Artist Profile: AYANE

Algorithms perhaps the defining feature of modern social media platforms. While the sequences created for the sake of delivering content to the viewer are undoubtably complex and sometimes arcane, the end result is generally pretty easy to see. Browse through some of Agatha Christie’s books on Amazon and the “more items to explore” category will be full of mystery novels. Watch a bunch of cat videos on TikTok and the “for you” section will start delivering clips of various animals. And as I personally found out, spend a bunch of time listening to Japanese music on Youtube and you’ll soon wind up with a bunch of random Japanese songs in your recs.

Some people deride the algorithm, but I usually just let it do its thing. Most of the random songs I click on are pretty okay but not particularly memorable. Sometimes they’re just not to my taste, as much as YT may believe otherwise. Sometimes, though, the algorithm serves up a real treat, as was the case around a week ago when this square image of an anime-esque girl setting on a bench in the snow popped onto the right side of my screen:

The song in question is “first snow” by the Japanese artist AYANE (not to be confused with J-pop singer Hirata Junko, who also goes by Ayane.) “first snow” is a nice, enjoyable wintery pop song with a level of production that was beyond what I expected from a sub-100k channel. It certainly piqued my curiosity and motivated me to check out the rest of AYANE’s work.

I had never heard of AYANE prior to clicking on “first snow,” and I suspect that most people reading this probably aren’t familiar with her as well. She’s not a huge name with anime openings or massive viral hits. I wasn’t able find any English language blog posts, videos, or the like about her (most searches just returned stuff about the other Ayane), though I did find a few in Japanese. From her Youtube biography we can see that AYANE was born in 2002 in the Kansai region and is a singer-songwriter who enjoys making original songs and covers. In any case she’s clearly been active since a young age, as the oldest song on her channel was uploaded in 2016. The majority of her content is from 2021 onwards, though. The impression one gets is of a young musician who has been active since she was a teenager and is now trying to establish herself as a popular artist.

Upon first listen there are two things that stood out to me about AYANE’s discography: her superb voice and a consistently high level of production for a small artist. The latter can perhaps be explained by her being signed by a talent agency, Platinum Production. Platinum is not one of the bigger Japanese agencies but they still are likely able to provide AYANE with a level of technical support and connections beyond what most individuals would have access to. This her songs have the level of production necessary to properly showcase her voice.

AYANE’s first original song “snow love” – released in 2016 – is a sentimental song that in true singer-songwriter fashion features only a piano and her vocals. Those vocals are remarkably powerful and mature for a then just 14-year old artist. Her follow-up from 2017, “Only You,” adds more instruments to the background but has a similarly mature, contemporary style. From that point we jump to 2020 for “I miss you,” a much more guitar-driven, rock influenced track. Retroactively one can say that this was a bit of a dead end as her subsequent songs shift to a more general pop sound with piano, synths, and percussion taking fore – a change that I think was for the better. AYANE also has one cover on her channel, a Japanese cover of the Korean pop song “Way Back Home” by Shaun, which is currently the highest-viewed video on her channel. Based on some of the Japanese articles I found about her I suspect that she at one point had more covers that have since been deleted, though I don’t know this for sure.

AYANE’s most recent four songs, uploaded between July and November of 2022, all feature anime-style cover art (drawn by Kabura_8), rich but unobtrusive instrumentals, lo-fi hip hop touches, and frequent rap sections. Producer Haruhito Nishi from studio ONEly Inc. is credited alongside AYANE for lyrics and music. I quite like all of them, and I suspect that this is the sound that AYANE will be sticking with for the immediate future. They’ve certainly been quite popular, gaining more views in a relatively short amount of time than nearly all of her previous songs.

AYANE’s discography is pretty short – she has a total of 15 full-length songs on her channel – so you can basically listen to all of it without much effort. That being said, I do want to highlight some of the songs that particularly stood out to me. Of her more sentimental songs my favourite has to be “Aitai”, released in 2020 at the height of the Coronavirus lockdown. Jumping forward to the current year and while I enjoy all of the tracks produced with Haruhito Nishi, I’d say that I’m especially fond of “Nakitai Yoru” and the aforementioned “first snow.”

AYANE is a very capable singer and songwriter, and one whose style is particularly suited to my taste. Her next single will be out on January 2nd. I’m looking forward to it, and I hope she continues to find new fans and grow her career.

Links: https://linkfly.to/ayaneofficial

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Notes:

• This post may seem a bit unusual. I’ve never really written much about music, apart from my convention panel on Japanese idols. It’s not that I am pivoting towards being a music blogger, rather, I simply think it’d be nice to write some short, non-review style posts about media and creators that I enjoy, particularly ones who aren’t that well known in the west.