The Tokyo Beats
March 30, 2008
By Esteban Lopez
Meeting Adrian Storey in a small café in Shinjuku, I didn’t know what to expect, aside from the bits and pieces I had heard spoken of him from a mutual friend.
But sitting across from him and listening to his story was almost like having pages lifted out of Kerouac’s On the Road. Dropping out of uni. Only two years into a physics degree, Adrian or as he good-humoredly calls himself Uchujin, (Japanese for alien) focused his sights on music. “While on the dole in England I interned at a local recording studio. I started by serving coffee, and in five years I’d become a sound engineer, all the while making willfully obscure music,” with his then band Hawk line Orchestra.
After eight years the band decided to call it quits. “Every record executive we met at that time wanted to make dance hits out of our music, but we didn’t.”Wanting to experience more than a life in England, Adrian and a friend decided to visit India. But at the very last moment his friend bailed and Adrian had to contend with the question, whether or not to set out for India alone, “I was so scared, but why am I scared?” Exploring the dimensions of fear would be the driving mantra that would propel Adrian forward in life. In the end, “I did anyways,” setting out for India alone.
After six months in India, Adrian returned to England to recuperate. There though he still yearned to “look at this world. I wanna go see it,” once again.
Setting out for India a second time he would by chance end up as a sound engineer for the Dali Llama himself. And after two weeks of working behind the scenes for the Dali, “I would finally have the chance to meet the Dali face to face,” stating, “I was atheist, agnostic, whatever you wanna call it, but when I touched his hand, I burst into tears and didn’t stop till he let go.” Surprisingly, all this occurred only two weeks after leaving England.
Staying in India for two years, lodging in and out of monasteries, chronicling his travels through a series of photos, Adrian was approached by Sebran D’argent, the French fashion photographer, who happened to be in India selling his own photos at the time.
Approaching Adrian on the street, “What do you do with your photos? Do you sell them?” To which Adrian humbly said, “I don’t do anything with them, I just have them for myself.” D’argent replied “They’re really good.”
The following morning Adrian was startled awake by an incessant knocking at his door. It was Celine, D’argent’s girlfriend “Listen you may think he was saying nice things about your photos because he does for everyone, but the fact of the matter is that he never compliments anyone.” It was then he knew, he had a talent for photography.
After a two year stint in India exploring his spiritual side, he needed to explore his darker side after “exploring Buddhism, I wanted to explore the other side in Bangkok, to push the other boundaries.”
Working in a bar alongside his Thai girlfriend, Adrian picked up the nickname Uchujin. Whereas no could pronounce his name Adrian, the closest alternative was alien, which would stick with him until he came to Tokyo.
Being in Tokyo for only a year and seven months though has not slowed down Adrian one bit. In that time, he has modeled in the popular Cool Trans after being recruited on the streets of Shibuya. And even worked with famed Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyaki.
Aside from that, he collectively started a photographers club appropriately titled the Tokyo Beats which will be having their exhibit this Saturday in Yokohama:
http://blog.tokyobeats.com/?p=25
You can see more of Adrian’s photos and exhibit information at the following addresses:
