Fellsius is an artist I’ve been following for a very long time. Thanks to his countless releases on Trekkie Trax, a label which has always been a point of reference for me in the electronic scene, and collaborations with the French label GOLD DiGGER, his music has always been a constant in my collection. For me, Fellsius stands for creative resourcefulness. He has proven time and again that his inventiveness has no end. With the announcement of his debut album, however, I knew I could still raise my expectations. Despite this, MONOEYE has completely exceeded them. And not only mine apparently. Its success has been impressive, so much so that for the past few weeks the album has been the subject of plaudits across blogs, radio, and social media. With this momentum gathered around MONOEYE, I felt it was finally the right time to properly introduce Fellsius on the pages of FUXWITHIT. Get familiar with the artist by listening to his guest mix and reading our interview below.
A lot of new people came across your music for the first time recently after the release of MONOEYE. Give them an identikit of who FELLSIUS is.
I’m a 24-year-old producer living in Tokyo. I love all kinds of music.
Your album is a hot topic at the moment. How much did you work on it? Are you one of those artists who puts together projects in a matter of weeks or was it a multi-year work?
Some of the songs were completed about a year ago, but basically, it took me a few months to make a demo at the idea stage, and I finished them all in about two weeks.
Contradictory elements such as pop and depth, complexity and simplicity, spaciousness and narrowness, organic and inorganic, coldness and warmth are brought together in a delicate balance under the theme of “catchy and chaotic, yet danceable music.” MONOEYE was created with this in mind.
I find interesting the contrast between the title, MONOEYE, which literally suggests the idea of a single point of view, and the plurality of sonic influences present in the album. What is the origin of the title and the concept behind the album?
Contradictory elements such as pop and depth, complexity and simplicity, spaciousness and narrowness, organic and inorganic, coldness and warmth are brought together in a delicate balance under the theme of “catchy and chaotic, yet danceable music.” MONOEYE was created with this in mind.
MONOEYE comes from one of my fans who described my songs as “mono-eye music.” I often used monocular motifs in the artwork for my releases, and monocular motifs often appear in the artwork and visuals of fascinating experimental bass music and electronic music from around the world. That’s why I think my fans described my music like that. I thought it was cool that there was a word (MONOEYE) able to define a creation with a complex atmosphere like my style “mixture x experimental x dance music”. Like a genre name or a movement name. So I borrowed it and put it in the album name.
Talking about influences, there are three tracks that really floored me with their creativity. I’d like to know about the creative process behind ‘e m a,’ ‘Jom’ and ‘Subfog’.
e m a was created with the aggression, beauty, space, and time of sine waves as the theme. Jom focuses on the physical “rhythms” of the world that I love and aims to create songs that are constantly changing but danceable. As for Subfog, I made it from the theme of creating a sub-bass that has only overtones by carving out white noise and erasing keys as much as possible. Since the sub-frequency ranges are mostly filled with overtones, you can get a huge bass with a sense of danger like an explosion or a storm at the expense of the sense of scale.
I’m always conscious of how it sounds in the club
Did you have the opportunity to play them live? What was the reaction of the crowd?
Yes. I’m always conscious of how it sounds in the club, so every song has a very good response, but especially ‘Subfog’. It has a really different and powerful sound.
The album was released by Trekkie Trax. If I’m not mistaken, your relationship with the label is a long-standing one. How did you meet Seimei, Carpainter, andrew, and Futatsuki?
Masayoshi Iimori found me on SoundCloud and introduced me to the label from there. Trekkie Trax has supported my creative freedom for a long time.
I was surprised to see the album was published on CD, which in this era is probably the most snubbed physical format. Is there a florid market in Japan for music CDs and in general physical releases?
CDs will not sell as well in Japan as they do overseas. However, as long as we put out an album, it is the intention of the label and myself that we want to leave it to the world as a thing. I was very happy when I saw the actual product because I was in the last-minute CD generation.
Where can those who don’t live in Japan find and buy the CD?
You can order from Bandcamp or store.trekkie-trax.com.
How is the (music) streaming landscape in Japan. What are the most popular platforms?
I think the most popular ones are Spotify and Apple Music. DJs and people who like underground music actively use Bandcamp.
I like art that combines organic elements such as the human body with inorganic elements such as metal.
You also design all your artwork, right? What are your sources of inspiration when it comes to visual art?
I’m an amateur when it comes to visual art, and there’s a clear distinction between what I can do and what I can’t do, so I’m still searching for ways to create something cooler. I don’t have a clear source of inspiration, but I absorbed shocking visual expressions that match electronic music from the works of filmmakers like Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry that I watched in my childhood. Basically, I like art that combines organic elements such as the human body with inorganic elements such as metal.
This mix has a very interesting tracklist. Does the tracks’ order have a specific meaning of was it created following a more stream-of-consciousness approach?
It has a composition and flow similar to my live set, and uses all 14 songs from this album. I think it’s a good mix with a story.
Tracklist
0:00 Fellsius – e m a [From MONOEYE] (intro edit)
4:32 Fellsius – Talk
5:52 Fellsius – Grey [From MONOEYE]
7:08 Fellsius & Hadean- Bar Counter
8:57 Fellsius – Why
13:01 Fellsius – Machine Pop [From MONOEYE]
14:47 Fellsius – Black
17:34 Fellsius – Cochlea
18:27 Fellsius – Bon
19:56 Fellsius – Web 1000 [From MONOEYE]
22:13 Fellsius – Jom [From MONOEYE]
24:45 Fellsius – Subfog [From MONOEYE]
28:11 Fellsius – The Drum
30:30 Fellsius – l’eau [From MONOEYE]
33:48 Fellsius – Eddy Current [From MONOEYE]
37:20 Fellsius – Unison [From MONOEYE]
41:06 Fellsius – Mist [From MONOEYE]
44:19 Fellsius – Night
46:42 Fellsius – Gazer [From MONOEYE]
50:37 Fellsius – The Voice [From MONOEYE]
54:06 Fellsius – Hatch [From MONOEYE]
58:33 Fellsius – Moon [From MONOEYE]
