Your donation will be used to maintain and improve this site.
Masa Oka (Masaki Okamoto) is an electronic musician currently residing in Sub-urban Shin-Yurigaoka near Tokyo. 日本語
He was born in 1974 in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka, Japan, and finished high school there. Then he moved to Boston, U.S.A. to attend Berklee College of Music and study Jazz Improvisation, Composition and Harmony among other subjects. He majored in guitar performance and was a member of Avant-garde Ensemble led by George Garzone when he quit the school in 1995.
Craving for fresh ideas, he then moved to London and stayed there for a year, learning electronic-music production from friends.
Upon returning to Japan, he started DJing and hosting a weekly party under the alias of Maapee. In 1998, he was invited to participate on a compilation CD series "Magnetic Storm" for which two of his tracks were used.
In 1999, he was awarded in Sony Music's "Future Music Audition," which led to his contribution to the "Blister" movie soundtrack. He also worked as a translator for music industry around this time. The projects he was involved in include Whitney Houston's best album and Billy Joel's millennium concert album.
In 2000, "Masa Oka" was adopted as his performance name. He relocated to Wakayama in 2001, and produced music for an NHK Wakayama's news program in 2003. He started teaching music around this period.
Moving back to Tokyo in 2005, he continued teaching. He still does today, and the subjects now include guitar, composition, computer music and vocal.
He spent much of 2007 street-performing with a guitar, and on one such occasion, was spotted by Makoto Sekiguchi from CCB, who later hired Masa as a guitarist for his shows . He also made musical contribution to Digibook, a photo-album website.
2008 saw him play live aggressively with his electronic sets. Bullet's has hosted him as a live act almost every month. In those shows he rapped and played guitar over the electronic tracks, while projecting self-created animation movies.
In 2009, his focus shifted towards compositions and website-running. A milestone tune Amadeus was finished in April, and a reproduction of Drift Me On was completed in August.
He was born in 1974 in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka, Japan, and finished high school there. Then he moved to Boston, U.S.A. to attend Berklee College of Music and study Jazz Improvisation, Composition and Harmony among other subjects. He majored in guitar performance and was a member of Avant-garde Ensemble led by George Garzone when he quit the school in 1995.
Craving for fresh ideas, he then moved to London and stayed there for a year, learning electronic-music production from friends.
Upon returning to Japan, he started DJing and hosting a weekly party under the alias of Maapee. In 1998, he was invited to participate on a compilation CD series "Magnetic Storm" for which two of his tracks were used.
In 1999, he was awarded in Sony Music's "Future Music Audition," which led to his contribution to the "Blister" movie soundtrack. He also worked as a translator for music industry around this time. The projects he was involved in include Whitney Houston's best album and Billy Joel's millennium concert album.
In 2000, "Masa Oka" was adopted as his performance name. He relocated to Wakayama in 2001, and produced music for an NHK Wakayama's news program in 2003. He started teaching music around this period.
Moving back to Tokyo in 2005, he continued teaching. He still does today, and the subjects now include guitar, composition, computer music and vocal.
He spent much of 2007 street-performing with a guitar, and on one such occasion, was spotted by Makoto Sekiguchi from CCB, who later hired Masa as a guitarist for his shows . He also made musical contribution to Digibook, a photo-album website.
2008 saw him play live aggressively with his electronic sets. Bullet's has hosted him as a live act almost every month. In those shows he rapped and played guitar over the electronic tracks, while projecting self-created animation movies.
In 2009, his focus shifted towards compositions and website-running. A milestone tune Amadeus was finished in April, and a reproduction of Drift Me On was completed in August.
