kaho Official Thread

[Zemus]

Introducing new singer-songwriter, kaho. Her voice is strong and unique for a 15-year-old. She is the daughter of former singer/idol Kawai Naoko, who debuted 1980.

Profile

- Stage name: kaho (カホ)
- Real name: Kanehara Kaho (金原__ ; kana for given name not published.)
- Birthday: November 1, 1998 (age 15)
- Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
- Residence: Australia (since age 3)
- Blood type: O
- Star sign: Scorpio
- Hobbies: Nature observation
- Favorite word: Peace
- Favorite food: Cheese
- Disliked foods: Chocolate or anything sweet in general
- Favorite sport: Tennis
- Favorite school subject: Ancient History
- Least favorite school subject: Math, science

- Label: Sony Music Records (2013-)

Originally Posted by tokyohive

... kaho is the daughter of eighties idol Kawai Naoko and hair stylist Kanehara Takayasu.

The young talent is produced by Miyake Akira who also worked together with Utada Hikaru, which is one of the reasons why she is being called the second Utada Hikaru. Other similarities include the fact that she also writes her own songs, makes her debut in her teens, one of her parents is a singer, she is raised overseas, and can speak multiple languages. Moreover, her father also used to be in charge of Utada's hair styling for many years.

An acquaintance of hers talked with the magazine Josei Seven and stated, "Kawai wanted her daughter to be raised in a carefree environment and immediately moved to Australia after Kaho-chan was born. Right now she is still attending school there. Her singing activities in Japan are only during long-term vacations from school. The main conditions for her to be even allowed a singing debut was that school is going to stay her top priority."

kaho's first language is English, but she is said to have no difficulties communicating in Japanese and French as well. Music has been an essential part of her childhood and she has had the dream of becoming a singer ever since she can remember. At the age of six she started composing on the piano and with twelve she began using the recording equipment at her home to write her first songs.

The acquaintance continued, "She has voice training two times a week. I think it was 3 or 4 years ago, Kaho-chan went to karaoke with us for the first time in Japan, where she sang a song by lady Gaga. Her mature and low voice was on a completely different level and made us listen to her in an ecstasy. Of course the karaoke machine also gave her quite a high score.".

Downloads

Every Hero PV can be downloaded here or streamed here (not accessible in Japan).
Every Hero/Strong Alone debut single from iTunes can be obtained here. Mp3 and FLAC CD rips can be shared as well, just ask.

Every Hero/Strong Alone TV-CM available for download.


kaho hosted All Night Nippon GOLD radio show on Dec 26, 2013 (Click on banner to download mp3. Recorded from Nippon Broadcasting by me <Zemus@AHS>).
Talk and acoustic studio live, she performed 10 songs in both languages.

Official

Note: All sites maintained by staff. She is not into social media.

- kaho Official site: http://www.kaho-net.com
- kaho facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kahoofficial
- kaho Twitter: @kaho_staff
- kaho official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kahoSMEJ

Discography



Singles
[2013.11.27] Every Hero*/Strong Alone

*Fuji TV drama Miss PILOT theme song.

YouTube

[Bigtop]

I might want to try to pay attention to her, so we'll just have to wait and see...

[Mirrorcle Monster]

She has potential, i like her

[Minttulatte]

Strong Alone sounds better than Every Hero to me. Her voice was really nice too.

[NintendoHTF1242]

I don't like her voice lol

[Bigtop]

Hold on - SRCL - isn't that ****ing Sony?

[emi♡]

Strong Alone is nice, but I also don't care that much for her voice. She's only 15 though, so we'll see.

From these songs, I honestly feel like they don't know what to do with her voice lol

They should just PIANO BALLAD EVERYTHING

[kakumei]

LOVE strong alone, but still can't get into every hero, her voice is a little rough throughout for me. her beyonce cover is also damn good though, so I'll follow her

[hayasaki]

She sounds LECCA to me. and I love these kinds of voices. So i'll keep my eyes on her and see what happens. Her background vocals remind me of hikki.

[Zemus]

Preview for Victory is out, the third track on the single. All English lyrics.

[Zemus]

Originally Posted by TV Asahi

グッド!モーニング
2013年11月20日(水) 6:55 ～ 8:00

早朝ベルギー戦詳しく!!W杯へザックジャパン年内最終戦の結果は…現地
からゴン中山解説▽ケネディ馬車秘話▽流行ノロウイルス対策は
▽河合奈保子娘は歌姫▽松任谷由実ほか

There is going to be a kaho feature on Japanese TV this morning.
Would be great to get a comment/interview, but doubtful so I'm not going to get my hopes up. It's actually on air in about four hours from now only.

Debut is next week. Can't wait! She has a lot of potential indeed.

---

EDIT: I watched it. First there a was huge delay caused by the football game between Belgium and Japan, for a moment I thought it would never start. Could barely watch though because the quality of KeyHoleTV is beyond horrendous. Not to mention that skipping sound made half of the words disappear.

Anyway... They interviewed Miyake Akira, got to listen to some demo recordings (impressive voice as usual) and kaho herself even answered some questions. Well, text on screen only. No actual visual footage as expected. That Beyoncé cover, apparently she was only 13 back when that was filmed (again, the stream was horrible so might have misheard this on my part).

I hope someone uploads this to streaming website later on. Couldn't really read those questions/answers properly.

[Zemus]

Count down to debut: 3 days. Below is a magazine shoot from a couple of weeks back.
Other than the Miss Pilot drama, there has been a bit lack of promo... I hope Sony puts something out for next week.

There was an interview published in MUSIC MAGAZINE (ミュージックマガジン) December issue recently. But that's about it. No TV or radio appearances scheduled whatsoever.

Originally Posted by hayasaki

She sounds LECCA to me. and I love these kinds of voices. So i'll keep my eyes on her and see what happens. Her background vocals remind me of hikki.

I agree. Someone on Last.fm commented the same actually, "Her voice is surprising strong for someone so young. It's like a mix of lecca and ayaka's".

[Zemus]

Debut single was released today. Please check it out if you like.
What numbers will Oricon report? I certainly hope for a top 10 position to say the least. She deserves it.



It's confirmed that kaho's first media appearance in Japan is going to be through radio. She is hosting All Night Nippon GOLD for two hours on 26th December.

http://www.allnightnippon.com/gold/info/kaho/

Originally Posted by kaho

はじめてラジオの出演をさせていただくことに緊張していますが、ラジオを通じて多くのリスナーの皆さんにコ ミュニケーションを持てることを、とても嬉しく思っています。

[Zemus]

Every Hero is doing well on the download charts. It previously peaked at #1 and is currently #3 on Rekochoku. BUT on Oricon (11/26 daily), the ranking for physical sales, it was missing from the Top 30 altogether (or did I overlook it?). 11/27 releases were already included in the daily of 11/26. Maybe it will enter tomorrow?

The Miss Pilot drama is quite a big tie-in, plus MUSIC STATION mentioned her in their MTopic section of the show last month. She is dubbed the second Utada Hikaru by most media. I mean, artists with far less exposure and hype make the Top 30 daily Oricon ranking.

It seems to me that digital success > Oricon these days.

Regarding ANN GOLD. When was the last time, if ever, a 15-year old hosted the show solo? Some idol groups of young age have hosted it but they are always in groups. Very much looking forward to her acoustic live session on the broadcast.

[Bigtop]

She's 15, she's promising...but outside of the Oricon Top 30 picture? Hmm...

I have a feeling - is this going to be another Sayuri Sugawara?

[Zemus]

Maybe, Bigtop, maybe.

Second day and still not in Top 30. Ah, well, it could be worse. At least she is doing decent digitally as mentioned.

It still doesn't make sense to me. 30th position should be selling less than 1,000 copies. Her mother's fan base alone should contribute enough to make that happen (a bit of an exaggeration). I know for a fact that many Kawai Naoko fans are supporting kaho-chan too. Sony must have failed in their marketing tactics as far as the physical release goes. Such a pity.

I keep on listening to Strong Alone nonstop. I really like this song.

[NintendoHTF1242]

Oh she's with SONY? There's the problem.

[Zemus]

So you are saying that if it was another label she would have had more success on Oricon? I think there might be some truth to that. Sony have a different approach I believe, it does seem they are focusing more on the digital side compared to others. Artists such as Nishino Kana and JUJU are prime examples of this. You can see them topping the download charts quite so often, on Oricon not so much.

Anyway, day 3 = 30th, day 4 = 25th. Rising on the charts slowly. Top 30 weekly is happening. Good.

<Editing>

Day 5 = 30th.
Day 6 = out of Top 30.
Day 7 = 26th.

Oricon

Week 1 = 32nd (peaked daily #25).
Week 2 = 46th.
Week 3+ = out of Top 50.

Recochoku (digital)

Week 1 = 5th (peaked daily #1)
Week 2 = 9th.
Week 3 = 21st.
Week 4 = 33rd.
Week 5 = 24th.
Week 6 = 35th.
Week 7? = 79th.
Week 8? = 85th.

--

I didn't want to post again so I am editing this post.

Every Hero/Strong Alone CM on TV (2013-Nov-29, TV Asahi channel):



.ts

[Zemus]

New piano video on YouTube. Check it out! This is current (15-year-old kaho) unlike with the Beyoncé cover earlier.



kaho mini interview up at the Miss Pilot website:

――オーストラリアには何歳から住んでいるのでしょうか？

3歳からです。途中、2年間日本に戻りましたが、5歳からずっとオーストラリアです。

――『ミス・パイロット』の主題歌決定を聞いたときの心境と、ドラマを見ての感想は？

話を聞いた時はとても驚きました。でも、すごく嬉しかったです。ドラマを見て、パイロットという職業があら ためてかっこいいと思いました。夢があってとても感動します。

――ｋａｈｏさんが最初に惹かれた歌、またはフェイバリットアーティストを教えてください。

Enyaの『Wild child』です。すべてのアーティストの方を尊敬しています。

――ご自身で曲を作られていると聞きました。オリジナルの曲はどれくらいあるのでしょうか？　また、曲や歌 詞はいつ、どんな場所で作られますか？

ボイスレコーダーには約500のメロディーが入っています。（曲を）作ろうと思った事はないです。どの場所 、どのタイミングとかは関係なく、自然に聴こえてきます。歩いていて見る大空からも、木からも、聴こえてき ます。その音は自然からのメッセージで、その聴こえてくるメッセージが一つになっていき、私が一つにまとめ る役割をしているんです。あとは、自分の感情からも生まれてきますね。様々なものや状況を見て、印象に残る 事からも生まれます。

――小さい頃の夢はなんですか？　また、夢に向かってどんな努力をしていていますか？

もちろん音楽が最初でした。途中で自信がなくなり、グラフィクアートデザイナーやゴルファーに興味を持ち始 めて、気持ちが移行していました。でも、やはり私には音楽しかないという気持ちが強くなりまし た。

――両親から影響を受けたり、両親からの言葉で大切にしているものはありますか？
また、母親（河合奈保子さん）の歌を最初に聴いたときの感想は？

誠実であること。夢を忘れないこと。（母の曲を聴いた時は）感動でした。

http://www.fujitv.co.jp/misspilot/topics/index21.html

[Zemus]

Kaho-chan performed Every Hero live at Imagine Studios (where is this located anyway?). It is her first ever live performance! I believe it is part of the All Night Nippon GOLD radio broadcast which will go on air in less than two days from now. They only uploaded a snippet and we should get to full performance and more once the show is on air. I will try to record it if I am not too preoccupied at the time.

Will upload it here in full if people want me to as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE2td-E_Czw
This video is not visible from outside Japan.

I recorded the YouTube audio for you. Such a deep and impressive voice!
https://mega.co.nz/#!hUoxgSJb!Yo7C9H...LgUjHkrwFILacU