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
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