Shihori’s music champions a message of love and life empowerment. Her inspiring story begins in childhood. She felt as though she was a loner, and she was trapped in a world shaped by total deafness in one ear along with having Asperger’s Syndrome. Conditions that combined to make social connection extremely difficult. She was alone and she didn’t know how not to be. She found a sense of community and the ability to “belong” through music. She hopes that she can become a role model for young Asian women in America by sharing her story and music.
Shihori is a visionary New York-based singer and songwriter who has enjoyed over a decade of success in the Japanese pop industry and beyond. Her work encompasses original songs as well as compositions for internationally acclaimed anime tv shows and computer games. She boasts 11 gold-certified singles and albums that total over a million sales.
You have enjoyed immense success in Japan, scoring over 1 million units sold and having 11 gold certified recordings. Congratulations! How has that success translated to success in America? Have you found that US audiences are as appreciative as overseas? How do you think American listeners are different?
Thank you! I need more effort to translate it to the US version, since there’re a lot of difference between both cultures and structure of the music industries, but I’ve been at the middle of the transformation for the past 3 years.
The most surprising discovery to me was that the American audience really loves my passion and attitude in performing. Whenever I performed in front of the audience, many people excitedly tole me “I love your energy!”, even when I sing in Japanese.
Another surprise was that there’re so many enthusiastic J-anime fans over here as well and I’ve seen many people who know my works. They respect J-anime creators a lot, kind of more than in Japan! Which really amaze me and I deeply appreciate that.
I’ve translated my musical sense in more American pop’s way, including learning a skill of writing lyrics in English which is the toughest part to me, and structuring songs.
I enjoy this process of my transformation a lot and I am excited to put out unique music mixed with my original essence and American essence.
You now reside in New York. What prompted the move and when did you move to the US?
Originally I have longed to move to the US someday since I was very small, because I had very hard time to get along in Japanese society especially with my disabilities such as deafness in my left ear and Asperger’s Syndrome, other kids bullied me terribly.
My mom used to tell me that I would’ve been more successful in the US, then I started to dream about it.
Although I truly love working in Japanese music industry but I started to feel the limitation in Japan, that got me bored and depressed. I couldn’t stand to just live a stable life without big changes. Also as the CD sales started to decrease, people started to be super protective at that time.
I decided to move to the US 5-10 years ahead than I was actually planning to take a bigger adventure, to empower people.
You are deaf in one ear, and you’ve also faced some other challenges, like Asperger’s Syndrome. How have these things affected your life and career, and how have you overcome them? What positives can you take away from dealing with these issues?
The combination of the deafness in my left ear and Asperger’s Syndrome gave me a crazy concentration and the natural born perfect pitch on my right ear.
I found later that the left ear is the “language ear” and the right ear is the “music ear” from the book about musical healing. This mysterious gift from God definitely was the most precious treasure to me as a musician, although it’d been always tough to get along with people around me, especially because in Japanese society, you need to be the same as everybody and take care of other people first than yourself, which is very hard for Asperger people.
But as having many more good friends who love my uniqueness and my talent, I could believe myself and could make some good achievements.
Things always have two sides and everything happens for a reason.
And darker shade has brighter light on the other side.
In that meaning, I think I have very very bright life.
Tell us about “Invisible,” your latest music video release. We want to know EVERYTHING about it!
Thank you! This song is about the tough trials in relationships which many people would experience, and of course for me too. It’s a very sad ballad that the lovers strongly long for each other but grow apart more as they struggle more. The love that was supposed to make each other happy, now entangle each other’s necks.
The other person who is disappointed at you doesn’t look like seeing at your true self, and the same as the other person.
Your true self seems like “invisible”, and you wonder you’d be better to be invisible for the other person forever.
I made the MV to describe this sadness in ending the relationships, draw the storyboard myself and tried contemporary dance for the first time in my life.
The amazing dancer Yusaku Komori, who was acting on “The Greatest Showman” choreographed and acted as my partner, our partnership as performers worked very nicely!
The emotion there was quite raw and we succeeded to put all of the energy in the movie! I was really amazed how the professional creatives make this happen!
It came out emotionally and passionately and I believe it will shake your heart as well!
Tell us about your upcoming album project. When will it be released? What can fans expect from it?
Yes, this is my first full album since after I relocated to the US, so I am putting in my real process of the transformation that I mentioned to the first question. One of my goals is “transforming myself into totally different creature”, like over beyond the “growth”. Then I thought “MUTATION” would be the best description of this album. Mutation is usually used for the viruses but I thought that’s rather cool in this pandemic time. Although COVID-19 is super terrible but it’ll be great if this album would spread all over the world.
You’ll listen to my first songs in the US to the current songs in super diverse musicality.
I love to make songs in diverse, multiple genres, but this album would be the most diverse one ever in my career!
Do you get home to Japan often? What do you miss most about your home country? What do you love most about living in America?
I wend on Japan Tour one in a year, but I haven’t since last year because of the COVID situation. I hope I can make it in this October! I miss performing in front of my fans the most! They’re watching over my adventure in the US and I am excited to show how I evolved every time.
Other than that, I love the foods like sushi and almost everything is super amazing in super cheap price. (Which is not good for the economy…)
I love the culture that allows you to challenge anything anytime, and to be yourself.
It is comfortable for me to live. Also I am always amazed how people think positively and logically that is kind of totally opposite to Japan.
What has been the highlight of your music career so far, and what is your biggest goal you’ve yet to achieve?
The highlight of my music career was to be on the top area of J-pop music scene.
And performing the skin theme song to “League of Legends” has been the biggest highlight in the US for now.
But my biggest goal is to be successful as a pop artist here for the next years!
Good luck Shihori! We are certain that you won’t be “invisible” to many music listeners this year!
Thank you so much for having me.
It was pleasure to talk to you!