The America that guitarist Azusa Suga knew from his childhood in Seattle and Tuscon, Arizona, in the 1990s has long since disappeared. Or, perhaps like most childhood memories, he just remembers it with rose-tinted glasses.
“Most of the stuff I remember is really good — making lots of friends, having fun, playing computer games like Oregon Trail,” says Suga, the founder of Tokyo rock band For Tracy Hyde. “I don’t really recall any instances of racism, but obviously that’s not the reality for everyone. There are people who experience a lot of nasty stuff.
“Over the past few years, I’ve been really worried about the direction the U.S. is taking, due to Donald Trump, the novel coronavirus, everything that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and more.”