Can you tell us a little about working with Utada Hikaru? What was the feeling like performing with her compared to say Lionel Richie or Fleetwood Mac?

Hikaru has been great to work with. I have worked with several artists over a span of years (as opposed to a single show, session, or short tour), but given Hikaru's young age, I really have been able to see her growth as an artist in comparison to others. I first performed with her in 2001 for an international version of MTV Unplugged. She was 18 at the time, and already had a good head on her shoulders and direct ideas of what she wanted to do artistically in the show.

At the same time, the crowd seemed very sterile and subject to a controlled environment, so it was a little different. It was like being under a microscope being in that room where a small crowd of her die-hard fans seemed to study her every move. You could hear a pin drop other than the controlled and respectful applause at the end of each song.

She had the flu and muscled her way through the show, which really showed me her work ethic. I was struck at how professional she was, as well as respectful of the musicians' time when it came to rehearsals.

I then worked with her in 2004 to record a DVD, shot over five nights at the Budokan. This was the first time I saw her really command a live crowd. She did a great job, and it was really interesting just how many people were involved to make the live show work. I have been on tours where we traveled with 80 people in the crew, but this was for a stadium/arena tour where we set up and broke down in at least four cities a week. The sheer manpower to stay on such a schedule is necessary to pull it off. With Hikaru's show at the Budokan, the amount of preparation and people involved was at that level, although we were performing in one place for just a week.

The last time I worked with Hikaru was in 2006, for her Utada United 2006 Japan Tour. Though it had only been two years, in that time she became a married woman and made the transition from child pop star to a bona fide pop icon in Japan. We rehearsed for a solid month in Tokyo before heading out on tour playing all over Japan. Again, I was struck by her professionalism, work ethic, and artistic ideas.

I also really felt a kinship to her more so than any other artist I worked for since we had fairly similar backgrounds. She grew up in the U.S., then moved overseas to Japan in junior high, attending ASIJ (American School in Japan), a sister school to HKIS. Being the youngest member of her band each time I have worked with her, I am also usually the closest to her in age.