Shihori transforms and combines musical genres into her own unique creation with her new album Mutation and single Under The Skin — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
With each song a piece of art unto itself, the J-pop sensation’s aptly titled debut album cleverly displays her uncanny ability to turn eclecticism in music into a fluid think piece. Look (or listen) no further than Under the Skin. With exquisite vocals and a touch of lilt, Shihori shines on the track, creating layered harmonies and mesmerizing, sirenesque hooks set to exciting instrumentation. For more, check out some of Mutation’s previously released breakthroughs like Perfect Imperfection, Jungle (Cyber Mix), I Cover You and Fire.
Hailing from Japan, Shihori’s venture into creating and developing music has been a precarious lifelong process — and one that worked as an ability to relate to the world around her in a way she’d never understood prior. Born deaf in her left ear, Shihori was also diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at a young age. Seemingly trapped in her “isolation,” Shihori found the ability to break into her place in the world during a chance karaoke encounter with a group of schoolchildren. Her natural ability to perform would become the key that would unlock her. And from that point forward, she was destined for a life of music. “I have rather considered my deafness as a gift, and the other ear is a gift, as well, because my right ear has a perfect pitch by nature,” Shihori says.
Motivated by her love of song, despite a lack of formal musical education, she would go on to compose, learn, and listen to a variety of artists, honing and developing her craft. Her direction was fueled by passion, and her music became the words she’d never known how to previously articulate. Inspired by the all the anime she watched, and the classical works of Beethoven, whom she’d begun to learn as she began taking piano lessons, Shihori says these “unlikely bedfellows of vibrant pop and art music from the classical and romantic periods would come to shape the foundation of the music” she creates today.
In Mutation, Shihori explores the struggle to evolve herself into her American version of Shihori through New York’s concrete jungles, and takes her music, melodies, and message to heights not yet discovered by the rest of the J-pop industry; she’s carving a path all her own. “Mutation is very diverse, and the songs showcase how I’ve mutated since I moved to the U.S. in 2018,” she reveals, adding, “Through those experiences [in life], ‘love who you are’ became the core message of my music. And now, I think America needs this message too. What does it matter if your skin color is white or black? What matters more is what your SOUL looks like.”
Listen to Mutation below, check out Under The Skin above, and catch up with Shihori at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
