Akio Eiji

Akio Eiji (英二昭夫 Eiji Akio; born October 14 1973) is a Japanese-Canadian-New Zealand-Irish singer, former rapper, DJ, record producer, entrepreneur, animator, writer, actor, and keyboardist and vocalist for No Pressure and creator of virtual band, KRYptid. He began his career as hip hop artist Wolfland in Ontario, Canada with his hit single, Wild Streak. After he moved to New Zealand, he formed the one-time electronic duo, 2Domestic and released their only self-titled LP.

Early Life
Akio was born at the Kyoto City Hospital in Kyoto, Japan on October 14, 1973. During his time with his parents, Akio taught himself fluent English. One day, he talked in English during dinner, and his abusive parents attacked him and sent him to his room. Akio, having had enough, ran away from home leaving a note saying, "I'M RUNNING AWAY, AND I'M NOT GONNA TELL YOU WHERE I'M GOING!" In Japanese. He moved to Ontario, Canada and moved into a nearby loft apartment. A week after his move, he entered a talent show in a local bar and rapped as a part of his act. This attracted the attention of a record producer from Aquarius Records, who signed him up for the label.

Love for Cryptozoology
According to an interview in 2014, Akio claims that he was very interested in cryptozoology when he was a kid and wrote many journals and stories based around some dreams involving cryptozoology, his love also inspired the characters of KRYptid and him to create the webcomic series, The Curse of Fukanaina Valley.

As Wolfland (1991-1994)
After Akio was signed up for Aquarius Records, he would record his first album, Runaway Wolf, which contained the hit singles, Wild Streak, How Do You Like It?, which sampled Andrea True Connection's hit song, More, More, More, Party Starters, which featured Tone Loc, and Freedom, which samples Aretha Franklin's Think. Wild Streak would reach #4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 in 1993. During his career as Wolfland, he would wear a jacket with the top of the hood resembling blue wolf ears. After the success of his first album, Akio would begin work on his 2nd album, Not Your Average Rapper in 1993, containing the hit singles, The World, which featured singer, Mariah Carey and samples Michael Jackson's Human Nature, Carefree, I Have A Dream, One Way Ticket To Life, Felt So Free, Roll It in, and The World Never Ends. Shortly after the album's release, Akio would host his first tour, Feel aLive in 1994 and would first perform at the Levi's Stadium. His first song would be Freedom, but before he began to sing, he noticed his parents in the front seat and ran off the stage. After the incident, he would pack up his things and take a plane straight to Wellington, NZ.

As 2Domestic (1995-1996)
After Akio moved to New Zealand, he discovered keyboardist, Oliver Jones performing on a street. During his time with Oliver, Oliver taught Akio how to play the double keyboard. They recorded their self-titled EP in-house. The EP contained the 4 hit singles, Party Like It's 1984, Power, 1-Up, and Winged Men. However, after the release of the EP, Akio discovered his parents in New Zealand, and took a plane to Dublin, Ireland. Afterwards, Oliver would continue his career as a solo artist until his death in 2001.

Pre-No Pressure (1996-1997)
After moving to Ireland, Akio would buy a 9mm bullet gun with 9×19mm Parabellum bullets at a local weapons store and two records at an old Our Price store in Dublin. These two albums would be U2's Zooropa and The Starbrites' second album, Galaxy. After listening to Zooropa, he would be inspired by the music in the album and hosted auditions for his new band, he discovered bassist Alby Braden and guitarist Aodh Da. After the auditions, Akio had trouble finding a drummer for his band, so he took a walk on the beach to, "clear his mind for a moment." During his walk, he discovered drummer and singer, Aaliyah Caelan, who was the lead member of The Starbrites, playing the drums with a rock group. Akio took her back to his garage to practice, and Akio declared that she was, "Just right like a cherry blossom tree growing out of its sapling." Afterwards, they would first perform at a local bar, they were then known as "NP", and performed three songs. However, before their last song was played, Akio's parents burst in the bar swearing in Japanese. Before they could attack him, Akio shot his parents with the bullet gun he bought in the head, killing them. Akio was then arrested for homicide and sentenced for one month in prison. However, using the money from his previous careers, he would appeal his sentence by declaring that his parents where dealing drugs. After the trial, his band would be signed up to EMI Records Ireland, and they would change their name to, "No Pressure".

Studio albums

 * Runaway Wolf (1992)
 * Not Your Average Rapper (1994)
 * 2Domestic (1996)
 * Mixus (2001)
 * Nexus (2005)
 * J-Star (2008)
 * Akio Eiji (2014)
 * Fuzion (2019)

Collaborative albums

 * NüTraveling (with Aaliyah Caelan)(1998)
 * Kraze Rave (with Aaliyah Caelan)(2010)
 * Super Powah (with DJ Snake) (2015)