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Enjoy the unique J-Rock OPM song of SkyGarden on Spotlight Music Sessions.

Japanese trio and viral content creators SkyGarden shared their original single "Kokoa," a fusion of Japanese anime tunes with OPM lyrics, when they performed on Spotlight Music Sessions on Friday, October 20.

According to the trio, "Kokoa" came from the Japanese phrase “kokoro kara aishiteru,” which means “I love you from the bottom of my heart.”

Ryo said that the song was inspired by their band member, Iwa's, experience in high school when he was so in love with one of their female classmate.

“Sobrang mahal na mahal niya, tinatanong niya sa akin, 'How can I approach? Kailangan ko bang mag-invite ng date?'” Ryo recalled.

He added, “Ilang beses na siya na-unseen, ignored, ganyan. Pero until the last of highschool life, mahal niya pa rin siya.”

SkyGarden is made up of best friends Ryo, Iwa, and Hiro who all met while they were still in school. Ryo said that he and Iwa were already friends when they were in high school, while Iwa and Hiro were in the same college.

LOOK BACK WHEN SKYGARDEN INKS THEIR CONTRACT WITH ALTG RECORDS IN THIS GALLERY:

They started their group during the pandemic when it affected the jobs of both Hiro and Iwa.

“It was my first time seeing na depressed sila and actually si Iwa, he got cut-off, he got fired or he got cut-off and they got depressed so I forced them to come to the Philippines dahil what I thought is that they should get influence by Filipino,” Ryo said.

He added that he suddenly bought tickets to the Philippines and only informed his friends four days before their flights. Hiro mentioned how surprised he was and asked Ryo how to prepare and what to do.

“Kailangan niyang mag-terminate ng contract, kung ano-ano man, but I want them to come here to get influenced by Filipino people kasi it really changed them talaga after a year,” Ryo added.

While they started as content creators and vloggers in 2022, Hiro was able to write a song in January 2023 which they were able to make into content or music for their channel.

“'Yung kanta kasi niya, parang anime, and then we put tagalog lyrics on it tapos 'woah, tagalog pero Anime,'” Ryo said.

He revealed that it was time they decided to make more music and was surprised and happy to get a lot of fans from it.

“I couldn't get feeling that time. 'Is it real?'” Hiro said.

According to Ryo, Hiro said in Japanese that he did not expect the reaction of the audience at the time, while Ryo himself admitted that he was really happy and nervous at the same time. They then expressed how thankful they were to GMA for giving them the opportunity to perform and share their music.

Now that they have signed with GMA Music and AltG records, Hiro said that his dream has now come true.

“Yes, in Japan, I was joining bands about two years, three years, but didn't [succeed] But now, we get contract, dreams come true,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ryo added that it was the first time he saw his friend happy-cry.

Now that they have accomplished their main goals, which is for Ryo to help Iwa and Hiro with their depression, their new goal is to give back to the Filipinos for all the support they've received.

Ryo revealed that they found out that kids in schools do not have free meals when they visited a school which shocked them as they have it in Japan. To give back to their Filipino Fans, SkyGarden wanted to perform and raise some funds to help them.

“Ganun po 'yung nasa-isip namin ngayon, but we still don't know yet but we want to return something for Filipinos that what they give us, sobrang malaki talaga po para sa'min,” Ryo said.

He added, “We're going to do our best to give those things na binigay po nila para sa amin.”

When asked what would they tell to aspiring artists, Hiro left a short message for them, “Just do it, don't give up, never give up, you can do success.”

For Ryo, on the other hand, reminded artists to “just make an action.”

Watch their full performance on Spotlight Music Sessions here: