Videos

Fujiya & Miyagi – YoYo

• 11th Jan 2011

Fujiya & Miyagi release new single ‘YoYo’ plus it's highly entertaining accompanying video today. This is the first single from forthcoming new album ‘Ventriloquizzing’, out 17th January through Full Time Hobby.

In line with Fujiya & Miyagi’s dark new direction, ‘YoYo’ is a sinister sting of flesh-creeping funk with crunching feedback, insistent bass and half-whispered vocals.

Directors Ewan and Casey’s guide to the video:
“The ideas behind the ‘YoYo’ video had fairly obvious beginnings, the band were keen to have some actual ‘YoYo’ tricks in there so we set about looking for someone suitable to pull them off, fortunately after a bit of searching we got in contact with a guy called Luke Roberts who turned out to be a UK yoyo champion.

“To make things a bit more interesting we decided to have the video reflect the more sinister aspects of the track, mood swings or people who constantly change their minds. We thought it would be amusing if Luke competed with performers with talents totally different from his own and jealousy would take hold and he defeats them with spiteful yoyo maneuvers.

“Without giving too much away, the video can be read in two ways, that the yoyo champ flips from being a smug performer to a spiteful and murderous yoyo assasin or alternatively that the viewer is constantly changing their mind as the spotlight moves back and forth from performer to performer.

“Yoyo tricks are one thing but acting is another and until the day of filming we hadn't met Luke, needless to say he did a great job and the video wouldn't of worked without him or without the hundred or so yoyos he turned up with (no exaggeration)” – Ewan and Casey

“’YoYo’ is about people being unable to make their minds up without outside influences,” elaborates singer/guitarist David Best. “It could also be about mood swings or it could just be about a yoyo. I like songs about yoyo, such as Art Ensemble Of Chicago's ‘Theme De YoYo’, and I'm sure there are many more.”

Following the free download track ‘Sixteen Shades Of Black & Blue’, ‘YoYo’ is the first single proper from ‘Ventriloquizzing’, the Brighton band’s most accomplished recording to date. Their fourth album, it finds Fujiya & Miyagi returning with a renewed sense of purpose. “We wanted to make a record that was different from anything we had done before,” says David. Bassist Matt Hainsby agrees: “We wanted to try things that would take us in a new direction musically and create a different atmosphere.”

And the atmosphere is notably darker than before – forceful, aggressive and confrontational, but all the while maintaining the taut, minimalistic funk and dark humour that’s become their calling card.

“The title Ventriloquizzing comes from the idea of people speaking for you, like adults do with babies,” says David.

To reflect this, the band (David and synth player Steve Lewis, bassist Matt Hainsby and drummer Lee Adams) had a set of four Fujiya & Miyagi dummies made up to appear in photos and videos in place of the band. Their debut video appearance can be seen in this trailer for the album:
link

“Dummies are thought of as creepy; they can reflect a split personality, and that relates to the idea of being in a group, where you are presented as one entity, even though everyone comes from different angles and thinks about one thing very differently from the others.”