INDEX
What made up my creative power was changing schools, traveling, and working.
Celeina: Now that you mentioned creativity, what are the three things that make up your creative side?
Tanabe: As I was introduced earlier, I have moved from one country to another, from one city to another. I changed schools about 8 or 9 times. It is interesting to be a transfer student. I get to know them well, then say goodbye, and then go to a new school, and so on and so forth. I also had a hope that I might be able to improve my skills at the next school. I also had a hope that I might be able to improve.
Teenagers make mistakes, don’t they? I should have debuted more like this! I think that is what leads me to my work.
Celeina: I see.
Tanabe: I think that our artistic style tends to become fixed. But when I go to a different place, something completely different comes up in front of me, and I feel that it is okay to change without sticking to it.
Takano: That’s interesting. It’s like the environment is being updated.
Tanabe: The other two are travel and work. These two are almost the same. In most cases, work takes me on a trip or to a photo shoot. As Yumemuko mentioned, I have also been to the Amazon, and at one point I was like a performer in a remote area (laughs).
Takano: That’s a good word (laughs).
Tanabe: You can change the background with Zoom or something. I would do Zoom with real glaciers or the Amazon in the background, and it became like wallpaper, and the audience was quite interested in it. Travel is interesting, isn’t it? There are people in various countries who have completely different common sense, and traveling teaches us how small our own common sense is.
Takano: I know this is a difficult question, but do you have a best place you have visited?
Tanabe: I hate that Yumemuko told me first, but the Amazon was amazing.
Takano: What kind of work did you go there for?
Tanabe: I was shooting a documentary. There is a group of clowns in the Amazon who teach medicine to children in remote villages. So you went there to film these people.
Takano: Was the culture totally different?
Tanabe: Yes, it was different. Especially, the deeper you go, the more there is no signal, and there is nothing digital, so we were all concentrating on what was right in front of us.
Takano: What did you do for food?
Tanabe: The fish was delicious.
Takano: Fresh fish from the Amazon River.
Celeina: You mentioned that you travel a lot for work, but do you have a must-have for your trips, something you take with you every time?
Tanabe: I am famous for not having much equipment. I don’t think too much about it. When I meet up with producers and others at the site, they ask me, “Why did you come dressed like that? (laughs). When we go to cold places or deep in the mountains, we go there as if we were in Shibuya.
Takano: Interesting.
Celeina: Do you get that stuff locally? Or do you survive in the Shibuya style?
Tanabe: No, I give up right away (laughs).
Takano: In such a situation, is there anything that you are glad to have?
Tanabe: I guess it’s the music. Also, I bring fragrance with me. When I wake up in the morning, I often have to ask myself, “Where am I? I often wake up in the morning and ask myself, “Where am I? It sounds a bit stylish, but if I bring a scent with me, I can somehow feel the same no matter where I am.
Celeina: Really?
Tanabe: That’s all I have. I’d rather you bring your outerwear than that (laughs).
Takano: Herbs?
Tanabe: There are some that you can put between the eyebrows or on the temples.
Celeina: I see. You are so busy that it is hard to know where you are. How many projects are going on in your mind at the same time? Do you concentrate on one project at a time?
Tanabe: There are times when I have more than one project going on at the same time, of course, but I am the type of person who clearly decides, “This is what I am going to do on this day! I am the type of person who decides clearly, “This is what I will do on this day! For example, today is the day for this! I decide on the day. I receive calls for various other projects as well, but I decide, “This is the day. Sometimes it’s half a day, but I can’t do too many things at the same time.
Celeina: I see. It is interesting to hear about your timekeeping method. Tanabe-san, you have chosen a song that you would like us all to listen to together on the radio at this time. What song would it be?
Tanabe: It’s a new song by Hikari Mitsushima called “Shadow Dance,” produced by Shinichi Osawa and MONDO GROSSO, and I directed the music video for it, so I thought you should check out the music video as well. I directed the music video, so I hope you will watch the music video as well (laughs). Thank you very much.
