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NEWS EVENT SPECIAL SERIES

DEAN FUJIOKA × SKY-HI × Morley Robertson

2023.8.1

スペースシャワーTV

#PR #MUSIC

DEAN FUJIOKA has released his first best album, “Stars of the Lid.” Inspired by the Möbius strip, which links the beauty of fiction and the sharpness of truth, this album wraps DEAN FUJIOKA’s career as a musician while looking ahead to the future.

Space Shower TV aired a special program to dive into DEAN FUJIOKA’s musical journey and true face, featuring a trilogy discussion with musician and commentator Morley Robertson, DEAN’s lifetime hero, and rapper and producer SKY-HI, one of DEAN’s close friends since he began his career in Japan.

The article also includes thematic talks such as “turning points in my life” and “the most embarrassing thing in life.” It delves into DEAN FUJIOKA’s artistic nature as he awaits his Nippon Budokan debut.

From left to right: Morley Robertson, DEAN FUJIOKA, SKY-HI. The program is now available on Space Shower On-Demand.

DEAN FUJIOKA’s close friends Morley Robertson and SKY-HI

DEAN: When I was invited to a Japanese TV show for the first time, which I think was MTV, SKY-HI’s show aired right after mine. That was how I recognized him. Soon after, I saw SKY-HI at a club event in Shibuya and spoke to him. Although it was a small club, his presence stood out among the crowds. We’ve stayed in contact ever since. Until recently, I have been overseas for a long time, but we had dinner together just before I left.

SKY-HI: It was shocking (laughs).

DEAN: We talked a lot about things we can’t share today.

SKY-HI: Morley is wincing (laughs).

Morley: Well, there’s nothing we can say on TV (laughs).

DEAN: I’m one of the enthusiastic “Morley followers,” and I’ve seen a lot of Morley’s content that might not fit in current society. I don’t know how much I’ve contributed to him (laughs).

Morley: I feel like, “What on earth have I done?”

Everyone: (laughs).

Morley: Now and then, I tend to forget my past and move forward. When people refer to something I did a few years ago, I’m like, “Did I really say that?” I’m just trying to move on.

DEAN: It’s like painting over a lot of information.

Morley: That’s right! We are now shifting into the “good guy” phase (laughs).

DEAN’s first best album “Stars of the Lid”

DEAN: When you look up at the starry sky, there are many constellations, each with its own story. It would be perfect for my best album, as it has the lyrics and stories of each song, including new ones, scattered throughout.

DEAN: The album production started with the idea of the Ptolemaic theory instead of the Heliocentrism. Just as there were people in the past who believed fiction to be truth, fictional stories have their romance and beauty. Some people spent their lives for their truth while others pursued the real truth. And truths had such significant influence, sharpness, and severity enough for people to lose their lives.

As an artist, my role is to create fictional entertainment to take part in society. I aimed to bring them together for the best album and Budokan artwork to embody the beauty of fiction and the sharpness of truth connected like a Möbius strip.

DEAN FUJIOKA’s artist photos also utilize the artwork from “Stars of the Lid.”

DEAN: I couldn’t choose all the songs to put into the best album as some songs were fans’ requests, which made me realize there were some unexpected bindings. But it felt like the bindings were like a puzzle. Even with the constraints, if I could write new songs to make up for the missing parts, it would be possible to keep the Möbius strip concept.

The fascination of DEAN FUJIOKA’s music and performances

SKY-HI: DEAN FUJIOKA has been involved in the performing arts in various ways and continues to produce results, but each time he creates a new work that present his artistic desire, which I think is wonderful you are actively making music. In addition to making the best album in this phase, your singing of new songs has become better than any of your past works. That gives me hope to continue to make music, too. You are always having fun.

Morley: I saw his show from the beginning to the end a few years ago. I was blown away by DEAN’s breath, which was not disturbed in the slightest, even though the show was quite long. The fans would have been satisfied even if some songs were cut out (laughs). Even so, DEAN’s stamina to respond to the fans and his long breath was terrific.

The audience’s stamina was also considerable, and I felt their strong dedication. DEAN and the audience attended the concert until their stamina ran out, as if they were creating a Möbius strip (laughs).

DEAN: I see (laughs).

Morley: I think DEAN’s performance showcases romance to the audience. However, now that he mentioned the Möbius strip earlier, I think he needs realism to create “believable” fiction. It is not enough to passively fill in the checkboxes, saying, “Is this OK?” It cannot be heartfelt unless you mean it, and I felt that struggle at DEAN’s live show, and I realized the importance of mental and physical strength.

Since then, objectively speaking, I have the impression that camera angles in both films and live videos emphasize DEAN’s beauty, but even when I see smart and sophisticated images of DEAN, I can still feel his muscles, sweat, physical power, and stamina that make it all possible. That encourages me to go to the gym, too (laughs).

DEAN: But for sure, I see my body like an Evangelion. And I have this image of going into my body as a pilot. I think about how to develop my physical body and make it function, so when you said that to me felt like you know everything (laughs).

Theme 1: “The most embarrassing thing in life”

DEAN: I recently cut off the tip of my finger. It has grown back a lot, but I forgot to pick up the piece and couldn’t sew it up. It’s starting to look a lot rounder now, though.

Morley: No way! Was that an accident?

DEAN: I accidentally cut it off with a knife (laughs).

SKY-HI: Was that an attempt to lose your fingerprints? (laughter)

Morley: Did you have to change your passport?

All: (laughs)

DEAN: I rushed to the plane as I was about to miss it. I might have managed if I had picked up the piece I had cut off and soaked it, but I was panicked. It didn’t stop bleeding for about two hours and ended up blood all over the check-in counter. It was embarrassing.

Morley: When I was, you know, about 10 years old, my father had a reel-to-reel tape recorder at home. So I recorded my voice and listened to it, which sounded so horrifying that I couldn’t believe it was my voice. It was my first experience hearing my own voice objectively, and I was very embarrassed by it.

When I turned 18 and heard my voice recorded and equalized in a soundproofed studio for the first time. It was so wonderful that I thought, “this was my real voice.” It was eight years of running away from my embarrassing voice, thinking, “This can’t be right.”

DEAN: I understand (laughs). When I was recording with a 4-channel MTR, I was also embarrassed by my voice.

SKY-HI: Since I started producing other people’s music, I have spent an overwhelming amount of time dealing with the components of the voice during the recording stage, so I have more input on the vocalization process. So, although I have been active in music for more than ten years, I finally understood the proper use of my voice when I was over 30 years old. I haven’t had much to be embarrassed about since then, but it was there all along.

Theme 2: “Music I got into when I grew up”

DEAN: If being an adult means when I finished school, it was right around the time I started working in Greater China, so it was Mandarin pop music (popular music sung in Chinese). Even now, when I go to karaoke, I almost always sing only Chinese songs. It’s not the same feeling I had in junior high school when I was into metal and grunge, but Mandarin pops is definitely a part of my life and I think it’s a great song. Just recently I was in Greater China for a few months on business, and when I listen to it there, it fits the atmosphere and changes the depth of the scenery.

Theme 3: “Turning point in life”

SKY-HI: Morley must have as many turning points in your life as there are joints (laughs).

Morley: In terms of ups and downs, yes (laughs). As an extension of what I said earlier about my voice, when I was a sophomore at Harvard University, I went to a studio where I could study electronic music.

There we were experimenting with a tape recorder, and the most radical thing was that if you pulled the tape until just before it ran out, the brown part of the tape would peel off in a ragged manner. When I played it back, the pitch and volume would be out of whack, and I would hear sounds I had never heard before.

The experiment was so shocking and it blew away my previous idea that the recorded truth was being played back as it was. It was a mystical experience in which I learned that voice and reality can be reshaped like clay. Ever since, I’ve gone off the rail and headed to untruthful direction (laughs).

DEAN: Moving across countries and language areas was a destructive experience. This could be why something new is born, but when you go to a place where language and religious beliefs are different, the concept of “What makes a us us” is so different, and no matter what you do, you have to enter into that place. Hence, it makes me think about what the truth is. Some say it’s propaganda, some say it’s an act out of love, and some take the position that it could be either one or the other.

It would be easy to say we became objective, but everything is possible. There are no guidelines, no pride. Anything is fine unless it’s illegal. I think the world is a place where there is a unified lineup of “this is justice.”

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