News Archive 2008 Jan-April
On April 28, 2008 Gina Hiraizumi was kind enough to give J-Pop World an interview.
Gina first achieved fame as an actress appearing on TV shows such as City Guys,
Port Charles and Quintuplets. Her growing film credits include Day of Independence, Hot Spot
and Only the Brave, where she played alongside Jason Scott Lee and Tamlyn Tomita. But in
2005 the rising star decided to surprise everyone by taking a break from Hollywood to attend
New York's Juilliard School to pursue her dream of a singing career.
With a third generation Japanese-American father and a mother from Japan, Gina grew up in a bilingual California home with a love for both countries. In keeping with her multicultural roots her debut single "Unmei no Ai" was recorded and will be released first in Japan with a full album in the works for later this year. Checkout the full interview here at J-Pop World.
On April 24, 2008 Kaila Yu was kind enough to give J-Pop World an interview. Taiwan born and
California raised Kaila is the lead singer of the group Nylon Pink. Their Japanese anime
and Harajuku fashion inspired show has toured in the US and Australia. Their signature song
"Hello Drama" was recently featured on an episode of The Hill.
Kaila was one of the shyest girls in her high school but was able to transform herself into a professional model and TV host. She has since become an internet celebrity, voted one of the top 100 sexiest women online by Stuff Magazine with over nine million visits to her MySpace page. She has made appearances in several movies such as The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Kaila also owns a line of jewelry called Hello Drama with fellow Nylon Pink band member and friend Kit E. Kat. The two are now throwing their unending energies into pursuing their music careers. Checkout the full interview here at J-Pop World.
On April 16, 2008 Kiyomi was kind enough to give J-Pop World an interview. Kiyomi
is a singer and songwriter from New York. Her releases include "A Part of Me" and "My Place."
She's studied classical voice and musical theater, performed in the US, Japan and Korea and has
even sung for foreign ambassadors at the United Nations.
Checkout the full interview here at J-Pop World.
On April 7 Dale and Chiha Richards of the duo the Crab Bubbles were kind enough to give
J-Pop World an interview. Dale grew up in the US while his wife Chiha grew up in Fukuoka,
Japan. They currently live in Arizona.
Checkout the full interview here at J-Pop World.
Kaela Kimura's new album "+1" was released in Japan on April 2, 2008. The 13 track
song list includes her singles Jasper,
Yellow and Samantha. Since the three singles reached #7, 5 and 8 on the Oricon charts the full
CD is expected to do well. As usual the slightly more expensive limited edition version includes a DVD with
music videos.
For more info see Kaela Kimura World.
On March 27, 2008 the up and coming Japanese singer, dancer and model Rayna was kind enough
to give J-Pop World an interview. Rayna grew up in a small town in Yamaguchi prefecture and
moved to Tokyo at the age of 18 to pursue her dreams of a music career. Rayna's debut song
"Candy Man" can be heard on her MySpace page.
She also performs with the Tokyo group SEXY★SOLDIER.
Checkout the full interview here at J-Pop World.
Yamaha Vino are once again featuring Puffy in their commercials starting this March.
You can watch a video promo of Ami and Yumi pointing out the kawaii features of the latest motor scooters
as well as a remake of their Wild Girls on Circuit
video called "Circuit No Musume - MOVIE 2008 VVersion" at the Yamaha website.
Here is the website's promo picture.
Kaela Kimura's new single Jasper
was released in Japan on February 6th, 2008 along with
Dive Into Shallow.
The single reached +7 on Oricon. It's her third single release since
Scratch.
The song's music video is (or was) available at YouTube at this link.
Ami Onuki posted her New Years Greetings in English on their
official
and MySpace pages
which are more frequently translating her Japanese blog. Here is a highlight:
"As Puffy we start off the year recording. We'll work our hardest so we can get great music to you. Look forward to it!! Haven't recorded it yet but I'm sure it'll be great. The New Years break must've really paid off cause I'm presently fueled with so much imagination. I'm fired up. I just wanna create!!!"
Two albums were released in Japan on October 24 of 2007 to
commemorate the 20th anniversary of Tamio Okuda's
old band Unicorn: "Unicorn Tributes" and "Okuda Tamio Covers." For "Okuda Tamio Covers"
Kaela covered the song
Marshmallow
and Puffy did Kenkou.
J-Pop World 2008 is run by Andrew of Indianapolis. Send comments to comments@j-popworld.com or contact me at MySpace.com. |