Nana Yamato has shared a new single in “Gaito” ahead of her debut album Before Sunrise, out on Feb. 5 via Dull Tools. The song follows single “Do You Wanna,” which was featured in Paste’s roundup of The 15 Best Songs of January 2021.
Her new, chilled-out track features Yamato singing in both Japanese and English, and was inspired by others’ fascination with K-pop and J-pop that she’s observed since childhood. The song is a far cry from the often-overproduced work that’s typical of the genres, though; Yamato instead opts for a simple guitar line accentuated with a whimsical, almost bell-like keyboard.
Yamato said of the song and video:
I’ve never been a fan of J-Pop or K-pop idols since I was a kid, so I didn’t understand why my classmates were so fascinated with them. Then I heard a rumor that a female idol group that debuted at the covid pandemic was very popular all over Japan, and I thought that the reason was that they had charms that I didn’t understand. I decided to write a song inspired by them, imagining their song, and this is what I came up with. For the music video, I watched their dancing on Youtube and tried to copy them. I haven’t listened to the song yet because I had it on mute.
Watch the video for “Gaito” below, and preorder the album here.