Shintaro Sakamoto (born September 9, 1967) is a Japanese musician, singer/songwriter, and producer. He was a founding member and the frontman for the underground Japanese psychedelic rock band Yura Yura Teikoku. After the band's breakup in 2010, Sakamoto began independently producing music, having released four solo albums to date.

Career

Sakamoto formed Yura Yura Teikoku in 1989 with drummer Atsushi Yoshida and bassist Chiyo Kamekawa, two other students at Tama Art University. The band released 21 albums from 1989 to 2010, and produced music with indie labels until 1997, after which they moved on to

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

and DFA Records. After reaching a high point in reputation and popularity in Japan, Yura Yura Teikoku disbanded on March 31, 2010. Sakamoto began working on solo projects almost immediately after Yura Yura Teikoku's breakup, and released his first solo album, ''How to Live with a Phantom'' in 2012. ''How to Live with a Phantom'' was a significant departure from his former rock persona, described as "soft, groovy, mellow" funk and drew him comparisons to

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band U ...

. Sakamoto collaborated with drummer Yuta Suganuma and bassist AyA of Japanese psych-rock band OOIOO, handling much of the instrumental duties, to produce his second LP ''Let's Dance Raw'', which released in 2014. The album blended Sakamoto's work in psychedelic rock and funk with a variety of global influences. Of his use of the

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

on the project, Sakamoto said "Without making it feel too Hawaiian, I wanted to incorporate the damp style of Japanese instruments. I wanted to feel the outskirts of a city".

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

described the steel guitar on "You Can Be A Robot, Too", one of the tracks on ''Let's Dance Raw'', as "vibrant and infectious". The music videos for many tracks on ''Let's Dance Raw'' featured animated water colors painted by Sakamoto himself.

Discography

Solo

* ''How to Live with a Phantom'' (2011) * ''Let's Dance Raw'' (2014) * ''Love if Possible'' (2016) * ''Like a Fable'' (2022)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakamoto, Shintaro 1967 births Living people Psychedelic rock musicians Japanese musicians Japanese rock musicians