OTO MAYUMI’s first album, 灰、良い影 (Hai, Iie; Good and Bad Shades), carries a memory of Japanese rock that she never tried to hide. YUKI, JUDY AND MARY, 椎名林檎 (Ringo Sheena) and 東京事変 (Tokyo Incidents) surfaced naturally when the Rome-based Italian-Japanese singer-songwriter spoke with J-POP streaming in early 2024. They explained something already audible in the album: its bright melodies, rock guitars and dramatic turns were built with the 1990s and early 2000s in the room.
Mayumi answered in Italian, with her friend Lavinia interpreting. The conversation moved between the album she had just released, the people who helped her make it and a musical identity formed at some distance from the Japanese industry. The geography was unusual. The reference points were remarkably clear.
The record begins where the covers end
Mayumi began developing her solo career around 2021 and 2022, after collaborations with independent artists including the Italian group Tafka. Before her own catalogue took shape, she was already singing Japanese songs on YouTube. Those covers remained exclusive to the channel. Her debut album was reserved for original material.
Released on December 1, 2023, Good and Bad Shades brought together ten tracks written by Mayumi. J-POP streaming had first encountered her music the previous May and added one of her songs to its playlist. What caught the ear was the finish. This did not have the muffled drums, brittle guitars or detached vocal that can make a promising independent recording feel like a rehearsal for the real thing. The songs already sounded settled in their own world.
Mayumi placed much of the credit with codadilupo of Tafka, her principal producer and guitarist. Their connection was personal as well as musical: he was a friend, and she had been a bridesmaid at his wedding. A drummer also contributed to the project, but the central working unit remained compact.
Technical competence alone was not Mayumi’s criterion. Through Lavinia, she explained that plenty of producers can deliver polished work. Finding someone receptive to her many requests, compatible with her ideas and able to preserve them through production was far rarer. Good and Bad Shades sounds coherent because that discussion happened inside the music rather than after it.
A past that still sounds alive
Mayumi described Vocaloid and anisong as early points of reference, then named the artists who gave her version of J-rock its character: YUKI and JUDY AND MARY, followed by Ringo Sheena and Tokyo Incidents. Her route to JUDY AND MARY ran through るろうに剣心 (Rurouni Kenshin), an anime connection that opened onto a band whose recording career had already ended before Mayumi began releasing original songs.
Asked about newer Japanese artists, she admitted that she found it difficult to fall for them with the same intensity. She preferred an older style. It was an unfashionable answer in the best sense: specific, honest and immediately useful to anyone trying to understand the album.
That taste gives Good and Bad Shades a lineage without trapping it in a period exercise. Mayumi was drawing from the years when Japanese pop and rock could place a sharp guitar beside an oversized melody without apologising for either. Her other Western reference was Måneskin, a much more recent Italian rock success. The two references resist any tidy “Italian-Japanese fusion” label. One concerns lineage; the other proves that theatrical rock can still travel.
The album also gave her room to use parts of her voice that a straightforward pop-rock track might leave untouched. During the interview, Mayumi chose ぜんぶ (Zenbu) as the song she was proudest of. J-POP streaming’s own favourite was ラベンダー (Lavender), whose striking opening drew on her classical vocal training. The exchange exposed the useful tension in her work: she could aim for the immediate pull of J-rock while keeping techniques and instincts gathered elsewhere.
What listeners reach — and what they miss
The response to Good and Bad Shades had already taught Mayumi something less romantic about releasing an album in the streaming era. The opening track received the clearest reactions. Songs placed later in the sequence were harder to read because fewer listeners appeared to reach them. Reviews that considered the complete record reassured her that the album worked as a whole, but the gap remained.
That observation matters for an artist who had made ten songs to be heard together. Streaming can carry an independent release across borders with extraordinary speed; it can also reduce an album to its first successful encounter.
Mayumi was encouraged by reactions from South America and Taiwan, as well as Germany and Poland. Japan produced a different kind of signal. She could see saves and activity around the songs, yet received less direct interaction than in other territories. She presented this as her reading of the available response, not a verdict on the Japanese public. The listeners were there. They were simply harder to hear.
At the time of the interview, Mayumi hoped to perform the album in Japan and had already begun choosing songs for another release. Only the format — EP or second album — remained open.
The answer arrived in stages. The six-track acoustic EP NæKid followed on October 15, 2024. Her second album, ON Collection, was released on January 8, 2026.
Watch the original interview:
https://youtu.be/6EtD8wIjILc
Artist links:
https://linktr.ee/otomayumi
