Oh, I forgot my guitar.
 Singer-songwriter I, Kobayashi, 23, appeared in jeans and sandals. Her natural appearance, as if she had come straight from home, caught people&#8217;s attention.
<a href="#" data-ident_hash="b222041d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/8f1dda12ddd8afa8279a2b5926186687.jpg" alt=""></a>
 Kobayashi, who spent his childhood in Hachioji, Tokyo, began distributing his songwriting videos on YouTube in 2006 while a student at Tama Art University. His rugged singing style, which belies his handsome face, became a hot topic on social networking sites, and the total number of views exceeded 25 million. In 2009, he released his first album.
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 I started playing guitar when I was a freshman in high school. I thought that if I stood out, I would be popular. &#8230;&#8230; But I wasn&#8217;t popular. When I was in my second year of high school, I saw the &#8220;Geinin Maji Uta Championship&#8221; on &#8220;Godtan&#8221; (TV TOKYO), and I thought, &#8220;Anyone can write songs,&#8221; so I started writing songs. My musical influences were the people who made &#8216;vocaloids.
 The lyrics, which do not use exaggerated language, but are life-size, have captured the hearts of listeners of the same generation.
 Production is more a kind of self-study than a job,&#8221; he says. Sometimes I write songs just because the words sound good. For example, I want to use the word &#8216;soup,&#8217; so I write &#8216;even if the soup gets cold. Some people put heartbreak or shocking events into their lyrics, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s good to become unhappy in order to write a song. I like to keep my emotions flat when writing songs.&#8221;
 Kobayashi&#8217;s songwriting style is to play a single acoustic guitar, but the songs on the album are arranged with a band, including drums and bass.
 He says, &#8220;I feel hopeful about the appeal of completing a song with just one guitar, so I almost entirely leave the band arrangements to the staff. So I consider the songs I wrote on acoustic guitar to be &#8216;original works,&#8217; and the band arrangements to be only &#8216;second creations. But because it is a second creation, there are areas that one cannot reach alone. I am most happy when people are surprised when they hear my work.
 Sometimes, he holds a game in his hand and delivers it live for nearly five hours. His light-hearted talk also hits the right notes with fans.
 I&#8217;m in the in-between generation,&#8221; he says. For the older generation, it&#8217;s cool not to show your face too much, but for the younger generation, it&#8217;s normal to show your face. There are people like me in my generation, and there are people like Ado and Yama who hide their faces. I wish I didn&#8217;t show my face on the Internet, but I already have (laughs). 
Live performances are an extension of the delivery, and I like the feeling of coming out of my house and saying, &#8220;Hi, I&#8217;m going to perform. Instead, I want the people who come to my live shows to feel a sense of premiere, so I include what happened that day in the MC between songs.
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 What are the &#8220;numbers&#8221; that the next generation cares about?
 What I am happy to see is the number of simultaneous connections for live distribution. When I first started streaming, it was common for the total number of connections to reach 10 people. On the other hand, I don&#8217;t mind if the number of views decreases. A sudden increase in views is called &#8216;buzz,&#8217; but in my mind, buzz is inextricably linked to &#8216;flames,&#8217; and I&#8217;m afraid of being consumed instantaneously.
 Profile 
Born in Tokyo in 1999. Released his first EP &#8220;Seikatsu&#8221; in 2008 while a student at Tama Art University, majoring in oil painting. In addition to his musical activities, he also writes articles for &#8220;WEB The Television&#8221; as a serial writer.
<figure id="attachment_287812" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287812" style="width: 1785px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="64f3f5d3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/8596fc22d9e94594f9fdde990651062c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287812" class="wp-caption-text"> Recently, he is addicted to reading manga masterpieces such as &#8220;One Piece&#8221; and &#8220;Hikaru no Go.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_287811" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287811" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8b8cf908"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/RE_SH534118.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287811" class="wp-caption-text"> Unpublished cuts from the magazine: I, Kobayashi, singer-songwriter, Next Generation Star, the final installment</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_287809" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287809" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ac316281"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/RE_SH534160.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287809" class="wp-caption-text"> Unpublished cuts from the magazine: I, Kobayashi, singer-songwriter, Next Generation Star, the last issue</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_287810" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287810" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="94adad73"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/SH533997.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287810" class="wp-caption-text"> Unpublished cuts from the magazine: Kobayashi, myself, singer-songwriter, Next Generation Star, the last issue.</figcaption></figure>
 From the January 20 and 27, 2023 issues of &#8220;FRIDAY

 Shinji Hamasaki

 Singer-songwriter I, Kobayashi, 23, showed up wearing jeans and sandals. Her natural appearance, as if she had come straight out of her house, caught people's attention. I was a boy in Hachioji, Tokyo.

Singer-songwriter Myself Kobayashi: “Creating songs is a kind of self-study rather than a job.

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