Teddyloid is an internationally renowned DJ, Composer, Sound Producer, Vocalist, and all-around renaissance man musical artist. Not only was he responsible for two of the greatest hits of all time, music like “Fly Away” from the “Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt” album and “ME!ME!ME!” which was released for Japan Animator Expo in 2014.
Teddyloid is well-known for his collabs, and has made a legacy for himself with his solo work as well. He debuted in August 2014 after releasing an EP from King Records’ EVIL LINE RECORDS, “UNDER THE BLACK MOON” and the first album “BLACK MOON RISING” a month later. If you’re a fan of Hikakin & Seikin he works with them a lot too.
Three months after that, he released a collaboration album featuring 14 sets of musical artists that perform on 12 songs. After that, he put out “SILENT PLANET” for his one-of-a-kind 2nd album.
Teddyloid Origins
Teddyloid, whose name is actually Teddy Sakakibara was born on the 23rd of August 1989, Japan in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. During his childhood, he was a musical prodigy. He learned the “electone” (electric organ) during late infancy, and later self-taught himself beatboxing during his teenage years.
TeddyLoid has reached a ton of major milestones in his career while he was only 18 years old. His first international tour of his career was as MIYAVI’s DJ and Sound Producer. One of his biggest claims to fame this day happened when he was only a teenager, when he produced the OST for GAINAX’s “Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt”. He collaborated on this album after being invited by ☆Taku Takahashi (m-flo) to work with him, who was responsible for many of your favorite songs.
Teddyloid first met Taku Takahashi after reaching out to him on Myspace and sending him music he created. In an interview with Teddyloid, he told us about the experience.
“I was ranked number one on MySpace at the time, I was riding high on excitement. I told myself “Let’s send the thing!” *laughs*. After that, I got a response from [Taku] saying “It’s good!” To this day, I feel that that moment was a major turning point in my music career.”
Teddyloid Collaborations
Teddyloid has made quite a mark on the music world with his collabs. He has worked with an array of talented and famous artists. He also showed deep admiration for other artists, some of which he has later gotten to work with himself.
In an interview with NERDBOT, the EDM star talked about working with his inspirations.
“I would have to say [my inspirations are] Justice and Daft Punk for artists overseas. For Japanese artists, my biggest inspirations are M-Flo and Yasutaka Nakata. Especially being able to work with m-flo and Nakata and perform and make music together, I’ve already achieved that dream of mine which is amazing and I think the next step of the dream is working with Justice and Daft Punk. My friend, Virtual Riot, he’s a dubstep artist who lives here in LA. He came to see my concert at OTAQUEST LIVE.”
Teddyloid has worked together on tracks, as well as remixed songs of many of his friends and inspirations. This includes Taku Takahashi and his group m-flo, Yasutaka Nakata, Banvox, Virtual Riot, Chanmina, REOL, and GigaP. (In addition to countless others.)
He also has experience making music with Shibasaki Ko and DECO*27, and made a mega-collab album by sound-producing for Momoiro Clover Z “Neo STARGATE” and actually did a guest appearance for the 2013 Seibu Dome Taikai.
Later, in 2015, he did more with the mega-awesome girl group. He created “Momoiro Clover Z×TeddyLoid Remix Project” and successfully put out their first official remix album together, “Re:MOMOIRO CLOVER Z” . (In Momoiro Clover Z’s huge concert event “Momoshinsai 2015”, he acted as the DJ.
The DJ has also left a big impression on the AI music tracks and remixes world. He has remixed several vocaloid tracks and is the real person behind the Kizuna Ai hits “Melty World” and “Fireburst.”
He may be the most famous for his work with Hibiki Yoshizaki “ME!ME!ME!” in “Anime(tor) Mihonichi” for his hit song and music video combo Me!Me!Me! Where Daoko served as vocals.
What Anime Has Teddyloid Worked On?
He has worked on animes, “Mekakucity Actors”, “Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt”, the ending theme of “Space Patrol Luluco” as well as insert remixes, and was the sound producer for “Fight League: Gear Gadget Generators”. In addition, the DJ has also worked on titles such as Kirai, Demo, Suki, Project HAL as a producer, 18if on several opening and ending songs, and of course, Nihon Animator Mihonichi.
ME!ME!ME!
In late 2014, the animated music video to the collaboration between Teddyloid and DAOKO was released by Japan Animator Expo. This music video was called “ME!ME!ME!”. It became a viral sensation internationally soon after.
When the full music video came out, it showed the story of a teenager and his inner struggles with sexuality, female eroticism and being ravished by attractive, proactive women. Much of the overall message and motives of the characters has been wildly debated and discussed online. The music video was directed by Hibiki Yoshizaki and the character design was done by Shuichi Iseki.
A lot of people wonder about just how involved Teddyloid was with the production of Me!Me!Me!. We asked him about it in an interview, and the origin story is actually pretty impressive.
“Both the director Mr. Yoshizaki, as well as the animator Shuichi Iseki sent me through a constant stream of storyboards and rough animation clips, to which I would continue to create sounds around. I would try and line each and every sound up with whatever cut was currently happening within the video, while at the same time at their end they would also be lining everything up… It was kind of like a musical session. What surprised me the most within the whole process was our featured singer DAOKO. I sent her through the demo track, and she immediately wrote the lyrics, recorded them, and sent her demo back to me the next morning. Usually, in the music production process, we would go through with recording after a demo is produced, but because of how up-lifting her initial piece was, we decided to roll with it and lightly edit it along the way.”
Panty And Stocking With Garterbelt
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is an anime produced by Gainax. It premiered and ran during late 2010 in Japan.
Teddyloid’s anime career all started with “Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt” though. Taku Takahashi brought Teddyloid onto the EDM heavy project and the rest was history. Teddyloid was responsible for nine out of the twenty songs on the soundtrack for the tv series. Some of the more famous titles include “Fly Away”, “D City Rock”, and the “Theme for Scanty & Kneesocks”.
After the success of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: The Original Soundtrack, a follow-up album was produced in the summer of 2011. This was titled Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt THE WORST ALBUM, with an extra 24 tracks for die-hard PSG fans. The majority of songs on this album are remixes. Teddyloid was either the writer or the artist of every single song on the soundtrack.
Lots of the anime Teddyloid has worked on has definitely fallen on the provocative side. The series he’s helped bring to life have all reached new heights in terms of sexuality in animated media. When asked about this in an interview with NERDBOT, he gave a very honest answer.
“Those anime push the envelope more than all the other anime push the envelope (like you said). My music had such a strong element to them, and people found me (TeddyLoid) through those anime. It’s important to me that my fans found me because of these anime that push the envelope which is something that I’m also trying to do with my music.”
Fight League Gear Gadget Generators
In 2019 Teddyloid took his involvement with anime music to the next level. He was the sound manager and composer for the anime series Fight League Gear Gadget Generators. The series is a Scifi Mecha Action anime, which fits in perfectly with Teddyloid’s futuristic sound.
Teddyloid In The U.S.A
In 2014, cosplayers across America donned pink frocks with yellow trim, purple matching thigh highs and gloves with long blue wigs adorning their heads. Truly a new trend of cosplay was born that year, and Teddyloid can help claim responsibility for that.
When the Milwaukee Independent asked Teddyloid about the future of the music industry in Japan, the DJ spoke of his own experiences.
“In 2016, the music streaming service Spotify listed me as the 5th most popular Japanese artist who was listened to overseas. For foreigners listening to Japanese music, I was number 5 on that list. I felt at that moment, the reality hit me, that there is a demand for Japanese music overseas. As a result, I wanted to go and perform more overseas. Being out here in the world, and seeing the trends and seeing what the world is like, it is all having a really big impact on me and my music. I think this is a big chance for artists from Japan, with a really strong EDM following in Japan, to bring their sound overseas. Now is a really good time to do that.”
Since as early as 2014, Teddyloid has traveled non-stop to the USA to delight fans with his musical stylings at Anime and Pop Culture conventions alike. He is known for his performances at venues like ACEN, Anime Weekend Atlanta, Crunchyroll Expo, KumoriCon, Tekko, New York Comic Con, MatsuriCon, Taiyou Con, Anime Milwaukee, OTAQUEST KICK-OFF and of course, Anime Expo. Considering Teddyloid has performed at big shows like Ultra Japan, it’s pretty cool he still makes time to visit the states.
From 2014 to 2019, Teddyloid has made several trips A YEAR to perform for his overseas fans to places like The United States of America, all across Japan and even to the Netherlands.
Teddyloid sat down with us before his “Neon District” performance at Anime Expo 2017 to talk about his aspirations for being able to play abroad.
“I began to realize that more and more people were listening to my music from all around the world, which was an incredibly surreal experience for me. When I first started the “TeddyLoid” project, I was quite conscious about wanting to perform internationally, so seeing that I could place as the 5th most-listened to Japanese artist on Spotify really helped give me courage to try a wide-variety of different approaches. “
What Are Teddyloid’s Interests?
The DJ has been very open during panels at U.S. anime conventions and on his social media pages about his hobbies.
It can be said that the DJ is quite good at video games. Teddyloid has played Tekken on a stage at Kumoricon. He’s actually such a skilled gamer that he was invited to an event for the official SEKIRO release. He’s admitted before that he’s reached the highest ranking in Splatoon 2. (Which is pretty impressive!)
He has posted about Pokémon before. It’s safe to assume from this post, that he chose Bulbasaur as his starter Pokèmon.
He’s spoken at conventions about his love of anime as well. His Instagram page shows him to be an avid fan of the series Death Note. He also said to enjoy Ghost In The Shell.
Teddyloid has also shown to be a fan of Superhero movies. He’s definitely a fan of Deadpool. Just recently, he posted love for the “Joker” movie. It’s too soon to say whether he prefers Marvel or DC, but it’s pretty safe to assume he likes them both.
Where Can I Follow Teddyloid?
You can follow the DJ at his official TeddyLoid Youtube Official Site, his Twitter account, his SoundCloud page, his Instagram photos, or his Facebook fan page.
If you want to listen to Teddyloid’s music, his discography is on a ton of sites internationally. He’s pretty good at updating his YouTube with the newest tunes. He’s also famous for the international records he’s made on Spotify. You can also listen to him on Pandora. You can also hear his music on Apple Music. His songs are on Play Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio and TuneIn too.