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DAOKO

Revision as of 22:50, 1 January 2019 by Kaseii (talk | contribs) (→‎Major Label Era)
DAOKO (2018)

DAOKO (だをこ) is a Japanese pop singer from Tokyo. She first made her debut posting rap music on Nico Nico Douga and was later signed to the indie label LOW HIGH WHO? PRODUCTION in 2012. For the first few years of her career DAOKO had to keep her face hidden, seeing as her school had a strict policy about their students being part of the entertainment industry. In 2015, she signed to with the label major TOY'S FACTORY. Since graduating from school, DAOKO has been showing her face starting with her 2015 single "ShibuyaK / Samishii Kamisama".

Profile

  • Stage Name: DAOKO (だをこ)
  • Stage Name: daoko (2012-2015)
  • Birthday: March 4, 1997 (1997-03-04) (age 27)
  • Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
  • Family: Father, mother, older sister
  • Hobbies: Drawing, painting

Information

DAOKO promoting "Gravity" (2013)
DAOKO promoting DAOKO (2015)
DAOKO promoting "ShibuyaK / Samishii Kamisama" (2015)
DAOKO promoting THANK YOU BLUE (2017)

Early years & discovery

DAOKO first began writing and recording songs with her family's shared iMac in their living room. She used GarageBand software and the built-in microphone on the computer to record her voice. She chose various free tracks (for example, Vocaloid songs) from the internet and tried to remake them in her own style by following the melody and lyrics. Her whispery vocal style was not intentional at first, it was just something she ended up doing because she didn't want her voice to carry too far from the living room as she sang. When she got her own personal computer in her room, she used that to record her demos.

In her third year of junior high school, she began to post rap music on Nico Nico Douga, under the name "daoko" with the handle "meme" (it is unknown if the handle connects to the song "ME!ME!ME!" that she was later featured in). Through that, she met Jinmenusagi, who was on the indies label LOW HIGH WHO? PRODUCTION, and who in turn introduced her to the president of the label. By the time of her entrance into high school, she had acquired a contract with the label under the name daoko. However, because the girls' school that she attended forbade their students from entering the entertainment industry. she had to hide her face.

Indies activities & switch to major label

Her first activity as an artist under LOW HIGH WHO? was to provide backup vocals for labelmate Fukashigi/wonderboy's 2012 song "Sekai Seifuku Yameta". Her debut EP, Shoki Shojo, was released a few weeks later as a free download from LOW HIGH WHO?'s website. Her first full-length album, HYPER GIRL -Mukougawa no Onnanoko- dropped in December of 2012.

☆Taku Takahashi of m-flo liked her music, which led to m-flo collaborating with her in the song IRONY in September of 2013. It was then used as the theme song for the movie Taka no Tsume ~Utsukushii Elleair Shoushou Plus. On the same day of the IRONY single release, she also released her second EP through LOW HIGH WHO?, UTUTU EP. Following the same pattern of her first releases, her second full-length album GRAVITY was released in December of that year.

2014 was a year of collaborations for daoko. She caught the eye of film director Nakajima Tetsuya, and her song Fog (originally included in her debut full-length album) was used in his film Kawaki. In November, she worked with TeddyLoid to provide the song ME!ME!ME! for Studio Khara and Hideaki Anno's video series entry into the Japan Animator Expo, and attracted a great deal of attention worldwide. Then, on Christmas Eve, she released her third EP, Kireigoto EP. All the songs on the EP were written and produced in collaboration with koducer.

In 2015, several major label record companies competed over her, but she eventually chose TOY'S FACTORY to make her major label debut. Her final album through LOW HIGH WHO?, Dimension, was released in February.

Major-label debut, THANK YOU BLUE Era

Only a month after the release of Dimension, around the time she graduated high school, she released her first album through Toy's Factory, DAOKO. However, since the promotion for the album took place while she was still in school, she continued to hide her face. She held her first one-man live at Shibuya WWW in August and tickets were sold out the day they were released. At the time of her major debut, she also changed her stage name to be DAOKO, all-uppercase.

Her debut major-label single ShibuyaK / Samishii Kamisama was released in October 2015, and since she was fully in the clear from high school, she also revealed her face for the first time in the promotional material and jacket photos for the single.

In January 2016, she went on her first tour, called "DAOKO THE FIRST TOUR". Although it was called a tour, it was really only a one-man live performance, as it only had one show in Shibuya. Footage was included on the limited edition A version of the DVD for her second single. On August 14th, she appeared on the Amazon streaming series "Invisible Tokyo", speaking openly about her connection to music and her struggles as a human. In September she released on her second single, "Moshimo Bokura ga GAME no Shuyaku de / Daisuki with TeddyLoid / BANG!", which was a triple-A-side single consisting of four songs that had also been used for recent CMs for various products. "Daisuki" was her second collaboration with TeddyLoid. He later released some remixes of the song on his EP Silent Planet Vol. 3. DAOKO also embarked on her first "real" tour, called "Aoiro Shugi", which was a four-day tour in several different cities in Japan. Footage from the tour was later included in the bonus DVD that came with the limited edition of her third single.

In January of 2017, DAOKO recorded a short clip for the LUCUA chain of stores. It's most likely that the song she recorded was done specifically for the commercial and will not be released.

In February of 2017, DAOKO went on her second official tour (third overall), called "Aoiro Jidai". It had a total of five stops in cities across Japan. It started in Hokkaido, went as far south as Osaka, and then completed in Tokyo, where singer Sayuri also made a guest appearance. Throughout the next few months, she also participated in several collaborations with other artists. In her third collaboration with Hideaki Anno and Studio Khara, she provided the insert song for the anime "Ryuu no Haisha" (Dragon Dentist) called Kakurenbo. It was released as a digital single via iTunes and other digital services. She appeared on Omori Seiko's kitixxxgaia album as a featured artist on the track "Saigo Chikyuu no Futari", and also appeared on Ziyoou-vachi's Q album as a featured artist on the track "Kinsei". "Kinsei" was reported to be an answer song to DAOKO's own 2015 track "Suisei".

In the July through September issues of Da Vinci magazine, she released three sections of her novel (marketed as a "lyric novel") titled "One-Room Seaside Step". It focused around a 19-year-old female illustrator named Nagisa, who gained popularity online from posting her illustrations under the name "nico". Of the series, DAOKO said that while she had been writing lyrics and poetry as a rap singer since she was 15, she had always wanted to try writing something longer. In August, the novel was released in its entirety as a hard-cover book. Around that time, a web CM for the book was also released on her YouTube channel, featuring a song between herself and TEMPALAY. The song was eventually included in her second major label album.

Also in July 2017, she was asked to provide a narration and ending card illustration for episode 12 of "Shingeki no Bahamut: VIRGIN SOUL", in addition to providing two ending themes for the series ("Haikei Goodbye Sayonara" and "Cinderella step").

In August of 2017, her third single Uchiage Hanabi was released. It was used as the theme song to the animated movie "Uchiage Hanabi, Shita Kara Miru Ka? Yoko Kara Miru Ka?". The single's B-side, "Forever Friends", was used as the insert song for the movie, and was a cover of the 1993 live-action movie's theme song of the same name, originally by REMEDIOS. "Cinderella step," which had been aired in a shortened version starting in July as the second ending theme to "Shingeki no Bahamut: VIRGIN SOUL", was also included in the single, but only on the regular edition. The single was a huge hit for DAOKO, making the highest sales to date of any of her releases both physically and digitally.

In late September 2017, she also made her first US appearance as a guest at the Atlanta, Georgia anime convention called Anime Weekend Atlanta. She appeared for two separate live performances with TeddyLoid, and also held an autograph session and panel for convention attendees. A few weeks later in October, she released her fourth single, Step Up LOVE. It was a collaboration between herself and Okamura Yasuyuki, where they wrote the lyrics together and Okamura composed the music, arranged, and produced it. The song was used as the ending theme for the anime "Kekkai Sensen & BEYOND". On October 31st, she released a collaboration music video with Sony Wireless Headphones, using the as-yet-unreleased song "Onaji Yoru".

In November, she released a collaboration song with American artist Beck. They created a new version of his song "Up All Night" which included a verse by DAOKO.

In November and December of 2017 and Janauary of 2018, she went on her fourth tour, "Cygames Presents DAOKO TOUR 2017-2018 'THANK YOU BLUE'". The tour was her largest to date, making six stops in cities across Japan all the way from Hokkaido to Fukuoka. She made one stop in Korea in December of 2017, and in January of 2018 made two stops in Taiwan.

On December 20th, 2017, her fifth album overall and second album under TOY'S FACTORY, THANK YOU BLUE was released.

In April of 2018, she held a one-day live performance called "DAOKO presents Charm Point", where she performed various songs--in spite of the title, she only performed two songs from her Charm Point digital mini-album.

Shiteki Ryokou era

Throughout 2018, DAOKO provided various songs as tie-ups in advertisements. In April, she provided the song "Owaranai Sekai de" to be used as the theme song for the mobile game Dragalia Lost. The song was produced by Kobayashi Takeshi. One month later in May, she provided the song "Tane mo Shikake mo Aru Mahou" for the theme song for Shiseido's new Majolica Majorca CM. Then in September, she provided the song "Oide Oide" to be used as the image song fro Lowry's Farm 2018. On July 12th, "ME!ME!ME! BOOK!BOOK!BOOK!" was released, which was a compilation of various behind-the-scenes aspects of the ME!ME!ME! video. DAOKO and TeddyLoid provided comments for the book about what it was like creating the music.

On August 30th, DAOKO announced via her official website that she would be releasing her third major-label album, which was later revealed to be titled Shiteki Ryokou. On September 25th, she officially released "Owaranai Sekai de" as a digital single.

Discography

Studio Albums

Mini-Albums

Singles

Digital Downloads

Compilations / Other

Composed Works

The following tracks feature backing vocals and chorus work from DAOKO.

Unreleased Songs

The following tracks are unreleased, and to date have never been re-recorded or released in any official form beyond that. (All of her Nico Nico Douga videos are private, but a few songs originally posted there can still be found throughout the internet). All of the songs released prior to her major label switch were released originally for free on her Nico Nico Douga channel.

Pre-Indies/Indies Era

Major Label Era

  • [2016.12.25] LUCUA 1100 & LUCUA BARGAIN CM theme song
  • [2018.09.27] Two songs with unknown titles, as part of the soundtrack to Dragalia Lost
  • [2018.10.24] DRIVE
  • [2018.11.01] Onisan Kochira (おにさんこちら; Over here)
  • [2018.12.31] Aketara (明けたら; Dawning)

Publications

Zines

dlv1.jpg vol2.jpg dlzine3.jpg

  • [2016.11.19] D-LOVERS vol.1
  • [2016.11.19] D-LOVERS vol.2
  • [2018.03.29] D-LOVERS vol.3

Novels

daokooneroom.jpg

  • [2017.08.10] One-Room Seaside Step (ワンルーム・シーサイド・ステップ)

External Links

v • d • e
Daoko
Songs · Images
Studio Albums DAOKO.png
Mini-Albums
Digital Mini-Albums
Singles
Digital Downloads
01 · 02 · 03 · 04 · 05 · 06 · 07 · 08 · 09 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17
Collaboration Singles
Collaboration Albums
Official Website
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