is a Japanese folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. She plays multiple instruments including guitar, piano, clarinet, accordion, and flute.
Aoba is known for her acoustic sound and songwriting inspired by her dreams, as well as her use of field recordings, largely owed to frequent collaborator ZAK of Fishmans fame.
Aoba was born in Urayasu, Chiba on 28 January 1990. She was raised in Japan's Kyoto Prefecture, at the foot of a mountain, whose natureand particularly its mudslides"instilled" both an "awe" and "fear" of nature. This was inspired by her father, who was a craftsman and involved himself in environmental communities in Kyoto. Her mother, who used to do work for Disney and sing everything from traditional Japanese folk music to modern pop songs, which introduced Aoba to Disney films from a young age. Aoba also watched Studio Ghibli films, particularly Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, which would later inspire much of her sound. Beyond these formal mediums of inspiration, Aoba was also drawn to noticing the sounds of household appliances and items, including those of her red toy piano; on it, she would learn her first song, the opening theme of the Sailor Moon anime series, "Moonlight Densetsu," by ear from the episodes airing on television.
Aoba attended a number of Catholic high schools in Kyoto where she sang in a choir. However, Aoba said she has always "[felt] a sense of inferiority that I [she] cannot sing loud," leading her to drop out of her choir in junior year and join the brass band as a clarinetist, choosing not to practice singing further. Her time outside the home in these schools left her with both painful and positive memories that was "[sometimes so] hard I [she] felt like I [she] was going to die." However, she feels reliving those memories gives her "a toolbox with which to weave a tapestry of music and art."
Aoba began to play classical guitar at the age of 17. During her initial learning, she loved covering the songs of Japanese singer-songwriter and eight-string classical guitarist Anmi Yamada, whom she would later began to call over the phone for lessons. Under his mentorship, Aoba learned to play a range of composed pieces, including those of Django Reinhardt and Taeko Onukithe latter of whom continued to inspired Aoba longer after first learning the pieces. A year later, she moved from Kyoto to Tokyo, partly to continue learning from her first and only mentor, Yamada. Yamada encouraged Aoba to pursue her own songwriting.
In 2010, Aoba, aged 19, released her first album, Razorblade Maiden ().
Around 2012, Aoba was introduced to Gezan frontman Mahito the People by their mutual friend Koji Shimotsu (frontman of Odotte Bakari no Kuni). Aoba and Mahito formed the collaborative duo NUUAMM, which has since released two studio albums: NUUAMM (2014) and w / ave (2017).
0 features a cover of one of her mentor Yamada's songs.
In 2013, Aoba was asked to work for a theatre production of 9 Days Queen, a stage play by playwright Go Aoki. She has also worked with Takahiro Fujita's Mum & Gypsy company in a production of Cocoon, as well as a revival of Lemmings by Shà «ji Terayama, the latter in which Aoba played the role of "The Girl" and performed alongside the late Tengai Amano and Yukichi Matsumoto.
Aoba features on the soundtrack of the 2019 Nintendo Switch remake of . Her arrangement was used to promote the game in Japan.
Aoba has collaborated with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Taylor Deupree, Cornelius, Haruomi Hosono, Mac DeMarco, Sweet William, and Mahito the People.
Qp features a cover of one of her mentor Yamada's songs.
Windswept Adan was released in 2020 under her newly created Hermione label. Windswept Adan was inspired by the Ryukyu island chain and, according to Aoba, the album intended to "[get] an impression of the islands."
In preparation for Luminescent Creatures, Aoba and the team that worked on the album spent most of their time on Hateruma, the southernmost and smallest island of the Ryukyu chain, understandings its tradition and ecosystem.
Luminescent Creatures, which Aoba has described as "closely related" to and "born from" Windswept Adan, is an ode to Hateruma.
Dreams are "the most important thing" to Aoba's artistic inspiration; she says she "dream[s] a lot," which she writes down and draws to remember them. Furthermore, she is in a better state of mind to make music when she is sleepy because being awake makes things seem "real." To help her "[need]" to digest "everything that happens to [her]," Aoba always carries around a notebook and pen.
Aoba creates the "story" of her works before the music itself. She uses doodles as a means of creating imagery for the story, which upon completing mentally, she will "express" through music. Aoba believes that "being stuck is [a very important] part of the process"a struggle which "is part of the joy of making [music]," despite "not always [being] fun." When facing difficulty during this process, Aoba says she finds "the spring of inspiration" at the middle of the chaos, which she has described as "an adventure." She believe much of this process is "a very mono action," adding that it reminds her of the "aloneness that we all have."
Aoba's primary instruments are the guitar and voice, but later expanded to include more orchestral instrumentation. She describes her instruments as her "best friends," preferring "singing to talking." Despite feelings of inferiority, Aoba says that "for as long as I can use my voice, I want to make music."
Aoba founded her own independent record label, Hermine, in 2020. She chose to found it due to "a gap between the music industry and what I [Aoba] want to do."
Despite Aoba attending a Catholic school and her father being involved with Buddhism, Aoba has described herself as "not subcrib[ing] to a certain religion."
Aoba supports her music being used on and shared across social media platforms, but reserves that its use in advertising "needs more moderating."