When she stepped on the Do Lab stage Sunday, April 20, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Shima, a former Japanese pop-star turned DJ, fulfilled a promise she made to herself years ago.
“This is my first time ever going to Coachella. I’ve never been to Coachella. I told myself when I first moved to L.A. six years ago that the first time I’d go to Coachella was when I played there. I won’t go unless I play there and it’s finally happening,” said the Tokyo-born artist.
Her debut at Coachella was an hour-long performance filled with her genre-mixing electronica music that included trap, hip-hop, house and techno music as well as Latin and Asian beats. Like her mixed background, it covered global sounds that had the early crowd dancing at the beginning of the day.
“It’s definitely experimental electronic music. With my upbringing in Japan I try to incorporate elements of traditional Japanese music, like I sample a lot of traditional Japanese instruments or folks songs and I try to create a sound that feels exotic but familiar at the same time,” she said.
This sound was resonating with people at Do Lab.
“I loved it. It was trans-like and super chill but still made me really want to dance. I’m going to follow her,” said Pasadena resident Sienna Garcia, who had never heard of Shima before catching her set.
While she may not be a household name at Coachella, Shima has long been in the music industry.
She started her career at the age of 14 when she was signed to a Japanese label and became part of the J-Pop group FAKY. But the manufactured group wasn’t exactly what she was looking for,
“I was listening to all kinds of stuff but I actually didn’t like J-pop at all. I was listening to Beyoncé , Björk, Christina Aguilera and really indie electronic stuff like Crystal Castles and Nicolas Jaar, and I also had my Nirvana phase,” she said.
With no creative control in the J-Pop group she decided to go solo and perform on her own terms, which led her to producing and performing as a DJ to her dream gig at Coachella’s Do Lab stage.
“I feel insanely stoked that that’s the stage I get to play,” she said.