I first encountered Taiyo in 2021 in one of those rare moments when a social media algorithm seemed to be working in my favor. The video in question was of a young artist playing lofi beats on a Roland SP sampler in an empty park during the days of social isolation and COVID. Naturally, I was intrigued and dug further. His video for Weekday Girl made me chuckle like a little kid and in response I made some honest to god fan art and shared it with the man himself. I complimented his soulful style and he praised my artwork which in turn led to us working together to create the art for Hope You Notice, Taiyo’s second full release as a singer/songwriter. We spent weeks together planning out the layout of the cover as I took a simple sketch of Taiyo’s and ran with it.

Later that year Taiyo hired me again to supply the visuals for his beat tape BYE BYE JPN under his moniker Mr. Shirai. This project, though devoid of words, is still entirely engulfed in Taiyo’s romanticisms towards the world. His gentle nature bleeds through on each song, guiding you through the album like a child holding your hand. The illustration I created, again through Taiyo’s instructions based off his sketches, is to date one my favorite pieces of art I’ve ever had the joy of working on.