Mayumi is a mononym of at least two Japanese artists: 1) Mayumi Kaneyuki (b. Yokohama, Japan), a bossa nova / jazz singer. I was born in Yokohama. Japan, and grew up in Yokosuka by the sea. In my school in Japan, I always could see the ocean from my classroom window as I could from my room at home. I remember during summer time, sleeping while listening to the sound of the ocean. There was a very beautiful mountain right behind our house.
1) Mayumi Kaneyuki (b. Yokohama, Japan), a bossa nova / jazz singer.
I was born in Yokohama. Japan, and grew up in Yokosuka by the sea.
In my school in Japan, I always could see the ocean from my classroom window
as I could from my room at home.
I remember during summer time, sleeping while listening to the sound of the ocean.
There was a very beautiful mountain right behind our house.
There was a temple in that mountain forest that I always loved to go.
That is the place I miss the most in Japan.
So I always looked at the waves on the surface of the ocean,
wanting to see what was on the other side of that sea.
I was a very good student at school, especially in math, music and literature.
I played the piano since I was very young.
I liked to clown around and didn't hesitate in talking to anybody.
When I became a teenager, I asked myself,
?what do I want to be??, ?what do I really want to do??
That question was hard to answer, because living in Japan, I always felt that my life
was arranged and planned by others. In Japan, in order not to be called a looser,
you always have to follow the line of tradition.
Even though I did really well, I still felt so stupid, empty and a looser
who doesn't know what she even wants to do or be....
So I started to collect all sort of weird stuff that nobody else wanted
and I felt so good that I didn't need anyone's opinion about that.
In those days I wrote the Aloe Song.
In those days I started to take voice lessons at Daikanyama in Tokyo.
My very first and most important voice teacher, Youko-Sensei, appeared in my life.
She was the first one who understood me as an artist and she helped me to live
as an artist. I started to work at a little Jazz Caf? in Yokohama.
I saved all of my money to be able to go on my first trip to New York City.
I went with Youko-Sensei and other students.
This experience changed my life. Youko-Sensei took us to go to see all kind
of performers in Manhattan. We went to see a Broadway show, a Jazz Trio
at an italian restaurant, a Funk band in club on Breeker St.,
a new born baby being baptized surrounded by Gospel music in a church in Brooklyn,
street performers, go-go dancers, and I also took a voice lesson from big black Mama.
At that moment I couldn't understand English at all but it was so exciting,
I could feel something I never felt before.
I guess that was true passion being born in a person who wants to pursue true art.
My tears were coming out of me without me noticing it. Youko-Sensei
told me It's great to cry like this, because it washes ones Soul.
After I came back to Japan I decided to move to New York, and a year later I did.
Finding a job was really hard, especially because my English was so bad.
After eight months of living in New York I decided to move to Los Angeles.
In LA people were much sweeter and kinder than New Yorkers.
I was able to find a job and started to go to college.
In LA I fell in love with a man and things turned out the wrong way,
up to the point that I completely collapsed for a couple of years.
I still managed to graduate from college which I had to do in order
to keep my mother out of my back which gave me a lot of peace.
I started to feel a sense of freedom and I wanted to get back into music seriously.
Somebody recommended that I studied piano with Carlos.
After a couple of lessons I started to sing with Carlos at the piano
and we had so much fun that we winded up writing our first song.
Before meeting Carlos, I worked with a few producers but nothing worked out.
Carlos Campos became not only my producer, but my music partner and my best friend.
Our first song was titled ?Don't Be Afraid?.
The lyrics for this song came into my mind while I was driving to Venice beach.
Looking at flying birds behind a pink sky, I wanted to be like them, free as a bird.
After recording this song I felt so much lighter and that act of creativity
eased me completely. I just wanted to do more of those.
At the time I was working at a sushi restaurant and I started to sing a melody
in Japanese, ?Bossa Nova No Cafe, Bossa Nova No Cafe...?.
I called my home phone and sang the melody to my answering machine
in order not to forget. The next day I sang this melody to Carlos
and he came up with the whole song to it. We named it ?Bossa Nova No Cafe?.
The lyrics of this song talk about a woman's loneliness who is going
through heart breaking memories.
Later on, we did a dance remix of tis song and we title it
"Bossa Nova Remix".
In those days I had a romance in Venice Beach, and as usual,
I told Carlos about it. We both got inspired by the story and we wrote the song
?One Kiss From Me?.
I was playing the piano in my room under the moonlight. The next day
I wanted to show Carlos the ideas that came up. He took my piano performance
and created a whole orchestral score out of it. Then we both wrote the lyrics to it.
This is a healing song, a lullaby for grown-ups. We ended up calling it
?Blue Moon Over Venice?.
I was reading the book ?Memoirs of a Geisha? and I was so touched by the
story of a Geisha's life. It is a about a real Japanese woman who was very beautiful
but suffered a lot.
I told Carlos about this story and we winded up writing a song about it.
Carlos on his own decided to depart from the Brazilian rhythms and go Afro Cuban.
Carlos taught me how to sing Salsa with Afro Cuban clave.
We ended up with a very dramatic and respectful song titled ?Geisha?.
The next song is a celebration of life for me. I had a very intense dream
which after I woke up, it changed my perception of color completely.
Since then my perception has become bigger, deeper, more alive.
We named this song ?The Blue You Breathe?.
Recently I got really sick for a couple of weeks. I had very high fever
and I really thought I was going to die. I had to be rushed to the hospital.
While I was in the midst of the worst fever, I felt so much regret. I felt so sorry
for so many things I've done. But one thing I felt really good about, was all
the songs that I wrote with Carlos, and in that moment I really regret that I hadn't
finish the album so to die peacefully. I think that that got me to overcome my sickness.
Our latest song is titled ?Wonderland? .
This is a song about ?Hollywood Life?. Just wait and see!
All of our songs are very close to our life as you can see.
Through this musical partnership, Carlos and myself, have became
such good friends who can share a lot in life.
I am so lucky to have Carlos as my producer and best friend who is very talented
and such a good mentor. He feels the same way towards me!
We are planning to finish this album by this summer!!!
This last 3 years of working with Carlos I have learned so much
and changed a lot in a good and positive way.
Now my dream is that we can share our life with you through our music.
From now on we will charge 99 cents per song for digital download.
We are saving all of our money for the production of this album.
Thank you so much for downloading our songs and supporting us
in finishing our musical project. I also appreciate all of your warm hearted e-mails.
I feel that I am very happy that I finally found "what I really want to do",
so I want to share all of this with all of you.
Sites: Discogs and Facebook
2) Mayumi Yanagi a pianist / synthenist / composer, who's releases include: "Garden in the Sky" (1991), "Passage to Sanctuary" (2006), "Life With Wings" (2000) and "Water Symphony" (1993).
Sites: Mayumi-Momo.com