Lots of people leave Fresno. Some come back. Some don't. Some say they never will, but they do anyway. And some -- like musician Niilo Smeds -- leave Fresno, but they never really leave Fresno. You know?

Smeds, ex of numerous local bands, the most recent being the Magic Whores, moved to Oakland last summer with his wife, painter Brianna Johnson-Smeds. He's didn't stomp off in disgust. He didn't sever all ties. He just tried something new.

Lately, Smeds new music venture, a one-man thing he's calling Wheels of Fortune (note the S, before you start to sue somebody, Merv Griffin) has been playing up in Portland and around the Bay Area.

He's bringing it back to Fresno for the second time, playing Saturday night at Tokyo Garden. He's playing with friends James Brittain Gore, Mike Burnett and Eatcho, so it'll be as much as a homecoming party as a concert. It starts at 9:30 p.m. Cover is $3.

Question: So how's the Bay Area treating you?
Answer: Pretty well. The ocean air is really something, and we have a lot of trees in our neighborhood. Too many people here though. The grocery store is a battlefield.

Is there a magnet pulling people back to the Valley this weekend? You're here. Kat Jones is coming home from Nashville and Nik Freitas is coming home from L.A. Early Easter visits?
Wow, I don't know. I haven't been in a couple months so it seemed like a good time to come and do a show. I think I might be around for Easter too.

Let's talk about your new project. Wheels of Fortune. What's it all about?
Kind of like my last band, but with less musicians and a more family-friendly name. Right now it's just little old me, but I think other people will be involved sooner or later.

What made you want to go in such a direction?
It was the only path I could see.

Since this is a one-man show, what adjustments did you have to make? What risks did you take?
Not having other instruments in the band means I have to work a lot harder to try to make it interesting musically. Most people are pretty familiar with the whole man-and-a-guitar formula. Not having a loud drummer means people might hear the words more easily, so that's forced me to step up the lyrics a bit. I don't really feel like there were any real risks involved. It can be a little more nerve-wracking to play alone but, like anything, it gets easier after you do it a couple times.

You went from being a part of two bands (Pinkeye, Rademacher), to fronting your own band (Magic Whores) to now doing a one-man thing. Is there some underlying point in there about you? Would a psychologist say you don't play well with others?
Mike Burnett is gonna smack us all if we don't clarify that I was in a third band for a while - Batteries. I hope I play well with others, because I don't want to be alone forever. As far as the previous bands, I had gotten a little bit sick of playing bass. And then Greer rolled into town and made it clear there wasn't room for both of us.
It was either do my own thing or walk ten paces and get gunned down by a woman.

Tell us about the show this Saturday.
Four old friends playing new music at Fresno's best venue. We've got James Brittain Gore (half of No Cello and currently traveling the nation as Rademacher's drummer) doing his lady-killing solo act. And Mike Burnett is doing his new more electronic-ish project, Mike & The Green Lady, which I'm excited to see. And Eatcho, who a lot of people probably know better as a painter (Broadway Studios, Pearl Alley mural) but who also is a veteran of the groundbreaking Fresno band Mehreideran. He's now doing a solo musical thing and it is going to be awesome.

How do you go about scheduling Fresno shows? It seems like it'd be a chicken-or-the-egg thing. Do you come here to perform, or do you have other business in Fresno and set up a gig along the way?
I think the thought process is something like, "I'd like to go down to Fresno and see my friends. Hey, we could do a show." Then I call Toshi and see if he has a night available in the next couple weeks. That's how this one went, anyhow.

If you could uproot one thing from Fresno and bring back with you to Oakland, what would it be?
Does "all my friends and family" count as one thing?

I suppose I should ask because people here really like her, too: How's Brianna and her art?
She's doing well; she has some hot new paintings but she's not showing them just yet. She says hi.

Final words?
To save KFSR, you must eliminate Joe Moore.