Nostalgia and Art

Yesterday was the “release” of my first music video. It’s hard to think of it as a repease because it was all very casually done. I decided suddenly while looking at some footage from last year and within a week I had a video.

A lot of work was put in but none of it felt like work. It was just something I was just excited to work on in between classes and stayed up late a few nights just lost in different color settings, trying to find ways to make some very ordinary, unprofessional footage of a beautoful train ride into something more mystical and exciting.

I remember hearing someone say that writing a true story is not just about retelling events as they happened, it’s about saying whatever can help another person put themselves in the situation.

The footage itself was so far from the feeling of being out in the country to explore a new area after 3 years cooped up in the city. It’d impossible to express with simple footage the nostagia I felt riding north of Tokyo, the memories of a 40 hour train ride between Chengdu and Shenzhen in 2010 or the many train rides I took while touring in 2014.

The lyrics themselves were written on a train, and mention such.

I started writing this song when I first decided to leave Japan in 2010 and finished it around the time that I finally did leave in 2011. I got on a train from Tokyo to Osaka with huge bags full of belongings and arrived in a hostel in Osaka hoping to get on a boat to Shanghai the next day.

I arrived and loved the hostel and they offered me a translation job for the remainder of my visa, two months so I cancelled my tickets and left two months later instead.

I got rid of both my big suitcases and finally left Osaka for Shanghai with just a guitar and a backpack. The boat ride took two days which felt like a dream.

I had quit my job suddenly and decided to just go with the flow and was already doingg just that. I cried my eyes out because it hurt so much to say goodbye to this beautiful country thinking I’d never return but I was so excited about living life with no plan and exploring new places and new cultures without any rigid restrictions, and with savings that could last a year (the japanese yen was mich stronger rhan the RMB at that time and hostels were CHEAP back then).

Everyone thought I had lost my mind, having absolutely no plan for the future and going from a country with an extremely positive image to a country with a much less positive image.

They imagined I’d only be able to survive for 3 or 4 months because that’s how long I’d be able to live if I stayed in a decent hotel. But I quickly found ways to live without spending much money at all, working for free in exchange for a bed, vilunteering and staying with people who enjoyed having guests.

I got involved in many different communities as I travelled between cities, staying at each for a month until I ended up in Xiamen which said to me “You belong here, stay for a while”, and so I did.

So this song is filled with the feelinng of saying goodbye and setting off on a journey without any gaurantee of safety except for a strong intuition that everything will work out.

I lived like that for almost 6 years before finally returning to Japan. So the footage is a bit different from the imagery of in my mind when I actuallt wrote the song, but the same kind of magic exists everywhere there is green. Each place has it’s own unique energy but you can feel how they are all a part of this big rock we live on.

And so I am often reminded of those days when I take a train into the countryside.

It’s not just a nostalgia for the country or for my experiences but it’s a feeling that live is full of surprises and mystery and that if you step outside of your story, you begin to glimpse at all it’s inner workings. This feeling is impossible to describe but many artists try.

And so this song and this video were an attempt to express what happens when you decide to stop worrying and go with the flow in the direction of your dreams, sometimes away from everything you thought was your life, and how life can be recreated through your own artistic vision once you let go of any strict ideas about how things should be.

I wanted to talk more about the reaction people had to the video but I guess that will be tomorrows post 😆

Please check out the video! It’s waiting for you:

“Art vs. Artist” by I+Everything MV

Thisnis my new channel for my music, like and subscribe if you are into it!

Also! My friend @aurorasky who had joined Hive last year but never posted is now blogging and threading on inleo. Please be kind to her and help her get used to this place!

Posted Using InLeo Alpha