Born in Hiroshima, Japan.
Moved around once in every few years due to his father's job.
Second son among 4 siblings. (An older brother, younger brother and a younger sister)
Grew up in musical environment surrounded by drum set, piano trumpet, guitar, etc., as alternative toys.
He became interested in the violin and he showed the potential of a musical genus at such early age to his parents, however, his older brother started learning the violin at the same time and as one may predict, his older brother progressed much quicker since he was older and he disliked being inferior, so he eventually lost interest and quit after 8 months.
The violin experience only proved his lack of patience like an ordinary child.
His father has always played jazz piano and one day out of the blue he decided that he wanted to study jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston and quit his company where he worked for over 20 years, sold the apartment that the family was living in and the entire family of 6 migrated to Boston. Kaoru was 15 years old and had just entered high school.
Kaoru's father had become a music student and naturally the Tagawa family had no income. Life slightly above the poverty line had begun in the US.
He spent his high school years and college years in US. He never had any money, so he played his guitar and piano to kill time as playing music does not cost any money. He started writing songs around this time and also started writing lyrics to match the music. Graduated from University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Recipient of B.A., major in Communication + minor in Psychology)
Everyone around him had asked the same question during college, which was "Which country do you want to live in? Japan or US?" He wanted to see other countries before deciding where to settle, and with that reason in hand, he traveled all over US, Europe, Israel, etc with his guitar and his backpack. He was seriously considering moving to another country if it feels right. It was during this time that he took greyhound bus from Arizona to New York City; the journey took 4 days.
While he was bumming around in Europe, his wallet was stolen in Dublin, Ireland. He managed to get to his friend's place in Denmark, where he had to kill about 2 weeks without his I.D., credit card and cash. Since he had nothing better to do, he started writing stories to pass time at his friend's place. This is when he started writing stories.
He came back to Japan fantasizing the life some manga authors had at Tokiwa-So in Tokyo back in 70s. "I'm gonna be a writer", he said to his friends and moved his location to Tokyo. He found a small room (4 and 1/2 tatami mat) at a guesthouse in Ebisu and he began his poor life as he had hoped in Tokyo, except poverty level had exceeded his expectations in every way.
He met this drunken old man at a capsule hotel in Shibuya where he was staying while he was looking for a room in the first week in Tokyo and this drunken old man had introduced Kaoru to Mr. Hikaru "Flash" Kanematsu, music producer in Japan. Mr. Kanematsu quickly recognized his talent and Kaoru started working as a lyricist under him. His first major record release was a song called "Before Rain Stops -BRS" sung by chorus group named April led by a famous singer Junko Yamamoto (ex- Hi-Fi Set). It was released in May, 2003. He also has written number of songs for video game series True Love Story as well as Kimi-Kiss, produced by Ichiro Sugiyama.
He started his career as a solo artist around 2003. Performed his first one-man show in 2005 at Yebisu Switch.
He also experienced various jobs from consulting firm, investment banks, radio DJ, bartender to reception at some gentlemen's club and such. He settled for a job at Yebisu Garden Place since the location was near from his apartment for a few years, however, commuting was too much pain and he begun working as a translator at India-based IT company because it allowed him to work from home. He is a very quick worker since he does not fancy working.
However, he is generally reviewed as an excellent translator and he has worked with well established copywriters such as Sho Akiyama, Hiroshi Ichikura and such. He is currently one of the main translator of blog media site "lifehacker.jp."
He started his new project called "24 Hours Project" in October 2009 and actively making videos for this project.
He is currently working as a freelance lyricist, a singer songwriter and a translator.
Moved around once in every few years due to his father's job.
Second son among 4 siblings. (An older brother, younger brother and a younger sister)
Grew up in musical environment surrounded by drum set, piano trumpet, guitar, etc., as alternative toys.
He became interested in the violin and he showed the potential of a musical genus at such early age to his parents, however, his older brother started learning the violin at the same time and as one may predict, his older brother progressed much quicker since he was older and he disliked being inferior, so he eventually lost interest and quit after 8 months.
The violin experience only proved his lack of patience like an ordinary child.
His father has always played jazz piano and one day out of the blue he decided that he wanted to study jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston and quit his company where he worked for over 20 years, sold the apartment that the family was living in and the entire family of 6 migrated to Boston. Kaoru was 15 years old and had just entered high school.
Kaoru's father had become a music student and naturally the Tagawa family had no income. Life slightly above the poverty line had begun in the US.
He spent his high school years and college years in US. He never had any money, so he played his guitar and piano to kill time as playing music does not cost any money. He started writing songs around this time and also started writing lyrics to match the music. Graduated from University of Massachusetts at Amherst (Recipient of B.A., major in Communication + minor in Psychology)
Everyone around him had asked the same question during college, which was "Which country do you want to live in? Japan or US?" He wanted to see other countries before deciding where to settle, and with that reason in hand, he traveled all over US, Europe, Israel, etc with his guitar and his backpack. He was seriously considering moving to another country if it feels right. It was during this time that he took greyhound bus from Arizona to New York City; the journey took 4 days.
While he was bumming around in Europe, his wallet was stolen in Dublin, Ireland. He managed to get to his friend's place in Denmark, where he had to kill about 2 weeks without his I.D., credit card and cash. Since he had nothing better to do, he started writing stories to pass time at his friend's place. This is when he started writing stories.
He came back to Japan fantasizing the life some manga authors had at Tokiwa-So in Tokyo back in 70s. "I'm gonna be a writer", he said to his friends and moved his location to Tokyo. He found a small room (4 and 1/2 tatami mat) at a guesthouse in Ebisu and he began his poor life as he had hoped in Tokyo, except poverty level had exceeded his expectations in every way.
He met this drunken old man at a capsule hotel in Shibuya where he was staying while he was looking for a room in the first week in Tokyo and this drunken old man had introduced Kaoru to Mr. Hikaru "Flash" Kanematsu, music producer in Japan. Mr. Kanematsu quickly recognized his talent and Kaoru started working as a lyricist under him. His first major record release was a song called "Before Rain Stops -BRS" sung by chorus group named April led by a famous singer Junko Yamamoto (ex- Hi-Fi Set). It was released in May, 2003. He also has written number of songs for video game series True Love Story as well as Kimi-Kiss, produced by Ichiro Sugiyama.
He started his career as a solo artist around 2003. Performed his first one-man show in 2005 at Yebisu Switch.
He also experienced various jobs from consulting firm, investment banks, radio DJ, bartender to reception at some gentlemen's club and such. He settled for a job at Yebisu Garden Place since the location was near from his apartment for a few years, however, commuting was too much pain and he begun working as a translator at India-based IT company because it allowed him to work from home. He is a very quick worker since he does not fancy working.
However, he is generally reviewed as an excellent translator and he has worked with well established copywriters such as Sho Akiyama, Hiroshi Ichikura and such. He is currently one of the main translator of blog media site "lifehacker.jp."
He started his new project called "24 Hours Project" in October 2009 and actively making videos for this project.
He is currently working as a freelance lyricist, a singer songwriter and a translator.
