Interview MIKEY (Tokyo Gegegey) | I live without fixing my image. Expressing undetermined and unwavering self

I can't endlessly determine

－－How did you feel about this interview project?

To be honest, I was wondering if I would accept it. I always have an interview with you.……I will answer it appropriately, so if I look at the contents that I have compiled at a later date in the manuscript, I will be depressed as "Is this going out into the world?" (laughs). For example, I would say, "What do you like to eat?" and answer "beef stew" in such a place. Someone who saw it said, "Mr. MIKEY likes beef stew." In fact, I don't like that (laughs). Then it's just a matter of having to answer appropriately from the beginning.……。 However, recently I was far away from the front stage, so I accepted it as a good opportunity. This time, I would like to answer seriously so that I don't regret it.

－－I heard that MIKEY asked for a costume when shooting, and that he was wearing a rabbit costume.

As a matter of fact, in an excuse to refuse photography, he said in a joke, "I wish I could do a costume level where I can't see my face." Then I was told, "I would like to do that" (laughs). So, I wondered if it was something that could be prepared with a costume, and today's rabbit came out by searching the Internet. I've been wearing various costumes, but I've never worn a costume, so I want to try it. And if it's a costume, you don't have to be me! I asked, "Isn't it necessary to wear it?" I asked, "I'd like to ask MIKEY myself." It was a failure (laughs).

－－Again, I would like to mention that the contents of the costume are MIKEY-san (laughs). What do you think if you don't want to create a visual?

Yeah. It's a long time ago. It's very contradictory to do this kind of work. I don't want to see it too much (laughs). I'm not good at attracting attention to people. When I was little, I was embarrassed and hiding even if I had a birthday party. After that, you don't want to create a visual that is addicted to the type, "This is MIKEY." It is said that MIKEY is an abstract existence and it is not clear. I don't know if I want to see or don't want to see, or if I want to get this person together in the first place. I want to escape from the understanding of others.

The music and hip-hop on the roots

－－Do you have anything you like?

How about it? Oh, I wonder if only the man's type will change. I hope that it will change (laughs).

－－Do you mean that there is something wrong with your current preference?

My favorite type of man doesn't like me (laughs). If you like someone who likes me, you might be a little happy. For some reason, it's the only thing that looks painful but doesn't change. What should I do (laughs)?

－－(laughs). So, do you have anything you think right now?

If you limit it now, there may be nothing. I'm really nervous about the trend and the times. Speaking of which, during this time, one of the young children in the bar put a song into karaoke, and everyone started singing like a national anthem. When I asked a person next to me, "Who is this song?", I was surprised, "There are people who don't know this song in Japan!" I can't help because I don't check new songs at all, and I don't see SNS, but I'm still ukiyo off again. I just talked to my friends and knew, "That's happening now."

－－Are you originally interested in connecting with someone or getting information on SNS?

You might not have been interested in it.

－－Do you feel comfortable even if you don't see it?

Even if you don't see it, I'm usually going out for drinking (laughs).

－－You say you drink alcohol at night, do you sometimes go out during the day?

I guess it's almost impossible. I have friends who like to walk, so sometimes take a walk, have lunch, and have tea. And go for a drink at night. Oh, I'm watching YouTube.

－－After all, it's music.

No, just the old All Japan Women's Professional Wrestling (laughs). Perhaps the reason I don't see so many things is because I have too much information and my head gets punctured right away. I can't see a lot of movies and stages. If you get into it, you'll have to watch it all the time. All Japan Women's Professional Wrestling also watch tens of thousands of games that they have already watched on TV and video many times when they are young. That's why I don't know a lot, but I'm really familiar with what I like (laughs).

－－After all, the experience of childhood has a significant impact on hobbies and preferences.

I think it's basic. When it comes to music, I think the influence I had when I was a teenager is very strong. I got into hip-hop since I was a junior high school student. There was no one listening around me. I was listening to Missy Elliott or Timberland. For R&B, SWV and brandy. I really like the tastes from the 90s to the 2000s. I'm still listening to it, and I think it's also quite influenced by music making.

－－I don't think that the fact that there are no people around me didn't listen to it due to relationships or booms. If so, what kind of place were you attracted to?

There's no change in the basic code of hip-hop. It's like how I can listen to Flo in a one-code track all the time. I used to play music when I was little, but the music is also basically a loop. Just dozens of minutes. I think the loop is a point. There are almost no one-code songs in J-pop, and I think there are many songs with a lot of code development. Tokyo Gegegey's songs have a lot of one-code, but I think it's probably the roots of hip-hop and music.

You don't have to lie when dancing.

－－Then, I would like to ask you about dance and music activities. First of all, you started working as a singer in your teens.

I often played live in a small live house.

－－So, at that time, the people in the office said, "Let's learn dance."……。

That's right. The president of the office I was taking care of said, "Because you look like a okama, let's learn dance." If you think about it now, it's a great word.

－－It was more than 20 years ago.……。

It's terrible (laughs). Well, at that time, street dancers had the impression of a flow from Yankee culture. The hip-hop dance wears a dabo-dugly dress, and I'd like to see the evils of the street. I wonder if it was easy to understand at that time. So at first, I think it was like learning dance, or "wearing masculinity." That's the reaction, but it's like this now (laughs).

－－But did you mean you got into dancing there?

I was going to a studio taught by a male teacher, and one day, the teacher invited me to play at the club. So when I went to the club, everyone suddenly started to sit on the bed of Betabeta with alcohol. So, when I wondered what would start, the dance show time started. My teacher was also out, but above all the women who were dancing there were shockingly cool. When I saw a woman dancing on a gorigoli hip-hop, I thought, "I want to be like this!"

－－I also want to dance like that.

Makeup, hairstyle, fashion of girls who were called B series……I've been like black culture since I was a child, but there are such cool people in Japan! That's right. I think the excitement and impact of seeing it are definitely connected to the present. The president at the time, who wanted masculinity, wouldn't have thought that I would be a woman after that (laughs).

－－"That's it!" (laughs). In that sense, do you feel like you want to make something through dance in parallel with your interest in music?

That's right. But the song has lyrics, isn't it? And teenagers lived by hiding that I was a gay.……For example, if you write lyrics for love, what I assume is a man. But I don't want to get to the people in the office, so I just wrote the lyrics like a camouflage. I don't like singing something. So I moved away from the song and quit the office. But dance doesn't need words, don't you? So I was able to express it in dance. It was more comfortable to express without words.

Meet Gay's Expressors

－－At that time, it was oppression, or it was not possible to talk about such things as it is now?

I think so. At that time, there was a tendency like gay-Okama-colored things in the world, and even more, in the world of hip-hop culture and street dance, there was an atmosphere that could not be said to be gay.

－－From there, Tokyo ★After going through Kids and vanilla Glotesque, I form Tokyo Gegegay, but Tokyo Gegegay clearly contains the word Gay. Did you have any conflict or determination to make such a claim?

Already, Tokyo ★I had proclaimed that I was a gay at the time of kids, so I had no resistance to claim my name in Tokyo Gagay a long time after that.

－－How did you come to proclaim that you were a gay?

There's a New York gay dancer called JONTE' MOANING, just in Tokyo. ★When I started working in kids, when I saw him dancing in Japan at showtime, it was a great shock. Make-up on skinhead and high heels on leotard. And overwhelming dance skills. That's why I started to be interested in gay culture. Lee Bowley, party monsters, etc. I think that being fascinated and admired by them also helped me to accept that I am a gay. As a result, if I gave up the song and was absorbed in dancing, it feels like the dance has released me and regained the song. I can sing that I like men proudly (laughs).

－－Do you feel any changes in the world that you think is easier to live than in the past?

……It's difficult. It's not "convenience is inconvenient," but what about it? I wonder if it's getting easier to live. I think there are some parts that are becoming like that, but I feel that it is easy to live = not happy. For example, in my personal point, I don't feel that gay is like a complex or social handicap, and it's economically rich compared to the past, but I wonder if it's easier to live than in the past. I feel that there are some open parts and some cramped parts.

Motivation born from freedom

－－In the "* ASTERISK" series in 2015, the activity began under Parco production with Parco in earnest. And in 2016, the "Tokyo Gegegay Opera Company" series started. At first, when I was asked by a producer, I've heard that MIKEY continued to reply unstrainedly.

At that time, there were no affiliated offices, there were no fans, and it was fun to do it on a small scale with students and their mothers (in the dance classroom) with a handmade feeling. There is an environment where you can do what you like at any time, not expected by anyone. But if Mr. Parco comes, you will be responsible at once, or you will be professional. It's commercial. "You should be a professional……I think there was something like that. Well, I still have it (laughs).

－－He started the "Tokyo Gegegei Opera Company" series and has been actively involved in releasing albums in music. How do you feel when the expression reaches more people? "The Opera Company" continues until vol.VI, but do you feel like you have achieved something in MIKEY?

There's nothing at all. I don't think I've ever wanted to do the Opera Company (laughs). I came in the flow like "What's next?" I came with that feeling that I had to make an album because there was an opera company, and if I noticed it, I was doing it six more times.

－－I don't feel like an easy-to-understand upward trend is the driving force.

If there was that, I might have sold a little more (laughs). But Parco was free to do it at the Opera Company, so each time I could be a musician, a dancer, a creator, or a person I want to do together at that time. When it comes to a commercial performance, you may say, "I want you to do this this time," or something you don't want to do due to adult circumstances. But Mr. Parco has never said such a thing at all. I might have just couldn't remember right now, but I don't think it was probably (laughs).

－－No, it wasn't there (laughs). Also, MIKEY is collaborating with various people, including RYUHEI of BE: FIRST. I have the impression that there are many collaborations with the younger generation, but if you have any episodes after collaborating with such people, please let me know.

Yeah. As for RYUHEI, I talked a lot about what I can say on my YouTube. Well, I'm not very suitable for majors (laughs), so if I had a little positive impact on the younger generation who will make the main stream of Japan in the future, I'm glad I did it.

－－As is the case with the Opera Company, MIKEY also attended the tape cut at the Grand Bazaar advertisement and the reopening of Shibuya PARCO. Do you have any memories in that?

Oh. The first thing that came out was the previous president's band.

－－……What about that?

First of all, I remembered Parco's former president went to watch the band's live performance. That's why a former female member of Tokyo Gegegey was playing back dancers (laughs). Parco said that he wouldn't bring in the circumstances of adults a while ago, but if I think now, it's a very adult situation (laughs).

－－There was such a collaboration (laughs). What is your impression of the city of Shibuya?

Yeah. When I was in my twenties, I danced every week at a club in Shibuya, so I feel like it's a youth place for dance, but now I'm not good at crowds, so I'm about working with Parco for the purpose of coming to Shibuya (laughs). I thought I was interviewed for the first time in a long time this time, but after all, there are many things that really interesting episodes can not be easily published in the world. That's why I'll answer it appropriately (laughs).

－－Then, after the statute of limitations, I would like to ask you again (laughs).