Singer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba still remembers a dream where she broke into pieces.
¡°I was experiencing sleep paralysis. My mind was moving, but I couldn¡¯t move my body,¡± she tells The Japan Times. ¡°It must have been in some kind of battle or war, and I remember being hit by a bullet and my body just sort of coming apart.¡±
Though such dreams are terrifying, Aoba allows them to shape her waking life. Since 2010, the 35-year-old has been taking what she sees in her sleep, whether fantastical or painful, and using it as inspiration to create art both intimate and epic. ¡°Making music is never easy. It¡¯s not like the pain of childbirth, but it¡¯s like taking a drop from my painful dreams and distilling it into something pure,¡± she says.
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