Anna Tsuchiya - Music Career

Music Career

Tsuchiya sang in her school choir and has been involved in the music industry since age 16. At 18, she terminated her contract with Japanese Seventeen, and supposedly decided to leave show business altogether. However, after an offer by former Oblivion Dust member K.A.Z, she invested in her music career In mid-2002, she form with K.A.Z a punk-rock duo Spin Aqua. Tsuchiya has said her influences have changed over the years, from Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bette Midler and Mariah Carey, to Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses.

Soon after she debuted as a singer, she was sometimes dubbed "The Second Nanase" because of her resemblance to Nanase Aikawa, a popular '90s singer. Spin Aqua released three singles, one album, and a video collection, without commercial success. In 2004, Tsuchiya became pregnant, and the group disbanded.

In 2005, Tsuchiya announced plans to begin a solo career. On August 24 of that year, she released her first mini-album, Taste My Beat under Avex Group's sub-label, Mad Pray Records. Her first single was "Change Your Life", followed by a second single entitled "Slap that Naughty Body" / "My Fate". After these releases, Tsuchiya released her first remix album, Taste My Xxxremixxxxxxx!!!!!!!! Beat Life! Her third single, "Rose" was used as the opening theme for NANA; Olivia Lufkin's "Starless Night" was used as the ending theme. This boosted Tsuchiya's music career, as "Rose" reached No. 6 on the Oricon charts and become her first Top Ten Hit.

In July 2006, Tsuchiya made her first overseas appearance at the Japan Expo in Paris. During this time, to boost her popularity, Tsuchiya also debuted her album Strip Me? Several songs from this album would go on to be used in commercials in Japan.

In early 2007, after a short hiatus, she returned to the music scene with a new single called "Kuroi Namida". This song would also be featured in the NANA anime. This was followed by the third Nana anime opening single, "Lucy" in early February. This would also directly precede a second full-length Nana album, titled Anna Tsuchiya Inspi' Nana (Black Stones) which contained singles from the show and new songs. A quasi-soundtrack album called Nana Best was then released, which included popular and unreleased songs by both her and Olivia Lufkin from the TV series. In March 2007, both Lufkin's and Tsuchiya's songs from these albums were played at Shibuya AX in Tokyo in March 2007. On June 30 of the same year, Tsuchiya performed at Anime Expo in the Long Beach, California, followed performances on July 27 at Pentaport Rock Festival in South Korea, and on July 29 at Formoz Festival in Taiwan. Called Tsichiya's "World Fez Tour", the series of performances concluded with a summer tour in Japan, which included a performance for a second time at Summer Sonic Festival. Shortly after the conclusion of the tour, Tsuchiya released her single "Bubble Trip" / "Sweet Sweet Song" on August 1.

The single "Cocoon" was released on January 30, 2008, followed in June by the single "Crazy World" which was a collaboration with the Japanese EMI Music recording artist AI. Tsuchiya released a third single in September 2008, "Virgin Cat", which was used to promote the show The L Word in Japan.

In October 2008 she released her third full length album, the sexually explicit NUDY SHOW!

In 2009 Tsuchiya performed a set with a full orchestra at the New Classic Gig in Tokyo, revealing herself a fan of Chopin and his Revolutionary Etude in particular. The orchestra included 70 members and the show was broadcast in 38 countries.

In May 2010, Tsuchiya's remix of her NUDY SHOW! album was released titled Nudy xxxremixxxxxxx!!!!!!!! Show!.

Tsuchiya's song 'Guilty' was featured in the ending credits of the film Resident Evil: Degeneration.

On November 23, 2011 she released "Switch On!" her thirteenth single. It is the opening theme for the Kamen Rider Series Kamen Rider Fourze. She decided to record the song because her son was a fan of the previous series Kamen Rider OOO. She herself watched earlier versions while growing up. On August 22, 2012 she released another Kamen Rider single: Voyagers, the theme song to Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Space, Here We Come!.