Qrion: “My process is to first sit down in a chair and think about a specific moment – a memory, sound, or smell”Momiji Tsukada prefers melodies to words. Better known to her fans as Qrion, the Japanese-born and US-based DJ, producer, and songwriter has built a keen fan base of 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, toured across the globe, and played high-profile shows at Colorado’s Red Rocks and EDC Las Vegas. Yet, to hear her tell it, shyness is still a big part of everyday life. “I’m really not good at communicating in the world,” says Tsukada. “Music is the way I express what I think and feel.”
Clearly, her songs are resonating with people. Since the release of her first single, Another Sea, in 2012, Tsukada has followed up with a string of EPs and a debut album that made it into Billboard’s 20 Best Dance Albums of 2021. She was selected as Spotify Japan’s EQUAL Artist, DJ Mag’s ‘Future Star’, and even made it onto Forbes Japan’s ‘30 Under 30’ list.

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Over the last few years, however, we’ve heard a bit less from Tsukada – but for good reason. The intensive process of creating 2021’s I Hope It Lasts Forever left the artist exhausted and in need of a reset. Now, Qrion is back with a deeply personal, and determinedly hopeful new album, We Are Always Under The Same Sky.
Released on Tsukada’s go-to independent label, London’s beloved Anjunadeep imprint, she says the anticipation to get the record into the hands of fans has been building up over the last few months. “I finished it last October,” she enthuses. “It was supposed to be released earlier, but it got pushed back a little bit. We waited, waited, and waited, and I was getting anxious that maybe the hype was getting too high. Now I see the reaction from the people on the [dance]floor, and I’m really happy.”
A thread linking all of Tsukada’s work is her focus on memory – capturing the feeling of a specific place, time, season, or feeling through music. Her new album is no exception: the record’s ten tracks draw deeply on Tsukada’s lived experiences, expressed through uplifting melodies, emotive lyrics, and animator and designer Zee Yorke’s vibrant album art, which Tsukada says is intended to be a “sketch of her childhood.”
Image: Press
One theme Tsukada’s music returns to more than any other is Sapporo. Located in the far north of Japan, and famous for its beer, ramen, and annual snow festival, the area is fondly chronicled on tracks like Ice Palace, and Miyanosawa – the town where Tsukada spent her childhood. “I grew up there for 20 years, and I’ve been in the US for 10 years,” says Tsukada. “I guess I’m more American now, but still the memory is super important – Sapporo is the place where my journey started.”
When asked what first set her feet on the path to globe-trotting producer and DJ, a key source of influence emerges – her parents. Growing up, Tsukada’s mother worked evenings running a Sake bar in town while her father worked as a pianist performing in bands and in hotel lounges. From a young age, she says, they both encouraged her to push back against the rigid norms and expectations of Japanese society, and to find her own way.
“Japan’s culture values being the same, or being cohesive,” Tsukada says. “I do agree with that, and it’s very beautiful, but my parents would always say ‘You should wear different colours because it’s more unique.’ I didn’t understand the meaning at first, and I would actually get called out by my classmates because I really liked blue colours and girls are supposed to like pink.
“There was a moment when I had to give a speech in front of my classmates,” continues Tsukada. “And I said there was no such thing as ‘pink is for women, blue is for boys’. I still vividly remember the moment.”
Image: Press
After gifting her with a rebellious streak, Tsukada’s parents set another crucial example – they were both musical. She recalls her mother playing classical piano in the family home when she was growing up, while her father played freestyle jazz. “One time I was copying his freestyle playing, trying to make an original song on piano at home,” Tsukada recalls. “He was listening from the other room and he came up to me and said ‘What was the song? It was good.’ That was the moment I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I can create my own music.’”
It was her father who first introduced her to GarageBand and encouraged her to begin making her own tracks. His passing, when Tsukada was in her late teens, was devastating – and something she was still struggling to process while making her 2021 debut album, I Hope It Lasts Forever. In contrast to that album’s bittersweet nostalgia, We Are Always Under The Same Sky looks backward with warmth, energy, and a sense of new beginnings.
“When I worked on the last album I was dealing with substance abuse,” Tsukada admits. “So, I put all those sad feelings into the melody. Now that I’ve finally recovered, I’m able to put happiness into the music.”
Despite her early grounding in piano, Tsukada says that her new songs started not at the keyboard, but during a moment of quiet contemplation: “My process is to first sit down in a chair and think about a specific moment – a memory, sound, or smell – and then I try to express that as a melody. So, obviously Goa comes from when I was in Goa, India – that idea is in the melody.”
Image: Press
Once she has the beginnings of a melody, she moves over to Cubase. “That was the first music software I got for myself when I was 17,” she recalls fondly. “I saved money from a part-time job and bought Cubase because my favourite Japanese artist was using it and he’d done an advertisement. I didn’t know Ableton Live or Logic Pro existed back then – nowadays I’m very comfortable using it.”
When it comes to crafting sounds, Tuskada says she prefers to work in-the-box. “I had a phase where I kept buying analogue synthesisers,” she recalls. “But I realised that software plugins are easier for me because there’s just more flexibility. I do sometimes use hardware drum machines, but mainly I’m playing my melodies on a MIDI keyboard and using VSTs.”
Tsukada says her go-to soft-synth whilst working on We Are Always Under The Same Sky was u-he’s venerable Diva, coupled with EchoBoy from Soundtoys. “They’re great for making textures and I love filling the blank space with ambient noise,” she says, referencing the album’s beautiful closer, Sad Song, which also features South Korean producer and vocalist, DIDI HAN.
Tsukada brought a number of different collaborators on board for the new album, including Pinkpirate, Josie Man, and Blake.08. The album as a whole offers an exciting snapshot of the diversity of talent surging into EDM as the scene becomes less male and less western-centric. However, according to Tsukada, none of that was planned; it was simply a matter of what the music needed. “It just sort of happened,” she says. “I really like male vocals, but, because my music is very chill and has a lot of texture, I feel that female vocals – the high notes – these work much more.”

Despite collaborating with plenty of artists over the years, Tsukada says her natural instinct is still to write in isolation. “Working alone is definitely more comfortable for me,” she admits. “I’m really shy when I meet a person for the first time and I get really anxious. But the song Lean Into Light was actually finished in a studio in London together with Pinkpirate. She was a really chill person and we did a little bit of arranging together during the session to finish it off.”
As she gets ready to embark on a tour of North America, and looks ahead to future dates in India and Asia, Tsukada says she has turned the page on a new chapter in her career and in her songwriting. Where once her songs dealt with loss, frustrations, and struggles, now, she draws upon the joy of “stories, emotions, travels, and meeting new people.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is the role that music plays in Tsukada’s life. It’s still her art form, her anchor, and her preferred way of communicating with the world: “I always think about what I will be doing in five or ten years. I don’t know if my style will change and people won’t like it, or if my style will become more mainstream and maybe people will love it. I’m not sure, but I know I want to believe in my passion and keep doing what I love – making music and sharing it with people.”
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