Tamao Kubota, the founder and lead singer of Apple Beat, has a powerful, slightly husky voice and carries herself with an attractive air of unself-conscious defiance. She sounds as good belting it out like an impassioned R & B singer as she does slow, quiet and personal.

She works hard at her craft but isn't famous, and she lives with the knowledge that one day her voice could go and that would end her life as she knows it. "Sometimes I lose confidence as a singer, but then some of my friends or my audience encourages me," Kubota says over a drink and a few cigarettes. "The important thing for me is to sing for someone."

In addition to Kubota, Apple Beat features Saori Sendou on percussion, Tetsuzo Kawai on bass and Kanji Iishi on acoustic guitar. At a recent gig at Chad in Ikejiri, they revealed their sound as folksy, welcoming and tinged with Latin rhythms and grooving Motown bass lines. Sendou in particular expanded the band's sound with her impeccable accents on an arsenal of rhythm devices. As a unit, the band breathes behind Kubota's singing, empathetically rising and falling with the impressive arc of her voice.