Captain Funk

Tatsuya Oe Recording Artist / Music Producer / Composer Also known as: Captain Funk, Dark Model, OE, etc. Founder of Model Electronic Inc. www.captainfunkofficial.com www.facebook.com/CaptainFunkOfficial www.myspace.com/captainfunkofficial www.youtube.com/user/CaptainFunkOfficial www.model-electronic.com www.tatsuyaoe.com Reference for his new project "Dark Model" www.darkmodelmusic.com/ www.facebook.com/DarkModelMusic Tatsuya Oe was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1969. At the age of 12, he showed great interest in rock, pops, and electronic music, and finally, at the age of 14, decided to buy his first electric guitar, synthesizer, and sequencer. In school days he formed several bands performing rock, synth pop/new wave, heavy metal, and even prog rock. While he couldn’t find bandmates for playing his favorite funk or black music since those kinds of music was nearly unknown at that time, a few years later he found excitement in playing DJ to the audience and got attracted by dance/club music such as rare groove, disco, house, hip hop, etc. After he graduated from Tokyo University and while working for an advertising company, he started composition/music production with his computer. His demo tapes were acclaimed by several European dance/techno labels and he released his debut 12 inches from Italian label ACV under the name of TATSUYA OE in ’97. Since “Encounter with…” album (’98), 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 his 2nd album “Songs of the Siren” was selected as one of “The Year in Music 2001 / Critic’s Choice” of the Billboard Magazine. He also has played DJ at many gigs and big events not only in Japan such as “Fuji Rock Festival ” but also overseas including UK, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. From ’02 release “Here and You”, he started another solo project simply under the name OE, which is more cutting-edge and introspective. After collaboration with Yoshihide Otomo “ONJQ+OE”, he released 2 albums “Physical Fiction” and “Director’s Cut”. During OE’s era, he did an opening act for Kraftwerk, Holgar Czukay, and David Bowie (as Groove Syndicate, his another project) in their Japan tours. After shifting into high gears through several DJ tours including ones with Space Cowboy, he launched his own company/label Model Electronic Inc. in May ’06. As the first project of this company, he released Captain Funk’s long awaited albums, “Heavy Metal” and ”Heavy Mellow” (’07). These albums prove that he found a way of fusing together the early Captain Funk’s uplifting vibes and his songwriting skills acquired through OE’s works. Several tracks as represented by “Hey Boy, Hey Girl” feat. Meri Neeser became very popular, not only in Japan but also overseas parties and shops for celebrities such as Club Sandwich and Dior Homme shop in Paris. While continuing collaboration and remix work for other artists such as Dune, Radiopilot and Ami Suzuki, in Aug ’09 he released Captain Funk’s next album “Sunshine” in Japan (worldwide in Oct 2010), which includes smash hits like “Weekend (kissing, touching, tasting, loving)” feat. Adnan Kurtov and “Piece of you ” feat. Meri Neeser. “Weekend” was ranked top 5 in some radio charts, and “Piece of You” was featured by Forever 21 (US) for their sales promotion and aired in aired in 9 movie theaters in the western United States, as well as in Forever 21′s 400+ stores. In July ’11, his latest album “Versions 2011″ got ranked No.1 in “Dance/Electronica” & No.2 in “Pops” at MP3 Album chart on Amazon.co.jp. May 2012 Tatsuya launched his new project Dark Model, focused on edgy, futuristic, and cinematic instrumental music. Dark Model’s music has already been featured in several commercials and promos, including the first promo reel of 2013 film “Elysium” (Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, etc. Dir: Neill Blomkamp “District9″) as well as advertising campaigns of Verizon Droid (US), “The Paperboy” (Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack, etc) TV Ad, Lexus (US), Oakley (US), KFC (AU), etc. He has worked for and with numerous musicians, art directors, fashion brands and corporate advertising films, such as James Brown, Serge Gainsbourg, Ron Sexsmith, CHIC, Hotei, Simon Lebon with Nick Wood, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Puffy, Tsuchiya Anna, Ken Ishii, Noriyuki Tanaka, SABU (film director), Cartier, Vivienne Westwood, Forever21, Uniqlo, Sony Ericsson, Shiseido, Canon, Mitsubishi Motors, Konami, Sega, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, etc. Also, Panasonic Viera’s global branding website “Experience Color”, in which Tatsuya 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″. 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