Bokunojpop.com

 Born and raised in Okinawa in 1977, Satoko Makishi was handed the nickname ‘Cocko’ by her sister. Using it as a stage name, she took to the States, performing at minor music festivals and it wasn’t long before music producers picked up on her distinctive approach to music. Signed to Speedstar Records, she released her self-titled debut indie EP, and not soon after, the song ‘Sing a Song ~No Music No Life~’, was chosen by Tower Records to spearhead their new promotional campaign, and subsequently became their company slogan. After this, the nation was all open ears to this fresh young artist.

 By the time her second album, ‘Kumuiuta’ was released, despite more strong sales, there were already hints of retirement. She had always thought that for her singing was a way of purifiying her soul, throwing out all the darkness and chaos in her heart before it enshrouds her. Making music was the most painful thing for her but one that she thought she had to do to cleanse her spirit. However, to pour her anger and pains into songs was one thing but it was getting frequently more frustrating for her to get the same expressive emotions as passionately and as real from her fellow band members.

 And unlike most of the other artists around, there was no delusional façade surrounding her appearance, the little of what people saw of her, for once wasn’t any kind of image or manufaction. This kind of pure nakedness was clear to see in her emotive and encapsulating songs, but because of her introvert and aprehensive nature, she rarely wanted to do any publicity work. It was because of this reclusive behaviour and her naturally sensitive character that she loathed things like TV appearences, photo shoots and interviews. Whenever she appeared on music shows, her insecurities about herself and her appearance would put her on the point of tears throughout, stuttering and nervously stumbling through questions, scared of the thousands watching. But it was these kind of real emotions which drew more and more fans towards her.

  Her third album release came two years later with ‘Rapunzel’. An album that followed on with her raw emotive style, saw more outbursts of beautiful pain and hurting passion injected into the songs, and the album went straight to no.1 in the Oricon charts. Through this release, Cocco was finally able to get her musicians to express her powerful but very real feelings, and she was a lot happier with her career. However, despite her objections, she was forced to appear on more TV shows by the demanding and unpermissive music industry, and it was this industry that made her not only feel an outsider in Tokyo but from her time away, she felt that she had lost her Okinawa home. The increasing amount of pressure she felt from the media and her legion of dedicated fans was to also contribute to her future decision.

 One year later saw the release of her forth album, but not before she finally announced her retirement from the industry, much to the disappointment of her thousands of dedicated loyal fans. The success of ‘Sangurozu’ and the subsequent singles had built too much pressure on her, and for someone who has always heavily shied away from attention, it was all too much. After wanting to leave the limelight for years, she was to finally return to her home in Okinawa.

 Despite officially retiring, the following proceeding years were far from quiet for Cocco. Only a year after she returned to her hometown, she illustrated and published her first art book, and a second was to follow two years later. Much the nature lover, she organised a charity concert to raise awareness of the ever mounting pollution problems surrounding Okinawa’s beaches. This concert was to produce her first new song since retiring, a song titled ‘Heaven’s Hell’, accompanied by a choir of hundreds of recruited school children. A documentary on the project was released later that year.

 In 2004, only three years after her retirement, she was to make a minor return into the industry, creating the super band Singer Songer with Kishida Shigeru and Satou Masashi from rock band Kururi, along with Cornelius support keyboardist Hirohisa Horie and former FEED drummer Dai Tarou. The album that soon followed was distinctily different from Cocco’s previous works. A lot happier melodies and a more relaxing and calmer sound, the band had a far more summer breeze quality to them. After the long wait to hear more Cocco, out comes this release with no more pain or tension, with a far lighter and almost sedated feel. A release that almost feels like Cocco was drugged up from head to toe throughout the recording, just because it feels that much more different then her previous work.

 Last year finally saw the full-fledged return of Cocco. After years of waiting and hoping by fans that she would someday make her return to music, they got their wish with February’s release of the high energy dosed ‘Onsoku Punch’, a high tempo killer rocky dance track. The single marked a huge comeback for Cocco, but more significantly, with the release of her latest album ‘Zansaian’ in the summer, it showed a far more peaceful Cocco, a Cocco with less angst and less sorrow, and it was clear to tell that in her songs. Even her harder edged numbers felt more like a reminiscence to her past library rather than the pain filled songs that Cocco fans loved so much. From the jazzy ‘Swinging Night’ to the pounding echoes of the taiko drums in ‘Hi no Terinagara Ame no Furu’, the whole album is significantly more harmonious. Which is far from a bad thing, even though it was the dark emotional honesty that was loved so much in her songs, for her to release an album like this, so contrasting against her previous work, shows that she’s much more at peace. She even did a cute little performance on Music Station.

 Whatever the future holds for Cocco, and whatever she decides to do in the future, I hope that she stays in the music industry but only on her own terms, because it would be a great loss to lose such a charmingly unique artist.