To find out more about METAFIVE's first album "META", a piece lined with tracks that metamorphose as the individualities of the members sweetly collide, we sat down with the members, three at a time, to hear what they have to say-
[A quick introduction of the members of METAFIVE!]
LEO IMAI (vocal / synth / guitar / programming)
Singer-songwriter Leo Imai was born in Tokyo in 1981 to a Japanese father and Swedish mother. He is also known as a composer, lyricist, and lyrics translator. After living in the U.K., he moved to Japan in order to start his career as an artist in Japan. Imai released his first album “CITY FOLK” in 2006, and made his major commercial debut with the single “Blue Technique” in 2007. Since then, he has released multiple recordings including his four full-length albums. His latest work is “Made From Nothing” (2013). In 2010, he started his new project KIMONOS in collaboration with Shutoku Mukai (a member of rock band ZAZEN BOYS and former frontman of Number Girl), and released their first studio album “Kimonos” in the same year. Imai has also been involved in the productions of other artists, performing his rap in the single “TOO FAR” by rock band APOGEE, and writing lyrics of “The Future” or “Otherside” for Japanese male idol group SMAP.
Yukihiro Takahashi (vocal / drums / synth / rhythm sequencer)
Takahashi was born in Tokyo in 1952, and is known as a multi-talented creator who has credits as a singer-songwriter, producer, etc. After achieving fame as a studio musician, he joined the Japanese rock group Sadistic Mika Band in 1972. In 1978, he formed YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA (YMO) with Haruomi Hosono (musician/bassist) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (musician/pianist/composer), which disbanded in 1983. He has also worked in many other projects such as THE BEATNIKS with Keiichi Suzuki (musician/composer, vocalist and leader of pop/rock group, moonriders), SKETCH SHOW with Hosono, and pupa with Tomoyo Harada (singer/actress), Hiroshi Takano (singer-songwriter/guitarist / producer) and others, and has released an abundance of masterpieces. Since the release of “Saravah!” in 1978, Takahashi has been working as a solo musician as well. His latest release is the album called “LIFE ANEW” (2013) which he recorded with In Phase, the band consisting of James Iha (musician/guitarist/record producer, former member of The Smashing Pumpkins), Hirohisa Horie (musician/keyboardist), Curly Giraffe (the solo project by Kiyoshi Takakuwa; musician/bassist), Tomohiko Gondo (musician/euphonium player/composer/arranger). Takahashi recently caught the public attention performing his drums in LOVE PSYCHEDELICO’s tour.
Tomohiko Gondo (flugelhorn / euphonium / synth etc.)
Gondo is a musician born in Tokyo. In 2003, he released his first record “opus01” from anonymass, the band that shares the exact same concept with Gondo’s own style of combining euphonium and electronics. Since the band released their latest work “anonymass” (2008), which is a cover album of YMO, Gondo has been playing in the back band at YMO’s live shows too. He’s also a member of pupa, and Shuta Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra, while supporting the live shows or recordings of many other artists such as Chara (singer-songwriter/actress), UA (singer-songwriter/actress), Quruli (indie/alternative rock band), and LOVE PSYCHEDELICO (pop/rock unit). Most recently, he took part in the production of Keiichi Suzuki’s “Records and Memories” (2015) as a recording/mixing engineer, and “Tabiji” (2015) by Yuga (singer-songwriter) as the producer. Gondo also established his own record label gooondo in 2014 and has been releasing albums of Kohei Kawai (singer-songwriter) and other musicians.
TOWA TEI (synth / noise / programming)
In 1990, Tei made his debut in the U.S. as a member of Deee-Lite, with the album “World Clique.” After moving his base to Japan, he released his first solo album “Future Listening!” in 1994. From the next year, he has been expanding his field as a DJ, beat-maker, and producer, constantly producing musical works including mix CDs, and his trilogy albums “FLASH,” “BIG FUN,” (2009) and “SUNNY” (2011). During that time, Tei also launched his own production company hug inc., and an e-commerce website MACH, which introduces various types of art from a wide range of artists. The year of 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of his solo career, and he released consecutively a series of greatest hits albums called [94-14], which consists of a remix disc of Tei’s numbers by artists home and abroad, a disc of his original numbers, and one with cover numbers. In 2015, his latest original album “CUTE” was released.
Yoshinori Sunahara (synth / programming)
Sunahara is a sound designer and producer from Hokkaido, born in 1969. He was a member of synthpop group Denki Groove from 1991 to 1999. While performing for the group, he made his solo debut with “CROSSOVER” in 1995, and has so far released five original albums, including his latest work “liminal” released in 2011. Sunahara also brought out his first soundtrack album “No Boys, No Cry Original Sound Track” in 2009, and released a single “Kamisama no Iutoori (meaning As God Dictates)” under the unit name shared with Junji Ishiwatari (former guitarist of rock band SUPERCAR) in 2010. He has been involved in many other projects such as the producing of SUPERCAR (disbanded in 2005) and ACO (singer-songwriter), remixing, writing commercial music, or mastering as an engineer. Looking at the outputs of and beyond 2015 alone, his name has been on the credits of many artists’ work, including Japanese pop band (((sssurrounddd))), tofubeats (singer/producer/DJ/beatmaker), FOLKS (indie rock band), and LILI LIMIT (rock band).
Keigo Oyamada (guitar / chorus)
Oyamada is an artist born in Tokyo in 1969. He made his debut as a member of rock band Flipper’s Guitar in 1989, and started as a solo artist under the name of Cornelius in 1993 after the band broke up. Since he released his first full-length album “THE FIRST QUESTION AWARD” in 1994, he has made five original albums so far. Especially, since the international release of “FANTASMA” in 1997, he has held world tours and expanded his field into the world-wide music scene. “Sensurround & B-Sides,” which is a collection of music videos created based on “SENSUOUS” (2006), was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album. Added to this, he also works in many other projects such as the Japanese sci-fi anime “Ghost in the Shell” related soundtrack, the collaboration with Maaya Sakamoto, and the release of his compilation album “Constellations Of Music”, -a collection of self-selected tracks from his own works.
