Music Corner 135: Maika Loubté

Maika Loubté Is a singer-songwriter, music producer, and DJ who currently lives in Tokyo. Spending her childhood and teenage years in Japan, Paris, Hong Kong and After graduating from high school, she discovered vintage analog synthesizers in which started her musical journey. While based on advanced electronic music, she places importance on authenticity of the "songs" themselves, stripped of their textures that is usually found in a majority of electronica songs.

Loubté is consistently exploring both novel and nostalgic music styles. Connecting numerous dots of sound, she creates original yet subconsciously familiar melodies listeners have an emotional connection to. As a multicultural songwriter, producer, and singer, Loubté takes in global influences as she experiments with sound using a number of vintage analog synthesizers in studio and has collaborated with the likes of Ryan Hemsworth and Miho Hatori. As a performer, she captivates fans with her unique vocals while playing a plethora of electronic instruments on stage while relying on her past experiences by singing in Japanese, English and French.

One aspect that sets Loubté apart from her contemporaries is her hauntingly beautiful voice. Her vocal range and controls are simply mesmerizing, evoking a wide range of emotions in her listeners. Whether she sings with delicate vulnerability or unleashes a powerful crescendo, Loubté's voice has an ethereal quality that leaves a lasting impression. Her vocal prowess is best exemplified in tracks like “Nobara” and “System”, where her evocative vocals take center stage, leaving listeners awe-struck.

Another notable aspect of Maika Loubté's music is her keen attention to production and sound design. She seamlessly blends organic instrumentation with electronic elements, creating a sonic landscape that is both familiar and innovative. This fusion of acoustic and electronic elements can be heard in tracks like “Show Me How” and “Ice Age” where Loubté's intricate production elevates her music to a whole new level.

In addition to her solo work, Maika Loubté has collaborated with various artists, further expanding her musical horizons. These collaborations have allowed her to experiment with different styles and genres, showcasing her versatility as an artist. Whether she's collaborating with a hip-hop artist on an upbeat track or lending her vocals to a downtempo electronic composition, wither it be tracks like “Hakumei” from KIRINJI or her latest release (as of this writing) “Blue Bird” from Shin Sakiura, Loubté's ability to adapt and shine in various musical contexts demonstrates her exceptional talent and adaptability.

As of this writing, she has four albums from 2014,16,19 and 21, along with abundant of singles released digitally. Be sure to follow Loubté on her official website, Twitter and Instagram and check out her latest music video “Ice Age” below!

Maika Loubté Remixes Her Dreams With Latest Release!

Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes Jacket Cover

Tokyo based singer, songwriter and producer Maika Loubté will release a remix version of her latest album Lucid Dreaming titled Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes back on June 15, 2022 through her own label Water Records.  Maika enlisted a collection of talented artists and producers from Japan and beyond to reimagine her songs from her last LP.

Participating remixers include Cwondo, Dai Ishio, ermhoi, EXPCTR, Kan Sano, lIlI, LISACHRIS, Primula, Risa Taniguchi, Small Circle of Friends, Sountrive, TiMT, 80KIDZ, Food Matsuri a.k.a foodman, and more. Each of the 14 different unique creators brought their own creativity to freely reconstruct the music. 

Lucid Dreaming means "明晰夢" in Japanese, and is a concept album in which dreams and reality cross over as a single story. Maika describes the remix version of the album as “a deeper dream, where one can enjoy the sensation of falling deeper and deeper into the second and third levels of the dream.”

Since the release of Lucid Dreaming, Maika has been touring throughout Japan with sold out solo shows in Tokyo.  She recently was featured on the track “薄明” (which means Twilight in English) by KIRINJI on his album crepuscular. Currently, Maika is working on new music. Be sure to check out Lucid Dreaming: The Remixes here, along with the music videos for It's So Natural - Food Matsuri a.k.a Foodman Remix below!

Maika Loubté Takes Fans On a Storybook Journey Through Her Dreams and Reality with Latest Music Video!

Lucid Dreaming Jacket Cover

To celebrate the release of her latest album vocalist Maika Loubté has dropped the music video for her track “Zenbu Dreaming” on her YouTube channel. From her remarkable new album Lucid Dreaming that released back on the 20th, Maika artfully narrates a story in which dreams and reality cross over through her blending of pop, dance, and electronic music. The album’s concept comes from Maika Loubté’s own dreams and she combines a mixture of English, Japanese, and French lyrics in her songwriting to depict her experience of being aware of her dreaming. The project, recorded and produced by Maika in her Tokyo home studio, also weaves in instrumental-only tracks showcasing her storytelling ability just through sound.

The cover displays an alien-like creature that appears in the music video for "Spider Dancing," one of the singles released back in May, and is a fantastically creative incarnation of the human soul, shuttling between fantasy and reality.

The album also includes a new album version of "Show Me How," which became a big hit as a commercial song for a new Mazda car campaign in which Maika appears on the TV spot. Lucid Dreaming also contains a couple of collaborations including, "It's So Natural" with fellow singer AAAMYYY who appears as a guest vocalist on the song about a woman’s relationship with a man. Maika also teams up on "System" with the popular Canadian music producer Ryan Hemsworth.  

About the making of Lucid Dreaming, Maika comments: “I tried to make this album a mixture of my conscious and unconscious mind that included the music I can hear in my dreams. At first it was an experiment, but after I finished the album, the experiment became a story I wanted to share. After the year that was 2020, I wondered what our common denominator would be as people, when there is a noticeable social divide. Those people exist as individuals. That there are as many truths as there are people. However, I couldn't find an answer to whether the individual encompasses the world or the world encompasses the individual. During the making of this album, I was confronting my own ideas and emotions and almost gave up on completing it, but thankfully I was able to keep going and I hope you will listen to the whole album as one song.”

During the last couple of years, Maika released a number of singles in the lead up to the release of Lucid Dreaming.  She filmed and premiered several music videos to accompany the tracks, and also appeared in a campaign for clothing brand RVCA that featured her song “Spider Dancing.”  Maika also performed some of the album tracks on virtual live streaming events with US band Psymon Spine and will appear virtually at Taiwan’s 2021 LUCfest.

Be sure to check out “Zenbu Dreaming” below along with the streaming link for Lucid Dreaming here!

Maika Loubté Mixes It Up with Kan Sano for Her Latest Release!

(Photo Courtesy of Water Records)

“Show Me How Remix” Digital Jacket Cover

Tokyo based singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Maika Loubté releases a newly reimagined remix of one of her most popular tracks “Show Me How” from renowned Japanese producer, Kan Sano on September 22, across all digital streaming platforms. This ethereal remix maintains the similar emotion of the original track, while giving it a new life by adding light, youthful, and percussive energy. Kan Sano, a keyboardist, remixer, and producer who has worked with many artists across Japan is one of the most important figures in the country’s music scene today.  

Last October, Loubté released the original version of “Show Me How” to coincide with a national advertising campaign for Mazda’s MAZDA MX-30 new car model that featured the song and Loubté herself in the TV commercial.  With a unique approach through her music, Loubté expresses the challenges and importance of communication which has resonated with audiences throughout Japan and abroad making “Show Me How” a hit amongst her fans and one of her most streamed songs to date.

About the new remix, Loubté comments, “‘Show Me How,’ with its introspective lyrics and analog texture, was remixed by Kan Sano to give it a youthful and hopeful energy.  As the world continues to battle through challenges in 2021, I hope this track can bring everyone around the globe some light and make them want to dance into a new era.” Kan Sano adds “I never thought I would be remixing one of my favorite songs from last year! Since I love Loubté’s song so much, my challenge was not to tamper with the arrangement too much. I can't quite surpass the splendor of the original, but I think I was able to create a different expression of ‘Show Me How.’ With Loubté’s voice being so special, I was reassured that no matter how the song was reworked, her vocals would make the track turn out just fine. Through the remixing process, I realized once again the beauty of the melody and lyrics in her songwriting.”

Loubté also has a new music video which accompanies the remix that was filmed in one take at the Institut français du Japon in Tokyo which is below along with the streaming link for “Show Me How” here!

Maika Loubté Shows Fans the Flower in the Dark with Latest Release!

“Flower In The Dark” Digital Jacket Cover

Singer, songwriter, and producer Maika Loubté continues her string of single releases with the new song "Flower In The Dark '' on Wednesday, August 25, a follow up to the track "It's So Natural" featuring AAAMYYY across all digital music streaming platforms. This is the sixth single from the forthcoming new album Lucid Dreaming which is scheduled to be released October, 20, 2021. After performing some early live versions of the song during live streaming events and becoming a favorite among fans, the studio version will finally be revealed.

 On the heels of the other singles from the album, “Flower In The Dark" is accompanied by a video and artwork that makes you into a dreamlike and beautiful spatial world with the 3D graphics created in collaboration with Saou Tanaka, an inspirational VJ and video artist based in Leipzig, Germany. 

The song features a beautiful melody and silky vocals intertwined with intricate harmonies. It is a comfortable electronica song that makes one feel as if they are lost floating around in a daydream. 

Lyrically, the words and melodies depict a person who has lost an important person and is battling with a variety of emotions. The flower in this song expresses love, grief and respect to the deceased. Sudden partings can leave the still living feeling lonely, sad, unfulfilled, and regretful. However, it is not only the bereaved who have these feelings but also the departed who may feel the same way, even though they cannot be seen.

On the song, Maika comments: "A lot of encounters and events that happened a few years ago led me to write this song. It's hard to say where people go after they die. But I feel like I can find hope by strongly believing that we are really together, even if we can't see each other." 

Be sure to check out the lyric video for “Flower In The Dark” below, along with the digital streaming link for the track here!