Keigo Oyamada (小山田 圭吾, Oyamada Keigo, born January 27, 1969), also known by his moniker Cornelius (CORNELIUS（コーネリアス）, Kōneriasu), is a Japanese musician and producer who co-founded Flipper's Guitar, an influential Shibuya-kei band, and subsequently embarked on a solo career. In 1997, he released the album Fantasma, which landed him praise from American music critics, who called him a "modern-day Brian Wilson" or the "Japanese Beck".[2] In 2007, Rolling Stone Japan named two of Oyamada's albums amongst the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time", with Fantasma ranking in 10th place and Camera Talk by Flipper's Guitar ranking in 35th place.
Oyamada was born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. His first claim to fame was as a member of the pop duo Flipper's Guitar, one of the key groups of the Tokyo Shibuya-kei scene. Following the disbandment of Flipper's Guitar in 1991, Oyamada donned the "Cornelius" moniker and embarked on a successful solo career. He chose his pseudonym in tribute to the character of the same name from the film Planet of the Apes. He commissioned a song, about himself, on Momus' 1999 album Stars Forever.
In 2006 and 2007 respectively, the song "The Micro Disneycal World Tour" from the Fantasma album, was used for Nick Park's Creature Comforts and Sky television's "Surf, Speak, See" advertisements in the UK. It had also been used several years earlier in an ironic NFL television commercial in the US, which juxtaposed the song's relaxing qualities with video clips showing rapid, aggressive football playmaking.
Cornelius was a pioneer of the Shibuya-kei style of music in Japan.[5] The music of Cornelius could be described as experimental and exploratory, and often incorporates dissonant elements alongside more familiar harmonically "pleasing" sounds. This tension, plus his practice of bringing in sounds and samples from mass culture, pure electronic tones, and sounds from nature (such as on his Point album), lead him to being sometimes characterized as an "acquired taste".[citation needed] American music journalists often describe Cornelius' musical style as being similar to Beck's, whom he acknowledges as an influence along with the Beach Boys, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and the Brazilian band Kassin + 2, among others.[citation needed]
Personal life
Oyamada married musician and collaborator Takako Minekawa in 2000 and they have one child, Milo, named after the son of Cornelius in Planet of the Apes.[citation needed] They divorced in 2012.[6] Since 2020, he has been in a long term relationship with Minami Yamaguchi, the owner of a fashion shop in Setagaya, Tokyo.[7]
He is a second cousin of Joi Ito and Miki Berenyi,[8] the latter who appears on the song "The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness" from Mellow Waves.[9]
Bullying controversy
In interviews in 1994 and 1995, Oyamada said that he had bullied and assaulted several students with disabilities in school.[10] In one interview, Oyamada dismissed the incidents with a laugh.[11] In a 1995 interview for Quick Japan [ja],[12] Oyamada said he was involved with a group of bullies who had locked a disabled student in a vaulting box,[13] wrapped another student in gymnastics mattresses and kicked them,[14] forced a student to eat their excrement,[14] taped a cardboard box around a student's head and poured chalk inside,[13] made fun of a disabled student running a long-distance race,[13] and forced a student to masturbate in front of other students.[14] A dialogue between Oyamada and the victims was planned by the magazine Rockin'On Japan, but all of the victims refused to meet him. One of the victims' mothers picked up the phone and told the interviewer that her son had considered suicide.[15]
On July 14, 2021, the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) announced that Oyamada would be a composer of the 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, with the concept being "the ability to celebrate differences, to empathise, and to live side by side with compassion for one another".[16][17] The announcement caused a social media backlash due to Oyamada's personal history.[10] Two days later, Oyamada tweeted an apology,[13] but also said articles had contained exaggerations or mistakes that he had not corrected.[18] On the same day, the TOCOG issued a statement stating they were unaware of the interviews[19] and that while Oyamada's actions were "very inappropriate", they had not dismissed him from the ceremony.[13][20]Toshirō Mutō, the chief executive of the Organising Committee and ex-chairman of Kaisei Academy, said he wanted Oyamada to remain.[14] On July 19, four days before the ceremony, Oyamada decided to leave the creative team for the Tokyo Olympics on his own terms.[21]
In September 2021, Oyamada appeared in a two-hour interview with Shūkan Bunshun addressing why[further explanation needed] he took so many years to address his past actions.[22] He made an additional statement which stated how a blog post that circulated online edited information from past interviews to describe Oyamada as the perpetrator, even though the original Quick Japan interview stated that he did not commit the acts in question.[23] There is a statement on Oyamada's official Cornelius website, from the artist himself, that addresses these matters in depth.[24]
Discography
Cornelius discography
Studio albums
6
Video albums
7
EPs
3
Singles
14
Soundtrack albums
3
Remix albums
8
The discography of Cornelius consists of six studio albums, three soundtracks, eight remix albums, three extended plays, fourteen singles and seven video albums.
Cornelius appeared on the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba! performing a version of his song "Count Five or Six" as a way to teach kids how to count (at least up to six). This can be seen on the episode titled "Share".
"Count Five or Six" appears on the soundtrack to the TV series Spaced.
Cornelius rocks – Jaime Holguin from the Associated Press explores the allure of Japan's Keigo Oyamada. A May 2007 Associated Press/asap written and video piece about Cornelius.
Cornelius at Shepherd Bush Empire – Dominic Haley from Spoonfed Media writes about the intrigue of the unexpected in Cornelius' music.
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