Artist Profile | Nayokenza Robyn Oliver
There are myriad ways to express yourself.
B.G.U. is shining a light on artists whose uniqueness and creativeness inspire us through these difficult times.
We hope to turn inspiration into action, showing you the multitude of ways that we can continue to express ourselves.
Our next guest is YouTuber, speaker, and musician Nayokenza Robyn Oliver. Find them on Instagram @nayokenza and on YouTube! Nayokenza Robyn Oliver has been active in a whole range of pursuits here in Tokyo, from creating fever pop to filming an online discussion show!
We talked about identity in relation to music, being non-binary in Japan, involvement in BLM & much more!
Hi Nayokenza Robyn Oliver, can you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about what brought you to Tokyo?
My name is Nayokenza Robyn Oliver and I am a musician based in Japan. I started making YouTube videos recently, and occasionally I do some speaking. I’ve been in Tokyo for about a third of my life. I was born in New Jersey but I grew up in Orlando, Florida, and I first got into Japan at the age of around ten. I wanted to learn Japanese, and move to Tokyo. I had a cousin living in Tokyo, which really inspired me to come here during summers and think about living here - then it was just a matter of believing I could!
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I like having the freedom to do things without the backlash.
But I’m not seen for who I am.”
—— on their identity as a non-binary individual in Japan
What has influenced your music?
The first thing that got me into music was the music my parents played. My mother listened to a lot of gospel and though I didn't really like gospel much, she bought my brother and me a Jackson 5 CD when we were kids, and we watched a lot of MTV and so on. Then in the 00s, I went to a massive high school with kids who played in bands, and once my interest was piqued it just never went away.
I’ve always circled around the same type of genre. When I was younger I started rapping, but then I was into heavier music - metalcore and things of that nature. But I always turn things into a fusion because I want to express ideas from all different genres.
How would you describe the kind of music you make now?
I had to think about this really hard when I was putting music out, so I decided to call it “fever pop”. I wanted to convey the point that I’m doing pop music. When you think of pop, you think of sugary music, but I wanted fever pop to have a heavier, more aggressive image. A wilder image. So when I say fever pop, no one knows what it is. I can do whatever I want.
What do you see as the future for your music?
I think the reason why I’m calling it fever pop is so that I can do whatever I want with it. So I might be doing something completely different but I’ll still be calling it fever pop. Once you start doing something over and over it gets stale, so I want to keep pushing myself sonically as I continue to release music.
How does your music connect to your self-expression?
As a non-binary person, I think the music is another representation of the idea of never settling between two different things. I don’t really see myself as a man, I don’t really see myself as a woman. I don’t see myself as masculine or feminine, it’s in-between. It’s the same with the music I make. It’s neither pop nor heavy music. The way I express myself in all aspects of my life affects everything, including the music I make.
How do you experience being non-binary here in Japan?
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In America, you really feel that your country hates you. You can see it, it’s there and it’s dangerous. It can cost you your life. It can cost you your employment, your housing, your opportunities. But in Japan, it’s not as much anti-blackness as xenophobia.”
—— on living in Japan as a person of color
Gender is not discussed much in Japan. One reason for that is the language. These days other ex-pats will ask about your pronouns. I always say that officially, I use “they”, but if I’m speaking Japanese I’m not going to say “call me 彼女 (“her”)”. For me, it’s not as pronounced as it would be back in the US. The way I wore certain clothes and so on, I would be flagging myself as queer. But in Japan, as a tall, black, male-bodied person, if I do those things I’m considered “おしゃれ” (fashionable), it’s not viewed in the same way. But you’ve got to live with it. It’s not the worst thing ever.
The benefits are that people who might have regressive views about queer people won’t target you. But it means that I’m always seen in one box, as a male. That comes with its good points and bad points. But being expected to be so masculine for so long really weighs on me. But for my pronouns, it just depends on how you see me in your life. If you see me as a feminine presence in your life, you can call me “she”, and if you see me as a masculine presence in your life, you can call me “he”. I have those conversations with people I’m close to. I bring it up if it seems relevant to the relationship or the situation. For purely aesthetic reasons it might be easier to express my identity here in Japan. I like having the freedom to do things without backlash. But I’m not seen for who I am.
Are you working on any projects at the moment?
I started a YouTube channel a while ago. Recently I felt like I wanted to talk about things happening back home and to give people a platform to talk about things. So I started a YouTube series called Zoom In. It’s a discussion-based show, and we shoot a Zoom video about a certain topic each time. I want to have several people share their experiences about each topic so that people can hear a range of experiences about life in Japan.
Lastly, what does freedom mean to you?
To me, freedom is having the chance to live your life the way you want to live it. It means choosing how you want to live your life and being able to live your life that way. Ever since I was a kid I’ve tried to just be me. But you get called selfish a lot. Still, I’ve tried to focus on what I want to do.
