A Singer and His Model Life

Photo courtesy Mika Hashizume

Looking and sounding good is all second nature for Mika Hashizume, the fashion model and former boy band member turned solo artist.

There are pop stars and there are supermodels, but only a lucky few in this world can say they’re both.

Enter local boy Mika Hashizume, who, since leaving Hawai‘i about a decade ago, reached international acclaim for his musical talent and modeling portfolio.

“Now, it (making music and being a model) can be considered 50-50, but I would definitely say my image or my tag is I’m a musical artist, I’m an artist, and I feel like the modeling came after that,” he says. “So, if I introduce myself, then I would I say I’m an artist rather than a model.”

For Hashizume, the journey into the spotlight started when he auditioned for a Japanese talent agency in Hawai‘i. At the time, he never envisioned becoming a singer and even admits he didn’t really like singing.

“At that point in my life, I didn’t really see myself doing music or anything. I feel like I more wanted to focus on sports,” recalls Hashizume, who attended University Laboratory School and played soccer. “So, I didn’t really care for the audition, but my mom made me do it and I did it and the company ended up wanting me to move to Tokyo.”

At UH Lab, where Hashizume was a student from kindergarten to 11th grade, he learned to play the ‘ukulele and violin, but it wasn’t until he moved to Japan at age 16 that he found his passion for singing and songwriting.

He became a member of the Japanese boy band INTERSECTION, which debuted in 2018 with the song Heart of Gold. Despite a growing following, a number of popular tracks and music videos with millions of views, the group officially announced its disbandment in April 2023 after being on hiatus since January 2021, when members traveled to China to compete in the popular reality survival show Produce Camp 2021, aka CHUANG 2021.

“At that time, that was a pretty significant show in China, and at the end you get ranked into the top 11 and I got ranked in top four,” explains Hashizume, who is of German and Japanese ancestry. “After that, I had to debut into a group (multinational Chinese boy band INTO1) and sign to a company in China, and it was a real big opportunity for me because I think, at that point, I never had that much recognition in my career.

“It gave me an opportunity to move to China (he also learned to speak Chinese) and gave me an audience not only in China, but in other countries as well. So, I think that was definitely a significant point in my career.”

After a couple of years and four albums, the 11 members of INTO1 bid farewell to each other in late spring 2023, but not without first making a name for themselves in the industry.

For Hashizume, whose striking looks can be as captivating as his sultry voice, it was an opportunity to not only pursue a solo career, but also to build on his work as a fashion model, which, he says, “happened really randomly.”

In just the last couple of years, he’s collaborated with top fashion houses, served as the face for Bottega Veneta, Michael Kors, Diesel, Fila, Kappa, and Tiffany & Co., and walked the prestigious runways in Paris.

Earlier this year, he also was selected as Asia Pacific brand ambassador for Maui Jim’s new advertising campaign, “Color You Can Feel.”

“Walking in the haute couture show in Paris recently was definitely one of the highlights of my career because not only was it a luxury fashion show but it’s a haute-couture show, which is more avant-garde and obscure fashion,” shares Hashizume. “I feel designers in that realm don’t collaborate with artists and celebrities because they more just care about the fashion of it.”

Through modeling, Hashizume also discovered a keen interest in fashion, and says his dream now is to expand his work in the industry, perhaps by starting his own magazine or going into the business side of it.

“It would be super cool if I could be an editor-in-chief of a magazine or some kind of a creative director of something,” he says. “I definitely hope that down the line I could do something like that.”

As for music, Hashizume is busy recording a new album scheduled to be out this year. He describes his genres as R&B, pop or alternative R&B, and lists Frank Ocean, Dominic Fike, SZA and Bruno Mars among his favorite artists.

“I also released an album in December last year (his first solo EP Bleached) that was kind of more directed toward my Chinese audience (whereas) I think this album is more for a global audience, so the music I’m making is a bit more Western sounding,” he says. “This is the biggest thing I have going on right now and then after I release this album, I’m probably going to do a global tour.”

Born and raised in ‘Ewa Beach, Hashizume, whose parents still live in Hawai‘i, currently resides in Beijing. But he tries to come home at least once a year.

“The first thing I do is definitely go to the beach,” says Hashizume. “After that, I always want to go eat poke from Foodland and then the next morning, wake up early and go hike Koko Head for sunrise.

“I really like the food in Hawai‘i … a lot of the typical stuff like poke. I feel like when I try to get that outside of Hawai‘i, even in China or Japan, it’s a bit different. And I really miss just the environment of Hawai‘i. I used to surf growing up a lot with my friends — at Bowls and Kewalos, around Ala Moana and Waikīkī…

“Hawai‘i is a beautiful place. It’s paradise. Being from Hawai‘i and going outside of Hawai‘i is a really cool experience, but at the end of the day I feel like that I’m from Hawai‘i and I can go back to Hawai‘i every now and then and call it my home. I think that is really special.”