Haruna Kimishima knew her music had found an audience overseas when her Twitter DMs began to fill up with English.
¡°Japanese fans tend to not react to me directly, especially when compared to foreign listeners,¡± says the 23-year-old artist, who records as Haru Nemuri. ¡°They listen and, if they think it was good, they message me directly. I¡¯ve had a lot of those this year.¡±
Kimishima¡¯s tracks are grounded in rock but often incorporate elements of hip-hop and electronic music, and her vocal delivery moves from delicate spoken word to primal screams. In a year where the West hasn¡¯t paid much attention to Japanese music in general, it has been that formula ¡ª which she deployed brilliantly on her April full-length debut ¡°Haru to Shura¡± (the title is a nod to a collection of poems by Kenji Miyazawa titled ¡°Spring and Asura¡°) ¡ª that has gotten her noticed.
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