REACT MAGAZINE :: Features

Music is universal. How many times have we heard that? Seemingly everyday. And while saying it is one thing, actually seeing it is something far more impressive. Meet Toshi. Born in a small town in Japan, Toshi is set to become the next big thing in, of all things, soul music. "This is instinct," he says through a slight accent. Though his English skills are still only moderate when he speaks, when he sings they're completely on point.

Seeing and hearing a Japanese man flawlessly sing soul songs isn't exactly something one sees every day and Toshi realizes this. "A Japanese guy singing soul music could be strange for people but I don't blame them, that's OK, but I think at the same time it could be unique, it could be fresh." Toshi hopes his uniqueness can open up some eyes. "I hope the music helps to change everything," he notes optimistically, "if people have stereotypes music could help to change the image."

While some people may have a hard time adapting to seeing a Japanese soul singer, Toshi had an even harder time just trying to find soul music growing up. "My parents just listened to Japanese traditional music," he explains, "I have two sisters, they are regular sisters, they don't listen to R&B soul music. Nobody influenced me to listen to R&B soul music." Though his family may not have been an influence, one radio program in particular was. "There were few chances when I was little to listen to R&B or soul music on the radio," Toshi notes "there was one radio program which introduced American Top 40 kind of music, but just once a week." That radio program introduced Toshi to many styles of American music, but soul music was the one genre that really had him hooked. "I don't know why I love soul music, why I listened to soul music," he says openly, "but I think this is not weird thing."

Toshi may not find what he's doing to be weird, but his parents, initially, weren't overly thrilled with his decision to become a soul singer. "At the beginning they were not so happy about that because they wanted me to be a business man or something but I decided to be a singer. I told them I wanted to be a singer. They were strongly against my idea but now they are very happy and they support me and they sometimes come to my shows."

Although Toshi says that, despite his status as a soul singer, his parents "don't know what is the difference between soul music and rock music," that's not the norm in Japan anymore. According to Toshi the musical landscape of his country has broadened significantly since he was a child. "These days people are listening to today's American music, like Hip-Hop and R&B," he explains, "it's very popular in Japan, people want to create their own Hip-Hop and people like to listen to Hip-Hop and R&B and these days there are many singers who sing R&B or Hip-Hop in Japanese and that has made it very intimate for Japanese people."

Japanese people have been embracing Toshi's style of singing for years. We may just be discovering him now, but he's already released numerous albums in his home country and has developed a strong fan base there. His fan base, he says, is one of the things that keeps him going. "I need to be successful for them," he explains.

His latest endeavor the he hopes pleases his fans is "Time To Share." Toshi describes the album saying "share or sharing is the key word of this album. I just want you to share the special moment with your special one when you listen to this album. Also I think it's time to think about sharing that's why I wanted to emphasize the word share." Sharing production duties on "Time To Share" are the likes of Angie Stone, Ali Shaheed Muhammed and Musiq's production team, Karmui. Mos Def also appears on the album.

America and the rest of the world might have to start getting used to seeing a Japanese soul singer because Toshi is for real. "You can feel my love of soul music," he emotes. If your eyes can't handle it just close them and listen to the music because Toshi is what's next in soul and he's just the top bubble in the cultural melting pot. As long as Toshi can find some level of success there will be others. How well we accept the inevitable influx of foreign artists doing American music is going to be what's interesting to see. Do we love the music, or do we love the faces doing the music? It looks like we're about to find out.