Drifting ft Akiko Nakashima - Waking Up With The Sun [Remix 2026]

Akiko Nakashima - Vocals [Fukuoka, Japan]
Joe Mckechnie/Drifting -Words & Music/Production [Bootle, UK]

Thanks to Akiko for the Japanese translation & Chess Board, let's play Moon & Sun.

Stuck in and locked down May 2020 and a bit of serendipity-do-dah saw me reconnect with singer Pascale Martini in Zurich, in touch for the first time since we'd hung out in Prague and Liverpool back in May 1990.
We soon got to writing and recording songs, sending audio files back and forth over the internet.

When it came to working with Akiko, it was pretty much the other way round.
Akiko landed in Liverpool from Fukuoka, Japan in 2001.
She was here to study music at LIPA, she moved into a flat downstairs from mine.
I would sometimes hear her singing through the door as I passed on the stairs, we were neighbours who became good friends.

Waking Up With The Sun was a song I had kicking around back then.
Listening to it now, it seems the world was treating me bad....

While I've no idea what my original demo of the song sounded like, let's assume my guide vocals were pretty pretty bad.
Sometimes a Foggy Notion, and a singer singing out across the hall.
So, I gave Akiko an ask, said I've got a song, and some singing to be done, sure says she, and we were on.

Recording in my living room it took us a few goes to get a vocal recorded that wasn't filled with the sound of the traffic on the Street below.
Akiko kindly sang a Japanese version of the words, at least that's what she told me, for all I know she could be singing "Mckechnie is a divvy, and he can't sing for toffee".

*Note to self, run vocal through 'translate' app.

The sound I wanted for the song was in my head, as things turned out that's where it would stay for quite some time.
Also, Akiko's 'lovelyako' email went quiet in 2003, the only point of contact gone, one more excuse for not 'finishing a mix'..
After several failed attempts at producing the song I finally got something cooking in 2023. [20 years, keep it tidy]
Advances in recording technology meant I could finally remove the, always annoying, sound of cars driving by on Akiko's vocal track.

Just one more thing.
I'm no Columbo, but next I set about finding 'lovelyako'.
I didn't have a name or number, just had to hope she was still making music, and was on the socials.
Eventually, amazingly, I found her and gave her a shout.

Here's a bit of what Akiko had to say in 2023.

"I had completely forgotten about it and felt like I had travelled back in time. Thank you for remembering me".

Akiko music & more here -
nakashimaakiko.com

From the 2023 bandcamp page.
A torched song.
Mournful optimism, sunshine through the clouds.
A song from 2001, so not getting it finished till 2023 makes for quite the spaced odyssey.

Before she returned to Japan Akiko had her leaving do in Liverpool's Egg Cafe, and from her flat she gave me a chess board/serving tray memento.

This is an updated mix

Joe Mckechnie/Drifting
09/01/2026



    Torched Song