Passion for Soul

• Share

Friday, Apr. 13, 2001 Ken Hirai has a face that you don't easily forget: closely shorn, carefully styled locks tinted a muted shade of gold, coffee-colored flawless skin and a bone structure more suited to a Roman god than to a mere mortal. It's easy to see why this exotic mix can take center-stage over the singing talents of this relative newcomer to the music scene.

Although his unconventional looks are now a boon -- making him all the more recognizable as "that singer" – it wasn't always easy for 29-year-old Hirai. "When I was a teenager, I really wanted to change my face," Hirai, whose ancestry is Japanese, explains. "I wanted a very flat, very typical Japanese or Asian face. It's only recently I got to like and accept my face -- it's me, so I have to love it."

In Hong Kong recently to promote his latest album "The Changing Same", Hirai's gift lies beyond the pretty packaging -- he's a soul singer who has been influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. The easy riffs and smooth segues from the low notes to the high ones show that he's got skill.

"I'm pure Japanese -- I'm not from America or Africa -- so I don't have any blood in the music," Hirai explains. "But when I first listened to soul music, I found something that put me in the mood for dancing. I got this feeling: that this was the music I had been searching for." He add that he is most inspired when he is in a melancholic or lonely state.

With its laid-back grooves, "The Changing Same" is the type of album you play as you take a long drive in your convertible -- the top down, your head back, and your shades on. Mellow is probably the most apt way to describe his music: think the smooth sounds of Baby Face combined with the quiet confidence of Eric Benét.

In fact, his passion for reaching the heights of soul has taken him to Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater in New York -- the litmus test for many R. and B. and soul singers (new or aspiring) as they peddle their musical wares in front of a less-than-forgiving crowd. In Hirai's case, it was two thumbs up.

Because of his unfamiliarity with the English language -- his plans to record an all-English album are in the embryonic stages -- Hirai comes across as a shy 18- year-old boy rather than the man that he is. But when he starts to talk about his passion for soul, the metamorphosis is amazing: suddenly language barriers fall to the wayside as he gesticulates dramatically and speaks with conviction about not resting on his laurels. "I like soul music, but I am Japanese too," he says. "I have to make my music original, truer to myself. Of course I want to sing well, but the most important thing is to play with my voice and to cherish the feeling that I want to express -- the feeling that I want to tell to the listener."

In the track "K.O.L.," Hirai sings: "Keep on keeping on." And you're left with the certainty that that is one thing this Japanese soul singer is doubtless meant to do.