Ocabanda @ MAGfest 2018 – A Recap
Day -1 – Coming In
Tuesday night, the day after New Year’s Day, my heart is racing in the airport while I anticipate my flight to leave San Jose. For the first time in six months and the second time ever, I am going to see my family – not biological, but through the Ocarina. As I wait for my red-eye flight to start boarding, I reminisce about our last time together, at Anime Expo during the summer.
David Ramos had the idea of starting a United States Ocarina Ensemble and asked other ocarinists to join him in this journey. I was lucky enough to have met him, gotten on his radar, and practiced the ocarina enough to meet his standards, and he asked me and five others to join and form a septet (as ocarina ensembles are traditionally structured). The seven of us, all coming from across the country, went to Los Angeles during the summer to meet, make music, and get our band started, and that time spent with them is one of my fondest memories. They, after a short time, became a second family.
Fast-forward a few months, and we name ourselves Ocabanda, we have a member swap, and we begin a crowdfunding campaign to pay for our next trip to MAGfest (Music and Gaming Fest) in Maryland. Between the crowdfunding and family/friend donations, we scrape by to pay for the essentials of the trip and make the plans definite, and all of us are ecstatic to meet again and to finally meet our new member.
All this runs through my mind, and then it’s time to board my flight. First stop, Chicago, where I have a 3 hour layover and meet up with Steven, another band member, as we take the same connecting flight to Baltimore.
Day 0 – Meeting Up
By now, it’s Wednesday morning, and we arrive around 9 AM. About an hour later, David arrives, then Ella, and then our new member Kaitlyn. Tad and Jordan, our Maryland natives, do not fly in, and Tad takes us to meet with Jordan and have some Chinese food near the airport. We also meet with an Ocarinist named Mark Chan who gives us some supplies and words of encouragement before we leave for Tad’s house to set up our living space, nap, buy groceries, eat dinner, and rehearse. We had a panel at the con the next day, so we had a lot of prep to do for the Ocabanda performance. That prep included sleep, and the dead-tired crew of musicians hit the hay for the night.
Day 1 – The Longest Day
We wake up early on Thursday to arrive at MAGfest by 10:30 to pick up our badges, prep for our panel, then do it. It was David’s panel and we were his assistants in presenting his information about Ocarinas to everybody, and in the last 15 minutes, we did a four-song performance. It went amazingly well, and we had some great feedback from our surprisingly large audience.
Next, we had lunch in a fairly packed manner on the side of a path in the hotel, then rehearsed in the Zelda Universe crew’s hotel room for a few hours to add songs to our repertoire and improve existing ones. Roxy (of RoxyRocksTV) filmed some of it, and she has been one of our best and most supportive friends through everything since Anime Expo. We finish rehearsing, grab Thai food for dinner together near the convention center without freezing either way, then have some free time.
As a Californian, snow has always been a foreign concept to me and it was mind blowing being in it. In our free time, some of us explore the vendor’s hall, play a bit in the gaming hall, or jam in a designated Jam-pod to play some music. Very late that night, a San Jose-native band named Super Soul Bros had a concert with a youtuber names InsaneInTheRain. As a personal acquaintance of Super Soul, it was my duty to see their concert, and many other Ocabanda members also came to watch (since they have fantastic music). 2:30 AM rolls around, and we leave halfway through their set, though it was magical. We al went home and got as much sleep as we could.
Day 2 – The Best Jam Session Ever
It was a late morning, a very late morning for us. We come to the convention after noon, have a lovely lunch provided by Jordan’s parents, then rehearse in the hotel room again. We keep improving, and we perform a set in a Jam pod with a great response! We visit a panel on making Gaming Music for Youtube, grab dinner, then have personal time until reconvening in the hotel room that night to join a jam session hosted by Materia, a gaming music collective. For an hour, we have a wonderful, insane time, jamming to songs from Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, and more.
The pinnacle of the room-jam was an intense group-sing-along of the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64 (which I suggested 🙂 ). When someone posted a video of that rap, the man who wrote it said that it brought a tear to his eyes, and that made me really happy to hear. Around 11, hotel security comes and kicks the 40-something group of people out of the room, and we continue the Jam in the convention center, which goes on for 3 more hours of pure bliss. Though, Ocabanda did dominate the Jam in terms of starting songs, which I felt a little bad about – but DANG was it fun. We go home late, once again and say “We’ll regret this tomorrow, but not in the long run,” which was 100% the case.
At home, some of us had a cereal party. We, at 3AM, all had a bowl of cereal and quietly, quietly talked to each other..
Day 3 – Photoshoots and Surprise Chipotle
Once again, we had a late morning, and we arrived at noon for a photoshoot with Mark Chan. After a couple hours of making fantastic photos in our formal wear, we prepare for a more official performance at an area called the Jam Space. We perform our full set, film some of it, and then all go to see the most creative panel I’ve ever seen – a Mario themed Opera called Aria Kart. It takes classic opera and musical theater standards and reworks the lyrics for their Mario-Kart plot. The panel was packed, and it was a highlight of the trip.
Afterward, we perform a modified version of our set – modified because David couldn’t make it and we moved some people around while recruiting Felix, a friend of Roxy’s to sight read one of the easier parts. That went surprisingly well, and without asking for tips in the slightest, we made $35. I also discovered that I can do introductions, talking between songs, and hyping the crowd fairly well!
To finish the night, we go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and had a reservation for 12 people. However, due to miscommunication, our reservation was the wrong day. So, instead of waiting an hour to get in in the coldest day of the trip (-3 degrees after wind chill), we make a surprise run to Chipotle, which goes faster and less expensively than what would have happened even if we had a reservation. I get to know Mark and Felix better, and I met Mark’s twin brother as well during the surprisingly chill evening.
As we leave, Kaitlyn and I are caught talking to Mark and Mike, and get separated from our group. Neither of us had a great sense of direction in that area, and it was an ordeal finding the others and the car to get back to Tad’s. It devolved to me roaming around on the correct floor of the parking lot, making gutteral screeches to try and track them down via a call and response system. It was wild, but we made it home.
That night, we have another cereal party – a truly lovely experience.
Day 4 – Last Day of MAG
Our group of seven had a relaxed final day with our only agenda being to do one final set. I buy a beanie, play some Super Smash Bros: Melee against a pretty decent local player (who was definitely a better player than I was). The time for our set arrives, but we had to delay until 2. On my way over, I ran into someone who was staying in the Zelda Universe room who turned out to be a Bay Area local named Daniel. We already talked after the Ocarina panel and when I saw him in the room, but he decided to come along with me to our Jam Space.
Daniel and I arrive at the Jam Space, and we have an unstructured Jam session for around two hours. David couldn’t make it again, so we decided to run as a 6 person ensemble for our set. However, the stars were aligned that afternoon, since Daniel, who turned out to be in major want of sight-reading material and a skilled Ocarinist, was right there. I asked him/ if he wanted to play the Contrabass part, and he nails it. That whole experience made him really happy, and it made me happy that we had that opportunity for him (and that he kept us as a 7-part ensemble). David managed to make it for our final song, and after praising Daniel, we assumed normal formation for that last run of Dango Daikazoku from Clannad.
We leave the con after a few more jams, and we reflect on what an amazing time it was – but it’s not over for Ocabanda yet. We brought Roxy and David to Tad’s, as they were staying in hotels during MAGfest, and on the way, one car makes a McDonald’s run for nuggets, and the other goes on a sweater run to make ugly ocarina sweaters. We didn’t have enough time for sweaters, but the nuggets were delicious as a late lunch. We rehearse more in Tad’s basement that evening to prepare for our studio recording session the next day.
Day 5 – The Studio and our First Goodbyes
We dress up, have breakfast, and head to Jordan’s friend’s house to record at a discounted rate, There were some miscommunication, and our booking went wrong, so we were pushed back until later. We went back to Tad’s, a little panicked, and rehearse our parts one final time. Then, we have our big, studio, recording session.
We had a time-slot from 1-4, and we only expected to get 4 songs recorded well. Even after 30 minutes of prep, we manage to record 8 songs with over 15 minutes to spare. In other words, it went amazingly, and I couldn’t be prouder of everybody for their hard work. David treated us to ice cream at McDonald’s, where Ella and I get even more nuggets on top of last night’s.
Then, we have to say our first goodbye. Steven had to leave that night, which began the end of our bliss of being together when we realized how impermanent that time was. We all live hundreds, even thousands of miles apart, and every meeting we have requires a parting. It’s sad, but it’s true.
Tad’s girlfriend Tara cooked us a delicious dinner, then we proceeded to have our final, stress-free time together (sans Steven). Roxy, David, Jordan, Tad, Tara, and I stay upstairs and play Settlers of Catan for a few hours, and it became one of the closest games I had ever seen. Our goal was to hit 10 points to win, and in the final turn, at least 3 of us were at that cusp. My tactic was to go all-in with getting Sheep and Wood as resources, which I then claimed the trade ports for to have access to whatever material I wanted. It almost won me the game, but David ended up taking it right before Tara could. It was wild, and we played until 11 PM. For the next three hours, we had an extremely tired, looney hangout. We played some games together, tried to watch Kiki’s Delivery Service, took some hilarious videos, and finally slept around 2:00 AM.
Day 6 – Farewell, All
We all woke up at 4 AM so we could take Kaitlyn to the airport for her stupidly early flight home, then most of us came back to Tad’s to get some extra sleep. David and Roxy also left us to spend time with Mark. In the end, only Ella, Jordan, Tad, and I remained. We had one last jam in the basement before packing and leaving to get to the airport. With all of us holding back tears, Jordan drove back home, and Ella and I were the last to leave at the airport. At security, we had to split to take different airlines, and we each boarded and left. As Maryland went away in the distance, I was happy that I got to spend this time with my Ocarina Family, some of my very best friends.
I touched down in Chicago, checked in with my family (both biological and ocarina), then rushed to my layover to San Jose – but not before getting more nuggets from McDonald’s. On the flight home, I looked out the window as we flew towards the sunset, reflecting on the wonderful week I had with my Ocarina family. I began crying on the plane, which I did my very best to conceal so that the strangers sitting near me wouldn’t notice, since that can just be a huge way to make people uncomfortable. There was an overwhelming surge of emotions, ranging from the joy that had built up to the pain of parting ways with everybody.
Eventually, after a long flight, I landed in San Jose, and my mom was there waiting to take me home. I told her all about the amazing time Ocabanda had together, and by the time I got home, I more or less fell into bed, having to go back to work the next morning at 5:30 AM. All things come to an end, and while this trip was over, Ocabanda’s journey has only just begun. I slept well knowing that I’d see them again soon.
Andy Cormier 