generasia:Featured article for 2018 week 30

Shishido Kavka promoting DOUBLE TONE (2018)

Shishido Kavka

Shishido Kavka (シシド・カフカ) is a Japanese pop-rock singer, drummer, model and actress. She is signed under the label IMPERIAL RECORDS. She was born in Mexico in 1985 to Japanese parents. She lived there until she was two, later moving to Japan. She lived in Argentina because of her father's work for two years, but she forgot Spanish from lack of use.

Shishido was inspired to take up the drums at the age of 14, after seeing a live performance on TV. She started playing with bands during high school, and by the time she entered university, she was part of 8 different bands. She started performing with her own vocals at age 20. In 2004, she became the third drummer of THE NEWS, an all-female rock band, using her real name Shishido Yuuna. In 2005, Shishido started collaborating with THE HIGH-LOWS' drummer Ohshima Kenji and UVERworld producer Hiraide Satoru, and formed a band called eddy12 with them in the end of the year. During this period, Shishido started performing in her signature style, playing the drums and singing simultaneously.

Still in 2005, she was approached by music producers when she accompanied a friend to an audition. They wanted her to debut as a singer, but 5 years passed before an interesting project was developed. During that time, she had stopped playing drums and was focusing on her singing, but her producers eventually suggested her to sing while playing drums. In 2009, when she started her modeling career, she left THE NEWS, but at the same time kept playing drums for different artists such as PANTA and DIAMOND☆YUKAI. She later debuted as a solo singer in 2012 with her first digital single, "Day Dream Rider". She continues to work with her eddy12 bandmates, who now act as her producers.

Her third studio album, DOUBLE TONE, is released this week on July 25th.