Ishibashi was born to post-war immigrants from Japan, which, albeit slowly, the artist has conceptually embraced more in his music. Image: Rachael Renee Levasseur/Courtesy of the artist
Morning Edition's Song Project is a series where songwriters are asked to write an original song about the COVID era – our newest song is from Kaoru Ishibashi, an Asian-American musician and songwriter who performs as Kishi Bashi. The song is called "For Every Voice That Never Sang," about the feeling of being an outsider in your own country.
The pandemic gave Ishibashi a lot of time to reflect, but so did the cross-country road trip he took with his daughter; the artist owned a camper he barely used prior, as a result of constant touring. With it, he and his daughter travelled from Athens, Ga. and all the way to the mountains of the West Coast.