SOULHEAD

YOSHIKA and TSUGUMI are two sisters who hail from Hokkaido. With only two years age difference between them, the duo formed a close relationship at an early age. Both girls grew up with music thanks to their parents' influence. Their mother favored classical music while their father listened to traditional Japanese music and YOSHIKA particularly enjoyed her father's choice of music with its emotive lyrics.

The first time that either sister was exposed to hip-hop music was during their high school years. TSUGUMI, while still at junior high school, was introduced to Western artists Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Even to this day, the duo cite these particular artists as their main inspiration alongside other popular hip-hop musicians. This exposure to Western hip-hop fueled TSUGUMI's desire to become a singer because, at that moment in time, she hated her life at school.

When the duo first began their music career in 2001, they were named BATTI BAAS and released a vinyl single, Lovin' You, under Handcuts Records. The single was a cover of the song by Minnie Riperton, which had been a huge success in the United States in 1975. This single was limited to 1000 copies, also featured American artist, Aaron Blackmon .

BATTI BAAS then tried their luck under Tokuma Japan Communications, releasing Inside Out in February 2002. Following this release, the pair changed their name to SOULHEAD and moved to Sony Music Associated Records. Seeing the duo's potential, their new label sent them to Australia and New Zealand in order to improve their proficiency in English; the label wanted them to become firm competition for those groups who did not have the advantage of English in their work.

SOULHEAD made their official debut in August of 2002, with their first 12" vinyl single, STEP TO THE NEW WORLD. As the first release under their belts, the single reached a peak of number twenty-four on the Oricon and charted for seventeen weeks. Their following promotional singles, which led up to the release of their debut album, reached similar chart positions as their debut single. However, with the release of their debut album, Oh My Sister, SOULHEAD gained themselves their first top five position on the Oricon.

The album, which achieved a peak position of number three, stayed in the charts for twenty-two weeks. It is probably worth noting that, although SOULHEAD's albums charted at a relatively high position, their singles fared poorly in comparison. The duo continued to consistently release singles and EPs, with the occasional remix thrown into the equation.

Their second album, which was released nearly a year after their initial album debut, ranked at number four on the Oricon and sold 139,992 copies. 2003 also saw YOSHIKA branching off into the world of music production, producing works for the likes of Sowelu, Crystal Kay and Hirai Ken. Perhaps due to her success as a producer, SOULHEAD became partners with the sound producing team, OCTOPUSSY. This particular sound team is well known for their work with Hirai Ken, Crystal Kay and CHEMISTRY.

The following year saw the duo releasing promotional singles for their upcoming album. SPARKLE☆TRAIN/Got To Leave achieved relative popularity due to its use in commercials for Alpine and Camellia Diamond and their following single gained the duo their highest chart position in a while. Pray/XXX featured the suggestive talent of one of Japan's up-and-coming talents, Koda Kumi. The following month saw the release of SOULHEAD's latest album, Naked, which gained them another top five position on the chart. In order to fully promote the album, the duo embarked on their highly anticipated tour throughout Japan, beginning in May and concluding in July.

December marked the release of SOULHEAD's their first Christmas single, with each sister performing one of the title tracks as a solo number. 2007 was a rather quiet year for the duo, with the release of a single in January and then of their best-of album, Best of SOULHEAD, only a month later. Towards the end on the year, SOULHEAD released their latest live DVD, which celebrated their 5th anniversary and focused on the release of this best-of album.

2008 has, thus far, been another quiet year for SOULHEAD, with the pair concentrating on producing other artists' work. With such determination and strong links to the music industry, we can only hope that SOULHEAD will return with their own original work in the near future.