Aki Shibahara

Aki Shibahara born August 19, 1973 in Osaka, Japan is a musician. She is best known as being the bassist for The Warm Jets.

Biography

Early years

Shibahara was brought up in Shikoku, Southern Island of Japan.

After graduating high school, she moved to London to study music in 1992.Her music career began at age 18, when she played in an all-girl hard-rock band named Mustang Sally, who were fast making a name for themselves on the London gig circuit.

Numerous more gigs with Mustang Sally followed, but she began to grow frustrated with the band's lack of progress and ambition. The bassist auditioned for Rock Goddess, a South London metal band signed to major label A&M who had enjoyed considerable critical acclaim and press attention in the mid-'80s, and was accepted into the band. However, while a good learning experience for the young bassist, Rock Goddess were slowly falling apart and she soon found herself with itchy feet once more.

Still on the lookout for a band who could fulfill her ambitions, she bided her time and improved her playing skills with studio session work. At the same time she worked with London indie band Night Nurse (later to feature current Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley and Curve/Echobelly guitarist Debbie Smith), a new band formed by ex-Neds Atomic Dustbin members Jon Penney and Rat and another project involving ex-Wonder Stuff guitarist Malcolm Treece and ex-Eat frontman Ange Dolittle before hooking up with a promising young band called Limousine, managed by comedian Ricky Gervais. Again though, Limousine failed to catch record company bosses' eyes and she returned to session work.

Warm Jets

Having carved out a reputation as a reliable studio professional, she was then contacted by a drummer who asked if she was interested in trying out for a new band fronted by Natalie Imbruglia, formerly a leading actress in Australian soap opera 'Neighbours'. She couldn't commit to the band at the time, but a few months later Imbruglia's publisher passed her name on to London-based indie band Warm Jets who had recently parted from their bass player and were seeking a replacement.

Signed to Island Records, Warm Jets had just released their debut album 'Future Signs' and were being touted as one of the finest bands to emerge in Britpop's second wave. When she met up with the trio - vocalist/guitarist Louis Jones, guitarist Paul Noble and drummer Ed Grimshaw - they'd just been selected as the support band on Teenage Fanclub's UK tour. It seemed like Shibahara's best opportunity to date.

Life with Warm Jets was exciting for the young bassist. Almost immediately after the Teenage Fanclub tour, the band toured the UK's arenas with the hottest band in the country, Blur, and journalists reviewing the shows were struck by the extra energy instilled in the support band by their new bass player.Things seemed to be going well for the band. They were selected as one of the country's brightest young prospects to tour with Stereophonics and Asian Dub Foundation on the NME Brat Bus tour, and when the band played their own headlining show at London's Electric Ballroom, Shibahara's face was printed on the cover of London's Evening Standard newspaper as the gig was selected as one of the cultural highlights of the week. It looked like the little Japanese girl who used to spend her days listening to international rock acts had truly arrived.

Unfortunately Warm Jets promising career was to be derailed due to a number of factors beyond Shibahara's control, and although the bass player joined the band at prestigious European festival shows in the summer of 1998, she started to become disillusioned by what she perceived as apathy on behalf of some of her colleagues. She quit the band and briefly considered abandoning music, but the realisation that now she had the ability, drive and contacts to succeed on her own terms made her re-consider and start laying foundations for her own project with Paul Noble.

Also she did some session works included:
* Hitomi Yaida
* Sandstone Veterans
* MC Harvey
* Papa Garcia

Personal life

Aki is currently spending most of her time in Tokyo.

External links

* [http://www.web-aki.com Aki Shibahara HP]