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DAOKO

Revision as of 21:40, 1 October 2017 by Me2good4u (talk | contribs)
DAOKO promoting "Uchiage Hanabi" (2017)

DAOKO (だをこ) is a Japanese pop singer from Tokyo.

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

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

File:gravitypromo.jpg
DAOKO promoting "Gravity" (2013)

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 activities

DAOKO promoting "ShibuyaK / Samishii Kamisama" (2015)

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. Of particular note in the tour, she performed a cover of the Ringo Shiina song, "Kabukichou no Joou". She performed it on her other tours as well, but as of yet there has been no official release of her cover version, and it has been excluded from bonus DVD content in her releases as well (probably for copyright reasons). 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. Footage from her "DAOKO THE FIRST TOUR" concert was released on the Limited Edition A version of the single. "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 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.

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.

In late September 2017, she also made her first US appearance as a guest at the Atlanta, Georgia anime convention called Anime Weekend Atlanta. 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".

In November and December of 2017, and January 11th, 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.

Discography

Studio Albums

Mini-Albums

Singles

Digital Singles

Compilations / Other

Composed Works

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

Unreleased Songs

The following tracks were free tracks, mostly posted to DAOKO's Nico Nico Douga channel at some point in her indies career, but were never 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.)

Publications

Books/Photobooks/Zines

dlv1.jpg vol2.jpg daokooneroom.jpg

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