"[In Japan] Everybody knows about [UNIQLO]. And around this time, the "NHK 2020" song he wrote for Arashi to go along with the Olympics/Paralympics, Kite, would have likely been playing all over. And because he now stands in that position, Kenshi Yonezu has told us everything in this interview. Society is changing every moment. 1 song of the year on the Japan Hot 100, as Billboard's sister organization Billboard … So I'm always wary of generalizations. Jealousy rears its head on "Yasashii Hito," reminding you of the ugliness of the moments you revel in schadenfreude. "After creating the songs, I just start drawing. Kenshi Yonezu’s “Paprika” has been a long time coming. Whether it's their face or voice or whatever, people fall in love with each other for all sorts of reasons. Yonezu will appear at the Niconico Chōkaigi 3 convention at Makuhari Messe on April 27, to talk about the album. On December 31, 2018, Yonezu gave his first performance on television, singing the track on 69th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen. Accepting the "annoyance" of doing things with others, he's expanding his world. "I am making Japanese pop music," he states. "Initially, I didn't intend to call this album STRAY SHEEP," he says, speaking in a measured cadence peppered with thoughtful pauses and careful musings. That might sound cold, but accepting the fact that both of you will change, and confirming with each other every time it happens that "it's fine even if you aren't you," feels to me like a really beautiful relationship. OR x TWELVE ARTISTS x OTAQUEST+DA.YO.NE vol. So, that's the type of music that I have been striving to create. But those things will absolutely change. It was important for me to use the platform that I have achieved to send out more positive messages. "The moment something this unprecedented happened, I couldn't even send things out anymore. On the whole, it contains Kenshi Yonezu's portrayals of "life" and "death." Every work is him through and through, processed by the cogs of his mind and separated into musical and visual concepts, despite the mainstream big label tag. So much rests in the weight of his name that it's almost impossible to escape his orbit. Yonezu Kenshi is welcoming and accepting other people, from his marvelous second album “YANKEE”, to his long-awaited first live show, and now to his his newly released song “Flowerwall”. "It's not really a conscious act," he explains. Although now, I feel like there's no person who doesn't have some evil inside them. Is there anything a musician can and should be doing about this situation, and if so, what form does it take? The Tokushima native first gained traction in the late 2000s as a Vocaloid producer on the Japanese website Nico Nico Douga, working under the name Hachi. But when I see people fastidiously say "People who don't stay at home are evil, and I can't abide those who let evil go either," I feel like I don't want to take that stance. Being put in this position for the first time, I might have come to see the limits of "being pop.". The album was one of the top independent releases in Japan in 2012, and was one of the winners of the 5th CD Shop Awards ", It's a delicate balance: " I don't want to create music that's for the masses and play it safe either," he counters. Kenshi accepted several interviews about "Lemon", talked about the background of "Lemon" and others. I wanted an orchestral feel to the song Ghost of the Sea (2019), so I first brought him on to cooperate with the arrangement there, but once we started working together, I found him to have absurd talent. The song Canary, from his new album STRAY SHEEP released this month, gives form to those feelings. Complementing these metaphorical crystals are the literal ones on STRAY SHEEP's artwork. He gained much esteem for his album diorama last year, which portrayed a world with strong aesthetics. I don’t know a lot of Japanese so I try my best … Not with any real intent, but just listening to music and then just letting my hand create instead of my mind.". manga / 4 hours ago. But it's possible to associate with people by building skill and just sort of faking it, you know. Even for Kenshi Yonezu, creator of many hit songs like Lemon and Paprika, the coronavirus pandemic has led him to reflect on himself as a musician. Because I think making the right choice in every part of life is logically impossible. No one song is removed from his influence, his touch almost tangible on every creation. Things I feel all of a sudden in daily life, minor things my friends say - I take bits and pieces of these things and pile them up over time. Interview - Kenshi Yonezu Talks About His Hit Song "Lemon" Photo credit: Jiro Konami Kenshi Yonezu - A perspective on human death Kenshi Yonezu … Kenshi Yonezu/Hachi - Lemon Natalie.mu, March 13th, 2018 (Original Article) Looking at Human Death Kenshi Yonezu is releasing his new single Lemon on March 14th. At the same time, I have a vivid memory of being told that you can't think "how pitiable" about people being discriminated against. In the eponymous "Stray Sheep", selfless love becomes the anchor point in a sea of losing yourself: "In the future, a 1000 years from now, we are not alive/ Friend, no matter what day it is, know that I love you.". In other words, I think it's important to acknowledge that change happens. J-pop artist Kenshi Yonezu reflects on his milestone year, shares his thoughts on songwriting, his favorite songs from 2019 and more in an interview with Billboard Japan. It features countless songs that have spread across the world: his biggest hit Lemon, Horse and Deer which livened up the Rugby World Cup, Foorin's Paprika, a cover of Masaki Suda's Spot the Difference, and more. Loss and regret eat away at the soul on "Campanella," inspired by the character in Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa's Night On The Galactic Railroad, the pain of whose tragic ending is alleviated only by the reader's knowledge of his ascent to the "true heaven," where he believed his mother was waiting for him. With resources that could just as easily paint his vision on mediums he wanted in real time, why the grassroots involvement? Bootleg is the fourth album by Kenshi Yonezu, released on November 1, 2017. I project my ideals onto two-dimensional girls. He wrote and produced the song in 2018, but this song was originally given to the group Foorin, a pop outfit consisting mostly of younger kids, as part of an NHK initiative ahead of 2020. I just have to do what I can do right now, expressing things one at a time alongside the era I'm in. There's always the possibility of pop music becoming more violent. @0901Kid To someone who can be around people as naturally as breathing, it probably seems like what I'm doing has terrible fuel consumption. STRAY SHEEP doesn't feel optimistic at first. The music I make can be a thing that keeps someone going - maybe I have that kind of role. However, his fundamental style of dropping "issues important to me" into his work hasn't changed. Kenshi Yonezu/Hachi - STRAY SHEEP Yahoo News, August 5th, 2020 (Original Article) "Making Music That Affirms Living" - Kenshi Yonezu's Changes, and the Hope Entrusted to Music "The moment something this unprecedented happened, I couldn't even send things out anymore. Yonezu's position is representative of a delicate reconciliation between "two conflicting ideas": creative control and mainstream assimilation. 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