Name Fayray Fayray Origin Tokyo, Japan Role Singer-songwriter | Years active 1998–present Siblings Rio Kinatsu | |
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Birth name Minako Ohashi大橋 美奈子 (Ohashi Minako) Born April 18, 1976 (age 48) ( 1976-04-18 ) Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actress Albums Hourglass, Shiroi Hana, EVER AFTER, Genuine, Craving | ||
Fayray (フェイレイ, Feirei), stylized as FAYRAY, is a female Japanese singer-songwriter and former actress. She made her debut in July 1998 with the single "Taiyō no Gravity". She grew up in the United States and speaks English.
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Biography
Fayray is the middle child of a family of three daughters (her elder sister, Rio Kinatsu, is a Japanese radio personality and tarento). During her childhood, she listened to American music from the 70s and 80s with her parents which had a big influence on her musical style. At age 4 she began playing classical piano.
Fayray was discovered by then-producer Hiroshi Ōsaki, now vice-president of Yoshimoto Kogyo, and landed a recording contract with the now-defunct Antinos Records label.
After one album, Craving, produced by dance music producer Daisuke Asakura, Fayray opted to take full creative control over her music and began writing and composing her own music. She wrote the two b-sides of her fifth single, "Same Night, Same Face" before self-producing her next single, "My Eyes", and all of her subsequent records.
Fayray has also forayed into acting, appearing in two TV dramas in 2000: Nisennen no Koi (starring Miho Nakayama and Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Densetsu no Kyōshi (starring SMAP leader Masahiro Nakai).
In 2006, she traveled to New York City in search of new ideas to create her ideal music. There she met avant-garde producer Dougie Bowne and produced two albums with him.
As of 2015, the singer has resumed performance under the name Mina Ohashi, performing as part of the duo The Present with her husband Rusty Santos. The duo's debut album, FSG, was released May 12, 2015.