For former J-Pop girl group singer turned solo electronica producer/DJ Shima, the first beat she ever made was in high school, on GarageBand.
"There wasn’t necessarily a clear moment at which it became serious, but after college during the pandemic was when I quit my day job to do music full-time, she says. "DJing is something I picked up way later as a means to perform my original music."
The artist describes her sound as "experimental global electronica. It’s like if Flume or Odesza incorporated world music instruments and traditional Japanese folk music inspirations."
Shima's latest release is Welcome To SHIMAJIMA
"Welcome to SHIMAJIMA was created over the span of about two years, and it’s the first project I ever made in my life where I fully allowed myself to create whatever I want and follow my true instincts as an artist, as opposed to being told what to make by a label or manager," she says. "I started off my music career as a J-pop singer, at age 14, before I ever started producing, where every single aspect of my life was controlled. I wouldn’t even call what I was doing an “artist”, since I wasn’t actually making any of the art or allowed to express my own creativity in any way. I was conditioned to be an obedient performer, and it took a very long time to undo all of those years of suppression to find my own voice again. This album is the first project I’ve ever released that I can truly call my own."
As for gear: "My setup is extremely simple. I have my laptop, Ableton, the UAD Arrow interface, a Neumann TLM 103 microphone for recording vocals, and that’s basically it. I have my Ableton Push 3 but I use it more for performing than producing. I also have a pair of Yamaha HS8 studio monitors, but I honestly got so used to producing on my headphones since I started traveling and touring that I’m almost exclusively working on headphones now. Actually, since I made the switch to headphones, my mixes have become a lot cleaner, since my home studio doesn’t have good acoustics."
Looking ahead, Shima has plenty planned for the coming months. "I have a few more tour dates in October and then I’m done touring for the rest of the year," she says. "Then I’ll have just released my first album and finished my first tour, so I’m really looking forward to just hunkering down and producing a ton again over the winter when industry activity slows down."
Shima's Welcome to SHIMAJIMA is out now.
