Ai Kurobe

Art Director

Kenjiro Naka

Production Assistant

Nagomi Asao

Executive Account Director

André

Graffiti Artist & Art Director

André, aka Mr A, is a French graffiti artist and Art Director based in Paris.

He is known internationally for his distinctive stick-figure character, usually with a top hat and an ‘X’ in place of one of the eyes. André is not only a good friend of Syn, but also a highly talented and conceptual creative with ideas that span any medium, street or otherwise. He has of late launched his own vodka brand, hotel and restaurant.

André recently collaborated with us for G-Star Raw and the launch of his new Belevedere Vodka, ONE-X. The night was a huge success with André not only performing live body graffiti on a porn star, but also an in-store tagging at the G-Star store in Shibuya.

We love working and hanging out with André, and we look forward to the next project.

It will no doubt be more bizarre than the last one.

Marc Newson

Industrial Designer

Marc, as you probably already know, is one of the most successful Industrial Designer’s of his time.

He works in aircraft design, product design, furniture design, jewellery and clothing - we have been fortunate enough to have Marc design both our Azabu-Juban and now Nakameguro studios.

One of our early projects with Marc was the launch of his O21C concept car for Ford in Tokyo. Since then, we have collaborated with Marc on various projects for G-Star Raw, (including Marc’s limited edition line of clothes) and are currently producing a film about one of his cutting-edge and revolutionary designs, the all-metal tow surfing board. We also worked with Marc on his Talby phone project for au/KDDI, producing both the user interface and the original sound design for the phone.

Syn has a close relationship with Marc and we are always thinking of new and creative ways to work together.

Watch this space. 

Maki Sawada

Production Manager

Simon Le Bon

Chairman

Simon Le Bon - Chairman
Simon has been involved with Syn from the very start.
Nick and Simon met in London in 1984 through Simon’s wife, Yasmin Le Bon and the two quickly became good friends and started to collaborate on Simon’s solo single “Grey Lady of the Sea”.
When Nick announced he wanted to live in Japan and to set up a studio that would produce a wide range of music including song writing and scoring movies, Simon agreed to become a partner in the business and even came up with the name Syn (Simon, Yasmin, Nick).
Simon continues to write and produce music for Syn as well as providing creative ideas and acting as a global ambassador. He loves the chance to hop over to Tokyo and work with Nick in the studio. It’s very different from the way he works with Duran Duran. He explains that it’s more free for him and there are no boundaries at all. Nick might come up with lyrics and melodies, Simon might come up with bass lines, chord patterns, etc. It’s something they both look forward too very much.
Music aside, Simon has also introduced sponsorship deals, collaborated on events and come even provided creative advertising ideas.
When he’s dreaming, he says, “I see Syn producing a movie, I think that would be a great manifestation of all the creative energy and talent in the company”.

Justin Woolsey

Music Producer

Justin is really into music...and not just producing it. He is a composer/guitarist in The Black Shakes and part of the techno combo, Sweat Band.

His first record purchase was Kiss ‘Alive’ (at the tender young age of 6). His current favorite guitar is his cherry red 1991 Fender Jaguar. He loves to snack on any kind of pasta, whilst watching documentaries about his favorite bird, the Vogelkop bowerbird.

He is both odd and talented at the same time.

Natsuki Yoshida

Live Entertainment Manager

Natsuki started playing the piano at just four years old, so you can imagine how music has played a large role in her life.

Driven by her fascination and love for classical music, she entered the Music Conservatorium and majored in piano. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree, she moved to Tokyo and worked for a record company where she was responsible for Artist Management and Artist Promotions and concert tours.

Natsuki joined Syn in 2008 and coordinates and books both local and overseas musicians for live entertainment at various hotels, events and functions.

Needless to say, she loves all music and not only classical, but anything with groove.

Yutaka Taguchi

Vice President

Yutaka is a key player in ensuring the office runs like a smoothly oiled machine.

He handles all administrative operations on a daily basis, and he say’s that, “He feels completely at home here”, and openly invites anyone to join him on Friday nights, when he usually hits up a local Izakaya to TALK.

Ritz Hiraga

Music Producer

Ritz is our music and sound guru. She has worked with many of the advertising agencies in Japan, plus artists from all over the world. She has produced music and sound for quite literally hundreds of TV commercials and she’s also produced songs for events, campaigns and compilation albums.

Just a few of the brands she has produced music for include Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, Audi, Mitsubishi, Dunlop, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sharp, NEC, Fujitsu, LG Japan, Epson, Kao, Pola, Unilever, Lipton, Häagen-Dazs and Nike.

Ritz truly understands and knows what it takes to make any visual look better with music and sound design.

Junya Terui

Music Producer

After graduation in Japan, Junya hopped on a plane and left for Canada to study English. After 4 years assimilating himself into western culture; drinking, eating and exploring, he returned to Japan to realize a long cherished dream - working in the music business.

So he joins Syn in 2008 and has since experienced working in all of our music production area.
Junya has dabbled in TVCM music production, managing studio equipment, coordinating narration recording with overseas, directing realtime recording session with overseas for Hollywood movies and most importantly making tasty coffee.

Junya is the ultimate all-rounder for audio production.

James Matsuki

Producer

Hidenobu Ogata

Producer

Before Syn, Hide spent 5 years at a film production company...this is where he learnt how to coordinate a crew of ‘hundreds’ and how to deal with incredibly tight deadlines. He then took a short break and decided to just ‘hang out’ abroad for a while and explore the world.

Then in 2008 he found a home at Syn and is now discovering the world of event, film and multi-media production.

Nick Wood

CEO / Creative Director

Award-winning commercial composer Nick Wood started his career in music production at the legendary Marcus Studio in London. Then at the age of 19, he signed with Virgin Records as the founding member of pop act, Appassionata. In 1991, Nick formed Syn Studios in Tokyo with longtime friend and collaborator, Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran.

As composer, recording artist, producer and arranger, he continues to score to picture, as well as write hit pop songs for artists. In 2002, his hit single, ‘Passion’ the theme song for Kirin Beer’s `Love Sports` campaign reached #1 on Japan’s International charts. The song will be celebrating its tenth successive year as Japan’s favorite sports tune and the unofficial supporters’ anthem for the Japanese national football squad in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. 

Nick’s eclectic music tastes have allowed him to collaborate with such diverse artists as Bebel Gilberto, Dr. John, Chris Corner, Graham Massey, Jon Hassell, Julian Lennon, Maxi Priest, Robert Palmer, Simon Le Bon, Tetsuya Komuro and Van Dyke Parks.

Nick began his film composition career creating the score for the Wim Wenders production, Dream Island. Since then, he has scored numerous movie soundtracks including 13 Kaidan (Masahiko Nagasawa’s award-winning thriller starring Tsutomu Yamazaki), To-I Umi Kara Kita Coo (Wood’s first score for animated film), and Mario van Peebles’ Love Kills.

His music has also been featured on The Dialogue Series, and licensed to TV shows such as NBC’s Robbery Homicide and HBO’s critically acclaimed, Sex and the City.