I’ve Loved Music Since I Was a Kid and Want to Stake My Future on It

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:46 JST, August 24, 2025

Dear Troubleshooter:

I’m a teenage girl in high school. Thanks to the influence of my parents, I started listening to music when I was very young and began taking piano lessons when I was 3. I also like playing the drums, the saxophone and the guitar, as well as singing and creating music.

My dream is to form a band and gain nationwide popularity. My goal is to make a major label debut when I’m around 20.

In junior high school, I asked my friends to make a band with me, but they all turned me down, saying they couldn’t stake their futures on playing in a band.

In high school, I joined the school’s pop music society. I’ve tried recruiting band members with the help of friends at my school and other schools, but they always turn me down.

I’m confident in my ability to express myself in music and serious about my willingness to stake my future on music. On the other hand, I understand that it’s not an easy dream to achieve, and I’m worried if I can really go on chasing it like this.

When I listen to music by successful bands, I’m overwhelmed by adoration and jealousy.

How should I pursue my dream?

I, Osaka Prefecture

Dear Ms. I:

You love music and have a dream, so why don’t you first narrow the focus of your dream and then think more about it?

Which is your dream: continuing with your music for a long time by performing and producing works, or making a debut around 20 and gaining nationwide popularity with your band?

Of course, it would be nice if you could continue with your music and make a debut as a result. But whether you can be famous doesn’t necessarily depend on how good you are. Other factors also affect the outcome, such as the trends of the time and whether you have support from influential figures.

If your dream is to continue making music with a good group of people regardless of whether your band becomes successful, then I think it’s a very nice dream that will make you happy. However, if your dream is to start a band that becomes popular across the country, then there’s no guarantee it’ll work out.

When choosing band members to make music with, the best scenario is not for you to invite people to join your band but for people you want to perform with and people who want to play with you to naturally get together. By playing music together, both you and the other members will feel happy — that’s the beginning of a band.

You can play various instruments. If you continue to find it hard to recruit band members, start a solo project — create original tracks and post videos of yourself performing them on the internet. That might be a way for you to find people who connect with your performance, and they may say they want to join you.

Junko Umihara, psychiatrist