CULTURE / Music

Tommy February⁶ makes a heavenly return

Split release: Tommy February6 (above) and Tommy Heavenly6 (below) are the creations of The Brilliant Green singer Tomoko Kawase. She has brought them together for her new album, 'February & Heavenly.' The release features seven songs by each persona, which gives the album an overall feeling of two extremes — light and dark. | GAVIN WATSON

By Daniel Robson
Staff Writer

Mar 2, 2012

The pop music industry — it's enough to turn anyone into a schizophrenic. And Tomoko Kawase is perhaps J-pop's most fragmented personality of all.

Rising to fame in the late-1990s as the singer in top-selling Kyoto guitar-pop band The Brilliant Green, she went solo in 2001 under the name Tommy February⁶, a super-cute throwback to the British and European chart pop of the '80s, with a subtly subversive streak. And then in 2003, she went solo again — this time as the darker Tommy Heavenly⁶, playing Avril Lavigne-esque commercial pop-rock that soundtracked countless anime.

And then she went back to The Brilliant Green for 2010's "Blackout" album. And now she's back as both solo artists at once. And now you're confused, so let's ask Kawase to clear it up, shall we?

Tommy February⁶ makes a heavenly return

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Tommy February6 makes a heavenly return

Tommy February⁶ makes a heavenly return