Shelter The Animation.
"The story of Rin, a 17-year-old girl who lives her life inside of a futuristic simulation completely by herself in infinite, beautiful loneliness. Each day, Rin awakens in virtual reality and uses a tablet which controls the simulation to create a new, different, beautiful world for herself. Until one day, everything changes, and Rin comes to learn the true origins behind her life inside a simulation." — Courtesy of Youtube
 
When we conducted this interview, a mere twelve hours had passed since it's worldwide release and 'Shelter The Animation' had already topped a million views, was trending on both Youtube and Twitter in the Top 5 and wasn't showing any signs of slowing. This is nothing new to Porter Robinson’s reportoire. After a stunning debut with his album 'Worlds,’ he's captured the hearts of millenials and music fans with his catchy yet very emotional work of visuals and music. 


Porter Robinson joined us at the iFLYER office in Shibuya to chat about his amazing journey with A-1 Pictures and Crunchyroll, helping to make a dream come true and touching episodes during the making of the Shelter Tour.


This "Behind the Scenes" interview with Porter Robinson is brought to you by the iFLYER audience itself. All questions were fan-sourced using the hashtag #AskPorter. Thanks to everyone for their contribution and support!
 

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"Congratulations on your self-directed and produced animation ‘Shelter.’ You premiered it on Shibuya MODI last night for your Japanese audience. How was that experience?"

PR: "It was amazing and I think what surprised us the most was how many people turned up relevant to our expectation. Some other artists had done other projects like this before specifically on that MODI billboard so there were certain expectations as to how many people would come."


PR: "This greatly exceeded what we were expecting so it actually turned into a dangerous situation. People were running along the road and I was getting mobbed around people. The police had to tell us to stop and basically threw me in a cab. We just drove four blocks down and fans were chasing us. It was more intense than we expected but it was legitimizing to see the project I’ve been working on go public."

"The reactions on Twitter were blasting from all the over the world left to right. How did that feel?"

PR: "I was glowing, I was at my peak level of happiness."

It's only been 12 hours since it was released on Youtube but it’s hard for me to imagine feeling happier than I do right now because there’s so much love, passion, support for it and everyone is fighting for the video.

PR: "There’s already so much fanart and cosplay coming out when the video hasn’t been out for more than 12 hours. It's been really inspiring and I can feel everyone’s passion. "

"In creating this piece do you plan to further expand from music as an artist?"

PR: "I do. I want to be as multi-media as possible and I want to work in a lot of different categories. I have some specific plans that aren’t related to animation, video or music at all but I’m being secretive about it right now because I want to surprise my fans. I think as an artist, it’s a fun distraction and it’s easy to get excited about new endeavors."

I feel so lucky that I’m able to do these things. To be able to executive produce and write an anime script is such an incredibly rare privilege and there are people who work their lives with that being their entire dreams.
PR: "When I was working in person at A-1 studios, I was coming to Japan six, seven times to work on this. It just felt so surreal to me and I realized how unique and rare that opportunity was. Finishing it was bittersweet because I didn’t want the work to be over but, of course, it was very sweet as the final product was the most favorite thing I’d ever seen."

"This project was also very international in terms of a non-Japanese artist collaborating with a Japanese anime company. Were there any challenges?"

PR: "Actually, I think that I did my best so that my ideas could be easily translated and easily understood. I think likewise A1 Animations did their best to be accommodating with me so there weren’t that many misunderstandings or problems. I felt a real connection specifically to the director Toshifumi Akai-san and character designer Megumi Kouno-san."

Even though we weren’t speaking the same language she (Megumi Kouno-san) was almost finishing off my sentences. She really understood the feeling I was trying to convey and in many cases she knew the best way to realize that feeling.

PR: "One of the most euphoric moments for me during the character design process was when they were showing me the updated versions in the studio. This was the third round of feedback and when I saw what I knew was going to be the finished version. I was so unbelievalely happy. "


PR: "There were a few cultural things that kind of came up like the scene in the movie where they are showing Rin’s memories of her at a festival with her father wearing a Yukata. This particular scene was not something that I had suggested but A1 Animations came up with."

I only see those as positives and additions and it was never a cultural misunderstanding, it was an additional blend.

"How much say did you have in the visual process for the animation?"

PR: "So much. I wrote the story but mostly collaborated with the visuals through feedback. I really can’t draw anything at all so the process was describing verbally about the character image. I would send ten to twenty images of what I was trying to convey."

For instance, the protagonist, Rin’s hair is influenced by this brief Instagram trend that was happening specifically here where girls were having glitter things and that was something I proposed when we decided the hair color.

PR: "In terms of the environment, her room was inspired by a bunch of Pinterest stuff. The tablet, I suggested an original looking tablet but A-1 suggested to make it translucent and futuristic. The environmental visuals were very collaborative as well because I would suggest a certain environment and they would suggest how to make that feasible."

I think somebody who was cynical might think that doing a project like this might crush a naiive dream of what the process is actually like but it was not that way for me. For me it was very magical from start to finish.
PR: "There were very few disappointments and the best part for me was that the staff at A1 were so pumped up on working for this specific project. We could feel their enthusiasm so much. Sometimes they work on projects that are maybe a little more commercial or aren’t as creatively or artistically fulfilling and I’m sure they are super happy with their work now. Everyone was suggesting their ideas and you could feel this energy in the boardrooms and meetings."

"Absolutely amazing! Other fans had a lot to ask about your Shelter Tour as well. How did your friendship with Madeon begin?"

We met at a very young age. He was twelve and I was fourteen. We became friends and rivals on a music production forum.
PR: "We were both young kids making music in this adult world so we both gained recognition of being really young music producers. We would compete with each other and support each other and try to get better and we still do that to this very day. We have a huge mutual respect and love for each other’s discographies. I love his music so much and I know he loves mine."

PR: "We decided to collaborate with each other because at the time we had just released our debut albums. I released ‘Worlds’ and he released ‘Adventure’."

We wanted to write music together because we almost felt that our styles were intersecting maybe for the last time in terms of how we sound. Our sounds were similar to one another and it would be a great chance for us to almost close that chapter of style, in a way.

PR: "It’s hard to describe we both knew right away that we wanted to collaborate with each other."

"How did that extend to making a tour together happen?"

Credit: Porter Robinson Facebook

PR: "I have two different shows. 'Worlds Live' which is one big screen with very narrative driven content full of anime and beautiful characters."


Credit: Madeon Twitter Page

PR: "‘Shelter Live’ has two separte screens in which Madeon is in front of one and I'm in front of the other. Then there’s this huge background. 'Shelter Live' is not really character driven it’s really figurative, abstract, shape driven and I guess the vision for 'Shelter Live' is we wanted it to be a celebration of our love of our own and each other’s discographies and music. I remix his songs and he remixes mine, I sing his song live and he sings my songs live. That’s the kind of the approach to the show."

It's all about celebrating our music to the point where it is.
PR: "I think Worlds live is more about a beautiful sentimental emotional kind of vibe whereas this show is more fun and more of a celebration. I wanted to change my fan’s expectations a bit in America too."

"You also released 'Shelter Tour' merchandise online. The whole theme was centered around this dreamy green. Was there a reason behind using that color?"

PR: "The cover art for Shelter is of me and Madeon in a park together in New York. There’s this green light which is flowing in front of the image and we decided that we love that image and so much we wanted to have it as the central look of the whole campaign; we wanted Shelter to be bright, cheery and green throughout with a daytime vibe."

We spent so much time in his beautiful hometown Nantes, in France, and we made the song in his studio. His studio is next to his beautiful bamboo garden.

PR: "We really associate this whole process of Shelter with this green natural imagery and all the merch we wanted to bring on to that brand too."

"While you guys were in the studio did you face any challenges?"

PR: "We redid the lyrics several times for the song. Everything vocal related we did at the very last minute and it got so much better. Originally Shelter lyrics were vague and metaphorical, but we decided last minute that we wanted to change it to something specific and literal."

This song is basically about the love we feel from our parents and almost this existential meaning and significance that humans can gain from passing themselves on through their children. 


PR: "That’s reflected in the video too in which you see the father gives his daughter eternal life basically through this simulation despite the end of the world. And so redoing the lyrics was based on a real episode. Another interesting moment was when we changed the main vocal hook of the song."
We changed one note in the vocal hook of that song, after working on it for a long time, and it got ten times better. 

"You finally finished the first half of the Shelter Tour. Any memorable fan episodes so far?"

PR: "Preparing Shelter tour live was one of the most difficult and time consuming things I’ve ever done. Such rewarding work but it was very difficult. I remember we finished playing the first show and we walked off stage and we were expecting to do an encore. The crowd was cheering and it was getting louder and louder."

We were looking at each other and what we saw was this sea of magical lights. Everyone in the crowd had taken their phone lights out and it was so beautiful and touching.
PR: "We played our encore and I just remembered walking off stage and I was hugging everyone. It was very very emotional. It was like all of the work that had led up that moment was really magical and rewarding."

"Fans also had lots of question about your passion towards Japanese culture. Do you have any animes you've recently watched?"

PR: "I have probably watched the trailer for 'Kimi No Na Wa (Your Name) at least twenty times but I’ve been waiting on English subtitles. I definitely don’t want to watch it in English dub but I do want to watch it with subtitles (either)."
 
I love Makoto Shinkai so much. I’m such a hardcore fan. I also watched ‘Kanojyo To Kanojyo No Neko’ which was a big inspiration for the Shelter video.
PR: "This poster is one of my favorites and it was a big reference in creating the poster for the Shelter animation as well. "

"How did you get into Japanese culture in the first place?"

PR: "The first connecting moment for me was me being obssessed with DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). I was really into Nintendo and Japanese games in general when I was really young. Almost every kid in America at the time grew up with Pokemon and it was the most popular thing in the planet or at least in the country. So I think everyone who grew up in 90's America had some level of awareness for Japanese culture."

PR: "I really started getting into it after DDR. The electronic music that I had heard in DDR was the first time I had ever heard electronic music at all so it was very interesting to me and I wanted to be able to make it myself."

Basically Japanese music and Japanese culture are a huge, huge part of why I started making music to begin with.

"What do you think about the Japanese music scene such as the Trekkie Trax label?"

PR: "I’m really excited about Trekkie Trax. I think that it’s reassuring and makes me happy to see such a burgeoning underground scene in Japan that’s disconnected from all the major record labels and basically anything commercial."

I love the independent music scene and Trekkie Trax is so unique with such a distinctive flavor to their sound and all those guys are so good and talented.
PR: "I’m just really happy for them and want to see them become more successful. I don’t really have any collaboration with them necessarily, but I did support their show at ageHa as a surprise set. It was really fun. Ultimately Japan’s mainstream music is so much of what I listen to and I'm so excited to see an underground electronic music scene being cultivated."

"Would you consider working more as a vocalist in the future? Maybe a collaboration with Yasutaka Nakata some day?"

PR: "Wow. Well I’ve been working on the singing a lot. Openly and in a very exposed way in my new live show. 'Worlds Live' was me singing but it was quiet behind a backing track. But in 'Shelter Live' it’s unmistakeable. I'm really singing proudly with very little instrumentation. I've also been practicing with vocal coaches and trying to technically get good at it. It’s so complicated and such a fascinating world because I didn't realize how singing was both a psychological and physiological muscular balancing act."

PR: "There’s so many different things you need to be aware of while you’re singing and it’s complicated and amazing at the same time. It’s really stimulating for me intellectually. As far as Nakata-san, I’m always going to be a big supporter/fan of his and I would love to work with him in the near future."

"Any favorite Japanese trackmakers or DJs that fans should be on the lookout for?"

PR: "As far as Trekkie Trax stuff goes, I love Carpainter and Masayoshi Iimori. I think they are really exceptional producers. What I'm impressed by is that they both sound so good from this very technical production standing point but also it’s incredibly stylish. It’s very cool by American standards so I really hope they can tour more in America."

PR: "Obviously I’ve kind of developed a friendship with banvox. Really very positive towards me and I have a lot of good will towards him and I hope he becomes even more successful. I’m rooting for him!"

"A lot of fans also were keen on how you developed your kaomoji logo."

PR: "I had a realization before 'Worlds' came out. I wanted there to be an object that could tie the whole campaign together and an image that my fans could get attached to. I realized I was using kaomoji a lot on Twitter and I was like 'What if I made an original kaomoji and that became my logo?' Then I spent about three, four days and made like, twenty kaomojis and each day I would delete one and eventually I knew this was the one."

It was really unique looking. It looks almost sad but serious looking too. It’s cute and mysterious. It’s hard for me to imagine that not being my logo now.
PR: "I spent several days looking at rare unicode characers and I wanted to make sure all those unicode characters would show up on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mac and Windows. At the time many unicode characters would show up on Windows but not on Mac and the most important thing for me was that people would be able to change their username to the kaomoji on Twitter. So that's how I came up with this specfic one. "

"Loving the logo! Fans are desparate on your new music too. Where do you draw inspiration while you're writing music?"

PR: "It's always different. Sometimes I'm influenced by an image or a movie, TV show or an animated GIF. Othertimes it would be a song or chord progression. I like to take pieces and parts of a chord progression that I really like a lot. I'll think how can I take this progression and do a completely different instrumentation for it with a completely different tempo instead of using a male vocal and write new melodies for it. So I’ll start off in that way and it would end up being a completely different piece from the original one with no pieces of what I was originally inspired by."

I find my process in writing music that often times you have to be willing to abandon an original idea so you can reach the best result. 

"Any other vocalists you'd like to collaborate with in the future?"

I think I’m most psyched about singing on my own new music in the future.
PR: "I’m definitely really original focused right now. I have another song with Amy Maline that I want to release. I wrote it quite a while ago. It’s very different from Divinity. Divinity is very energetic and this other song with her is really sad, really small, and emotional. If I feel if it fits on my next album I might release it."
 

"Do you have a clear vision for this new album?"

I really do have a clear vision. I think I know what I want to call it and I have so many demos that I’m really excited about.
PR: "Beyond that there are projects too I'm working on that I'm really excited about. This new album will be different from 'Worlds' but I think fans wont be disappointed and I'm really excited. It could be quite a while 'till it’s done but as soon as I’m off tour with Madeon I’ll be in the studio everyday to make it real."

PR: "I’m so excited and it makes me so happy to think about especially having a year and a half of pretty significant depression and inability to write music at all. It was one of the worst times in my life. It was after ‘Worlds.’ I felt like I couldn't top it but now I don't have that mentality at all."

There was a time when the thought of writing music made me anxious but now it just makes me excited and pumped up again.

"Any new areas, other than music or anime, you'd like to embark on as an artist?"

PR: "Yes, but I really like to surprise people. That’s why sometimes I don't even talk about collaborations I’m doing because I want there to be a big burst of excitement when I announce it. I have other things that I’m doing that are not related to music or video at all that I’m really excited about it and it's definitely worth the wait."

"Last but not least, the question we were asked the most was... do you plans to do a Shelter Tour in Japan?"

PR: "We’d really love to and we are trying to see how we can make it work!"