Morrie

Motoyuki Ōtsuka (大塚基之, Ōtsuka Motoyuki, born March 4, 1964 in Tatsuno, Hyōgo), known mononymously as Morrie, is a Japanese singer-songwriter. He is best known as vocalist and co-founder of the influential heavy metal band Dead End, active from 1984 to 1990. When they disbanded, Morrie began a solo career for five years, before moving to New York City and going into hiatus. He reemerged in 2005 with the solo project Creature Creature, which utilizes several well-known Japanese musicians, reunited with Dead End four years later, and released in 2015 new solo studio album after twenty years.

1980–1984: Career beginnings

Morrie joined his first band when he was in 11th grade, The Wild. It was a cover band, covering songs by artists like Queen and The Police. He later left The Wild, and joined the heavy metal band Liar in 1983. By the summer of 1984, Liar were touring heavily around the Japanese underground, and as a result, were starting to develop a small cult following. Despite this, however, Liar eventually ended up disbanding in the fall of 1984.

1984–1995: Dead End and solo career

In December 1984, Morrie formed Dead End alongside his fellow former-Liar bandmate, Takahiro Kagawa, Tadashi Masumoto ("Crazy Cool Joe") and Masaaki Tano. Only he and Joe remained, although they were joined by Yuji Adachi ("You") and Masafumi Minato in 1987, just before they signed a major contract with Victor Entertainment. Although achieved only limited commercial success in their homeland until January 1990, they managed to have a contract with an American label with their songs and videos aired on MTV and radio stations. Morrie's distinctive visual appearance and rough vocal style inspired many later prominent musicians in Japan's visual kei movement.

In 1990, Morrie started a solo career and gradually went to live in New York City. He was featured in productions by Roli Mosimann, and on Infected and Mind Bomb by The The. Ultimately, Mosimann would produce all three of Morrie's studio albums. His first solo release was the single "Paradox" on October 21, 1990, and exactly one month later his debut solo album, "Ignorance", was published. In the upcoming five years, he released a few more singles (his second, "Shisen no Kairaku", featured a cover of "In My Room" by The Walker Brothers) and two more studio albums, Romantic na, Amari ni Romantic na in 1992 and Kage no Kyoen in 1995, before seemingly withdrawing from the public eye for almost ten years.

2005–present: Return to music and Creature Creature

In 2005, Morrie's solo best of album Ectoplasm was released and marked his return to music. At the end of the year he announced the formation of his rock band Creature Creature, that included bassist Tetsuya (from L'Arc~en~Ciel), guitarist Minoru Kojima (from The Mad Capsule Markets), and drummer Shinya Yamada (from Luna Sea). They performed at the year-end event Danger IV at Nippon Budokan as a secret musical act. In 2006, three singles were released on the same day of July, and on August 30 their debut studio album Light&Lust was released on Danger Crue Records. During the album's recording, Morrie was joined by Dead End members You, Minato and Joe, and their producer Hajime Okano, who each contributed to several songs. Morrie said it was a moving moment for him, and said about the meeting that "I was curious what kind of musician and persons they became. After they played I started thinking that a Dead End reunion would be extraordinary". The band performed only two times that year, at the next Danger V event and the held Light&Lust concert at Shibuya-AX in December.

It was quiet for another two years, until June 2009, when two Creature Creature concerts in Tokyo and Osaka were held starting the Simone and the Wrath tour series, but with different a line-up, featuring guitarist Hiro (from La'cryma Christi), guitarist Shinobu (from Guy's Family), bassist Hitoki (from Kuroyume), and drummer Sakura (from L'Arc~en~Ciel). In August, Morrie and the other Dead End members reunite, and held a their first concert in almost twenty years. In November they released their new album and did not stop with activity in upcoming years. In December, with Creature Creature, Morrie held two concerts in Shanghai, China, and performed at the Jack in the Box and Beat Shuffle events at Nippon Budokan and Omiya Sonic City respectively.

On July 21, 2010, Creature Creature's second studio album Inferno was released and throughout this and next year they held the smaller Purgatory, Inferno, and Paradise tours. The single "Psyche Telos" was released on June 12, 2011 by Psyche Records, a record label owned by Morrie. In September they went on the Exorcising Orpheus tour, and released a live concert video of the same name recorded at the Paradise tour finale. In June and August 2012, the singles "Rakuen/Ataraxia" and "Kurumeki/Sexus", as well as the Sodom and Gomorah tour, were followed by the release on October 17 of the band's third studio album Phantoms.

In 2012, Morrie performed his first solo live concert in twenty years. Extasis was held on his birthday, where he performed old and new songs. The following year he held The Nostalgia of the Infinite birthday and two Nowhere Nobody concerts. In 2014 for his fiftieth anniversary was held the third consecutive birthday concert, Now I Here Eternity, with Sugizo, Kiyoharu, You and Joe as special guests. In May was followed by the Boys of the Flesh concert. On December 25, 2014 was pre-released Morrie's fourth studio album Hard Core Reveire, and first in almost twenty years. It was generally released on January 21, 2015 on Morrie's indie label Nowhere Music. The album's music is uniquely experimental, while the concept is that the reality is a dream, a hardcore illusion of waking up. On March 4, was released a limited to 500 copies half-century commemorative work Book of M: From Nowhere To Nowhere based on the concept "from birth to death", accompanied with a 25-minute long DVD. Over the years he continued to perform his Solitude one-man solo shows.

Morrie featured in three songs on the album Lost in Forest by Aoki Yutaka, as well in one song for which also contributed the lyrics on the album Oneness M by Sugizo. On 15 March 2017 was released Creature Creature's fourth studio album Death Is A Flower, and the band held second part of the same-titled tour between December 2016 and March 2017. It is considered that with the release it conceptually came to a full circle and will go on a hiatus after 8 July 2018.

On 27 August 2017, Morrie performed an intimate solo show at Kraine Theater in New York City. It was his first official solo live performance outside Japan. He reprised the performance at Kraine Theater on 31 January 2018, with a third performance scheduled for 26 August was part of his solo tour Morrie the Universe "Solitude" Season 6 which will start in September. In addition, his fifth solo studio album was announced for a future release. In February 2019, was announced the new solo album In The Shining Wilderness will be released on 19 April, which will be followed by a solo tour with a band in February and March, and from then until December 2019 by his 7th solo Solitude tour series.

Morrie's lyrics throughout his career were inspired by philosophical questions about the human being, I, good and evil, justice, truth, beauty, as well those people who devoted their lives trying to solve them. Compared to Dead End, in Creature Creature, he freely explores his ideas with other musicians and the creation is "more centripetal with lyrical content evoked by philosophical questions of being and what is I". In the classical music he is especially fond of Richard Wagner and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Solo work

Studio albums

• Ignorance (November 21, 1990)
• Romantic na, Amari ni Romantic na (ロマンティックな、余りにロマンティックな, April 21, 1992)
• Kage no Kyoen (影の饗宴, January 21, 1995)
• Hard Core Reverie (January 21, 2015) Oricon #252
• In The Shining Wilderness (April 19, 2019)

Compilation albums

• Ectoplasm (April 20, 2005)

Singles

• "Paradox" (パラドックス, October 21, 1990)
• "Shisen no Kairaku" (視線の快楽, November 21, 1991)
• "Sayonara, Toriaezu" (さよなら、とりあえず, August 21, 1993)
• "Barairo ni Somaru" (薔薇色に染まる, December 16, 1993)
• "Inu" (犬, January 21, 1995)

Creature Creature

Albums

• Light&Lust (August 30, 2006) Oricon #15
• Inferno (July 21, 2010) Oricon #40
• Phantoms (October 17, 2012) Oricon #51
• Death Is A Flower (March 15, 2017) Oricon #144

Singles

• "Paradise" (パラダイス, July 19, 2006) Oricon #29
• "Red" (July 19, 2006) Oricon #27
• "Kaze no Tou" (風の塔, July 19, 2006) Oricon #26
• "Psychetelos" (June 12, 2011)
• "Rakuen/Ataraxia" (楽園へ / Ataraxia, June 20, 2012) Oricon #89
• "Kurumeki/Sexus" (くるめき / Sexus, August 8, 2012) Oricon #139

DVDs

• Exorcising Orpheus: Paradise Tour Final (October 20, 2011) Oricon #185
• Beyond Light & Lust (April 23, 2020)