Early Works
In 1994 Sheena participated in The 19th Horipro Talent Scout Caravan (a series of auditions held by the Horipro agency). However she was unaware that this event was designed to discover budding idols, as opposed to more serious talent, and said on local radio: "Right up to the national finals I had no idea that there’d be a swimsuit contest!" Sheena was chosen as representative for the Kyushu area but lost out to Sakura Uehara in the final round.
In 1995 she participated in the Yamaha sponsored "The 9th Teens' Music Festival" as vocalist in the all-girl band, the Marvelous Marbles. The band won a youth encouragement prize. During this time Sheena became acquainted with fellow performers aiko and Takashi Taniguchi with whom she became friends both on and off stage.
She became a fan of the indie rock group Number Girl at that time because Hisako Tabuchi had joined the group. She began to play the guitar, emulating Hisako Tabuchi. She attended various shows when possible. A few years later, she asked Hisako Tabuchi to play guitar in recording some of her songs, and they formed the Indie rock band called Hatsuiku Status. Ahito Inazawa, the drummer of Number Girl, participated in the recording of her third album, Karuki Zaamen Kuri-no-Hana. She worked on the album of the new band Zazen Boys, which also featured Shutoku Mukai and Inazawa from Number Girl.
In 1996, she quit senior high school, and participated in "The 5th Music Quest 1996", a competition sponsored by Yamaha Corporation. She also held two part-time jobs. She had already received offers from several record labels, but did not want to make a commitment until the contest was over just in case and won an Award of Excellence. She refused a contract with Yamaha, and signed with Toshiba EMI.
Since she had already finished composing enough material for two albums, she submitted them at a meeting to plan her debut. She was harshly criticized by the directors of EMI about her lyrics, and her opinions clashed with theirs many times. She left for the United Kingdom in January 1997. The lyrics of "Tadashii Machi" and "Identity" expressed her feelings about this period. She went back to Japan three months later.
Read more about this topic: Ringo Sheena
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or works:
“The shift from the perception of the child as innocent to the perception of the child as competent has greatly increased the demands on contemporary children for maturity, for participating in competitive sports, for early academic achievement, and for protecting themselves against adults who might do them harm. While children might be able to cope with any one of those demands taken singly, taken together they often exceed children’s adaptive capacity.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“I meet him at every turn. He is more alive than ever he was. He has earned immortality. He is not confined to North Elba nor to Kansas. He is no longer working in secret. He works in public, and in the clearest light that shines on this land.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)