Biography

Hitomi Yaida (矢井田瞳, born July 28, 1978), also known by the nickname Yaiko, is a Japanese folk rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. She plays a kind of quirky vocal-centric rock akin to Rebecca, NOKKO or 椎名林檎. Yaida, who refers to her music as “Heart Rock”, is also able to play most of the instruments she composes for, and after a stint on the indie scene where she had a hit titled Howling off a demo tape in 1999, she made her major debut in 2000, on the Aozora Records label, with a re-release of Howling, followed by B’coz I Love You and my sweet darlin’. Her first album, daiya-monde, which was released in October 2000. That album ranked high on the Oricon charts, earning her quick success in Japan. At the same time, she has also found some success in the UK under the name YAIKO. An album called U.K. COMPLETION was released there in early 2002.

Her next albums, Candlize and i/flancy were released in October of 2001 and 2002 respectively, and were as big, if not bigger than her debut album. Her 4th studio album was released in October 2003. It appears October is her favorite month. A singles compilation was released in July 2004 and a best-of album called Yaiko’s selection was released in December 2004. Her 5th studio album entitled Here today-gone tomorrow, the first of original material in nearly two years, was released on August 15, 2005. Her latest release was the album colorhythm (2008.03.05).