DAN BRYK'S EXCELLENT JAPAN ADVENTURE

It’s been a few weeks since singer/songwriter Dan Bryk’s triumphant return from a whirlwind tour of Japan with indie rock god Stephen Malkmus, but he’s still near speechless with excitement when you ask him about it.

"It was just wicked! It was intense," he raves before settling into the perfect soundbite: "It was a rock ‘n’ roll holiday. The shows were great, Malkmus was really awesome." In fact, Bryk’s only complaint is that he couldn’t bring the rest of his band along with him.

The musician’s Japan adventure was chock full of culture shock. Malls straight out of Blade Runner, 15 hours of interviews, bizarre junk food, amazing coffee and other interesting treats in vending machines ("You can get anything in a vending machine in Japan.") and even Sloan worship ("Sloan are gods over there. Everyone in the music business has a question about Sloan," he reports). To top it all off, he even got to sing on stage with Malkmus, a bit of a musical hero to him, and had a great time doing it. "I even gave him a bow at the end," he laughs.

Besides getting to be a rock star on stage, he had the opportunity to live a bit of the lifestyle offstage as well. Not only was he constantly satisfying demands for autographs, but he was also finding himself in some more surreal situations. While making a late night, "tip of my hat to globalization" visit to a McDonald’s, he was recognized and approached by a pair of fans who wanted to tell him how much they enjoyed his show.

Not all fans were so forthcoming and polite, however, as Bryk and his girlfriend discovered when they noticed some girls playing video paparazzi with them across the street. The young stalkers-in-training were quickly pacified with a taste of their own medicine. "We turned around and took a picture of them and they giggled, like, ‘you caught us!’"

All in all, Bryk’s time in Japan had such a positive influence on him that he returned to Canada recharged and ready to write a whole batch of new tunes. While he’s looking forward to sharing this material with his home and native land, he’d jump at the chance to take another tour through his adopted country of pop. "It sounds like they want me to come back with the band later in the year. I’ve got my fingers crossed."

Photo caption: Thankfully Dan Bryk Can Walk Down The Streets Of Toronto Without Stalker Fans Trailing Him