Living as a Real Life “Hannah Montana” – An Interview with Virtual Singer KAF
by Richard Eisenbeis,
As a child, KAF loved singing. “I'd often find myself singing and dancing along to AKB48 in the living room as a kid. Later on, I'd come to discover the world of Vocaloid music, as well as the "Utattemita" [cover song] culture that was bubbling up at the time—I found myself falling deeper in love with these worlds and finding artists in that community to look up to. That's what got me into singing.”
Of course, going from amateur to professional is easier said than done. Her road to stardom all started with a karaoke app that allows people to share videos of themselves singing popular songs. The app held an audition to find new musical talent—and KAF decided to throw her hat in the ring. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. “When I applied, I made a mistake that prevented me from joining the audition,” KAF explained. “But thinking that I had done everything properly, I tagged my videos with the audition tag—and from that tag my producer found me.” There was interest from both sides for KAF to become a professional singer but there was just one problem: at this time, KAF was only 14 years old.
As a teenage girl still in middle school, debuting as a singer would drastically change her whole life. Her mother, while supportive, pressed her to find a way to keep her face hidden—at least while she was still in school. From this came the idea to have KAF become a virtual singer instead of a normal one.
Once decided, the wheels were set in motion. The first thing she needed was an avatar. Interestingly enough, KAF herself had little to do with the design process directly. Illustrator PALOW. was tasked with bringing KAF's avatar to life. “[PALOW.] designed the character based on their image of my vocals; which to them, was that of a baby bird. Within the hood of my clothing, however, there's also a monster residing,” KAF told me. “Saying this myself is honestly embarrassing, but according to PALOW., it's meant to represent how they felt that within my fragile voice, there's something mysterious lurking underneath.” Happy with the result of the design, KAF would go on to debut on YouTube on October 31, 2018.
To KAF, this remains the greatest moment of her career. “My first upload was a ‘Utattemita’ (cover) of the song "Moudoku ga osou" by hifumi, and it had always been my dream to be able to join this ‘Utattemita’ world, so with that upload, I had finally achieved that dream.” But it wasn't until the comments started flooding in that things truly hit home. “When I started seeing comments on the upload, it was this overwhelming feeling of 'My voice is reaching people...'. I still get emotional even now thinking back on that moment.”
Since then KAF had a real-life secret identity. By day she went to school with her friends, by night she was an ever-more-popular singer. Even on stage singing live, her avatar was displayed instead of her. Amazingly, she never let the secret slip. “It was challenging,” KAF said, “But eventually, you get quite good at protecting a secret so dear to you.”
Despite now having graduated from high school, KAF continues to live her dual life. “For me, my identity as KAF is something that I do my best to protect,” she began. “There are benefits to having this level of anonymity; for example, I could freely work part-time if I wanted to. [There are] just simple parts of an ordinary life that I'm not being excluded from as a result of this secret.”
KAF's anonymity has also granted her the ability to do other things that normal pop stars wouldn't dream of doing—like sneaking into a crowd of her fans. “During my first ever live show I made it a point to go outside and see the crowd lining up or buying merch,” she explained. “More recently I had a collaboration cafe with an original menu I had put together. It was a collaboration between my radio program and Tower Records—and I managed to sneak in there and see people smiling and listening to my songs while eating the food from the menu I had put together.”
Being surrounded by her fans without any of them realizing her true identity has proven to be a surreal experience. “There was a thrilling sense to it all; I almost felt like a detective sneaking around and hearing what my fans thought of my music.” However, more than that, it allowed KAF to connect with her fans on a personal level. “It's not very often that I get to be so close to my fans, and I was so curious, I couldn't help but listen in.”
Hearing this, I wondered if KAF would ever reveal her true identity to her fans. Her response was an immediate, laughter-filled “No, no, no, no!” When I asked her why, she responded, “There's such a feeling of freedom in my life at the moment, and I don't think that's something I could ever give up.” After a moment she added, “I also prefer my fans to have the ability to solely focus on KAF and the world that we've worked so hard to create.”
In the end, while she enjoys her double life, it can sometimes be hard to draw the line between the two on a psychological level. “There's [...] an existential aspect to having KAF be such a large part of my identity—am I me, or am I KAF? I often end up thinking about this question.”
Many things have changed in KAF's life over the past five years. However, the most important thing has not. “I'm doing this because I love to sing—and as my voice continues to be delivered to more and more people, I can't help but be happy.” Yet now, she's not alone in this goal. “I've started receiving more help from those around me with suggestions on how I can sing in a certain way or face new challenges, so now it's like a team effort of people working their hardest to keep this dream moving forward.”
For those who may not be familiar with KAF or her music, she has some recommendations on places to start. “Every time I work on a new song, I do it with the idea that it'll be better than my last, so based on that it'd be my latest song 'My Voice.' If there was a song I'm particularly attached to, however, that would be the song 'Chance Meeting.' This song was the final song produced for me by my long-time collaborator Iori Kanzaki before he graduated from KAMITSUBAKI. Given the circumstances, I threw everything I had, everything I'd learned, and everything that makes me KAF into my performance on that song. So if anyone were to listen, I think that would be a great place to start.”
For her international fans, she had the following to say: “Thank you for continuing to support me. I'm going to keep doing my best, and I truly hope that resonates with all of you. I've been putting a lot of thought into the idea of singing in numerous languages, and I want to continue challenging myself in new ways, so I hope you'll support me as I continue treading new paths.”
KAF wanted her fans both inside and outside of Japan to know about an upcoming opportunity to see her live. On January 13 and 14, 2024, there will be a two-day event called “KAMITSUBAKI YOYOGI WARS 2024” in Yoyogi National Stadium. On the first day, KAF will be performing as part of the group V.W.P -Virtual Witch Phenomenon-. On the second day, she'll be performing solo in her concert, #Kaika. The event will be streamed live online with tickets going on sale on December 17, 2023. In KAF's own words, “This is going to be my biggest live show to date, and I can't wait to show everyone what we've put together. I hope that you'll be able to come and enjoy the show!”
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