H: In the late '80s, the era changed from hip-hop to house, and I personally found it difficult to keep up with both music and fashion. Stars who emerged at that time included Hiroshi Fujiwara, Kan Takagi, and Jonio. Jonio was doing a show, so I went to see it at Liquidroom.

J: It was the third collection at Liquidroom in '95. It was a mess.

H: For me, Jonio from the Tokyo Sex Pistols, who used to hang out at clubs with Hitomi from MILK, was doing a show. I thought it was amazing, so I went to see it, and when I finished, I was amazed at what an amazing era we live in.

J: It was a mess (laughs).

H: (Serious expression) It wasn't a mess at all. Until the emergence of Plastics and Yellow Magic Orchestra in the '70s and '80s, I don't think originality really spread from Japan. But I honestly felt that, rather than thinking of foreign music and fashion as cool, artists capable of expressing originality had emerged. Of course, there had been many designers who had presented collections in Tokyo as designer brands, but Jonio's work came from the streets. Like me, I love street design and street ideas. I honestly thought it was amazing that a young artist with this kind of presentation style had emerged in Tokyo. With Plastics, and my subsequent solo albums like "H," "Hm," "Tekki-kun and Kipple-chan," and "Taiyo-san," as well as my Typography Exhibition and Application Tour solo exhibitions, I've been trying to present new ways of thinking and styles from a street perspective, hoping to show the world my sensibilities and creations. It could be that the seeds I'd been sowing since then have taken shape in various places, but in reality, it was more like, "Wow, this is amazing!" I thought that. Because I couldn't keep up with the music of that time. Thrash metal and stuff like that was a total no-no (laughs).

J: It's true that music changed a lot in the '90s. I couldn't stand hip-hop and house music either. I still can't stand house music, and I've never liked dance music.

H: Was the Sex Pistols your introduction to music?

J: At first I listened to pop music and the Beatles, and then Led Zeppelin because of a friend. I started listening to the Pistols when I was in the first year of junior high school because I thought the name and album cover design were cool.

H: That wasn't in real time, was it?

J: Yes, I was about 7 years old when the Pistols were actually active. When I was in junior high school, I was listening to Japanese bands along with the Pistols, and when I discovered Plastics, I thought, ``There are people doing that kind of thing in Japan, too.''

H: Jonio listens to a pretty wide range of music, doesn't he?

J: Yes, I love Tatsuro Yamashita. Also German techno, progressive rock, hardcore.

H: I also like German rock like Neu, Kan, Guru Guru, and Cluster. Do you also like Television?

J: I love Television. Plastics is a band made up of designers and stylists, which is what's cool about it. They do it because they have work, and through that they connect with people all over the world who share the same vibe, and that overlaps to some extent with what I do in fashion. I think the origins of what we've done are the roots that have allowed us to reach a global level.

H: Jonio, you were also a designer while you were in a band, right?

J: But the band itself wasn't something you started of your own volition. I started the band when MODS' Moriyama (Tatsuya) told me, "You look like Johnny Rotten, you should start a band," so for me, it's a little hard to put that in the spotlight...

H: Punk was a big influence, after all. Before punk, people who weren't good at instruments weren't allowed to play music, but after punk, the trend became that it was okay to play music based solely on emotion, that it was okay to play music based solely on sense. Punk also had a big influence on design, that it was okay to design based solely on intuition and sense, and this spread from London to New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, and has continued to the present day.

Return to 1/6.
Continued 3/6.