Jazz artist Emi Meyer had plenty to be happy about in 2008. She had just self-released her debut album "Curious Creature," she was performing shows around Kyoto and major labels in Tokyo were attempting to woo her. The half-American, half-Japanese Meyer, though, says the situation wasn't so sunny.
"It was kind of a struggle, because they were debating whether I should be recording music where I only sing in Japanese or only in English. Whenever they'd come to live shows, they'd say, 'You should try only speaking in English next time!' But I was like, 'Yeah yeah, that's great . . . but release this album I made!'
"They were looking for artists that they could shape, but I'd already made an album and I had an idea of what kind of music I wanted to release."
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