CONAN GRAY look.1

Conan Gray, the icon of the new generation of the pop scene, has been attracting attention not only from the music world but also from the fashion world. Conan has participated in the world’s premier music festival, Coachella, but his true face is that of a surprisingly casual 25-year-old artist. This year, Conan became a brand ambassador for Onitsuka Tiger. We caught up with him, who is often featured in the media as one of the representatives of Generation Z, to find out his real voice.

“I think that we grew up in a generation of content,” Conan says. “We get fed so much content all the time that I think you really have to decide who you are regardless of all the stuff you’re being shown all the time.”

Conan was born to a Japanese mother and an Irish American father, and he spent his childhood in San Diego, California, and Georgetown, Texas. Conan began posting videos on the Internet when he was nine years old.

“I posted videos throughout it just trying to make people happy.” Conan remembers those early days. “My childhood might have been quite strange. I think I wanted to cheer people up, and I posted things that would make me happy to watch all of my favorite memories with my friends.”

Indeed, Conan’s videos from that time show happy and joyful scenes. However, his lyrics always express a kind of uncertainty.

“And the truth of my life,” Conan says, “I think I kept it to the music, because you can’t really lie in music. You can pretend in a video pretty easily, but you can’t really lie in a song very well.”

“You know you can just do whatever. We’re just here for one time so just be yourself, I guess.” Conan suggests. “It’s easier said than done, but honestly, who cares. Just do whatever.”

“It does take courage.” Conan says. He believes that important thing is to be truthful. “But, all of the best songs are just about real life things. They’re about real life emotions and real life people. And the more you start to leave the truth the worse the song gets, in my opinion. It’s so sure that I could lie in a song and completely make stuff up and fabricate stuff, but it’s never good.”

“So I discovered Adele on the internet by myself when I was like eleven and she’s the reason why I started writing songs. Jeff Buckley, I discovered him in college, and the whole Grace album was just like life changing. Listening to the songs made me feel like I was in a movie or something.”

And how did Conan has come across with Onitsuka Tiger?

“When I was working on the music video for Never Ending Song, I knew that I wanted a really iconic shoe. I think it was Kill Bill that gave me the idea. I knew that I wanted the yellow Onitsuka Tiger, the MEXICO 66 in the video. And I kind of built the entire video and the entire look for that video from the shoe. And so I think I just really identified with that shoe and it reminds me very much of home of Texas. It’s just very me I think the retro kind of vibe.”

Conan choose the MEXICO 66 for his first look – the shoe which he says was the source of his inspiration – but this time a silver model. A ribbed-knit track-top-style cardigan and track-pants-style bottoms were paired in a black set-up to accentuate the contrast. The look playfully recreates the world of Kill Bill.

When asked to comment on Onitsuka Tiger’s 75th anniversary in 2024, Conan turned to the camera and said, “Thank you Onitsuka Tiger fans, and all of my listeners out there thanks for listening. Congratulations for 75th year anniversary!”

→In the second look, we asked Conan about his side as a songwriter in more depth.

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Direction : Shinsuke Nozaka
Photo, Movie : Yoshiaki Sekine (SIGNO)
Stylist : Katie Qian, Emi Ito (ADDICT_CASE)
Hair : Miho Emori
Make : Marino Asahi (Y’s C)
Text : Mario Tauchi