Meet Shihori Nakane | Pop singer songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shihori Nakane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shihori, why did you pursue a creative career?
From what I’ve heard from my parents, I was an artistic and autistic child.
I always focused on creating something forever, I started songwriting and sang my songs to my mother when I was 7.
So it was very natural for me pursuing an artistic career. My parents were against my dreams for years because they didn’t wanna put me in a dangerous showbiz world, but I never listened to them and became an artist. straightly.

I loved creating but also I realized that expressing myself in front of the people was very fascinate.
When I was 7, I sang a song a cappella in front of other kids and parents in a picnic bus, everybody stopped and stared at me.
I was shocked at what was happening, and that was the first time for me that I felt connected to outer world.

This phenomenon happened every time I sang in front of people since then.
When I was 17, I became popular in my school for being a great singer, and my best friend told me, “your singing is special. Please spread love to the world with your singing.”
I felt like being struck by lightning and realized that was my life mission.

On the other hand, I had a tough childhood having multiple disabilities such as partial deafness and microtia, dwarf syndrome and Asperger’s syndrome.
I needed to take surgeries to form my left ear, took a hormone treatment for 5 years, and I was bullied in the schools.
Throughout the tough times, “love who you are” became the core message of my life, and I couldn’t help expressing it through my art.

Spreading the messages of love through my music became my life mission like this naturally.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started my career as a studio singer when I was 22, right after I moved to Tokyo from my hometown, Nagoya.
My pianist partner was studying jazz and I visited her teacher’s office together sometimes.
One day, her teacher, a saxophone player, Genji Sawai, asked me if I was interested in singing commercial songs.
I said yes!! Then I got my first gig as a studio singer.

I recorded my vocals for many TV commercials and video game songs.
Although my left ear was deaf from birth, my right ear has perfect pitch from birth.
So singing with many different voices and styles was one of my special skills.
Also I was good at side reading, which was also a necessary skill as a studio singer.

Besides the studio singer job, I was pursuing artistic career all the time, I debuted from a major label called Lantis in 2007.
My first single was an ending theme for a TV anime show “Gigantic Formula.”
I never imagined I would have get involved in anime music, but I used to be a huge anime fan when I was small,
and anime music and Beethoven were my biggest influences.
So I felt like I was destined to this path.

I didn’t make a significant success as an artist there, but anime / game music industry was the best match for me.
It was very exciting and fun to write theme songs for anime shows or games.
Industry people often recommended me to focus on songwriting job, and I did.
My songwriting career flew away.
I sent many songs into Japanese hit charts all the time, I got used to hear my songs on TV and radio.

But still, my biggest dream was “spread the messages of love with singing,” and it seemed to be very hard to achieve in Japan,
because my personality and visual looked too strong to Japanese market, the producers tried to make me look weaker or softer.

I was done.
I didn’t wanna succeed with my fake-self. And also I’d felt limitation in Japanese industry.
I could’ve been stably successful there, but I couldn’t stand to being stable.

I decided to moved to the U.S. to pursue my career as an artist in 2018.

I’ve had a lot to overcome, but interestingly I started to get offers to write and perform theme songs for the video games from inside and outside of the U.S. now, and performing around everywhere now.
All of my skills and experience in Japan has been useful at this point.

One of the most amazing things in American industry is that you don’t have to be in big, major companies to be affiliated with big titles like Japan.
If you are in Japan, you never be able to sing theme songs for the anime shows or video games unless you are in a big company or a label.
But here, I’ve written and sung theme songs for world popular video games such as League of Legends, Omega Strikers, PUBG and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang!, and many of the songs I’ve involved have been played millions of times worldwide.

This has been really incredible and rewarding to me!

On the other hand, I am still on the way to improving my recognition and musicality as an artist and I am enjoying my journey so far.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I still don’t know my area much since I don’t have my car yet, but I would take her to Malibu and explore the beaches and hiking around, have some nice seafoods.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are many people who have supported me in the important times, but today, I’d like to talk about one of my best friends who I mentioned previously.

I met her on a day 1 of my middle school, in a train on a way to school. She talked to me and we became friends.
We were totally opposite. I was emotional, explosive and intuitive, and she was calm, logical and very smart.
I was still very bad at communicating with others, soon after the schooldays started, classmates started to ignore me completely one day.
Everybody behaved as if I was invisible. I was devastated.

After experiencing the toughest bullies that I thought of committing suicide in the elementary school, I was expecting totally a new and happier life in the most prestigious girls school in my hometown.
But this still happened.
I finally had to admit, that was all me. I was the reason that people bullied.

I wondered that if I would have to spend another 6 lonely years here again?

When I couldn’t find anyone to have lunch with and sat by myself, she came to me and told me, “let’s have a lunch together.”
Everybody was surprised and staring us.
Since the day, we were always together and we became best friends.

Then she gave me the critical phrase that made me become a professional singer when we were 17.

She saved my youth and she led me to my path as an artist.

I always wondered why she didn’t join other classmates but came to me that day instead but I never asked.
A few years ago, I had a Japan tour and had a dinner with her before my concert, and I finally asked her that question.

She explained to me.
Back in the middle school days, I used to play Beethoven’s piano pieces during the free times of music classes.
That was my biggest passion and I was hyper focused.
But it seemed like some kids were making fan of me behind my back.
She warned me that they were saying something bad about me, if that was okay. But I replied to her saying, “SO WHAT? I don’t care, I just love it.”

In Japanese culture, “do as everyone does” is the most essential skill to get along well in the communities.
So you’ll see how I was not usual and why people disliked me.

She was shocked and thought, “wow… she is so cool!! Wish I could be like her!”
Then it comes back to the scene where she came to me to be on my side.
And SHE DIDN’T CARE what the others thought.

I still have tears in my eyes just thinking about this.
She loved WHO I REALLY WAS, and she is still my best friend, who’s cheering me up from Japan.

Website: https://www.shihoriartist.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shihori94

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/shihori94 https://www.twitter.com/shihoriNY

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shihorine

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVckWx6y_h3ZRVmeVs3u9RQ

Image Credits
Chris Cole (Photographer)