Having never been a morning girl, a sleepy-eyed young Kiri, immovable between the warm comforter and her marshmallow mattress, would wake to the world hearing the distant sound of music playing. “I feel the earth move under my feet. I feel the sky tumbling down.” What first were muffled sounds became the distinct, vibrant, and sweet music of Carole King. And at that moment, young Kiri was convinced to arise from her slumber cocoon and face the new day. “It was moments like this that only music could wake me, move me, drive me.” Born from an Operatic Soprano Japanese mother and a pragmatic Canadian father of Irish-German decent, Kiri has been immersed in the performing arts since day one. Kiri began performing at the age of 3, starting with Hawaiian dance taught by her loving stepmother. She then joined a local Toronto Hawaiian dance group, moving on to competitive ballet/jazz/tap/hip hop and eventually contemporary dance, where she was a member of the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre company. As a child, Kiri also studied piano. However, it wasn’t until the age of 13 that she began to study voice and acting. Having always dreamt of singing, Kiri feared the idea that she may not have been given the gift of voice, living in the shadows of her classical Soprano mother. However, eventually she could not deny the music. It was the driving force behind everything. While attending Sheridan College for musical theatre, Kiri was fortunate to land the lead role of Maria in West Side Story and a featured singer role in the program’s pop revue show as part of the final year productions. After graduating and joining a talent agency, she performed in various musical theatre productions across Canada. As much as Kiri enjoyed performing in the musical theatre genre, she was always drawn to pop music. “I grew up listening to all kinds of pop. My parents would put on everything from James Taylor, Carole King, Lionel Richie, and Billy Joel to Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Boys to Men. As I grew up I discovered soul music - falling in love with Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield – and folk music – mesmerized by Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. And then there was a time I couldn’t stop listening to John Mayer, Coldplay, and Lauryn Hill.” While in college, Kiri was fortunate to become close to certain friends that encouraged and mentored her to explore pop songwriting. And it was love at first sight! Since then, in between waiting tables and acting in the odd TV commercial, Kiri has been honing her songwriting skills and taking the opportunities to test them out in local shows and open mics at bars across Toronto. Then, roughly a year ago, Kiri reconnected with producer-singer-songwriter, John McIntosh of Dashney Music Group. Though they had known each other for many years, their paths had not met in the studio. Until one day, one year ago, John reached out and asked Kiri to sing on a track that he had written. Music chemistry bloomed and since then Kiri, John, and sound engineer Andrii Zubyk have put their heads, hearts, and souls together to create a pop music project that has developed and blossomed into something all their own. Still at humble beginnings, Kiri is incredibly excited to begin to release the music from this collaboration and is driven to keep developing this project into something bigger and better. “Songwriting is a process, never quite linear. I just want to keep writing, learning, and growing. There’s no use for me to wade in still waters. Music was and is always about catharsis to me. It always pulls me through and celebrates my life experiences. I just hope somewhere down the line, one of these songs means something to someone.”