Haruomi Hosono has become indie-rock’s old It Boy in the last couple months, between Mac DeMarco pledging allegiance to the esteemed Japanese musician by covering him and inviting him on stage and Vampire Weekend sampling him on their new album Father Of The Bride.

In a new interview, Hosono addresses “2021,” the VW song that is built around a sample of Hosono’s “Talking,” which was originally written as background music for the popular Japanese retailer MUJI. Here’s what he had to say:

At first, I didn’t understand why anyone would be into the music that I made for MUJI. I created it as in-store background music, and it was just a job that I did a long time ago, so I had since forgotten about it. But hearing what Vampire Weekend did with the song, how they discovered it and created a great track, it’s extremely fresh. I was like, “oh, this is how you create!” I wish I had done it myself.

Listen for yourself: