This profile is in the Subway Musicians section of my Overlooked New York website.

Key Appleseeds, age undisclosed, came here from Japan to play rhythm and blues in the country where it was born.

“I’m from Nagoya, Japan. There are no musicians in my family; in fact, I was really bad at music when I was a kid. So my mother still can't believe what I'm doing here.

“I first became interested in music when I was 15. The video clips of the Rolling Stones and the Pretenders made me feel like, ‘I gotta buy a guitar’. I sang and wrote so hard when I was in high school because I didn't have anything except that. Then when I was 21, I passed an audition as a singer to make a band on a local TV show. Three months later I quit because I couldn't take singing in Japanese. I think it's very important to sing rhythm and blues in the language it was created in. Then I started to make the band called Johnny Favoritz. We played in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya monthly. We almost got major contracts a few times but they asked me to sing in Japanese so I didn't take it. Before I came here we made a CD by ourselves called ‘Monkey Plays’ as a demo to bring here.

“Sometimes I played on the street in my country so I was planning to do it here and I hate playing in bars. But singing in a different language, in English, in front of native people made me hesitate for a while. Then a girl broke my heart. That motivated me right away.

“What I like about singing in the subway is seeing the real reaction of the people right in front of me. A few times, I made a girl cry when singing a sad song. They gave me a bill, crying. It's kinda not good to say but I was glad! For me, as a singer, it was impressive, and, besides, singing in a different language... I made a girl cry! I felt I'm honored.

“A lot of people offer me to have some recordings. Once I recorded my singing in a huge professional studio for free. At that time, a guy who sometimes worked for MTV shot my recording as well.

“I like New York City better than my country. One of the reasons is, a lot of races live together and respect each other. How wonderful is it!

Zina Saunders 2013