Forced to give up a promising career as a motor racing driver due to injury, Ren Nagabuchi turned to music in 2014 and quickly became a popular singer-songwriter, billed as J-pop's answer to Ed Sheeran. Growing up in Tokyo, his father, Go Nagabuchi, was a popular folk rocker in the 1970s who sold over 20 million records and his mother used to work as a stuntwoman, but he was obsessed with cars from a young age and began racing karts at 12-years-old. In 2010, he lived in the UK and competed in the in All Kart Championship for the Strawberry Racing team, but whilst there, he became inspired by the music scene and stars such as Coldplay, Sheeran and Jake Bugg, and started writing with an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal.
He later raced in the Formula Pilota China series, but aged 20 he was involved in a serious racing accident and badly damaged his spine. While recovering he began to focus fully on songwriting to keep his spirits up, and he set out on a mission to perform 100 gigs in a year, during which time he was spotted and invited to play at the Fuji Rock Festival. Singing in English and styling his name as ReN, he landed a deal with Warner Music and his debut album 'Lights' (2016) was full of vivid, bitter-sweet pop songs performed on his trusty acoustic guitar with his rhythmic playing style and his crisp, hushed vocal style.
He went on to support Japanese alternative band One OK Rock on tour, and gradually grew into a well-known, headline act thanks to his second record 'Life Saver' (2017), his single 'Aurora' and the EPs 'Sonzai Shoumei' and 'Existence'. He also spent time writing and recording in Nashville and Los Angeles, before returning in 2019 with 'Hurricane', a big, heavenly, upbeat song of empowerment.
