J-rock Belgium: J-Pop Corner: OLIVIA

OLIVIA, born Olivia Lufkin, is a bilingual singer-songwriter. Not only is she fluent in both Japanese and English, but she's also an amazing singer, DJ, composer and model. Fans describe her voice as something beautiful and full of ethereal grace. Similar artists are her sister Caroline and Mika Nakashima (中島美嘉).

This multi-talented person was born on December 9, 1979 in Okinawa. She was born into a musical family and is the oldest of 3 children. Her sister Caroline is a US indies electronic artist while Jeffrey, her brother, is in a band. The Lufkin family moved back and forth from Japan to America because OLIVIA's father was a US Marine at the time. Despite all the disruptions, OLIVIA did quite well academically. She even found the time to take piano, guitar and vocal lessons. Drawing and art was also something she excelled in. Throughout her schooling years she won awards for her art. As you can read, OLIVIA was a hard worker and her talent only grew during her freshman and sophomore years. Due to her skill she was chosen for a special jazz singing group in her school.

On top of her regular school, OLIVIA also attended the “Okinawa Actors School” like Daichi Miura, Namie Amuro and many others. It was this school who gave her the chance to perform before a large audience, and in 1996 she was scouted by the bosses of “Rising Productions”. OLIVIA was asked to become a member of the new eurobeat dance-unit “D&D” (Dance & Dream) alongside two other girls, Aya Uehara and Chikano Higa. She accepted and D&D released their first single “In Your Eyes” on August 21, 1996.

D&D released 5 singles between 1996 and 1998, and all of those singles were used in TV commercials. The releases had little success though. The highest ranking single reached the #25 spot on the Oricon charts. On the other hand, D&D's debut album “Love is a Melody ~D&D Memorial 1st~” claimed the #5 spot on the charts. OLIVIA's breakthrough came when famous producer Tetsuya Komuro and French composer Jean-Michel Jarre were working together on the theme song for the “1998 FIFA World Cup”. Tetsuya Komuro had heard of OLIVIA and thought she would be perfect for this project. He felt that she had the right type of voice, which he described as “angelic with a rock sound”.

After the release of D&D's first and only album, it was announced that the group would disband. OLIVIA would start her solo project, with her brother Jeffrey as support guitarist, while the other 2 members continued under the name “Aya & Chika from D&D”. OLIVIA's fans were so accustomed to hear her sing pop tunes that they were surprised when her first solo single “I.L.Y. ~yokubou~” was released on February 2, 1999. The single featured powerful rock vocals and sound. It left the fans wanting for more, but the single only reached #32 on the Oricon charts.

OLIVIA was unhappy with lack of control over her own career. She wrote her own lyrics in Japanese and English and did the arrangements for her third single, “Dear Angel”. She commented that the song was written in “slightly sad days” and that she was trying to “create a more complicated sound”. From this moment on, all of OLIVIA's songs would be composed and written by her.

OLIVIA made a lot of appearances on popular music TV shows like “Heyx3”, “Utaban”,“Popjam” and “Music Station”. She was also featured in magazines and cosmetic commercials. After single “Color of Your Spoon” went on sale on October 4, 2000, OLIVIA started as a DJ on Tokyo's InterFm.'s "H.I.S. World Trax" which was broadcasted every Friday. A little later she held her very first live concert on October 16, 2000, at “Osaka Muse”. Her debut album, “Synchronicity”, was finally released on December 6, 2000. OLIVIA said that there wasn't a real concept to the album. Each track had a different sound, varying from ethereal music to jazz. “Synchronicity” peaked at #20.

After a year long hiatus, OLIVIA took more control of her career. The single “Sea Me” went on sale on December 12, 2001. From this point on new releases would be increasingly rare and sporadic. The next single “Into the Stars” should've been released in July 2002 and an album should have followed near the end of the year, but the plans had changed. The single wouldn't be released until September and the album release was similarly delayed.

In 2003 the mini-albums “Internal Bleeding Strawberry”, “MERRY & HELL GO ROUND”, “Comatose Bunny Butcher” and “The Return of the Chlorophyll Bunny” were released. The albums were entirely in English and the last 3 featured OLIVIA's brother. He helped out with lyrics, composition, instruments and background vocals. The 4 mini-albums were followed up by OLIVIA's second album, “The Lost Lolli”, on February 18, 2004. The album peaked at #121 on the Oricon charts.

After the album release, OLIVIA slipped back into hiatus for about 2 and a half years, with the exception of a few concerts. One of those exceptions was HYDE's “HALLOWEEN OF THE LIVING DEAD” concert in October 2005. There wasn't a lot of news about OLIVIA except for the fact that she was now modeling for a fashion magazine. It was only later that she told the reason behind her hiatus. She had been feeling depressed and started to notice a lot of her flaws. In order to stabilize herself again she went to live in Los Angeles for 3 months. Later she would return to Tokyo and reorganized her life.

In early March 2006 it was announced that OLIVIA would once again release music. She joined Anna Tsuchiya to perform for the anime adaption of “Nana”. OLIVIA was casted as the singing voice for Reira Serizawa. The music she made for “Nana” was released under the name “ OLIVIA inspi' REIRA (TRAPNEST)”. Later that year, in October, she flew to the US and made her American debut at a Californian anime convention called “Pacific Media Expo”.

In January 2007, OLIVIA released an other mini-album called “The Cloudy Dreamer”. Her song “Dream Catcher” was used as the ending theme for the live action drama of “Hell Girl” while “If You Only Knew” was used as the main theme for the Korean drama “The Snow Queen”. On July 6 of that same year, she held a concert in Paris at the popular venue “La Locomotive”. She also made a special guest appearance at “Japan Expo” on July 6 and 7. Later that year OLIVIA collaborated once again with her brother for the song “Bleeding Heart”. The song was produced for the “Vision Factory” compilation album “Flower Festival: Vision Factory Presents”. This spring themed compilation album featured music by artist who had especially written songs to match the theme, the season of flowers. The album was released on March 19, 2008.

On September 17, 2008, OLIVIA's 6^th mini-album, “Trinka Trinka”, went on sale. One of the songs, “Rain”, was used as the second ending theme for the drama series “K-tai Investigator 7”. A live show followed the release of “Trinka Trinka” on October 24, 2008, at “Shibuya Womb”. Around 600 fans attended the show. A couple of months later, on December 30, OLIVIA participated in a duo showcase with INORAN. During the show OLIVIA covered a few of INORAN's songs like “Owl's Tear” and “Monsoon Baby”. They also talked about their collaboration single “Sailing Free”. The single was released on April 15, 2009, and used as the theme song for the game “Sengoku Basara Battle Heroes”.

In September 2010 OLIVIA attended the “Connichi Anime Convention” in Germany. One month later, on October 13, a greatest hits album was released. Around this time there were rumors that OLIVIA would retire from the music scene. OLIVIA herself commented that this was not true and that there would be new material in the following year.

OLIVIA's latest appearance was at the Swedish anime and manga convention “UppCon” in 2011. There hasn't been any recent news about OLIVIA but it was said that she was working on new music.