Big thanks & credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey /
Janjan
MIYAVI has released his new album Imaginary on 9/15.
It has been one year and four months since MIYAVI
released his previous work, Holy Nights, and because of
the coronavirus pandemic the time has both flown and crawled by monotonously.
Imaginary announces to the world a presence in society as yet unseen,
sending a message of pride from MIYAVI as an artist for publishing this item.
This album is composed of many hit songs handled by Jeff Miyahara, featuring
artists such as Kimbra, Kang Daniel, and Troi Irons. Permimetron
participated in creating both the album artwork and the music video giving
MIYAVI a novel variety for fans to peruse. Is it his intention to set the
world on fire to change its appearance with Imaginary? We asked MIYAVI this and
many other questions.
Nonstop MIYAVI
--You are turning 40 on September 14 (this interview
was conducted mid-August). What are your thoughts and feelings on that
milestone?
Of course. Turning 40 is more than just a number, you feel the years
starting to actually build up and feel the body start to change. A while
back, Ichiro said that, for example, the physical abilities start to
deteriorate on a cellular level. I have to reflect on the way I exercise
because if I get hurt, it takes me longer to recover (lol). But I am continuing
to try to balance what I’ve experienced and my past knowledge to be able to
keep growing. Who I am now likes to learn how to find the joy in
life. I think I will continue that way until the day I die, even if my
body cannot continue my heart will never fail on me. Every day, I’ll keep
like that.
--Your last interview with natalie was held in March of last year, right when the pandemic started to get
serious. You were doing variety shows with your family, hosting your
virtual project Virtual Live, and were appointed ambassador to the ECC Language Education
Promotion. You were so busy you gave off the feeling of
being chased.
“I can’t stop” is all I could think. I felt like it was bad to stop
in 2020, like things would be taken away if I did. Of course this was
because I was anxious. We didn’t have any idea about having a vaccine
even in development so we were nowhere near being able to hold live
shows. But I decided that I would continue ahead by creating the various
shapes of the Virtual Live. Having my family on social media was the
same. I wanted to be able to give something to the world. I showed how I
fumble and make mistakes by considering new things and was changed by this.
--When did you have time to start working on
Imaginary?
I actually planned to release it when the 2020 Olympics ended. There
were plenty of songs I’d been holding onto. But then the Olympics were
put on hold. The coronavirus pandemic was shifting into high-gear around
the world, it made me want to scream out. I took that feeling and put it
into this album and remade some of the songs, so most of this was written this
year. We finished all the vocal recordings in March in one go. I
wanted to be able to show we can still resonate no matter where and when we
are. I think we finished everything around June.
--If you were to shout out right now I wonder what
would resonate. I feel like the answer to that question can be felt in
the word you used for the title of the album: Imaginary.
Yes. In my work supporting refugees there is a commonality whether it
is caused by man or nature, the first step to overcoming any calamity is having
medical care, water, and food. If you have that then you can start
working on education and culture. Each of us humans have dignity when we
are allowed to learn and study culture. It’s really scary that we can’t
see the future. I think it’s pretty special that we are able to imagine
what the future will look like and use that to indicate what it should
be. I think that’s the reason music exists, of course I mean anime and
manga and movies too. As a musician, I am able to indicate the future’s shape
with my imagination. I think that’s part of who I am, what I live
for. On the reverse side, that’s the only way I can think of myself
being.
--Maybe that’s why I feel that Imaginary has a more cohesive concept as a whole
album compared to your past works, indicating one whole message.
But aren’t all artists the same now? Whether we are alive or dead,
there is nothing we can do about reality right now. Along with the new
variants of the covid virus making things uncertain there is the unstable
administration handling Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, and the
dangerously heavy rains flooding China making things extremely subjective at
the moment. Even now the whole world is changing. It’s as though
this situation is asking me “What is there to sing about” and my answer to that
question is this album. Shaping myself into someone who will “keep my
eyes up and keep walking”.
The commonality between Jeff Miyahara and Perimetron
--I can strongly feel the presence of the co-writer Jeff Miyahara in this.
We met last year. He was originally just doing the vocal direction
but his gushing energy came across so strongly he ended up deeply affecting the
sound direction. He has a lot of hot passion. Both of us were
unable to go back to Los Angeles so we imbued a far east feel that can only be
tasted in Tokyo. The overall sound production is the root of the skeleton
and that was done as usual Lenny Skornik, approaching the vocals with a sound
that Jeff was able to greatly add to.
--Can you be more specific?
He is active in the field of j-pop so he uses an approach that helps swell
in a moderately Japanese way, making it feel “Japan’s pop world equals
j-pop”. I think he brought something that has never been brought to
MIYAVI. We were able to put together sounds from all over and created a
vision, Jeff, Lenny, and I, all together of how to make a new kind of album.
--What was something new for you, MIYAVI?
The biggest was taking direction for my singing. He gets specific
inspiration from anime characters or scenes from a film that he shares so I had
to add the story-telling delivery of lines when performing to my existing way
of singing which was really new for me. Also I’d say the sound
dynamics. Rock sounds usually get stacked up in a more haphazard way but
he takes each sound, one by one, mixing them together smoothly until they are
polished decorations. There are even some hip hop parts. I had to
cram study the sophistication of pop music. I think it will greatly influence
me from now on.
--What was the reason for entrusting the art and the
beauty of the music video (NEW GRAVITY) to Perimetron?
For the visuals, I was unable to fly to LA so I hit the Tokyo market of
colleagues and wanted to make something that could only be made here in
Japan. While having a conversation with KingGnu’s Tsuneta, we started
playing with the idea of making something for today’s generation with the same
beauty and value that the band YMO (Translator Note: YMO or Yellow Magic
Orchestra is a band from the 70’s) or the collective Tomato in London
(Translator Note: Tomato is a collaborative practice for artists, designers,
musicians, and writers formed in London in the 90’s) once held. There is
a strong connection and a lot of trust there, like a group project but in a
good way, that I personally don’t get to have as a solo artist. To groups
like that, I probably seem like Matsuoka Shuzu (Translator Note: Matsuoka Shuzu
is a former single tennis champion and sports commentator) to them.
--Matsuoka Shuzu haha
Honestly, they all sound like they would be pretty my pace lol.
Concerning the intention and understanding of creation is not a simple thing,
it’s next to impossible when there is no compromise. We just have to
drink together, work together, feeling the warmth that other creators have and
possess a sense of true borderless-ness. They are able to feel things
even when I’m wrong and are able to help teach me a lot as I go. If I get
the chance to, I’d love to work with them again.
What to look for in an era that appears in textbooks
--This album starts strongly embracing the topic of
“what should I sing” with the first two songs, New Gravity and Imaginary (feat.
Kimbra). You were able to draw a really rich background simultaneously
with these two songs and it feels like the experience you gained from Virtual
Lives really helped. Or that’s how I felt.
Yeah. Frankly, the album could just end with those two songs lol.
That’s how well I think they fit the theme. The rest of the songs are
like the freebies for anyone to receive. I was worried whether New
Gravity was good enough for the title of the album. I thought about it
but the language jumps so well along with being catchy so I decided on
Imaginary. So these two are the songs that comprise the core of the
album.
--In these two songs there are words such as
“unbound”, “beyond weightlessness”, “My story”, “no more hesitation”, and “new
world”. What kind of feelings do you mean with these lyrics?
The world today is rewriting the pages from good to bad. There are a
lot of uncertain what-ifs floating about right now like “There might not be any
fish left to catch by 2048” or “In 60 years, there won’t be any more
agriculture to harvest”. Hearing people saying things like that makes you
look at the materials we have available today and stresses you out. Like,
60 years is a long time but it will actually pass pretty soon. I think
the only way we will be able to continue to have a society is to dematerialize.
We live in such a materialistic time today and we need to become a society that
“goes without” I think. That’s something really obvious in the fashion
industry. I think it is important to not let people like
Alessandro Michele from Gucci, for an obvious example,
to set the standard anymore. We have to dry off from the extravagance in
order to break the cycle. That is to say that we are
currently in a “state where we have no choice but to reverse”. Of course
there is confusion on top of confusion because change takes the ceiling and
makes it the floor. But when looking to the future it is definitely more
beneficial and we should be able to find a methodology that makes us all
unique.
--Because of the coronavirus pandemic we have to get
used to the language around the “new normal”. What’s that like for you?
I’m setting out on a tour in America in October (MIYAVI North America Tour
2021 “Imaginary”) and I definitely feel like it has changed so much just
watching footage of things in America. I feel a sense of a void inside
and my physical strength is weakened, I don’t want to forget that. I want
to go back to doing lives where it feels like getting onto a packed train but
with the way things are right now, that seems a little dangerous and impossible
to do.
--That’s right. How fast things become “back
then”.
Right lol. But still, person to person direct contact is really
important, we cannot lose that. I want that part of it to stay the same.
There are still mistakes we are going to make with wanting to go back to
concerts. But for however much the world is changing, we have to be able
to adapt along with it. Freedom is not “I’m going to
do what I want”. I think the world has evolved to a point where we need
to put ourselves in each other’s shoes and follow a doctrine “be
charitable”. In order to change what we value, we need to urgently look
at our SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). With things like the Black
Lives Matter movement, we are able to support and bear witness to it from
outside, participating in events like hunger strikes for the movement. We
have to be wary of what we are going to leave behind in this era for the
history books, including the spread of infectious diseases. I think that
facing things straight on will lead to suggestions for the future.
--That’s where the 7th song on the album
“Youth Of the Nation（feat. Troi Irons)” comes to
play, I guess.
At the time I was writing this, there were lots of student protest groups
in America gathering strength, and here in Japan we had the moment SEALD
(Student Emergency Action For Liberal Deomcracy) also keeping the youth
active. I also started to notice Greta Thunberg from Sweden. That’s
why Jeff recommended I include the guitar solo I created to the Star-Spangled
Banner back when I performed it at the Dodger Stadium in 2019 so we hurriedly
included that as well.
It is the duty of sound to free people
--What can you tell us about the song featuring Kimbra?
It was casual lol. All of the artists who featured on this album got
here very casually, honestly. This song is not quite Kusanagi Motoko from
Ghost in the Shell but it has a novel cyber feeling, despite her poorly
pronounced Japanese. Truthfully, we were thinking of collaborating on a
different song but the timing worked out that we got this song instead!
Kimbra’s wonderful singing voice, including the Japanese lyrics, was great.
--This song has a very heavy metal feeling in the drums, coming from a
strikingly tasteful person like Jeff Martin.
That’s right, the beat is kind of a revival so I don’t know whether to say
it is a new sound or not.
-- MIYAVI’s guitar style has also definitely changed. You’ve
developed from the signature sound of danceable songs found on NO SLEEP TILLTOKYO (released July 2019) to a more mature approach with this album.
There is a more frank dynamism expressed, changing gears from the mincing
rhythm of the past album, I feel.
That’s right. By accepting the duty of sound being to free people I
decided to change up how I use my guitar. I still slap it, I’ll never
lose that, but I want it to become more than just a song.
--In Imaginary, you cover Nirvana’s famous song Smells Like Teen
Spirit. I was surprised to hear how the lyrics properly compare the
feeling of dark conditions to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the start, there was no such deep meaning. This was a song I
planned to cover even before the pandemic, it’s kind of my favorite song to
sing at karaoke lol. But this song changed up the pattern of the music
scene. It was fun to take their famous attitude and put it with MIYAVI’s
sound to put on this album released in 2021. It was an honor to finally
have the freedom to do something that I have wanted to do for so long.
A sense of variety, no matter what
--I was really interested in the chorus of the song Living in Fire, the
melody gave me almost a country western feel.
This is a song I thought about putting on Holy Nights. I worried that
it was going to be too dark of a song to be on this album but everyone on my
team recommended I put it in. Message-wise I feel this connects the
continuity from Holy Nights to Imaginary.
--The song Hush Hush (feat. Kang Daniel) features an unusual, kind of boy
band taste with the inclusion of Kang Daniel.
I tried to sing about the contradictory nature of “freedom” and
“restraint”. Daniel’s kind of neutral tone created an odd detune when put
together with my voice. For this album, I kind of had a different color
for every song. Honestly, the way I put together an album has changed a
lot. It’s influenced a lot by the market. We are at a point where a
lot of people don’t listen to full albums so I tried to make this album one
that you could just pick a song here or there and have it still have a catchy
pop feel. That might go away again though.
--Speaking of each song having their own color, the development of the 8th song I Swear and
the 9th song Are You With Me are strong.
That was what I was hoping for so I’m glad that’s how you felt. Of
course the order of the songs is important but this time the team wanted to
work on creating a complete sound within each song. No matter what, I
keep a consistent message in my work “liberation of the future” so it feels
like a natural match to me.
--Lastly, Dance With Me was a fresh feeling. It felt like listening
to a record player, with a tempo that makes you want to go ballroom
dancing. It was an unexpected discovery for me but I have fallen for
it. But it still felt like standard fare for MIYAVI with the message
“look up and keep walking”.
At first, I had the image of it being like Beauty and the Beast but Jeff in
Jeff style arranged it while thinking of the scene in The Avengers where
Captain America is sitting at a bar lol. It’s pretty far from my usual
repertoire. This song tells the story of someone who can only meet
someone they love in their dream, in a non-reality kind of like Inception or
The Matrix. Wouldn’t it be a happy thing to be able to have a dream and
it feel real and stay aware of it? With things like virtual reality and
the metaverse, the difference between what’s real and what’s virtual is
disappearing so we need to think deeply about what is really important.
We are once again loving “Super Hero”
--What was the reason for including the bonus track Super Hero from your é›…-miyavi- era?
Simply speaking I just wanted to make the fans happy. Last time I did
a self-cover of the song DAY 1 so this time I wanted to add my sound from
now. The line “If separating is for the sake of us both
From now on I will always always keep praying” in the chorus links well with
the core message of this album.
--I feel like you said it yourself that you are learning to find a way to
keep true to the roots of MIYAVI.
That’s right. Taking a song that I wrote over ten years ago, I can
feel my youthful rashness but I also feel in my rock sound my desire to save
the world and bring people happiness. It makes me think about the people
that I think are important to me, like my family and my fans, makes me think
about what the true meaning of love is. It gave me the chance to think
about these kinds of things again.
--Now that you’re finished with this work, what do you think you’re next
project will be? You yourself are always changing your appearance under
the watchful eyes of the world, recording music at a breakneck pace.
I don’t know what’s next. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we are
in a very uncertain state. I’m
just going what I can with all my power,
day by day. But at the end of September, I am planning on holding a
Virtual Live from the Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.
--Ooh.
I’ve always wanted to do that but it has finally finished being under
construction from last year. I kinda wanted to take a crack at an iconic
stage, “What if I did the Olympic Opening Ceremony?” lol.
--You always seem very busy, between your tour in America, the Netflix film
Kate, the Amazon Prime Video program The Masked Singer, and your ambassadorship
with the ECC.
I’m actually way more relaxed than before because of corona. I’m
spending more time with my family. Of course, I really want to do a full
tour in Japan. The travel restrictions should be lifted next year so
everyone, please look forward to all the future plans I have to be announced!
Big thanks & credits for JP/ENG translation to @linhambabey /
Janjan
