At Laaaaaasssssstttttt!!!!!
The Monthly Series, “Monthly Shonen UQiYO” has come to its grande finale!
Thanks to all of your support and encouragement, this 1 year and 1 month long series of songs has reached its goal in a way that I could have never imagined.
The series has been played over 2 million times in just Spotify alone, and also more on other streaming services. We could have never imagined this, and it sure was an arduous experience, but it also was well worth it.

This one last song, loTus, feat. Pt. Ajay Pohankar was made just to fulfill my spontaneous goal of collaborating with an elderly Indian Artist. I have often used Zen sayings in this monthly series, and the Root of Zen and Budhism is India. In a way, I think I have reached where I should be at the end. And the Music Video of this song also is the last and the greatest quality video. You must see this video. And this Video has to spread all over this Globe.

The last Zen saying that I chose for this song is “Lotus is a Lotus over or under water” My interpretation of this saying is that the true nature of thing is has not much to do with its state. I really think this saying is a true fit for the last song of this series. Life goes through changes in time, and good times and bad times come and go. For example Kiki in the movie “Kiki’s Delivery Service” has trouble flying for a while, but the ‘blood of the witch’ is there and she still is a witch whatsoever.
I will continue making songs from time to time and I will be making both great songs and awful songs, but I will still be UQiYO, and I will still be myself. I need to trust my identity and be confident. This is what I’ve learned through this year-long monthly series.

UQiYO will continue its journey.
Thank you and please continue with your support, and follow us!

Happy White Day!
This is a Japanese holiday when boys send a gift to girls, to show their gratitude for St. Valentines chocolate that they’ve received. They say this day was fabricated by Japanese department stores, but I feel that it’s a wonderful thing, to have such a day to give the chance for people to express gratitude and love to their special partners, because it’s not always easy to do so.

The theme of this month’s song “ciRCle” is that special feeling we gain when we are in love. When we fall in love, it is as if half of our heart is taken away. And to think about it like that, it is not hard to fathom that it is very difficult to fall in love without destroying one’s mental balance. We become jealous, regretful, or blameful to ourselves or someone, and this kind of scenario always comes back or repeats itself.
But judging by how unbalanced you become, it might indicate that someone is of a wonderful and huge significance to you. And this whole repetition is actually a very constructive and wonderful drill to get to know your special someone.

So please check this song out and share your love.

Next month’s issue will be the final song of the monthly series that we have been working on for 1 whole year. As we have announced, next months’s song will be released with the physical album, and we will start a tour after its release. We might stop by your town; please come see us in person. We will do our best to get ready for a great show, we promise.

“Monthly Shonen UQiYO” was not a mere monthly release of pre-stocked songs. Every song and Music Video was made every month, without knowing when this monthly series would end. A lot of change has happened within and outside of our band in the meantime, and it was not always easy for us to continue releasing songs at such a rapid pace.
But thanks to all of your support, we have, at last, come to this ending point. It really was a tightrope every month, and we are sorry to tell you that this month, we could not make a music video.

If you read this and have ideas for your original MV for this song, please send them to us at anytime. If we really like it, we will credit you and release it from our official Youtube station.

Cheers! Yuqi

P.S.
The only song from the monthly issue project without a Music Video was this song, ciRCle. And finally, the same director from the song "Night Safari" has made a beautiful film to complete the personal and universal love theme of the song. On 14th of July, which is UQiYO's final gig of the Tour, music video "ciRCle" is released!

Happy Valentines to you all!
I am glad to be able to release such a special song on such a lovely day.

This month’s issue, “Modrý sen”, is a song created in collaboration with a visual director. He called me up one day and told me he wants to make a marionette video, and we had lots of discussions in order to make this movie possible. The plot was mostly created by the director, but I was able to act little bit in the movie, which is such a pleasant memory.

Although the song seems pretty straight forward, I thought up of many ideas, for example, to express the long period of time that passes in the movie, I recorded my baby daughter’s heart beat and also my own heart beat to be mixed in the song. The original movie was released at the end of 2016, and I did some re-editing and rearranging for this official release of the song.

However many times I see this movie, I am always sucked in by the blue eyes of the puppet and become lost in this beautiful but ephemeral expression of time. The song is a different edit from the movie and download/streaming services, so it makes me happy if you can check out both.

The Monthly Shonen UQiYO project is in its final stretch. All of you who followed us every month, or who got to know us recently, please hang on until the end! We’ve got something great on its way.

Happy Holidays to you all!
The first song of this year is quite a gallant and anthemic song called TEQUNO.

What is expressed in this song is a critical but also envious look at the excellence of human intellectual capital called Technology. A satirical comic of avatar identity, patterned by the division of cells closing in on oblivion.

The music entertainment scene nowadays is changing rapidly in both content and in how songs are consumed. Not necessarily something new, but something that grabs the most attention is considered ‘new’, and the rankings change every day.

What is most important now are probably the ‘numbers’, characteristics that can be counted such as sales or ‘likes’, but what really contains the deepest value are the qualities that are hard to put into numbers, things that take time to become effective, things that are not instantaneously understandable. I believe these things of value will never be buried, and that true talent and endeavor will float up to the surface one day.

Yes, people go after the numbers because they're now, but a few years later, these numbers might be a pie in the sky. Just like the number of Friends on Myspace in ancient days. Well, you may ask what the heck is my point. It’s not a point that I want to make, but it is the simple attitude, put into a legendary musical format from 3,40 years ago, called Techno. That’s all.

Another comment is that this song TEQUNO is actually a collaboration with an eye-glasses artisan, Studio Skyrocket by Tange. He and UQiYO have been collaborating since last year about designing the best frame shape so that we can have fun wearing it. The name of the song that I thought up upon seeing this frame, ‘TEQUNO’, is on sale as brand new eye-glasses of the same name. It is really an amazing frame; please check them out.

The Music Video is another great piece of artwork by the director SUKA. UQiYO members are performing in the MV with the brand new TEQUNO glasses. The 2 newcomers are recent live concert support members. I am proud to bring you this surreal and homage-filled awesome MV. Please enjoy!

-Credit-
Song by UQiYO
MV Directed by SUKA
MV Cast: Yuqi, Sima, RLee, Ryuchi
Hair Make by harupoco
Styling by MY
Glasses co-created by “studio skyrocket by tange”
Special Thanks JUNKI YOSHIOKA

I often tend to hear the English expression ‘At the end of the day’ when I have international conversations. I kind of like it that it symbolizes condensing the length of many things into a single ‘day’.

“At the end of the day, we could forgive and forget”
“At the end of the day, we could eat drink and laugh hard”
“At the end of the day, we could be with each other”
In December, the world is covered with holiday moods, city lights are ornamented with sparkles; just like the intense burning of candle fire right before it goes out. Everyone seems to be getting ready to say goodbye to this year.

Next year will be the closing of the Japanese “Heisei” era, and thus many milestones and new beginnings are also awaited in Japan.
I just intend to send out there, a happy and warm holiday song to become a complement to your daily life. A rather tropical and sunny humid song played in a wintery, Christmas season should go well together, don’t ya think? Because, “at the end of the day” everybody deserves to be happy.

Special thanks to the Oka Family for the song inspiration, and SUKA for the movie.

It may be that humans, as long as they are alive, are chained by time, and therefore must change and flow accordingly.
There may be matters that should be changing, and also those that are better off without a change.

I was in Salzburg, Austria right before my final gig last month. While there, I met a former minister of culture of Denmark, a man of wonderful and progressive history, and told him about my situation: that a band member is quitting, and I was fathoming a new concept for my band. In response, he told me, “Whatever you do, always have one foot on the “known” zone where you are comfortable, and the other foot on the “unknown” zone; it’s better that way. You may have felt happy all these years with your members, but this change is a good thing!” I was really strengthened by his comments.

This song ‘Dry Dry Try’ was made as a title song for the animation film ‘HIZUKURI‘ (meaning ‘Creation with Fire’) to be released next year. The album ‘Black Box’ ,released last year, covered the concepts that it is important to “not own and be filled with things that are black box (unknown) to you” and “to understand what you own, and treasure it for a long time” and this will end up affecting your realistic quality of life. The director of the animation and I had a deep connection regarding these values, and we went on to visit an artisan who makes Japanese traditional scissors, where I recorded the sound of his operation (the hammering sound etc. heard in the song are real sounds of the artisan’s action).

We had many important talks at key moments, and, at last, we are here. The music video for this song, compiled with great effort of the director, will be released one week from now on 15th, Nov. You have to see this MV. The release of the Movie will be next Spring, and it will be a grand event. Please, be ready to attend the premiere!

Using a thing that you value, slowly, fixing its parts once in a while, over a long time, is one way that time flows. And the changes that need to be made with the flow of time is another way. I think the mix of the two is so deeply human, and comes very close to how nature progresses, too.

The song ‘Dry Dry Try’ spontaneously depicts different speeds of time and change of emotion in a multi-layer state. And it also is a glimpse of our determination to move towards the future.

Lastly, huge thanks to all of you who used your hands, brains, and minds to make this song and Music Video possible.

The monthly series has now been going for over half a year, and this is the 7th issue; thanks to all of you who are following us. Rest assured that we will continue to present a quality song each month.

I hear bad news every day on TV and on the web. Political game shows presented by the nation's leaders in the midst of nuclear missile threats… It seems that striving for the ultimate rationality is resulting in a collective irrationalism, and democracy is destroying some of society's good morales, based on an attempt at universal tolerance for every sort of behavior. This terminal stagnation, which seems to be surrounding us, makes me very sad.

However, even during a time like this, I still believe that there are similar feelings and concepts regarding the sense of ’beauty’, no matter where you live or what culture you are raised in.
No matter what your nationality, when you try to see far away, it becomes blurry, and when you notice a small wild flower at your feet and smell its mild sweetness, it lightens your heart.
No matter what their nationality, adolescent kids will wear a “Misfits”-like T-shirt and want to belong. Or they put on cute sweaters and nice shades, and try to look cool and dry.
All this sarcasm, ardency with hidden vendettas, and hyperbolic fraudulent mass messages, can all be fundamentally and essentially beautiful, just like how we think this suffering planet is beautiful; just like how we treasure and fear the spirit of Mother Nature.
The world turns.
The fire burns.
The clouds go.
The mothers smile.
The children cry.
And the world turns.
And all of the above are beautiful.

I would like to note that this is the first song to welcome a guest musician since the start of the monthly series. An up-and-coming and very busy artist Zooey Wonder has translated part of the lyrics into Chinese, and she came all the way to Japan for a recording session. She has the most beautiful voice and is a person of wonderful character. Her band member was also very pleasant, all of which has given me a new goal: to tour around Japan, Taiwan, and other Asian countries with Zooey Wonder.

Since I had so many themes to pack into this song, the MV for this creation is a Lyric Video by my buddy and talented creator/ artist, SUKA. Thanks to him, the understanding and quality of the video is outstanding, and it is definitely worth taking a peek.

One final thought for this month: I think that the ultimate irrationalism is “love” and consequentially, it is the most rational thing in the world.

This song is a sequel to the song '1 -plumule-' which we released last year with the album Black Box. I made this song as part of a 30 year project which I will keep working on until my 2-year-old daughter turns 30. So while these songs are deeply personal, I've chosen to also release them publicly.

I imagined the song '1 -plumule-' literally as a sprouting, and a beginning. What I imagined from this next song ‘2 -memories-‘ is that life=memory=time. This might well be a universal theme, and some have commented that it may be a bit too broad for the second song in a 30-year-long project. But this was the theme that came to me, and I think, just like in the universe, the series of expansion and contraction comes naturally to this project. So this second song will expand widely on these thoughts.

The sole message that I feel is important in this song is the fact that man is born and eventually dies, but “dying” shouldn’t be a tragedy all the time. I do of course understand that losing someone is sad, and being left behind is very lonely.

I was freshly reminded recently, that it is a very pleasurable occurrence to be able to speak a greeting to someone. Being able to say ‘hello’ and shake hands, or say ‘bye’ and wave hands, wishing for a reunion, is a very blessed event.
If we were to know exactly how much longer the people we love will live, it could be very shocking and sad, but in the meanwhile, we can really have a chance to tell them, ‘thank you, and good bye’. I think that is such an amazing gift.

Living in modern society, we each have different and intricate problems, and people can’t live like they want to live, or people often can’t choose how they want to die. In light of these thoughts, and as a father of a small child, having met so many types of people in various situations, I have come to purely treasure all the memories my daughter and I make and the moments we can spend together.

As for this Music Video, I took this whole month to plant the seeds and roll the camera to express the nature of life and death, the conflict and struggle, and the pursuit of friends and family through the eyes of a plant. Please take a moment of your life to check this out.

I would like to thank the Matsuura family for lending me the camera and processing data.

"Don't be moved by the 8 Winds” is a Zen saying.
There are many “winds” of influences in life, many of which are positive, and many are negative. I highly respect the person who endeavors to fight against headwinds in life. But sometimes, I think it is harder to keep yourself together when everything is going too well. As you might become too bold, forget to strive harder or have respect for others, maybe lose focus on delicate things like friends who are struggling. I think that one's state of mind is such a difficult balance game.

And so, with this song, I tried to express the fluctuation of emotions, but also a state of mind that is so transcendent that all those bellyaching thoughts are completely gone, and you are purely happy for no reason. Just like you are inside a rainbow or other blissful location.

Also, when I was on a trip to New York City last month, I met a programmer/designer/creator based in San Francisco, who is working all over the United States, and he offered to make a music video out of this song. He took the very unremarkable video footage that I took during the NY visit, and used programming and an A.I. deep learning method to morph the footage into a cool video. This might be the first MV, at least in Japan, to use this kind of production technique.

Once, I heard about a Japanese man who felt insulted when he was asked out by a Chinese lady, and the blatant racism he expressed freaked me out.

In addition to this memorable incident, I recently heard about a research firm that is exploring the genetic roots of an individual through their blood samples. Based on your DNA, they can determine the nationality and race of your origin. This one supremacist man was devastated upon learning of his diverse roots, and right after he was confronted with this data, he started changing his beliefs, right before the camera.

Based on these events, the theme of this song is World Peace. lol Yah, it sounds too simple, and broad. I mean, of course we have the freedom to like or hate someone, but it is just mere ignorance that makes a person feel insulted when such a nice event as getting liked by a foreign girl happens to him, or when a person hates someone for no logical reason. These are such sad and regretful occurrences, and I have always wanted to write a song about this.

It’s a natural response for an animal to be frightened by something unknown or unpredictable. I know that this fear factor can depend on if we are talking about political or civil events, or if it is about a group or individual psychology, but I think most of the conflicts based on discrimination are from fear, and this can be overcome by knowledge. This is one of the biggest reasons we need to learn and become educated. And by learning, and finding wisdom, we can thus take action.

The song is set at night in an animal kingdom. There are the strong and the weak, beautiful, scary, fast...all kinds of animals. But they “all are a mix of the same ingredient”. And no matter if they look different, they are basically the same. Difference is a mere identifying factor.

This theme kind of relates to the last month’s “It doesn’t matter anymore” quote. If we could know different people and be nicer to them, or be strict with love, and people around us could accept it, then maybe, we could all be a little bit happier. I know this is a total cliche. I am not even close to addressing this theme fully, but I thought this is the right time to get this message out there.

The Animals appearing in the Music Video are made by leaves and wood gathered and collaged by fans, and they were made to come alive by the awesome stop motion animator. The last scene literally gave me goose bumps. This one also is a must-see movie, so please check it out, and share your thoughts about it!

Thanks
Yuqi

‘It doesn’t matter any more’= my sole message

It seems that everybody in this modern society communicates by using “symbols”, like one's appearance, business title, gender, interests, and so on. I happened to wonder what would happen if all these symbols were stripped away. So I decided to title this song 「目日口O」which has no meaning whatsoever in Japanese. But people who can’t read the kanji characters might still be able to understand the idea it conveys.

There is an old Japanese Zen saying that states: “You meet a stranger; you enjoy conversation and don’t know their name”. You might meet a person on a trip, start a conversation about a random topic, maybe go on a short excursion together, having a lot of laughs, and then say “Thanks” and “Farewell” without exchanging contact info. Perhaps, you never see each other again, but what remains is a warm memory. I think experiences like this are important to have sometimes.

Also, I want to free myself from a state of being hindered by issues that don't matter much, and by not being able to cherish what really matters.

The last few lines I wrote for this song, starting from ‘Utopia―', are all topics of no significance. But I think people who I can enjoy talking about these topics with are the people who “really matter” to me.

Finally, the music video for this song, which I made with my amazing friends, succeeds wonderfully in eliminating the identity of “myself”, and making it into a mere “symbol”. I hope by removing what doesn't matter, this video shows something that really does matter. Please, check it out and feel free to give comments and spread the love.

'Sl(n)ow Land' is a gallant attempt to express a 'few seconds' that transcend everything else through their definite beauty.

A short time ago, after a concert in the Western Japan area, I was in a car with my band members on our way back to Tokyo. In the middle of the mountains of Koga, we encountered an unseasonably heavy snow fall. Lying in the back seat, gazing at the gray and creamy white sky, I sat up to see millions of snow flakes, slowly searching their way down to Earth. It was as if I was watching a beautiful slow motion movie.

This was when I had to wonder, 'why am I so moved by this scene?' Is it the concept of time lapsing speed that is seemingly distorting? Or is it simply the fact that something is moving slower than 'usual'?
So I decided to write a song about it.

This scene also stirred up more thoughts, about the classic Japanese story 'Snow Country' by Yasunari Kawabata, a Nobel Prize-winning author. His story discusses how people simply become attracted to each other, and how all women are obviously beautiful. There is no room for social status or position to interfere.

His description of burning love in the extreme cold, and of human noises in this extreme silence of the snow country mesmerized many people of his time. The last scene, about the falling sky as a metaphor to the character's psychological state, was such a stunning, almost visual expression.

Not only Snow Country exemplifies these extreme moments, but also works such as Trainspotting and The Clockwork Orange, which depicts such evilness that is not tolerated in this society, but contrasts it by expressing the overwhelming beauty within which just crushes everything and everyone. Before we know it, these works become a national treasure. This phenomenon simply fascinates me, and the majestic power that 'beauty' holds is bottomless, so it seems.

The Music Video, taken by my iPhone7, looks into the simple beauty of my surrounding environment.

There's a Japanese old Zen saying which says something like "A blower drinks up the ocean until a coral branch shows". It means don't be afraid to drawn in your thoughtful reflection and worries, something precious might be at the deepest of thoughts, and it's sometimes worth searching for.

It scares me to keep myself in a state of distress. I even get sick sometimes. And it is common sense to go out and relax and forget about it. But this saying gave me courage to go ahead and dive as deep as possible.

This song URM' Pocket was very much influenced by this saying, and the production process itself turned out to be something of its projection or so to say.

The song mentions the Inside and Outside of the 'pocket' which are metaphor to the introversive and outgoing person's thoughts.

Lastly, and overall, the 'coral' that I found at the seabed gave off a garish light and was very bright and beautiful. And it reminded me of the beach bonfire one night. Playing a guitar and gazing at the lambently lighted 'you' at the other side of the fire.