J-Pop With Edge
March 23, 2007
If you bumped into Olivia Lufkin on the streets of L.A., she comes off as one of the nicest, politest and shyest girls. You’d never expect this half white, half Japanese singer to jump behind a microphone and bring some pretty solid stage presence and creative vocals in a relatively dark, heavy rock environment. But that’s exactly what Olivia did at Pacific Media Expo 2006 and if you YouTube her, you wouldn’t believe how demure she can be face-to-face.
Olivia was first popularized in a pop Japanese idol group D&D, but she has been going more into the rock and alternative direction ever since she broke away and began her solo work. Growing in popularity again, fueled by her voice-acting and singing work in the anime NANA, Olivia’s new sounds in Olivia inspi’ REIRA (TRAPNEST) (2007) are perfect for anyone who likes their J-rock and J-pop with some dark edges.
Favorite Olivia songs off her new album have got to be “Wish” and “Starless Night,” both songs from the anime NANA. Her music rocks, and her voice hits some high and weird notes. It was no surprise, then, for me to hear Olivia herself name American artist Tori Amos as one of her favorites, because I was raised on that stuff here on U.S. soil myself. Luckily for fans like me, Olivia’s got her sights on the U.S. for her next steps, and she’s expressed that she’s ready to make a solid live performance impact on stages across the country where her father had served as a Marine.
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