I have had an exciting profession as a singer-songwriter for more than a decade, as an artist name Rie fu.  People often ask me where this name came from, but it’s an abbreviation of my name Rie Funakoshi.  I write the kind of organic, acoustic music with the lyrics of both English and Japanese, perform on the piano/guitar in intimate acoustic concerts, and occasionally getting more volume with a band. I enjoy engaging with the audience in a relaxed way by being honest in both my songs and performance style.

It’s pretty much down to earth, and I’m definitely not the kind of pop idle you would imagine of the Japanese music scene. To be honest, I was getting a bit fed up with such scene after making my own label in 2012 and venturing out what I can make out of the music market in Japan; I had hit a wall.  Almost every song I heard on the hit charts were idle groups, and clearly I wasn’t a 15-year-old in school girl uniform anymore!

Just when I was facing the frustration in 2014, my husband’s work brought us to Singapore, and it changed the way I play and perceive music ever since.  This hub city of Southeast Asia gave me so many amazing opportunities to perform and meet new people in places I never thought would have any fans of my music.  The experience was new, but somehow felt like I had come back home with the audience creating a warm welcoming mood. 

I began to appreciate my mother tongue even more, as many of the J-pop lovers in Asia spoke beautiful Japanese.  It even changed my way of thinking towards the Japanese music scene. I became to understand how much Japanese music has been influencing people across Asia. I have lived abroad before, when I was studying Fine Art in London UK, but living in Asia was a whole new experience.

In the first week of moving to Singapore, I went to a J-pop music event in which my artist friend from Japan was performing.  As I was leaving the venue, quite coincidently, I had the chance to meet Ms. Ito of the Japan Creative Centre of the Japanese Embassy.  As I was ambitious to explore the cross-cultural activities through music in a new country, JCC was the perfect facility to collaborate with, and in April of 2015, I had the privilege to hold an acoustic concert and a painting exhibition at their wonderful colonial-style gallery site.

I had been creating paintings as well as music over the years, especially landscapes of construction sites, interested in the state of progress in a conventionally static theme such as landscape.  I exhibited new paintings of Singaporean construction sites, titled “Growing Singapore”, representing the country’s growth seen everywhere around town, from HDBs to City Halls.  In a tropical country, all the colors seem to be more vivid under the strong sun.

Living in the East Coast, the most impressive view I encountered was the evening lights of the cargo ships anchored outside the harbor.  Large ships lined up in rows across the horizon, it looked as if there was a land across the sea, all made up by those ships carrying memories and dreams from near and far.

As many local audience turned up at the event to see my paintings and acoustic live, I was amazed at how many people knew about me in Singapore, and realized that it was all thanks to a certain Japanese culture that is now part of the youth culture internationally; ANIME (animation).  I had been singing a few animation theme songs over the years, and one of the songs titled Life is Like a Boat, used for a popular animation Bleach, was known even in Singapore and beyond.
Stories of the Japanese ANIME range from space-age sagas, adventures to magic, swordsmen and ninjas, even the afterlife.  Needless to explain, Bleach is also about spirits haunting the living and the young knights with special powers fighting against them.

In Bleach and other animations, characters all come with eyes almost half the size of the faces, vivid colored hairs and immaculately proportioned bodies. This culture is indeed very unique and a Japanese original, even in the art world.  Coming from an educational background of Fine Art, this is truly spectacular and unprecedented in any other cultures. I respect all the creators of ANIME for such a wild imagination and manifestation, and for capturing many young hearts across the world.

I never realized the impact of this culture until I actually left Japan and found out that the ANIME carries not only the stories and characters, but also the theme songs (played in the opening/ending credits) internationally. Life is Like a Boat was used for the TV series almost ten years ago, but re-runs were still on and thus the familiarity of the song had not aged. Some of the Singaporean audience were still in their teens, telling me that they grew up listen to my songs. In one of the first gigs I had played, there were people in the front row following each track with an iPad, taking notes of the performance and singing along. 

At a Cos-play event I had played, people were waving glowing sticks that I had never seen in my concerts before.  They seemed passionate about Japanese music, and I could feel the heat of their passion (and heat of Singapore humidity) from the stage, watching people having so much fun in their favorite character costumes. 

The record company I was initially working with during my debut had an animation division, having tie-up relations with the labels so that their artists’ singles were used for the animation works, and that was mainly how the songs were promoted.  Initially I was bewildered by the tactic, as it seemed the quality of music itself was deviated when being tied up with animation of another content, but now I see it from a completely opposite angle; having the animation and music as a set actually elevates the experience of listening to the songs, attaching them with stories and memories of how they enjoy the animation itself.  Most profoundly, such unique combination makes Japanese culture interesting altogether.

From the Singapore performances, I had the chance to expand my concerts to many other cites; Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and recently Jakarta.  Indeed, my song, Life is Like a Boat became a boat itself that carried me to all of those places to discover new encounters with fans outside of Japan. 
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A girl in a Naruto cos-play at the event
J-Obsession, @ The Cathay, 2015