Let’s go back to Italy with our new exclusive interview: we talked with Shoujy, an Italian J-Rock singer and songwriter! Let’s discover her career!
Shoujy: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Youtube cover
TokyoNoise: Let’s start from the beginning! You are active in the Japanese and international music world since 2011 and you started your career as an utaite. Why? What influenced you the most?
Shoujy: Hello TokyoNoise and readers, thank you for this opportunity to share my story.
I started from rehearsal studios and I sang rock covers in pubs in Naples. In the meantime, I kept on discovering new music.
Like many others, I discovered Japanese music through anime. Then I went through various stages, from reading mangas to searching for music on the web, on Youtube (for anime OP/ED) and lastfm, in order to discover Japanese artists, even those less known to the general public.
I listened to so many anime songs and watched so many anime in Japanese (with Italian subtitles) that I started thinking: “I really want to sing in Japanese!” “Let’s do it!”
My first cover was “Zankoku Na Tenshi No Te-ze”, opening for “Evangelion”; since then I met many people who encouraged and supported me.
In 2016 an old friend (and cosplayer) of mine shared that there was a Japanese singing contest at Naples’s Comicon; she insisted I took part in it because she thought I would surely win.
Well, it did happen *bursts out laughing*.
Winning that contest created several opportunities to continue my passion for Japanese music. I started touring Italy with anime songs. So my career began as an utaite and then shifted to being an Italian idol after that contest (in general, however, my attitude is a bit powerful so I was considered to be the first alt idol in Italy. During those time there was no concept of alt idols in our country, very few knew about it).
Thanks to comicons and events I met a lot of people and some among them wanted to be my managers, like Johny Kaminari (journalist, reporter, actor and Italian manager who worked in Japan for 10 years).
These people saw something in me and wanted to promote me, so I managed to sing in important events, like the Colosseum FALL 2018 in Rome, the official event for the “Dragon Ball FighterZ” videogame. It was my first esports event.
Another important stage was at ETNA COMICS 2019: I had the honor to perform after Mika Kobayashi‘s concert (“Shingeki No Kyojin”, “Guilty Crown”, “Kill la Kill”, ecc.). I also had the pleasure to be on stage with Yuriko Tiger, model and cosplayer, who danced during some anime songs I sang.
After 2019 we all know there was a drastic stop because of COVID, even more in the entertaining business, and it was really difficult to get back to it: it was like I had to start all over again and those 4 years of hard work vanished.
This setback was really difficult to accept, but I managed to pull myself back together. All my loving fans remained till today, always strong and ready to support me, like real legionnaires (this is the official name I picked and gave to those who follow me with energy and perseverance). I am here now after years of hard work to tell you all about myself and sing as the purest version of Shoujy.
The music influences who inspired me are both Western and Japanese music.
As for the Western one, my points of reference singing wise are Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation and Freddie Mercury of Queen.
As for Japanese music, there’s a mix between J-Rock and visual kei, like Takanori Nishikawa for the energy side of J-Rock, Aimer for the more intimate, emotional and intense J-Rock/J-Pop. GACKT was my first inspiration for visual kei, then I followed Ruki of ThE GazettE and HYDE in his L’Arc~en~Ciel/VAMPS and solo projects.
Did your relationship with covers change throughout the years? For example, do you still cover the same type of songs or something has changed?
Throughout time my relationship with covers changed a lot, especially over the past few years. Something I noticed was that I did a lot of things, but I needed to define my identity and my influences in a clearer way, pushing myself beyond the anisong cover world, so I could bring out the visual kei and Western metal sides. This way, those who listen to my music or see me for the first time know exactly where they are and what to expect when entering Shoujy’s Legion *laughs*.
You started publishing original songs in 2020 with “Higeki To Kouun No Hana” (悲劇と幸運の花). Can you tell us some details about this release? How did you come up with this song? What was the creative process? What did you learn from this debut?
At a certain point in my life I felt the urge to do something that was mine. I realised singing in Japanese was a deep passion, almost inexplicable to others.
I was resolute to express my feelings and messages through songs in Japanese.
“Higeki To Kouun No Hana” was born from an internal duality that is still inside me today, that is being positive and negative, optimistic and pessimistic.
This duality is represented by a dialogue between a physical me (the negative part) and a pink me (the positive part), in a back and forth to find a solution: the balance between two opposite worlds.
As for the details on the lyrics: I asked two friends, JapaNapo or Cesca-chan, who has a Japanese degree, whom I met, called and wrote to a lot to write the words together, and Jun Tokizawa (Japanese native speaker and blogger of Napolissimi, a Japanese website on food and traditions of Naples).
The creative process was extremely demanding, especially the Japanese lyrics adaptation. I was already used to creating melodies, both in English or using LaLaLas or NaNaNas. When I read the Japanese lyrics I tried to adapt the words onto the melody and I thought: “Damn it! We have to work hard, we need to make it more melodious”.
This first track taught me a lot and made the process of the next songs more efficient: I started creating “fake Japanese” lyrics for the music while in production to create the perfect melody.
In 2021 you published two original songs: “SOFT WALL” and “Kagayaku Tabiji” (輝く旅路). Tell us about these releases: what was different from “Higeki To Kouun No Hana”?
“SOFT WALL” is extremely connected to “Higeki To Kouun No Hana”: it’s about the emotional improvement while fighting and finding hope, when you know what to do, you know what you can do and you are resolute, but you have a soft wall in front of you, that represents the complicated obstacles to overcome.
“Kagayaku Tabiji” was born from a special collaboration between me and Black List Crew Studio (an Italian animation studio), who watched my performances on the internet and wanted me to sing the opening theme for the Italian manga “Life Guards”.
I only saw that happening in Japan, so for me it was such a satisfying request to sing in Japanese for an Italian manga!
The process was very different from “Higeki”, time and competence wise. Since “Kagayaku” I started collaborating with Italian-Japanese songwriter OTO MAYUMI and that improved both the composition and the music production.
In “Higeki to Kouun No Hana” I was still learning, but it’s who I am: even if I have some doubts I still try to express myself and then I work things out, a bit like a diesel *winks*.
In 2023 you published “Surudoi Egao” (鋭い笑顔) and “Iki” (息). Tell us something about these tracks!
In “Surudoi Egao” my sound had a specific identity: something that mixes the power of metal and the sensitivity of visual kei. Progressive Italian guitarist Myki Di Bono helped a lot with that: he entered my team of production when we were writing “Surudoi Egao” and he also shot the video.
“Surudoi Egao” is a hymn of rage that tells people to break the barrier of indifference with a sword (that represents dreams) and to write one’s life without depending on other people’s approval.
“Iki” was such a pleasure to make! It’s the second work for Black List Crew and it’s for the manga “Ops, sei morto!” (“Oops, you’re dead!”). You can hear the influences of Takanori Nishikawa and Aimer. It was so nice to work on this song, also because I fulfilled a small singing dream of mine.
We recently interviewed Haru of All Might Studio, who talked with pride about the “Shoujy” project. How did your collaboration come to be and what do you feel about it?
Haru di All Might Studio has a pivotal role in my music career. We come from the same city and we met in the historic centre of Naples, where we immediately formed a kind of understanding: we shared our music preferences and he became my producer after some time.
Haru is an extremely professional person, but at the same time he’s sensitive and always open to new ideas. He was the first one who believed and invested on my music project without even blinking.
Working with Haru is like learning important lessons every day: I got better in the recording studio, but I also improved my audio skills and I now manage to work alone or in his team. I work with him in the creation of parts of the melodies in his works for international artists.
Let’s talk about your visual style! We can notice visual kei influences, especially at the beginning of your career. There has been a change throughout the years, even though we can recognize your style. What’s your relationship with visual concepts?
At the beginning it was more evident and dramatic, but with time I really analyzed visual kei artists and all the possible aspects of it. Artists and bands drastically change their looks and their visuals depending on albums and moments in their careers. For me it’s the same, even more now that my style is clear: it’s the union of progmetal and visual key, so the look is minimal dark and I also completely changed my hairstyle.
For many years I had long hair with red highlights, but now I went for a wolfcut with mainly back colour and some red highlights.
I mean, it’s clear I like red and black, but it has nothing to do with football *laughs*.
Your career branches out a lot: you publish original songs, covers and vidoes on social media, especially on Instagram. You have a very faithful public, who follows you in whatever language you post (Italian, English and Japanese!). What’s your relationship with your public and what do you feel about sharing videos?
Apart from being a singer, I’m also a content creator, and it helped with the developing and ever changing area of social media and the neverending race of publishing videos in the quickest possible time.
I really want to be at least active in some way, and I managed to have this beautiful relationship with the international public through the fact that I didn’t give up when things got bad.
There were different stages for my community. When I started publishing covers it was growing fast and I had a hard time keeping up with private messages when I was active in comicons. Then, during the pandemic, I became a streamer and I was active on Twitch and I shared my career with the legionnaires who supported me a lot and funded the shooting for the music video of “Surudoi Egao”.
After that, the community got smaller when social media and Twitch required people to be more active. That lead me to go for a time off to reflect and focus on improving my music career.
During the hiatus I thought about content creation: I was always a visual kei fan, but I never talked about it because I thought no one cared. TikTok made me realise I was wrong.
I kept on seeing videos made by Italian fans about Malice Mizer, ThE GazettE, Versailles and many others and it opened my heart. I immediately tried to create videos where I talked about visual kei in the most simple way.
That was the first step towards meeting a lot of vkei fans, who then became my fans. They told me they never came across my videos and felt sorry they didn’t know about me before.
I then created more content, like the mindset on singing, called “Singer’s Mind” and some other videos about the metal world.
I’m really happy about the results: it’s like I found my place in the world!
What’s your relationship with live concerts? You have always been an active live singer!
The stage is my favourite place!
I started my live experience in pubs, then in comicons and then in themed events.
At first I was discouraged for two reasons:
- there were always technical problems with the audio;
- there were few people.
It was Haru who encouraged me and told me that every live has to be the best, that I shouldn’t care if there is no one: the important thing is to present the best concert ever, because only then someone will stop and listen to you and that is way more important than having few people near the stage.
Damn it! He was right.
That was a lifesaving moment for every concert: now I can experience it better, I have a magical relationship with it every time.
I’m an introvert, but when I’m on stage I switch completely and I’m full of energy!
Let’s finish with one last detail! You and Haru of All Might Studio announced something important: there’s a new song coming up… Can you tell us something about it?
During these past weeks we shared several behind the scenes videos and some previews of the new single.
Let’s do something crazy! We didn’t share the title and the official date of release. For this exclusive interview I’ll tell you the title and when the single will be published!
The song is called “Gold” and it will be out in February!
Leave a message to your fans and to the people who are discovering your music by reading this intervirew!
Thank you so much to all the readers who reached the end of this article: it was really nice to share my story with you and I hope it can be useful to other artists and those who have a fire inside and need it to burn even brighter.
Thanks to TokyoNoise for this interview: it’s always a pleasure to have a space to share one’s experience.
See you next time!
