AYA is a female J-Rock artist on the BMG FUNHOUSE label. AYA's latest song, Over Night (2006) is used as the ending theme to the Anime Le Chevalier D'Eon.
Aya was born in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, in a small town with a population of 2000. Most of her childhood was spent doodling while listening to her parents' oldies. Aya received a bolt from the blue in primary school when during a Ventures' concert she heard electric guitars for the first time. In junior high she henceforth devoted herself to hard rock and punk, and joined a girl band right after getting her first electric guitar, doing covers on bands like the Sex Pistols. Bored with school and with few friends, she missed half of the term and dropped out of school at 15. Then she discovered Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind, which introduced her to grunge and would have a huge influence on her own musical career. Leaving home, she wandered around various cities in Hokkaido before ending up in Tokyo. While making a living by singing in bars, she was invited to audition for a band at a pop vocal contest. She won, but her luck ran out when the band's songwriter died just moments before their debut. She considered abandoning her dream of becoming a professional musician, but was pleasantly surprised when she discovered how easily songwriting came to her. She immersed herself in song writing, and the first song she wrote became her debut song, "HANDS".
Making demo tracks took up a great part of her time, but she also managed to sharpen her musical skills by performing on American army bases and on the streets of Shibuya. By the time she signed with BMG Japan, she already had 30 well-crafted songs ready for production. Aya arranged the songs and used an 8-track multi-tape recorder to create all the various effects and harmonies, playing guitar, bass, and drums (machine) herself.
