by Avalon Lee
photo credit Mitch Wojcik
Originally hailing from Harrisburg, Andrew “Koji” Shiraki is currently taking over the music scene in the City of Brotherly Love. Now residing in Philadelphia, Koji decided to trade in his education at Temple’s Tyler School of Art for his guitar and true calling. Beginning his career just a few short years ago, Koji has taken off to limitless heights. With a handful of EPs under his belt, Koji’s first full length album, Crooked In My Mind, is due to drop next week on April 30th.
With encouragement from successful artists such as Anthony Green and Kevin Devine, Koji’s dreams were put into perspective and brought to life. The repertoire of artists he has performed with is remarkable, performing for the entirety of Van’s Warped Tour 2012 followed by the Acoustic Basement Tour (with the likes of Geoff Rickly of Thursday and pop-punk band A Loss For Word) – not to mention the split EP released with La Dispute, Never Come Undone. Just recently, Koji opened up a show for the Circa Survive and Minus the Bear tour, Waves Overhead.
Koji will be live on THAT Radio April 23, from 6-8pm. Along with Koji’s THAT Mag covering, this emerging Philadelphia artist has also been watched by Alternative Press. Check out his acoustic cover of Pedro The Lion’s “The Longer I Lay Here” performed for AP. Koji also has a spread in the latest issue of AP on newsstands right now.
When he’s not busy with his music, Koji enjoys exerting his energy on helping others. He is the founder of COLORMAKE, an organization that joins together artists, musicians and activists to “represent a diversity of thought and expression”. Koji explained to me that he just wants “to leave a positive impact on the world,” so he volunteers in his spare time by teaching music in high schools and colleges along his travels, or even playing at children’s hospitals.
You can follow along with Koji’s musical journey on his Tumblr, Facebook, Bandcamp and even Instagram.
