No.3 Shinji Shilla
PROFILE
He made his debut as a musician in 2003 as a member of Shonan Nofu under the name "Wakada". Since then, he has been active as a solo artist, producing, writing lyrics, and acting; since 2018, he has been performing under his real name, Shinji Shilla.
Instagram:@waka_danna
Just be healthy enough to fit your personality. A routine that follows the predecessors.
Have you ever swung a towel (or karaoke hand towel) during the chorus of Shonan Nofu's "Water Lily Blossom"? I have. Many times. Shinji Shilla, aka Shonan Nofu's frontman Waka-Danna, always brings the season with his songs, but this time I asked him about his "health. Shinji's gentle voice lightly overshadows the aforementioned upper-apparelated image.
A body is the very essence of a person's individuality. Everyone has both strong and weak parts, and I don't think anyone has perfect health. In my case, I have weak bronchial tubes and sometimes have difficulty breathing. But that is part of my personality. I think that in the process of dealing with it, my hobbies and interests are born. I think a healthy person is one who is able to live his or her daily life to the best of his or her ability.
Accepting and making the most of one's own physical characteristics. Mr. Silla spoke as if he were a high priest preaching the truth of life.
I came to this idea through reading and communicating with the people I knew around me. I was not a serious person in my teens, but I quit smoking in my 20s, and since my 30s, I have wanted to enjoy my daily life and be healthy. I don't want to enjoy myself by getting drunk or making a fuss; I want to cherish the act of living itself."
Through his various experiences, Mr. Shilla has arrived at one answer: "To enjoy life, I have to find my own way to get fit. Running four times a week is an essential part of his lifestyle.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I run about 7 kilometers by myself. On Saturdays, I run about 30 kilometers with my friends. That's about 150 kilometers a month. It's just a lot of fun. I often run with Jun Takahashi, the designer of Gyakuso, and his friends. It's fun running in the true sense of the word. We take a break when we get tired, and even take the train if it is cold. It's just that casual, and running is a part of my daily routine.
He is quite a long distance runner! One would think that he would be very active in races, but he has no intention of competing. He says, "I'm not interested in competing at all now. In the past, I wanted to be more famous than anyone else, I wanted to be stronger, and I wanted to shorten my time, but I don't really like the concept of winning and losing anymore. I used to want to be more famous than anyone else, to be stronger and faster, but I don't like the idea of winning and losing so much anymore.
Don't lose, don't cry," is a line from Shonan Nofu's song "Haru Densetsu" ("Legend of Sunshine"). This change in values symbolizes his transformation from the front man of the group "Waka-Danna" to a single expressive person named Shinji Shinra. Routine" is the key to his life.
I used to run three meetings at the same time when I was busy anyway," he said. When I was thinking about what I should do to get through my hard life, I remembered what my favorite novelists, Haruki Murakami and Shotaro Ikenami, had written about their routines. I incorporated various routines into my life, including running, and it dramatically improved my efficiency. When I started Shonan Nofu, it used to take me over a year to write a song, but now I can complete a recording in three hours, and the songs I write in this way become hits.
Don't worry about competing. Think about how it should be.
Mr. Shilla overcame his hard work by thoroughly systematizing his life. The effect was tremendous, but one event triggered him to rethink his life in pursuit of efficiency.
When the new coronavirus prevented me from performing live, I stopped and thought about it a lot," he said. Until then, I had been traveling and performing more than 100 days a year. But then I started to think, 'Was it really necessary to do that many? I began to think, "Was it really necessary to do that much? I was afraid of being out of the artist's race, but instead of sticking to that, I wanted to think about what I should be as a musician and a human being, and how to connect society, art, and what I do.
So, what exactly is your vision for your life from now on? I asked him in closing.
There are so many things I really can't talk about. Well, I would like to create a commune in a rural area and experience an economic zone within my reach. I would like to build a good relationship with vegetable and rice growers, and live a life similar to bartering. I would like to combine the cultural knowledge and sensitivity I have acquired in Tokyo with the beautiful nature and resources available only in rural areas, and I would like to think about a new way of society, involving the government as well.
I see. Perhaps what Mr. Silla envisions is "social health" that transcends the individual.
