October Babies was born when Japanese singer Toko Shiiki and bassist/arranger Erik Santos met in Tokyo in 2002, while Erik was resident composer for the notorious butoh dance/theater group Dairakudakan. Soon after Toko moved to the US to study photography in 2005, the couple produced their debut CD "Ao-zora Radio" (Blue-sky Radio), named after Toko's monthly podcast.

Together with the electric strumming of Dale King and Mike Ouellette, and dynamic drumming of Ben Lorenz & Chad Sturdivant - the October Babies have singular sound and a upbeat energy.

Their songs are in Japanese and English - a catchy multilcultural potluck of funk, jazz, R&B, reggae/ska/dub, techno, latin, drum&bass, rock, surfpunk, hip hop, downtempo, orch pop, blues, Okinawa folk, aaaand ... everything.

They've won major Japanese music competitions, like J-WAVE MUSIC HYPER MARKET and Yahoo Japan, and Toko won the Outstanding World/Reggae/Ska Vocalist at the 2011 Detroit Music Awards.

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