Maaya was born in Tokyo, Japan.
Her mother is a famous Argentine Tango singer / producer YUU KOHSAKA in Japan and father was a jazz bassist / music producer.
Maaya started her music career in High School, she joined the brass band and chose to play percussions and drums in the band. She also started to perform in numerous cover bands and had performed in school festivals. Maaya continues to perform in numerous bands playing drums, guitars and lastly vocals during she was in university, performed numerous shows in clubs, bars and school festivals in Tokyo.
In 1996, Maaya was chosen from 20,000 in audition to become Virgin Tokyo Records’ new artist and signed the contract. Maaya started to record her original songs and performed in numerous venues in Japan.
A year later, Maaya performed one of showcase for Sony Music Entertainment and she was offered to sign a contract with Sony Development Japan. Maaya continued to write her original songs, recorded and performed next few years. Maaya also started to perform shows by herself playing acoustic guitar around this time, as well as singing in other bands.
Maaya signed the artist / producer contract with LA local producer, Joey Carbone and moved to Los Angeles in 1999, she began her music career in the U.S.
Since she moved to Los Angeles, Maaya started collaborating numerous producers in America, Europe, Japan, and released many songs and albums to this date. Maaya‘s voice has been heard in movies, commercials, games, many different artist’s albums in all over the world. She also joined in many different bands as well as a solo artist, actively performed in many venues in LA and nearby cities.
Her interests in music is wide and free in many different genres from HipHop to Electronic Dance Music, from Classic Rock, Folk, Pop to Jazz and Blues.
Maaya currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her two children, she is also a California board licensed psychotherapist.
Maaya says, “I had a vision. Music was always ‘healing’ for me in those hard times. Music always gave me hopes and healed my wounds. Because I experienced it, I understand more of people’s pain. Because of those hard lessons, I am stronger now. I want to heal people, people who lost hopes and suffering in pain. I want to do something to help heal earth, this beautiful planet. Because the earth is suffering, people who live on this planet are suffering. I hope my music and messages reaches many people and heal them like it did to me, and eventually heal this beautiful planet for our future. That is my hope.”
東京都出身。
母は現役アルゼンチンタンゴ歌手/タンゴプロデューサーである香坂優、父は元ジャズべーシスト/音楽プロデューサー。
高校時代から、数々のバンド活動を行い、1991年10月からフジテレビで放送されたオーディション番組『ゴールド・ラッシュ!』では、最終選考まで勝ち上る。
1996年、Virgin Tokyo Recordsのオーディションで、2万人の中から新人アーティストとして選ばれ、Virgin Tokyo Recordsとアーティスト契約を結び、それからの数年間は、作詞作曲、レコーディング、ライブ活動などを行う。
1997年、Sony Development Recordsからのオファーにより契約を結び、メジャーデビューを目指して、作詞作曲活動、レコーディング、ライブ活動に励む。東京各地のバーやライブハウスなどでソロのギター弾き語りを始める。
大学卒業後、LA在住音楽プロデューサーの Joey Carbone氏と出会い、アーティスト契約を結び、1999年、アメリカロサンジェルスに移住。
移住後は、Maaya 麻文としてのソロ活動に加え、別名Lady Dragonとしても複数のバンド活動、世界各国多数のプロデューサーとコラボレーションし、作詞・作曲、レコーディング活動(映画音楽、ゲーム音楽、コマーシャル、個人プロジェクトへの参加など)及びライブパフォーマンスも精力的に行う。
2度の結婚、出産を経て、乳幼児向け音楽クラス Flower Sound Musicを手がけたり、日系人シニアセンターでの弾き語り演奏や、結婚式、パーティーなどでの演奏、Kids Rock Studioなどのチャリティーイベントへの参加や、LA現地教会のイベント音楽プロデュースなどでも活動中。
ジャンルを超え様々な場所で、音楽によってメッセージを伝え、癒しを広げていくのがMaayaのテーマである。