Name: Hoshina Anniversary
Nationality: Japanese
Occupation: Producer, sound artist, DJ
Recent release: Hoshina Anniversary's HakkyouShisou 発狂しそう is out via Constellation Tatsu on January 17th 2023.
Recommendations:
Brian Eno & Harold Budd - Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
I sometimes listen to this album before going to bed. It seems like a kind of classical music, but their personalities stand out and I never get tired of listening to it again and again. I hope it helps someone to find calmness in their life.

[Read our Brian Eno interview about climate change and activism]

Pendant - Make Me Know You Sweet
I listen to this album when I need to concentrate on something. For example, when I'm in a cafe and I'm trying to think, but there's a lot of noise around me, I listen to this. It has been the most important music for me in the last few years, and it's hard to find music that has the same mood as this music.

If you enjoyed this interview with Hoshina Anniversary and would like to find out more about his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

When I was 18 years old, I started writing/producing music. An important influence was Billy Joel. I love the sound produced by Phil Ramone (especially from “The Stranger” to “Innocent Man”), Billy’s compositions and  great studio musicians.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

Great music seems to open up my creativity. And although the music itself is fixed or constant, different interpretations are created by different listeners. This "interpretation" is then expressed in the music when I make it, and I guess you could say that is the "fun of creativity”.

For example, The Beatles' music just exists in the world, but someone else's interpretation of the Beatles' music is expressed through his music, and I think that's interesting.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

I originally started composing music because I couldn’t find exactly the kind of music in the world that I wanted to listen to. It means that I am not making music to replace anyone else's.

When it comes “challenges”, it means I show respect for the musicians who have influenced me, and to make music that carries on their intentions. For example, Chick Corea is my forever hero, and one of the challenges is to further develop his music, or to inherit and expand the possibilities of the music he has created.

As for “development", that's a tough one, because people tend to focus on "external" growth, and I have many such moments. If your album is nominated as “the best album of 2022” in the media, you can think "externally" that you have developed yourself, but perhaps what is important in life is "internal" development. Such as "I discovered something more than I did yesterday”.

And I have come to think more than in the past that it is very important to accept that "my world" and to savor the small changes in myself. This feeling may be "self-satisfaction," but perhaps life is partly about how you raise the level of that “self-satisfaction.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I think one aspect of my identity is to “deliver good quality music”. But "good quality" can be considered ambiguous. For example, people have different opinions about "good/bad" food. So, perhaps my "I want to deliver good quality music" is somewhat “egotistical".

Maybe I am somewhat similar to a person who sells coffee. There is a nice coffee roasting place near my house. The store struggles daily to deliver good quality, top-quality coffee in their own way, and I am struck by their attitude. But on the other hand, I am also fascinated by the kind of wildness that comes from struggling and then throwing it all away, or perhaps doing something stupid.

I like well-crafted music, but I am equally attracted to the power of music that is created on the spur of the moment or with inspiration.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Creating my own musical world and presenting new values.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

This is a very difficult issue and perhaps good timing as I have been thinking about it especially lately.

For example, taking a café as an example, while it is important to stubbornly stick to the same menu for a long time, I think it is also very important to think of new menu items.

Perhaps the important thing there is "not to run away from yourself.” Not to run away from asking yourself the question “Who am I?” And to face your true feelings and repeat try and error each time.

At this stage, I’m interested in "music of the future," which may be the answer. But on the other hand, I make music under the influence of the music I have made and listened to. So if I consider them as "traditions," I can say that I am “continuing a tradition”.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

In the last decade, I'd say Logic Pro and UVI Workstation. I am not a good piano player, but they have enabled me to play the phrases I want to play and create music with the tone I want.

I am using the latest digital technology to create my type of analog sound, and maybe that is what I am doing now.

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

In the morning, when I wake up, I go to the bathroom to wash my mouthpiece. I have TMJ issues, so the mouthpiece is very important to me. Next, I take Yaeyama Chlorella. I have been drinking it for the past few years because it helps eliminates toxins from my body. Next, I wash my hands, face, brush my teeth, and return to my room with hot water. Then I change into a jersey or something similar and walk for about 30 minutes. When I get home, I take a vitamin D3. Then I drink coffee and check my e-mail.

After that, depending on the day, I write songs, check out new releases, or practice instruments such as bass and piano these days.

I have lunch around 11:00 and take a nap for about 20 minutes. In the afternoon, I go to a cafe to talk with someone I know. I have dinner around 17:00 p.m. and take a bath before 19:00 p.m. I go to bed at 22:00 or 23:00.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

I don't have a specific rule about which instrument to start with. I just open up Logic Pro, start jamming along, and as I get into the mood, I start adding more and more elements that the song needs.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

When it comes to listening to music, I like to listen to music with others and exchange opinions, and I also like to listen to music alone while pondering. When it comes to writing songs, I prefer to do it alone. Maybe because I can mature my ideas.

There's a lot I don't understand about "influencing creative results." I don't think I'm aware of anything when I'm making something, I'm just immersed in it. There are times when someone else's ideas are helpful, but I think they have already melted away inside me to a level where I can't point out specifics.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

If I make music that I like and it is not appreciated by the public, I sometimes feel that I am not needed in this world. However, it can be said that this is an illusion, or a world that I have created. There is a world around the trees in the park …The world is not only made up of people. The recent theme of my music might be something like 'outside and inside myself'. And I recently wrote a song titled "What can we leave behind in this world?".

One of the roles of music in society is “escape”. I believe that there is a 'world' in one's music, and 'escaping' into it, that enriches our lives. You can also use word “trip” or some other word.

As for myself now, I might want music to just exist outside of society with such kindness that it seems indifferent to people.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

What is great about music is that it provides us with a particular mood. For example, if I listen to The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, it makes me feel the pain of heartbreak, or the romance of love, and I think it soothes me when I have a broken heart.



I guess one of the things my music presents is that there are no limits to my potential. When I listen to music I have made in the past, it can be encouraging. Maybe the music I like to listen to is the music that sets me free from the world.

On the contrary, I don't like music that forces me to limit myself. I think that the music I like, as a result, makes me feel enriched and gives me something to think about on those topics. Or maybe we feel those topics through rich (you could say advanced) music, on a level we can't verbalize.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

I had never thought about that connection. So I am unlikely to find a good answer to this question. Nevertheless, I will try to write down what I am thinking about now.

As I used the word "escape" earlier, they are two separate entities for me and I don't really see the connection between them. But I also wonder if this is really the case. I may have a different answer to this question in the future.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Writing or performing a piece of music and making a great cup of coffee are considered essentially the same. I have been trying to learn about coffee for about two years, going to cafes more often and drinking a variety of coffees. As a result, it seems to me that making a great cup of coffee and making a great piece of music are the same, and I am sometimes inspired to make music by a great cup of coffee.

Maybe I just happen to find that music is the most suitable means of expressing myself. I guess that's why I'm best at making music, not painting or photography, and it was the best way for me to express myself. If I had been good with my hands, I might have become a professional copier and felt creativity in a copy machine.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

This is another difficult question. I kept trying to think about it last night, but I doubt if I could come up with a matter that could be called an 'explanation'. Anyway, here's what I've come up with.

Music is, basically, 'extraordinary'. Today, music comes from many places. In our daily life and activities, we hear 'noises' and other sounds, but I think that someone does not consciously create 'sounds'.

I talked about 'escape' in the previous question, and maybe music is something that allows you to jump into the 'extraordinary' in an instant. We have experienced the 'extraordinary' every day of our lives so far through music (and of course other things such as art), and the accumulation of these experiences has brought us to the present.

So, because of this accumulation, when we listen to certain music, we instantly experience again an experience similar to the 'extraordinary' experience we had in the past, and we may find pleasure or calmness in it.