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Interviews Archives
January to April, 2008
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.
- Posted May 1, 2008. (Note: Gina's original 2008 interview was revamped and reposted on May 27, 2009.)
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.
- Posted April 25, 2008.
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.
- Posted April 17, 2008.
On April 6 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.
- Posted April 7, 2008.
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 26, 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.
- Posted March 27, 2008.
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.
Archive Note: Prior to the official launch of J-Pop World on February 1, 2008 we had three interviews with songwriters for Puffy AmiYumi and
Kaela Kimura. They can be found at Puffy AmiYumi World at the links below.
Linus of Hollywood - December 8, 2007
Butch Walker - August 4, 2007
The Merrymakers - July 21, 2007
J-Pop World 2008-2009 is run by Andrew of
Indianapolis. Send comments to
comments@j-popworld.com or contact me at
MySpace.com.
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