Interview MIKEY (Tokyo Gegay) Live without fixing your image. To express yourself undefined and unwaveringly

I can't decide endlessly

－－How did you feel about this interview project?

Honestly, I was wondering if I would accept it. I always have an interview on the spot.……I will answer appropriately, so when I look at the contents that I have compiled at a later date in the manuscript, I am depressed as "Is this going out into the world?" (laughs). For example, let's say, "What's your favorite food?" and answer "Beef stew" in such a place. Someone who saw it said, "Mikey likes beef stew." Actually, I don't like that (laughs). Then I just need to answer it right from the beginning.……。 However, recently I was away from the front stage, so I accepted it as a good opportunity. This time, I would like to answer properly so that I don't regret it.

－－I heard that MIKEY had requested a costume for filming, and that he was wearing a rabbit costume.

In fact, I joked with the excuse to refuse to shoot, "If you can't see your face at a costume level." Then he said, "Please, please." So it was today's rabbit who came out searching the Internet, thinking that it was something that could be prepared for the costume. I've been wearing a lot of costumes, but I've never worn a costume, so I wanted to wear it. And if you're a costume, you don't have to be me! I asked, "Do I not have to wear it?", "Please ask Mr. MIKEY himself." It was an operation failure (laughs).

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

Oh yeah. It's been a long time ago. I do this kind of work and it is very contradictory. I don't want to see too many people [laughs]. I'm not good at attracting attention to people. When I was little, even if I had a birthday party, I was embarrassed and hiding. Also, you don't want to create a visual that fits into the type, "This is MIKEY." Does it mean that MIKEY is an abstract existence and is not clearly defined? I don't know if I want to see it or don't want to see it, or if I want to do it in the first place. I want to run away from the understanding of others.

Music and hip-hop with roots

－－Do you have anything you like without changing?

How about it? Well, only the type of man will change. I hope it will change that way (laughs).

－－Do you have any difficulties with your tastes now?

My favorite type of man doesn't like me (laughs). If you like someone who likes me, you might be a little happier. For some reason, it doesn't change even if you look at the painful eyes. What should I do (laughs)?

－－(laughs). Is there anything you think is good right now?

If you limit it now, there may be nothing. I'm really obsessed with fashion and the trend of 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 the national anthem. When I asked the person next to me, "Whose song is this?", I was surprised, "There are people in Japan who don't know this song!" I can't help because I don't check new songs at all, and I don't see SNS, but I'm getting out of my life again. Just talk to a friend and know, “That’s happening right now.”

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

You may not have been interested in it at first.

－－Is it okay without seeing it?

It's okay if I don't see it, because I'm going out for a drink (laughs).

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

I don't know. I have a friend who likes to walk, so sometimes take a walk, have lunch, and have tea. So go for a drink at night. Oh, I'll see YouTube.

－－Is it music?

No, it's just the old All Japan Women's Professional Wrestling (laughs). Probably because I don't see so many things because I get tired of getting too much information. I can’t see a lot of movies or theaters. If you get hooked, you'll have to watch it all the time. All Japan Women's Professional Wrestling also watch tens of thousands of games that I've seen many times on TV and video when I'm young. That's why I don't know much, but I'm very familiar with what I like (laughs).

－－After all, do you think that your childhood experiences have a significant impact on your hobby preferences?

I think that's basic. When it comes to music, I think the influence I had when I was a teenager is very strong. I've been hooked on hip-hop since junior high school. There was no one listening around. I was listening to Missy Elliott or Timberland. R&B is SWV and Brandy. I love the taste of the 1990s and 2000s. I'm still listening to it, and I think it's quite influenced by music making.

－－I don't think that the fact that there are no people around me wasn't listening to me through relationships or booms. If so, where were you attracted to?

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

If you dance, don't lie.

－－I’ll also ask you about dance and music activities. First of all, you started working as a singer in your teens.

I used to play a lot at a small live house.

－－At that time, the people in the office told me, "Let's learn to dance."……。

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

－－More than 20 years ago.……。

It's terrible (laughs). But at that time, street dancers had the impression of a flow from Yankee culture. Hip hop dance wears a dabodabody clothes, and it's bad or bad on the street. I wonder if it was "masculinity" at the time. So at first, I think it was like learning to dance, or "Let's learn masculinity." It's a reaction, but now it's like this (laughs).

－－But did you go into dancing there?

I was going to a studio taught by a male teacher, and one day the teacher invited me to "come and play at the club." So when I went to the club, everyone suddenly started to sit on the vetabeta floor for drinking. So, when I thought about what it would start, the dance show time began. My teacher was also out, but above all, the women dancing there were shockingly cool. When I saw a woman dancing at a gorigori hip-hop, I thought, "I want to be like this!" And so I came to love dancing.

－－I want to dance like that too.

Make-up, hairstyle, and fashion for girls called B.……I have loved black culture since I was a child, but there are such cool people in Japan! I think the excitement and impact of seeing it is definitely connected to the present. The president at the time, who wanted masculinity, would never have thought that I would become a woman after that (laughs).

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

That's right. But does the song have lyrics? I was 10 years old because I was hiding that I was gay.……For example, even if I write lyrics for love, what I expect is a man. But I don't like to know the people in the office, so I wrote all the lyrics that were camouflaged. I hate singing something too. Stay away from the song and leave the office. But dance doesn’t need words, right? So it was better to express it in dance. It was more comfortable to express without words.

Meet a gay expressionist

－－At that time, is it oppression, or can't we talk about that more than now?

I think so. At that time, there were more trends in the world like gay = okama = color, let alone in the world of hip hop culture and street dance, there was a feeling of air that could not be said to be gay.

－－From there, Tokyo ★We form Tokyo Gagay through Kids, vanilla Grotesque, but Tokyo Gagay clearly has the word gay. Are you ready to call it that way?

Already in Tokyo ★As a kid, I had publicly stated that I was gay, so long after that, in Tokyo Gagay, I had no resistance to claim my name at all.

－－How did you start proclaiming that you were gay?

There is a gay dancer from New York called JONTE' MOANING, and it's just in Tokyo. ★When I started working with kids, when I came to Japan and saw him dancing at showtime, it was a tremendous shock. Makeup on skin head and high heel on leotard. And overwhelming dance skills. As a result, I started to become interested in gay culture. Lee Bowley and party monsters. I think that being fascinated by them and longing for them gave me the opportunity to accept that I am gay. As a result, if I gave up singing and became obsessed with dancing, it's like the dance released me and got the song back. I can sing that I like men proudly (laughs).

－－Do you ever feel the change of the world that you think is easier to live than before?”

……It's hard. “Convenient is not inconvenient,” but what about it? Is it getting easier to live? I think there are some parts that are becoming like that, but it is easy to live = I feel that I am not happy. For example, as for me personally, I don't feel like being gay is like a complex or social handicap, and I'm financially rich compared to the past, but then I wonder if it's easier to live compared to the past. I feel that there are some parts that are open and some are cramped.

Motivation born from freedom

－－In the 2015 "* ASTERISK" series, we started working with PARCO in earnest under the production of PARCO. And in 2016, the "Tokyo Gegegay Opera Company" series started. At first, when I was asked by a producer, I heard that MIKEY continued to respond unreachablely.

At that time, I was free without an affiliated office, there were no fans, and I enjoyed doing things like handmade on a small scale with students and their mothers (in the dance classroom). No one is expected to expect, but an environment where you can do what you like at any time. But if Mr. PARCO arrives, you will be responsible at once, or you will become professional. It's commercial. "Being a professional……I feel like there was something like that. That's right now (laughs).

－－I started the "Tokyo Gegay Opera Company" series, and I was active in music, such as releasing ALBUM. How about being able to reach more people? The opera company continues until vol.VI, but do you feel like you have accomplished something in MIKEY?

It's not at all. Maybe, but I've never said that I wanted to do a "Operaire" (laughs). I came with a flow like "Then next?" There is an opera company, so I had to make ALBUM, so I came and realized that I had done it six times.

－－I feel that we are not driving the easy-to-understand upward trend.

If so, I might have sold a little more (laughs). But PARCO was allowed to do it freely at the Opera Company, so each time, whether it was a musician, a dancer or a creator, I could do it with the people I wanted to do at that time. When it comes to a commercial performance, you may be told, "I want you to do this this time," or something you do not want to do due to adult circumstances. But Mr. PARCO never said that. Maybe I just couldn't remember it now, but maybe I didn't (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 try collaborating with such people and have any episodes, please let me know.

Oh yeah. I've talked a lot about RYUHEI on my YouTube. Well, I'm not very suitable for majors (laughs), so if the younger generation of children who are going to make the mainstream of Japan in the future had a little positive impact, I'm glad I did it.

－－Mr. MIKEY is also the opera company, but he attended the tape cut at the advertisement of Gran Bazaar and the reopening of Shibuya PARCO, and he was with PARCO in various aspects. Do you have any memories of that?

Ah. The first thing that came out was the former president's band.

－－……What's that?

First of all, I remembered that the former president of PARCO went to see the band performing live. That's why a former Tokyo Gagay girl member was playing back dancers (laughs). Mr. PARCO said he wouldn't bring in the adult situation, but now I think it's very adult situation (laughs).

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

Oh yeah. When I was in my twenties, I danced every week at a club in Shibuya, so I feel like a youthful place for dance, but now I'm not good at crowds, so I'm going to work 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. So maybe I’ll answer it properly (laughs).

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