Tomemitsu (Live in studio)

Last Friday, a bedroom pop musician whose side job is an administrative assistant for a skin cancer surgeon arrived at the KCPR studio to perform live. Marten Roark, better known throughout the reaches of the World Wide Web as Tomemitsu, creates ephemerality with an acoustic guitar and digital drum beats from his home in Echo Park, California.

Roark conceptualizes the music he creates for Tomemitsu as an exercise; that means he applies limitations to himself. He sets specific parameters of time during the day to write lyrics, after work for example, and builds the music out of his reaction to those parameters.

His writing process, similar to other bedroom artists, is a private affair. The essence of his music is a manifestation of his mind operating–alone. In person, Roark is reserved and kind-hearted. He doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but along the strings of his guitar.

His performance at KCPR, and ensuing interview, was an intimate one. Take a look below.

Roark also performs in the Los Angeles area bands So Many Wizards and Seaweed Salad.