Sensual, soulful, spiritual and soothing, the Japanese and English words dipped in the delicious chocolate of roots reggae, rock, jazz and acoustic pop will make you feel vulnerable but empowered, and hungry for more.

12 MP3 Songs
WORLD: Reggae, WORLD: Asian



Details:
MAYU (pronounced Mah-you, not May-you) has been performing and recording in Tokyo, Japan, with an independent label since 2002, but has been going to school in Massachusetts for the past 7 years. Her first maxi single, Dream In Peace, has been used as an ending theme for a TV show, a TV commercial, and featured in magazines. Her name means "True Dream," when written out in Japanese characters. A natural musician and healer, her music and presence have the power to touch people's hearts at a deep spiritual level.

"Shallow Eyes" is her first album, released in Japan on December 30th, 2004, and has ranked 29th on the Oricon chart (Japanese version of Billboard), and 1st on the Shinseido CD store chart, in the indies album section. She is responsible for the composition, arrangements, direction, as well as all of the artwork and layout. She has made appearances both on TV and radio nationwide in Japan. Her music video for Shallow Eyes, by Zebbler, is being aired on a huge outdoor monitor in the city of Osaka (can be viewed on www.massart.edu/zebbler, under art samples-> videos).

MAYU writes her songs in both English and Japanese (she has two versions of most of her songs). Because this album was officially released in Japan, she needed to have most of them in Japanese, but if you're interested in the lyrical content of her Japanese songs, check out the lyrics page on her website for translations -which will be up very soon (even though translations can never convey all the nuances of the words... but you'll get the basic message). Her music has been described as a trigger to "make you look at the world around you and question it to a greater extent than you do when you're not listening to it," with a voice that "is so strong that it never gets lost even when it becomes layered with the dubbiest of effects" (Receptortune, 2004).

"Shallow Eyes" refers to the shallowness, the narrow-mindedness of the busy and stressful society in which we live in, but it is in no way a pessimistic and hopeless view of the world. It is meant to bring light to the fact that it is way too easy to become sucked into the idea of empty materialism and greed, and therefore the eyes -the soul- become clouded. But there is a way to still succeed in this world (monetarily) AND be deeply happy with your life, your relationships, your actions. You do have a choice, potential, and free will.

MAYU is currently living in Boston, MA, finishing up her music therapy training at Berklee College of Music. Her mission in life is to continue helping others help themselves through music -an honest and humanistic grassroots movement toward world peace. Songwriting and performing is her way of healing herself as well as sharing that process with others of like mind. She wishes to be an advocate for searching happiness through music -what she believes to be the answer and medicine for a healthy and fulfilling life.