BACK-ON has been added to the lineup of of bands performing at the 10th Anniversary of the major Japanese ROCK Music Festival: SUMMER SONIC 2009!

Just to give you some idea as to how big this festival is, here’s a snapshot list of some of the other big name artists that have been lined up for the event in Osaka:

You might not listen to any of their music, but I’m willing to bet a BACK-ON album/single that you’ll have heard the name of at least ONE of them! :)

According to the SUMMER SONIC 2009 Osaka timetable, BACK-ON will be performing at on 7th August 2009 at 16:20pm on the Garden Stage and you can get buy the one-day pass directly from the SUMMER SONIC 2009 website for ¥ 13,000. The ‘sister’ event will be running concurrently just outside Tokyo.

Now, moving onto non-factual commentary: I know we like to talk about BACK-ON‘s “milestones” (like their work with GReeeeN to form BAReeeeeeeeeeN and doing the theme song for TotW:RM2) every so often on this fan site, but considering the variety and pulling power of the lineup and the enormity of the event – it attacted 200,000 people in 2007 – I think anyone would agree that for a ‘home grown’ talent like BACK-ON, this performance will potentially be one of their crowning moments!

Fingers crossed that international producers, record companies, or even bands who are known to spot previously unrecognised talent, will take time out to listen to BACK-ON‘s 40 minute live set and take them to the next level… Glastonbury, anyone?

UPDATE 31/07/2009: A really interesting post about the logistics of the event is Summer Sonic 2009: a reader Q&A about the event by Joshua Williams .

What makes this particular interview rather different from others before is that firstly, there are two versions. One version is Japanese-only, where you hear Jennifer Ho ask Teeda (and Kenji03) the question in English – in an Aussie accent (as expected) – which is followed by their reply in Japanese.

The other version is almost exactly the same, except that now Teeda and Kenji03‘s replies have an unobtrusive English voice-over, which enables us to understand what they are saying!

Without spoiling the interview for you (although we have provided a full transcript below the cut) there is a really funny moment where Kenji03 launches into an answer and then forgets the question (best heard in the Japanese version) and it seems that Teeda really likes koalas? It is also interesting what he says about how the band came to work with GReeeeN:

GReeeeN and BACK-ON have the same producer known by the name of JIN. Sometimes he brings GReeeeN’s new tracks for us to have a listen to or take our tracks to GReeeeN, vice versa, which has made us realise we had the same message to tell, even though we come from different backgrounds.

What we want to express with our music is no different, and we thought we could make
something really cool together – mixing rock and Jpop – that’s how we ended up together.

Teeda then talks about what BACK-ON brings to Ashiato, their first single with GReeeeN as BAReeeeeeeeeeN:

GReeeeN’s music is more of a pop music, with a kinda popular straightforward sound, whereas BACK-ON has been playing in the underground rock scenes in Japan and occasionally overseas.

We’ve brought that kind of BACK-ON taste into the collaboration: we’ve turned it more ‘rockish’ by adding some features like rough raps or distortion to the sound.

Of course there is more, and you can listen to the interview for yourself by visiting the link below:

Listen to the interview on Alchemy’s Asian Pop Show

I would really highly recommend it, although here is some breaking news about their plans for 2009: BACK-ON‘s first full album YES!!! is going to be released in Europe! Apart from doing more live gigs, they would also like to do a tour in the US and possibly Europe and Australia.

Hope you will enjoy listening to it as much as we did :) A big thanks must go to Jennifer Ho and Mika Nakamori for their fantastic work! As mentioned above, if you are unable to access the audio, you can read the full text transcript of the interview below:

Interview Transcript

Teeda (and Kenji03): To everyone in Australia, including the koalas, this is BACK-ON’s MC Teeda and Kenji with Jennifer on Alchemy’s Asian Pop Show!

** Chain plays in the background**

Jennifer: Recently one of the things about you guys is the new collaboration with GReeeeN. What are some of the things you guys have done to promote your collaboration with GReeeeN?

Teeda: Well, GReeeeN actually keep their identity a secret and never show their faces to the public. To keep it that way, they can’t perform live or appear on TV shows with us. For that reason promotional activities from the BACK-ON side were restricted as well.

We only did TV ads and commercials.

Jennifer: What do you think (of) the idea that they try to hide their identity?

Teeda: The positive side of it, I think, is that no one would recognise you, so you could walk on the streets without being spotted. That would be one of the good things about it I guess.

Jennifer: How did you and GReeeeN end up together and become BAReeeeeeeeeeN?

Teeda: GReeeeN and BACK-ON have the same producer known by the name of JIN. Sometimes he brings GReeeeN’s new tracks for us to have a listen to, or take our tracks to GReeeeN, vice versa, which made us realise we had the same message to tell, even though we come from different backgrounds.

What we want to express with our music is no different, and we thought we could make something really cool together – mixing rock and J-pop – that’s how we ended up together.

Jennifer: What role does BACK-ON play in the new single ‘Ashiato’?

Teeda: GReeeeN’s music is more of a pop music, with a kinda popular straightforward sound, whereas BACK-ON has been playing in the underground rock scenes in Japan and occasionally overseas.

We’ve brought that kind of BACK-ON taste into the collaboration: we’ve turned it more ‘rockish’ by adding some features like rough raps or distortion to the sound.

** Ashiato plays in the background**

** BLAZE LINE plays in the background**

Jennifer: Now let’s focus on BACK-ON. How’s the new album YES!!! special to you?

Teeda: Is it ok if Kenji, our guitar/vocalist takes over from here?

Kenji03: Domo. Good morning. BACK-ON’s guitar and vocalist Kenji03 here.

Since it was our first album, we wanted to create the best thing possible… I’m sorry what was the question again? It was a rather… complicated question.

Teeda: No it wasn’t.

Kenji03: What was it again?

Mika Nakamori: *repeats the question*

Kenji03: There are no special thoughts as such, but this is our very first album. We’ve always wanted to release one for so long, so we’ve tried creating the best thing ever, which makes it a very special album for us.

Jennifer: So tell us about the process of putting this album together, for example the recordings and some of the difficulties you guys have faced?

Kenji03: It took us a while to select the first track. We wrote several songs to use as the first track, but we couldn’t decide it. What we thought was the right one was actually the first… I’m not really sure what I’m talking about *laughs*

But, anyway, what I meant is it was difficult to write a song for the first
track of the first album.

This is because when you listen to your CD or samples at the CD store, you’re most likely to start from the first track, right? The first track is always the key track of an album, so we considered it more seriously.

** Hate Naki Michi E [LA mix] plays in the background**

Jennifer: And what is one of the most unusual ways you guys have come up with a great song that you love?

Kenji03: Teeda will take over from here.

Teeda: For the song called ‘Color’, it’s actually for BAReeeeeeeeeeN. I came up with the verse and the pre-chorus sections whilst I was having a bath in the hot spring.

** Color plays in the background **

Jennifer: And I hear that you guys have been trying to film the new music video for the new single ‘flyaway’ and the weather hasn’t been too good. So share with us a little bit – what’s this single going to be about?

Teeda: ‘flyaway’ will be the opening theme for the sequel of Namco Bandai’s popular video game: Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.

Jennifer: Are there any plans for 2009 that we can look forward to?

Teeda: We were too busy with recordings this year and didn’t get to do gigs very often, so we want to get out and do more gigs next year and hopefully do a tour in the US.

As our album ‘YES!!!’ is set to be released in Europe, we’re hoping to go to Europe as well. It would be great if we could also have a chance to go to Australia. We would love to kangeroos and koalas, and of course Australian fans.

Kenji03: Yeah!

Jennifer: Yes, I will take you guys to see kangaroos and koala if you come.

Teeda: Yatta. Kenji is also saying Yatta!

Kenji03: YATTA!

Jennifer: If we were going to visit you in Japan, where will you take us?

Teeda: We’re from downtown Tokyo, so we can go on a pub crawl in Asakusa to eat monjayaki, okonomiyaki and udon. How does that sound?

Kenji03: I’d like to recommend a track called NEW WORLD, simply because it rocks! YAY!

** NEW WORLD fades into the background **

12/11/08: #26
13/11/08: #29
14/11/08: #24

These are the figures I’ve been able to capture so far, and I’m actually really looking forward to the release of the weekly results to see how well BACK-ON have done, especially now that they have been featured as part of Fuji TV‘s staple weekday morning news program とくダネ! (Tokudane!)

According to the Wikipedia entry for the program, it is currently broadcast from 08:00 – 09:55, Mondays to Fridays” and with reference to the English version of FujiTV Outline, this ‘infotainment’ program has held the top position for audience ratings during the morning slot for 74 months running! This is good news, because even if the viewing audience are primarily made up of OAPs (assuming Japan and the UK are similar in that respect :p) this still means that BACK-ON was promoted for two minutes to the majority of TV viewers!

And it was a great introduction imho, which you can watch for yourself courtesy of MONSTERSNITE (gangangan03‘s new account!) by clicking the link below or scrolling to the end of this post!

Click here to watch BACK-ON being introduced on Tokudane!

For those without access to Youtube, here’s a quick breakdown of what happened in the clip:

• The main presenter is Tomoaki Ogura (小倉智昭) introduces BACK-ON by playing 足跡 (Ashiato) and introducing them as one half of BAReeeeeeeeeeN. I love how he pronounces the word BAReeeeeeeeeeN. :)
• This revelation is met with murmurs and various nods of approval from his co-hosts and guests. +1
• I think he then talks about how JIN (big bro of HIDE of GReeeeN) is related to BACK-ON
• As Butterfly is played in the background, Tomoaki Ogura talks about BACK-ON‘s brief history whilst displaying their group photo on-screen (below), and he even drops in Kenji03‘s name!

  

• For those better at Japanese than I am (that’s many of you by the way) you’ll understand what the presenter is saying before he drops in the word ‘flower‘. I didn’t really get most of it, but I’m pretty sure he said “America” :)
• They then play the PV for flower as it rolls into the chorus. The text 5 member (BACK-ON) First Album is shown throughout the clip by the way.
• I’m sure the presenter then talks about ‘next year’ something or other, and then some strange rating system appears where BACK-ON appears to get 80 (out of a possible 100?) This is a good thing I think?

So there you have it, BACK-ON‘s (probably first) promotional on day time telly; it might not seem like much, but for someone who has just witnessed the startling effectiveness of TV advertising first hand on a friend, I am pretty sure that this brief but surprisingly thorough introduction has probably resulted in BACK-ON‘s YES!!! jumping 5 spaces to #24 in today’s Oricon rankings! And oh YES!!!, if you happen to know how this whole rating system works on とくダネ!, please do drop us a comment below and let us know!

And last but not least; the video clip of BACK-ON on とくダネ! (Tokudane!) courtesy of MONSTERSNITE!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

]]> http://www.backon-online.com/back-on-featured-on-fuji-tvs-tokudane/feed/ 2 http://www.backon-online.com/watch-bareeeeeeeeeen-ashiato-pv-online/ http://www.backon-online.com/watch-bareeeeeeeeeen-ashiato-pv-online/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 13:57:08 +0000 Flick http://www.backon-online.com/watch-bareeeeeeeeeen-ashiato-pv-online/ Following our previous post introducing the new band BAReeeeeeeeeeN (a collaboration between BACK-ON + GReeeeN and JIN) although we did provide a link to an online version of the PV, since then we’ve found out some tidbits which we thought we should share with all the BACK-ON fans.

The first revelation (courtesy of our hero gangangan03) is that JIN, the older brother of HIDE (GReeeeN‘s leader) is featured in the PV!

You can see his picture above, and as far as we can tell, he makes his appearance at 2:17 and 3:22 (I love his sunglasses!) and apparently, the peeps behind the video asked him to be make a guest appearance since he’s the bridge and an ‘important guy’ between/to the two bands.

He also makes his appearance in the CM for mu-mo, which is the digital download site of the Avex label (credit gangangan03); take a look here and see if you can spot him. :D

Unfortunately I didn’t see any members of BACK-ON in the video, and GReeeeN like to keep what they look like a secret, since apparently they’re all dentists-in-training?

But the second revelation is that the bridge of the PV version is a little different from the mp3 that’s flying around the internet at the moment; where Teeda starts his English rap:

This is at 2:17, and in the PV, we hear Teeda saying:

BACK-ON plus G-R-e-e-e-e-N dou desu, You ready?

But in the mp3 version, this is replaced by an electronic voice (Teeda‘s?) singing:

B-A-R-eeeeeeeeee-N dou desu, You ready?

Although I like both versions, for some reason, I really do prefer the first one where we can hear Teeda rapping clearly – perhaps it’s because I’m a BACK-ON fan, and as such, am absolutely not biased? :p

It would be interesting to find out what others thought. At present no one knows which version will be on the single Ashiato, although a reliable source (see above) tells us it’s usually the PV version, but since the digital download version is different… Nevertheless, we at BOO do try to encourage fans to buy the CD (out October 1st) and support the bands if you can. Another way, of course, is to:

SPREAD THE WORD!

BAReeeeeeeeeeN is already making headlines in Japan (see the photo of the newspaper article below from HIDE’s blog, with thanks to gangangan03!)

but for some reason fewer people seem to have caught on in the “English language” blog-o-sphere, so let people know! One thing I should mention is that when pronouncing BAReeeeeeeeeeN, the ‘eeeeeeeeee’ sound should be held for around two seconds. So, altogether now:

BAReeeeeeeeeeN!

And last, but not least, the video (courtesy of gezimayuo)!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

p/s: You can view the AVI version by viewing this post by de_broti!

GReeeeN shot to the top of the Oricon charts during the summer with their single Kiseki, and the two bands have joined together to form a new band under the Avex trax label cutting edge called BAReeeeeeeeeeN, pronounced ???? (Bariin). The producer of this new group is JIN, Hide (leade member of GReeeeN)’s older brother, who is also known for his role as both the guitarist of P.T.P (PaymoneyTomyPain) and the producer of BACK-ON. Apparently he is the mastermind behind the entire collaboration.

BAReeeeeeeeeeN‘s debut single, which is out on October 1st 2008, doesn’t seem to have a title per-se but may actually be called ?? (Ashiato) which is also the name of the title track. The B-side, or second song, is called color. You can already listen to an mp3 version of the first track (see Tsubasa‘s forum post, a big thank you!) and now that I’ve heard it, I can definitely say it’s a really really catchy song!

It’s a fantastic blend of the musical styles of both groups – mixing pop, rap and rock – where (since this *is* a fansite about BACK-ON): Teeda features as the lead during the second part of the first verse of the song and the bridge; you can hear Kenji03 in the chorus; and there is of course the underlying guitar, bass and drums from Shu, Gori and Icchan, and although I LOVE the bridge, the intro of the song is already catchy enough to get people moving!

JIN is quoted as saying that its meant to be a fusion of GReeeeN‘s singing-in-harmony and BACK-ON‘s rapping.

I’ve been listening to it on repeat for most of the evening whilst writing up this post, and Ashiato is definitely a hit in the making, and even before its release, it is already being featured in the headlines:

According to Tokyograph, Ashiato was already making tidal waves on USEN and chaka-uta since its release around 3 weeks ago, but we heard from from gangangan03 (who kindly sent us a link to this Yahoo! article) that the song actually reached #1 in downloads for both providers.

To give a bit of background info (with special thanks to wao for being so helpful and providing this information): USEN is an ISP that provides digital content for download, the chaka-uta (short for “chakushin merodi” or “ringtone”), provides full song ringtone downloads.

You can actually see the song in the #1 position on this week’s USEN charts. According to the aforementioned Yahoo! article, the Ashiato has been downloaded more than 200,000 times in the past two weeks, and is already making history as being one of the most popular songs for an ‘unknown’ band.

This is because the song appears to have been released to USEN users at the end of August 2008, but the identity of the people behind BAReeeeeeeeeeN was only ‘officially’ revealed within the last two days, which prompted a flurry of speculation in early September, including rumours that the group involved GReeeeN because of the e so characteristic of the band (each e represents a band member):

BACK-ON was mentioned as one of the potential bands, by blogs such as MUSIC TRIP~????~ (who also posted the lyrics to the chorus of Ashiato) amongst others such as Hi-Fi Camp.

To add fuel to the (blazing) fire, three companies mu-mo, Casio and Kirin decided to work together to produce CMs featuring Ashiato to promote their products (mu-mo, Exilim 2300 and Smooth respectively) on TV (which you can watch here) which only served to fan the flames of BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com‘s mysterious image.

However, the launch of the (dual-band) group’s official website BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com on September 15th 2008 (just two days ago) and the official news release today (September 17th 2008) all the rumours were quelled as the truth was revealed:

BAReeeeeeeeeeN = BACK-ON + GReeeeN + JIN!

Needless to say, the 10 e‘s that are in BAReeeeeeeeeeN represent the 10 people involved with the new group (BACK-ON‘s 5, GReeeeN‘s 4 and JIN) and the name is a mix of the two bands BA and Reeee(eeeeee)N.

As GReeeeN is one of the hottest pop bands around at the moment (their Wiki entry says they’re all training to be dentists?) hopefully BACK-ON‘s collaboration with an equally talented musical group will bring BACK-ON and its staff their well-deserved break! BAReeeeeeeeeeN.com is pretty much the most talked-about band in the media at the moment, and given the strength of the song, this might even bring BACK-ON (and GReeeeN) around the world (again) and maybe even to the European shores this time as well (shout out to gangangan03 here!)

p/s: A big thank-you must go to wao for being so helpful during our research for this post.
p/s2: Watch the PV courtesy of satsukidabesa on Dailymotion!