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 Anime
Expo marked the beginning of an extensive ocean-spanning concert tour
for Anna Tsuchiya, the singer who got fresh attention for her work
through the soundtrack of the Nana anime. The tour coincided with
the release of a new album in most of Europe on the first week of July.
"I'll be leaving my country and I'll be showing what I'm doing to
people in other countries," Tsuchiya said through an interpreter at an
interview session. "I wonder if I'll be deemed good or bad? It is is
still an unknown world to me. What I do isn't fabricated, it comes from
within. I have the confidence that I can get across to the audience.
I'm still nervous...but in a way I am strangely calm. Music, in a way,
is something that can soften the differences between the nationalities.
Tsuchiya seemed pleased with the tour's opening concert in Long Beach,
judging the audience reaction and cheering as the house lights went
down. "We saw how excited people were - you can see that from the
stage. Later we talked with the band, and they said it was a great
success." The tour was scheduled to head to Korea, Taiwan and Japan in
the following weeks, places where the animated Nana has found a
following. Nana music has been the inroad for Tsuchiya to get attention
and popularity in France, and now Avex hopes the same will happen in
the U.S. and Tsuchiya can become the first Japanese performer to be a
breakout success in the competitive American music market.
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 Japan
has its own competitive music market and some Japanese fans are never
exposed to music outside their home country, but Tsuchiya has enjoyed a
wealth of American music from the rock and soul worlds - Whitney
Houston, Cindi Lauper, Queen, Bon Jovi, Nirvana and Hole. That might be
a sign of the half-American, half-Japanese Tsuchiya's upbringing, but
it's also part of her personal curiosity and diverse career that has
led her to write most of her song lyrics in English. "If you're a
native Japanese speaker, the first thing that might come to you are the
lyrics....even if you can't understand the words. I can sing in English
and a Japanese audience may not be able to understand the words, but if
I can get the meaning across, that's something I can enjoy." In a brief
career, Tsuchiya has had successes that other performers can only dream
about - a model since age 14, several honors as the best new actor for
her work in films such as Kamikaze Girls, several albums and singles,
and the Nana music. "I think all of these activities are art, but
I feel most alive when I'm singing. I think acting and modeling are
ways of expressing yourself, but they're not ways of expressing your
real self. (When acting,) You might be portraying a different life than
what you're doing. If people watch Kamikaze Girls, they might think I'm
a yankee. In the music, I get to sing what I want and have the most
freedom to be myself." |
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