CHAPTER 1 The Beginning -Encounter with… -
TATSUYA OE is a Japanese electronic musician/DJ, well-known for his mastery of production, from experimental to pop music. After he majored economics at Tokyo University and working for an Ad Company, he started making music professionally in ‘96. He released his Debut 12 inches from ACV (Italy). Since "Encounter with…" album ('98, Sublime), he burst onto the club scene as the maverick solo project "CAPTAIN FUNK".
"Captain Funk will make you believe!" was The Ministry of Sound magazine's opinion, while Time Out Mag described his music as a "Vibrant delight!". Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) described his record as "F***ing insane!" and demanded extra copies. The Fatboy was not alone obviously, as Tatsuya has earned the praise and respect of international DJs from across the board such as Cold Cut, Si Begg, Freddy Fresh, Ken Ishii and Carl Cox for his unashamedly infectious party groove.
Captain Funk released successful singles, Mix CDs and albums including "Bustin' Loose EP","Dancing in the Street","Style", etc. Especially "Songs of the Siren" was selected as one of "The Year in Music 2001″ of the Billboard Magazine.
He also played at many big events in Japan like " Fuji Rock Festival" ('99/'00) and overseas ones like " Global-Tekno" & " Saint-Nolff" (France), " West Night Club" (Germany), " Turnmills" (UK), "Zouk" (Singapore), etc.
CHAPTER 2 Deconstruction -OE-
In 2001, "Captain Funk" stopped activities under this banner and began another solo project simply under the name "OE".
In contrast to Captain Funk music, OE music is more cutting-edge based on minimal music and more songwriting-oriented. Since the release tour of "Here and You", OE formed a three-piece band and did performances totally synchronized with CG films.
After a collaboration with Yoshihide Otomo "ONJQ OE", his most experimental album "Physical Fiction", he released his third album"Director's Cut" ('04), including "Tessera".
During OE's era, he did an opening act for Kraftwerk , Holger Czukay, and David Bowie (as Groove Syndicate, his another project) in Japan.
CHAPTER 3 Practice -" Model Electronic Inc.", and next stage of " Captain Funk" -
After 2005 Tatsuya Oe toured again as " Captain Funk" with Space Cowboy in Japan and began DJ energetically again. Then, in 2006 he launched his own company " Model Electronic Inc.", which aims to cover from music label/publishing, digital distribution to software development.
After 6 years working on different projects, Captain Funk took advantage of his new company to release his new albums called "HEAVY METAL"&"HEAVY MELLOW". These albums prove that he found a way of fusing together the early Captain Funk's uplifting feelings and his songwriting skills, which he realized through OE's works. Tracks as represented by "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" feat. Meri Neeser that became very popular, not only in Japan but also overseas (as well as on myspace, shops and parties including " Dior Homme shop" and "Club Sandwich" in Paris).
After the albums release tour with the band "Captain Funk All stars", he continued production and DJ performances energetically, including doing remixes of bands like Dune, Radiopilot and producing a female singer Ami Suzuki, and so on.
In October 2008, he launches direct webshop based on membership, called "Club Model Electronic". Through this first worldwide digital distribution service in Japan, he started and realized full-fledged business in his company.
In August 2009, Model Electronic released Captain Funk's new album " Sunshine" in Japan, which includes smash hits like " Weekend" feat. Adnan Kurtov and other catchy tracks like " Piece of you" feat. Meri Neeser.
Needless to say music, he is so familiar with art, computer and fashion that he has collaborated with many people in broad areas.
He remixed and collaborated with creative directors, fashion brands and over 200 musicians including James Brown, Ron Sexsmith, Serge Gainsbourg, HOTEI, CHIC, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Freddy Fresh, Nick Wood & Simon Lebon, Puffy, Cartier, Vivienne Westwood, Tsuchiya Anna, Ken Ishii, Co-fusion, Denki Groove, Tommy February 6, Date Course Pentagon Royal Garden, Noriyuki Tanaka, SABU ( "Monday" ), SuperLovers, Final Home, etc.
Also, Panasonic Viera's global branding website "Experience Color", in which Tatsuya Oe participated in the music production, won "The Finalist Award 2007" in New York Festivals as well as the "Silver Prize" in "Tokyo Interactive Ad Awards 2007".
Captain Funk has started a new project called " PLAYMODEL" which is more house/down tempo oriented. Also he's now concentrating on promoting " Sunshine" album overseas including licensing and tours.
Contact for booking,production : http://www.tatsuyaoe.com/contact.html
Captain Funk official websites
http://www.captainfunkofficial.com
http://www.tatsuyaoe.com
http://www.myspace.com/captainfunkofficial
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Captain-Funk/31512139294
http://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainFunkOfficial
http://twitter.com/Captain_Funk
Company website
http://www.model-electronic.com/
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Funk
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Captain Funk
