We recently connected with Yukino Takenaka and have shared our conversation below.

Yukino, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Hello, everyone! Before I answer this question, let me introduce myself first. My name is Yukino Takenaka, and I am a music producer, composer and songwriter from Japan. I am not a professional singer but I love singing, playing the piano and doing music in general since I was a kid. Ever since I started learning how to play the piano at the age of 3, I have always been around the music. So I never really think or decide to pursue a music path intentionally, but for some reason, I knew that I would choose this path since I was younger and also, I always came back to the music path even though I got lost and tried to do something different from music. So this is how I get here to day. I still remember the days when I was in elementary school, I used to watch music shows on TV and get excited every time I saw artists performing on the stage, and it made me think that I wanted to make people happy with music like them. At that time (like 10-12 years ago), being an artist was more difficult (still is but) in terms of the fact that people did not use social media like now, and I wanted to try an audition for singing but I have never done it because I know myself enough that singing was not for me. I learned a bit of piano composition while I went to piano lesson for almost 15 years and also wrote some original songs when I was in middle school just for fun but I was not that passionated in music production until I decided to go to the university to learn music production. I think one of the biggest reason I ended up pursuing this career is that my mom always told me and encourage me to be in the production side of music after she has been seeing me doing music for a long time. At the beginning, I was not sure about choosing this path because I did not have a confident with my music skill and talent, and I still get lost sometimes due to the creative crises. How since it never changes the fact that I feel a lot of joy when I am making music, I will not stop chasing the dream to make music to share!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As I introduced myself in the previous one, my name is Yukino Takenaka, I am a music producer/ composer/ songwriter from Japan. After I graduated from the university with my Bachelor degree in Music Production in Florida last year, I moved to Los Angeles to seek more opportunities and network with people in the industry to pursue my dream to be a music producer. My journey with music has started since I was 3 years old, that is when I started going to the piano lesson. Since then, I have been always around music, and even though I was not expecting to end up doing the production side of music since I liked singing or performing more, this is how I get into music at the young age. I have two biggest reason why I want to pursue in music field. First, I genuinely enjoy and love music itself. I love the feeling of the emotional connection through music since I was young; for example, I love listening to music to get the empathy or encouragement, and also playing the piano to express my feeling that I cannot explain with my words. I would say that music is a part of myself, my therapist and my personality. Second, I wanted to have a job that helps people in any way possible. It could be a doctor, nurse, teacher and etc. but for me it was to make music to heal people mentally. When I was young, I was not good at expressing my feelings or emotion especially the negative one such as pain even though I am good at empathizing or feeling the emotion of other people, so I always relied on music. Music always gave me the comfortable place and be there for me when I needed someone by myself. It also encourages me and motivated me a lot as well. Like what music did to me, I hope one day my music can be there for someone in need of their life. So with those passion that I have for music, my goal is to make music not only because I love or enjoy, but also to help people. Right now, I just graduated from school and still try to figure out things, but I am trying to explore a lot of different genres and also collaborating with other producers. I have worked on film scoring for the short film, made some beats and instrumental music, did songwritings and wrote some lyrics. The most favorite things to do in the music production is to write the melody! I listen to a lot of kinds of music from a lot of different places with different languages, and that is for sure where most of the inspirations come from.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal as music a producer/ composer/ songwriter is to be able to be a part of someone’s life by bringing joys and encouragements, and providing the emotional support when they need with music I create like a lot of music did to me. Music brings me the extra happiness when I am in the good mood and be there for me when I feel a little down. For me, the melody is the guide to the sunlight when my world gets dark, and lyrics fills my heart when I feel empty. So like those songs who helped me go through so many things in my life, I want my music to be “someone” who can be there for people when they feel alone or sad, or give the empathy when people need. And also I want my music to encourage people when they embrace their new challenges. At the same time, I want to keep my uniqueness in my music I create, and want my music make me feel like “this is the one” every song I produce. I want people to know my music and I want them to like my music because they truly like it.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I feel like a lot of people who chase the dream in the creative field might have experiences which we are told or asked what if we are not going to make it. I have been asked this kind of question a lot by my relatives and my friends. And my answer is always “I do not know but we’ll see.” I know some of my friends gave up on their dream in the creative field because they questioned themselves what if they will not make it, then, they did not even try it. However, I try to think this way. “What if I can make it?” People tend to focus on the disadvantage of things and make the decision but why not think all the way around? What can you loose by give it a try and give up if you give up anyway right? I understand how people might feel because I was there before. I was scared of chasing the dream because of the exact reason why my friend gave up. However, I could not stop myself from not trying. If I figure out I might not make it after I try, it is okay. I might feel like a failure at that moment but only people who try can fail. I am still at the starting point of everything. So if anyone who reads what I write here is in this situation, so am I. I might talk like I archived something in my life but I do not yet. I still feel uncomfortable to share my music online due to the lack of confidence and I sometime get scared what if I do not make it as some people might feel. However I always remind myself to have this mind set and keep going as far as I can. So I hope I will keep trying as much as possible and whoever reads this can keep going as much as possible as well. (But before anything, thank you so much for reading my story!)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://y02takenaka.wixsite.com/website
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yukino213_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yukino-takenaka-718044239/
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1YmrgqrxQpyRtJ6qe6mM3S?si=5fJLHqbjT1Gzpsmnk4fW-A