[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] MIYAVI x HOUYHNHNM ー How to get a sense of balance between the normal and the abnormal days

I N T E R V I E W  W I T H  M I Y A V I 

Original source HOUYHNHNM
Big thanks & credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey / Janjan

How to get a sense of balance between the normal and the abnormal days

ーMIYAVI, what kind of clothes do you like？

MIYAVI: I like clothes that have a sense of function.  I’ve worn a lot of clothes but I am definitely always pulled toward clothes that have a balance between the design and the functionality.  Not something that just  looks cool or something that just feels comfortable but something that puts both of those elements together.

I’m the same with my music.  It needs to sound good but it also needs to have a good message.  It’s great to have one or the other but making something catchy with a tough message is something challenging.  It is because of that challenge that I want to make that music that way.  That’s why I also like fashion that has that sense of balance to it.

ーI see。

MIYAVI： Also, because of my work as both a musician and actor, I am able to see the power that clothes themselves can have.  When it comes to performing, I am putting on a different role.  Showing up at the actual performance place wearing the clothes of that character enhances my immersion in the experience.  I am able to take in the power that the stylist and designer want to infuse to the moment.

The power that clothes hold is different from person to person and piece of clothing to piece of clothing so we must hold that as important.  Even with the Dsquared clothes I am styled in today, I had to change the way I looked at myself with my internal camera between the first and second outfits.

ーTalking of the Dsquared brand, what impression do you have of them？

MIYAVI：Luxury but medium.  That is to say the brand has a normal feeling to it.  There is certainly a power in being a glamorous, high brand but sometimes that gets tiresome.  Dsquared is art of a quality that it can be worn on the runway, of course, but it is also perfectly suited to being every day casual wear, I think.  Comfortable for the normal days and the days that only border on normal, I could be comfortable to hop on a plane in this or go around on tour and shine on stage.

ーThe line you are wearing right now is from the 2023 Spring Summer pre-collection with the theme of “LA”.  Miyavi, you used to live in LA.

MIYAVI：It’s a very free plays.  Openminded, I should say.  Not just with the fashion but also environmental issues.  There are a good meaning people with protection plans over there and many cultures advancing.  You strongly can feel that entertainment is the meaning for existence there.  By the way, why is the theme for this collection “LA”?

ーTwo of the designers were in LA for surfing.  They would spend the day surfing and go into town at night to just draw inspiration.  The collection was created to show both sides of that experience.

MIYAVI：Okay.  There certainly is not a lot of distance between the town and nature in LA.  You can go from swimming in the ocean to standing on a mountain watching snow fall within the span of 2-3 hours.  That is to say, it’s a really dynamic place.

I treasure the beauty of something that was not perfect。

ーThis year is your 20^th year performing music.  Does it feel like it was long or did it go by quickly?

MIYAVI：Definitely went by too fast.  So many things have happened but I definitely feel like I still have some ways to go before I’m done.

ーDo you feel like you are reaching a turning point？

MIYAVI：I do.  I think about how to move forward.   I’m always thinking like that.  What will I be making use of next year?  All of that comes together and makes up life.  In order for me to live my way the want to freely, there are a lot of people that I affect to whom I am very grateful and I want to repay them, bit by bit.

ーYou are actively releasing music, touring the world, acting, as well as being a Goodwill Ambassador with the UNHCR.  It gives the impression that you are constantly in motion.  Is that a conscious design ？

MIYAVI：I wonder….I think it has just become part of who I am, flapping about like this.  But I don’t want to stop. 

ーBecause of the pandemic, a lot of artists had to put things to a stop.  What was that like for you？

MIYAVI：It made me stop and actually think about what it meant to be an entertainer and just how important person to person communication can be to get a read on a situation.  For us artists, distance is very important.  But suddenly there was a reset.  It took even the worlds top stars by surprise, I think, because it also bewildered me.  How can we do this, how can we meet again?

In this society where things are just getting more and more digital, I really asked myself how to hold the essence of humanity in a physical sense. 

Using the method of virtual lives, there are certainly lots of benefits there but there is also a lot that is lost there.  In that, I started to treasure “the beauty of something that is imperfect”

ーWhat is “the beauty of something that is imperfect”？

MIYAVI：Us as human beings are always called to imperfect things.  AI makes things that are perfect.  So we slowly make simple things.  We feel the value of the existence of humanity in these imperfections.  That is to say that being imperfect is what gives us all a reason to exist.  That’s what I thought of a lot while doing virtual lives.  For example, if I mess up the lyrics of a song, that will live in the memories of someone who was watching and that has great value to them as a person.  Such changes in what we value are happening very fast and I think are, in fact, being accelerated because of covid.

ーDo you think that physical is better than digital？

MIYAVI：I don’t think I can definitively say one over the other.  For example, there aren’t a lot of people in their teens who see a value in a physical album.  There are fewer and fewer people who can say “I remember when that’s how all music was listened to” about physical records.  The value of “good sounding music” may be changed to something else being valued in say ten years time, we don’t know.  Right now, a lot of people would not say the way they listen to music, be it digital or physical copies, matters that much to them.  This isn’t limited to just music but the way that we communicate.  We obviously have a lot of face to face communication as people and we tend to think of that as being good.  But in ten or twenty years, that might turn into the opposite.  The merits to not meeting in person may one day outweigh the merits to meeting face to face.  We are currently in a transitional period with our values.

ーCurrently, you are working as a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.  That seems like a job that would influence you to valuing the in person, being able to physically be there and interact with the people you are helping, is that not so？

MIYAVI：Of course it is definitely better to hold someone’s hand as they share the enws, it is impossible to do that through the internet.  But I don’t know the future.  I don’t know if it will or will not change.  For example, if things were moved to being online for meetings, information and materials would be shared through the screen immediately, it would certainly shorten how long it would go on.  And you can still be doing research constantly, that is extremely efficient.  Compared to before covid, I am having more of a give and take with people from overseas.

But for people like refugees who are in the transitional period from having their life in constant danger to not, they are much more worried about how they are going to live in such a cruel world.  This limits our ability to understand the reality of their situation.  You can’t feel the temperature, tension, and many more important variables without physically visiting a place so we have to visit.

The things that we as humans place value in, the truly essential ones, will not change ever but I do think that the superficial ones may start to change more and more from now on.  That’s why I’m sure it’s going to be polarized.

ーHearing you talk about this, I get the feeling you are very good with change.

MIYAVI：Yes, that’s true.  Instead of having “booksmarts” I value having “streetsmarts” instead.  I think this is something lacking in Japanese education.  Whether you can respond accordingly in whatever situation you find yourself in.

ーJapanese people tend to hold  a lot of pride in not changing to the situation.

MIYAVI：And that in and of itself is definitely a good thing, I think.  But every day the whole world is changing.  This may just sound like a contradiction but within that ability to not change, one must also be looking for the things that need to change.

ーAre there unexpected ways in which your work as a musician and your work with UNHCR overlap？

MIYAVI：There definitely are.  The first time I went to a refugee camp, I’ll be honest and say that I was scared being in a place so permeated with fear.  The camp where children were living was on the other side of a mountain where a big conflict was happening.  But when I started to play the guitar, I could feel their life force exploding.  “Ah, music can achieve something” is what I felt.  We were able to overcome the language barrier and convey the message of the music well.

ーIt’s all about how you put together the catchiness and message, like you mentioned before.

MIYAVI：There certainly are people who will only listen to a speech.  But they might be surprised to hear how much people get from listening to music.  My mission for the refugees in these camps as a goodwill ambassador is to call out the bright parts, the strong parts, the parts that make us the same as them as humans, their radiance and dignity.  The issues that refugees face certainly have a heavy and dark image to them.  But they aren’t the only ones who have those.  In every single person who calls themselves human, there are adversities that we are fighting against in our lives.  That is part of why not just music but films, fashion, culture in general, can do so much.

ーLastly, please tell us some activities you would like to do in the future.

MIYAVI：There is only diligence.  Every single one of us has to keep moving forward on our own path, that’s the only way.  I do a lot between music, acting, and social reform work, I want to tackle each of these, one by one, and level up all of my efforts.  I am blessed in the fact that I am able to learn, and I think that is a privilege given to humanity.  I want to always keep learning.

 

The Fender Telecaster guitar that Miyavi uses to achieve his sound has had many customizations added to it and, according to him, “it’s a telecaster but it’s wrong”.  Fender themselves have acknowledged his modifications and approved the new model, leading to the Miyavi Telecaster ® coming into use.  “the great guitarists of the past have destroyed existing values and created new ones” they said.

Original source HOUYHNHNM
Big thanks & credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey / Janjan

• Photo_Yoshie Tominaga（W）
• Styling_Keisuke Shibahara
• Hair & Make up_Masaki Tanimori
• Text_Yuichiro Tsuji
• Edit_Ryo Muramatsu

[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] MIYAVI x GOETHE_magazine interview 2020

Source: GOETHE_magazine TEXT=村上早苗  PHOTOGRAPH=片桐史郎 STYLING=石黒亮一（ota office）
HAIR&MAKE-UP=JUN GOTO（ota office）、鷲巣裕香 

Big thanks & credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey / Janjan 

 "Having the power to challenge the world comes from having the right habits! Exciting power opens the future."

MIYAVI is the samurai guitarist who plays the electric guitar by slapping it with his fingers and has activities all over the world.  Hasegawa Shin dispatches Japanese manufactured goods around the world.  What exactly motivates these two? 　

Skin care habits lead to confidence and an attitude to challenge!

MIYAVI is a guitarist who makes great strides within Japan and overseas,  Hasegawa Shin’s company Moon-X is aiming to create a world where Japanese manufacturing and technologies are seamlessly blended.  They two know each other but this is the first time they have had a sit-down together.  There are many similarities between the two, they are from the same hometown, have spent time living abroad, many mutual friends in work, so that was the starting point for this conversation.  They opened their hearts to each other.

MIYAVI(M): Speaking of Hasegawa’s company, Moon-X, I find there is a resemblance between you and Elon Musk (the CEO of Space X).

Hasegawa Shin(H): Is that so? Haha.  I’m often asked “is it a space business?” but it isn’t, it’s beer and skin care.  I want to use the internet and technology to spread Japanese manufacturing around the world.  I’ve lived abroad and because of that was able to understand how great Japanese goods are.  Japan’s manufacturing is particularly wonderful.

M: Certainly, you can definitely recognize more of Japan’s charms from outside the country.

H: With the skin care line Skin X, we take great care to use locally sourced materials.  The Tree Porous was developed by SONY and is blended in facial cleansers.  It is a naturally-derived carbon material produced by rice husks which has a great ability to absorb sebum and dirt.

M: Rice husks?

H: Rice husks have been farmed and harvested in such a way that it has caused environmental problems.  I think it’s a noteworthy material so I want to fix that problem.  The moisturizing lotion also contains water from Izumo’s hot spring for those with oily skin and deep sea water from Ishikawa prefecture for those with dry skin.

M: Water is important!  When only technology is developed, the people are the analogue.  When I pursue what I really need, I feel like I will eventually end up with a product of Earth.

H: Ah that might be so.  I have heard it described as “Japanese manufacturing” but I think of it more as the “essence of Japan” getting affected by the land and features.

Putting things to order by charging your skin with energy

 

M: I feel like our society is becoming purely decorative with how saturated we are between objects and the news.  That’s why I think we need to have a return to the essence, reset back to zero, just once.  At the very least, I want to do what I believe in and what makes my heart happy, without being confused with unnatural things.  Even with music, it is the hundreds of thousands or millions of people that have listened to it but the one or two people that it truly touched the depths of their hearts and had an impact on their lives.  That’s what I cherish.

H: I agree.  Actually, Skin X was started with the challenge of pushing the brand or men.  While men’s skin care is becoming more common, it isn’t a habit for everyone.  Now that I have more opportunities to see my skin like on the monitor, I am realizing how important my skin is.  If your skin is in a good condition, you will feel better and more confident.  Which leads to more energy.  It seems like MIYAVI also has a good skin care habit.

M: Yes, I put on makeup for photoshoots and performances.  Because I’m washing, putting on lotion, and putting on beauty essence, I feel like sometimes I do more than some women haha.  I think it’s weird that we pay so much attention polishing our cars and our shoes yet we never care for our skin.  That’s why I decided to do this and make it cool.

H: Do you think it’s because men find it to be too much of a hassle?

M: If you make it a routine,  it isn’t a hassle, I just start doing it and it flows before I know I’m doing it.

H: I think the point is to make it a habit like that.  Having proper habits will prepare you and give the energy needed to take on the next challenge.  When I look at MIYAVI, I can feel it.  Do you have any other habits?

M: When I wake up in the morning, I take a shower, exercise, and meditate.  I’m often going abroad so I need the time to adjust for time differences and reset.  Many of my overseas friends and acquaintances have their own way to feel like themselves too.

H: Certainly.  In particular, I often hear from executives that having habits helps.  Actually, I do a small meditation every morning.  It takes a minute or two but I just repeat the word “grateful”, “enjoy”, or another word that makes me happy in my head.  It’s true that work isn’t always easy.  That’s why I feel that there are places where I’m suggesting to myself to find a way to enjoy it.

M: Enjoying oneself is very important.  Especially in our profession, the future can be opened by being excited.  If I’m not excited then there is no way for me to convey that to someone else.  That’s what I think.

H: Excite is a good word!  Taking care of your skin shouldn’t feel like it is a duty but something you are excited to do.  That’s the concept for Skin X.

Technology is showing the world the next level of the evolution

 

H: What has gotten you excited recently?

M: I started doing online lives after the state of emergency was declared but there is more to the concert than just the live music.  It’s the weather and temperature of the day, who I was with and what we talked about, it’s the story before, during, and after that.  It’s not possible to do that with online concerts so I am trying to approach it differently.  As technology evolves further, it may even one day be able to convey touch and smell.  I’m really interested in what happens to the point of contact between real and virtual, and I’m excited to see what I can do.

H: Technology is changing what we consider to be common knowledge.  In the past, if you wanted to do business globally, you needed to actually build a company there but now, you can get it all done with a smartphone and a credit card.  While Japan is good at making world-class goods, we have weak transmission power.

M: I think the weakness of transmission is also a problem of language ability.  We are also planning language education for Japanese children.

H: I have a lot of things I want to try and I’m excited to do it.  Skin X wants to continue to be a brand that supports men like MIYAVI. 

 

Shin Hasegawa

Born in Hyogo prefecture in 1977. Raised in Seattle, USA from ages 2 to 9. After graduating from Kyoto University, he worked at Tokio Marine, P&G, and Rakuten before becoming the representative director of Facebook Japan in 2015. After working for three and a half years, he retired and established MOON-X in August 2019.

 

MIYAVI

Born in Osaka in 1981. He has been active as a guitarist, actor, and model, having successfully performed more than 350 performances in 30 countries, making his Hollywood debut with a film directed by Angelina Jolie. He is an ambassador for the UNHCR.

[ENGLISH TRANSLATION] MIYAVI x VOGUE_JP (2020) "10 years after corona, what will the future be? Talking to MIYAVI about the shape of Hope"

Photo: Masato Moriama at Trival- Hair&Makeup: Tadashi Harada at Shiseido - Text: Haruna Fujimura Editor: Mina Oba
Original source vogue.co.jp

Big thanks & Credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey / Janjan 　

Active as an artist on September 14, 2020 is MIYAVI the “Samurai Guitarist”.  He isn’t just active with music, MIYAVI was appointed as the first Japanese ambassador to the UNHCR in 2017, working closely to support refugees. We are wondering what the image of the future looks like after all of the changes caused by the corona calamity for someone involved in all these fields.  He speaks about his personally feelings on the topic of hope and also shares his private goals.

When I can’t look people in the eyes, I get nervous, so I need the power from the message of music. 

-- Are there things about you that have changed because of the Corona pandemic?
A virus that we can’t even look in the eyes has changed the world so dramatically in just half a year.  So there are a lot of things within the industry that are revolutionizing and adapting so we can continue heading toward the future.  
But at the same time, as musicians we are just trying to believe in the power of music.  Because we can’t look at the virus itself,  it’s scary.  But we also cannot look at music.  In order to conquer that fear and anxiety, I strongly feel we need the power of the message of music.

So, we need to keep staying up to date with the news and listen to the safety messages in the safety of our own homes.

 -- The stay at home orders were very hard to cope with, weren’t they.
As a creator, I just thought about what I am able to create right now. I thought a lot about what could I do from my own home to share with the world and realized I could use social media to spread performances.  That was the birth of the family concerts I was doing and the virtual lives I am doing now.  In April of this year, I released my new album “Holy Nights” but the directors of the music video and a lot of the editing teams were based in LA so I used Zoom to communicate from a distance with my creative team. It was a new experience.

 

-- While the world was completely changed by the Corona pandemic, how did you change your efforts to respond to those changes? 

Well,  in August I had a collaboration with TeamLab Planets Tokyo to evolve my virtual live experience with “Miyavi Virtual LIVE - Level 3.0”.  The TeamLab Planets team put a lot of effort into making this more than just a regular live, it was an art production that we succeeded in making together. Of course there were challenges but I think we did create something worth leaving behind.  But, having done these virtual lives, virtual is just virtual with it’s own good parts but, as an entertainer myself, the realness of a live is what I excel at doing is the conclusion I have reached.

-- What exactly is the point that you can’t surpass? 

For example, the surplus of news.  In the case of a real live concert, I think about the temperature at the concert all on the way there. I think about what I’m gonna eat or drink while listening to music.  Who did people come with?  What do they talk about with that person?  All of those things swirl together and form what I remember from the day of that concert.  There is none of that in the case of a virtual live because the fans all receive it just on their device that they are also using to watch the news which can be overwhelming.

But from now on, the coexistence of real and virtual lives are going to be indispensable to us.  There are still a lot of things I am looking for but I am making an effort to connect with the fans however I can.  Hardware and software all need to be updated.  We will continue to make mistakes while we try new new platforms but we will take any hints to find the right way.

 

When you feel surprised, embrace people full of hope.

 

-- After filming the movie Unbroken in 2014, you met Angelina Jolie and embraced working with refugees.  Now, you are the first friendship ambassador from Japan to the UNHCR.  After starting to work with that organization, were there any parts in yourself you feel have changed? 

I definitely feel like I got more recognition outside of music.  When I first went to Lebanon as an ambassador, I had worried thoughts like “this is going to be hard” and “what if there is a terrorist attack since we are going to an area with a lot of disputed territories”.  But when I got there and started playing the guitar in front of the ordinary children, it stopped being something I’d never experienced when the children’s faces light up with excitement.  In that moment, all of my anxieties and fears just flew away.  “They are all embracing this moment’s feelings, feeling the hope and the future” is what I felt from them.  At the same time, I also thought “The power to move people with music, even here, is amazing.  If I can, I’m going to use that power with all of my strength.”

-- The feeling of hope can give people the motivation to keep living, right. 

Refugee support happens in two phases - Urgent and Continuation development.  The Urgent phase is when they need lifeline utilities.  The Continuation phase is when the feeling of “I am alive” becomes priority.  I spoke to the marathon runner Yonas Kinde, who is also a refugee, once a while ago and he said something I will never forget:  “Earning enough money to afford to eat is great and all but even then, if you don’t have someone to talk to, that’s still enough to make one cry”

-- What does the feeling “to live” mean to you?

For humans, the feeling of “I am useful” is needed or we feel like our souls are dying.  When doing sports or listening to music or just any action involved in participating with art and culture people feel “ah, I am alive”.  Culture and Art have an amazing effect on people.  Once, when I was at Kakuma Campin Turkana, Kenya, they were holding a festival.  Around 2 or 3 thousand children from that area gathered, dancing and playing music.  It was wonderful, watching them perform in a way integral to their culture with such vigor.  Everyone was behaving like themselves, not trying to be anyone else, and being honest to their souls.  In Japan, I feel the topic of refugees is a heavy one, and people are only shown pictures of refugees who are showing sad expressions.  I want to show them the smiling faces I see in the refugee camps.  “We make happy faces too” I think would surprise them.

-- The way you look at these camps and see the way they are all shining and arrange music around that, and film music vidoes like your video for “The Others” at camps, showing such diverse cultural expressions is inspirational.

One of the themes in the song “The Others” is “we are all different”.  For example, even among the Japanese people, the food we eat for breakfast are different, our favorite colors are different.  The roads we are all following are different.  Even so, we all still create a perfect medley of life together.  I just arranged that to express it in real music.  That music video was actually filmed by Angie (Angelina Jolie), she did the directing herself so it is something that holds a lot of memories for me.  

Refugees support needs to become “rock” in society today.

 

MIYAVI’s personal symbols of hope. On the left is a light blue UNHCR hat and on the right is the medal MIYAVI

 received from children in Colombia.

-- Today, MIYAVI, you’ve brought some items that make you feel memories of hope. Could you tell us what those memories are? 

First is the medal I received in 2019 in Colombia following my appointment as Goodwill ambassador to the UNHCR.  I gave a soccer ball to the kids there as a present and we played soccer together.  I was the one who wanted to give the kids a medal but somehow they ended up giving me one (LOL).  Whenever I look at this medal, I vividly remember playing soccer with these kids.  It affirms the importance of sports and music for me.

 -- Your other item of hope is a light blue UNHCR hat. 

In the past, I did not think that a hat like this was rock.  But now, I just think that supporting refugees is super rock.  I think the term role model is a bit pretentious but if young kids see me wearing this hat and see the messaging and start to believe in it, I started to think this hat that says I support Refugees as being cool.  I thought that there might be a way to change the world, even just by a little bit.  

 Without literacy, the fashion industry cannot survive in 10 years.

 

 

As a global campaign model of Gucci, Miyavi is seen here wearing a pink suit.

-- You are the first global campaign model for Gucci from Japan so you are also active in the fashion industry.  From the point of view of the fashion world, what do you think is an important goal for the world and society to aim for? 

I think the consumption and sustainability in fashion have completely reversed in the recent past.  We start to working closely with the environment, from now on, we need to focus more on literacy in order to consider success as an option, or else we won’t exist in 10 years.  From inside the trends, I strongly feel the movement to present new things by questioning the fashion industry itself.  For example, the collection I participated in recently “Gucci Off the Grid Collection” the creative director was Alessandro Michele and the rest of the Gucci team really give off a feeling of wanting to create sustainability.  I think that there is a great meaning with a mainstream brand like Gucci shifting the rudder like this.

-- There needs to be a change in the consciousness of designers, huh.

Not just the designers but the people who make the material, the people who buy it, the people who promote it, the society as a whole needs to change our way of consumption and think about how we buy.  I feel like I’m repeating myself again but culture is a tough force of change.  Because we live in the world we have now, I think there is a special way that only fashion can show a message of hope.

 

-- Lastly, how do you think society as a whole is going to move forward, do you think?

We may have to come back and think about “was the way we were all acting on a global scale the right way in the first place?”  In 10 years, we may look back and think that “wow we really needed corona” in order for us to make the changes we need to think about the future properly.

-- You don’t look at coronavirus pessimistically, you look at it as a chance to make our own future.  I think that is important.

Well if we all hold a big enough hope, we can make even small actions happen.  These actions can be sorting your trash, choosing to use recycled and reusable products,  so even small things are good, I think.  I can’t save the world like the Avengers.  But I can help spread the message, so I will continue my work hoping to share the hope that our world can be changed.  And I will always carry that hope with me.

 

Photo: Masato Moriama at Trival　
Hair&Makeup: Tadashi Harada at Shiseido

Text: Haruna Fujimura

Editor: Mina Oba
Original source vogue.co.jp

Big thanks & Credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey / Janjan