Singer, songwriter Maryanne Ito is a single mother of two, and she was serious about her full time insurance career, when her debut album reached #4 on the U.K. Soul Chart. That was 2014. Five years later, HPR’s Noe Tanigawa reports the Hawai‘i-based singer is back from a smash tour of Japan, and ready to release her latest album.
Singer Maryanne Ito started the summer with a Tokyo tour, playing intimate gigs, getting a feel for spaces and audiences there.
“We were in Harajuku so I got to see all the craziness and I got to see some pretty cool fashions that maybe I’ll incorporate into my daily wardrobe!”
Singer Maryanne Ito has her own style---mainly Samoan with a Japanese grandfather way back somewhere, Ito pulls Polynesian and poly-Urban in presentation. Big print skirt, tight t-shirt, hair for miles, with her fingers in a little “V.”
Ito, who writes her own songs, probably should move to L.A. for her music. She tried it last year, with her kids --- and is back.
“Yeah, this is home. I just can’t imagine anywhere else to raise my two kids.”
Ito has however, given up her insurance job, and the daily bus commute. She’s teamed up with local record label, Aloha Got Soul, which has been producing Soul Time in Tokyo events annually since 2016.
Maryanne Ito and Gilbert Bantangan represented Hawai‘i as part of a live DJ set by Roger Bong of Aloha Got Soul and Hideki Yamamoto at Soul Time in Tokyo, May 24 2019. Recorded live at Tokyo Cultuart by Beams, Harajuku. https://alohagotsoul.com/2019/07/24/an-excerpt-from-soul-time-in-tokyo-2019/
Ito’s new album, “Live at the Atherton,” was recorded at HPR’s Atherton Studio by Jason Taglianetti. All are invited to the CD and vinyl release party, set for August 24, 2019 at Work Play in Kaka‘ako.
