking of using next!

I think his music came up in conversation at the first ever Jet Set Zero production meeting back in Seattle and we all said “yeah, it would be rad to have that on the show,” then never did anything about it.  After our success with Space Captain in Season 1 though, I started seriously considering contacting him.  I thought it was going to be a difficult process of convincing him to let us use his music so when I got an immediate “sure, your show looks cool!” the next day I was left pretty confused with all my follow up arguments dangling in the wind.

Getting his music on the show has been great, but it was all seriously just a ploy to let me use Earth’s Assault on the Central A.I. in… something.  I didn’t care how or in what context, I needed to work with that song.  So thank you Judson, and thank you to all the other groups we’ve worked with over the past year. You’ve been a big part of making Jet Set Zero what it is today.

We’ll probably be using more of Tettix’s work in the future along with our ever growing roster of new musicians, so stay tuned and don’t forget to check out the artists’ pages!

Judson Cowan, Tettix

I’ve always strived to tell a story with my music. I usually insert subtle hints at what the story in my mind was but I mostly leave it up to the listener to interpret. I’m always curious to see different people’s interpretations too. It really gives me no end of joy. Some people apply my music in ways that hit pretty close to the mark. Others apply it in ways I never would have imagined. I cannot think of a more flattering application than JSZ’s adventures in Tokyo. A truly remarkable story. It’s a constantly evolving beast that I think has grown into something the guys never would have expected when they embarked but I’m sure all of you viewers – like myself – have been spellbound the whole way. And as much as I hate to end a sentence in a preposition, it’s a story I’m humbled to be part of.

I would never have the balls to sell my place and quit my job. To give up all the creature comforts I’ve amassed over the years. To fly thousands of miles from my home country without an inkling of what lay in store for me. All I can do is sit in the comfort of my studio, thousands of miles away, and type “absolutely!” whenever Jed asks to use a new song. I may have only contributed music, the other great bands who have been involved may only have done the same, the viewers may only have contributed their time, but we’re all cheering you on and we’re all thrilled to be along for the ride.

Ganbatte, fellas.

To learn more about Tettix, and for a full song archive, visit www.tettix.net. You can find “The Graves of Good Humans” on Technology Crisis II.