Monoral is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band signed to

Sony Music Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

. The band consists of

Anis Shimada Anis ( ar, أنيس) is a masculine given name. The meaning of the name Anis is "genial" or "close friend". People In arts * Anis Mohamed Youssef Ferchichi, German rapper known as Bushido * Anis Haffar, educational theorist, teacher, columnist ...

(

lead vocal The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

s and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

) and Ali Morizumi ( bass, guitar and

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Members

Anis, the band's lead singer, born on February 23, 1975, is a British musician who speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, French, and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. Born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to a

father and a Moroccan-French mother, and raised in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Anis was first discovered by

Tetsuya Komuro is a Japanese musician, songwriter and record producer. He is recognized as the most successful producer in Japanese music history and introduced contemporary electronic dance music to the Japanese mainstream. He was also a former owner of the ...

, with whom he released a debut single in 1994 under the name of Aniss. He used to be a fashion model, as well as a MTV show host. He also used to support some famous musicians performing on TV as a

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

. He is often involved with the creation of TV commercial songs, singing backup for other famous musicians, writing English lyrics and helping other artists as an English supervisor. Ali, born in 1973, is a

Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asia ...

bassist and guitarist. Born and raised in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to an

Iranian-American Iranian Americans are United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian ancestry or who hold Iranian citizenship. Iranian Americans are among the most highly educated people in the United States. They have historically excelled in busine ...

father and a Native Okinawan mother. He can speak both Japanese and English fluently. He was a VJ on

MTV Japan MTV Japan (Music Television Japan) is the Japanese version of the cable television network based in Japan. It is a subsidiary of Paramount Networks Japan K.K., and was launched on November 15, 1993. It can be viewed on cable television, SKY Perfe ...

, where he eventually met Anis. Ali is also a professional radio DJ and hosts a show on

InterFM InterFM (JODW-FM 89.7 MHz Tokyo, 76.5 MHz Yokohama) is a Japanese commercial radio station on the FM band, transmitting in the Greater Tokyo area (including Narita International Airport), and owned and operated by . Since September 202 ...

as well.

History

Their debut was in July 2001. Only 2 days after the release of their first mini album ''in stereo'', they performed at the Fuji Rock Festival 2001. The band's second minor debut album ''ammonite'', which rose as high as No. 3 on the

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records ...

Indie Charts in

, remained in the Top 50 for 7 months. In 2005 they released their first major debut with the single ''Visions In My Head'', under the label Haunted Records (a subsidiary of

), which was created by the Japanese rock musician, HYDE, lead vocalist of

L'Arc-en-Ciel L'Arc-en-Ciel ( French: 'The Rainbow', stylized as L'Arc~en~Ciel), also known as Laruku, is a Japanese rock band, formed in Osaka in 1991 by bassist tetsuya and vocalist hyde. Following the departure of original members hiro and pero, guitarist ...

. They are now signed on HYDE's label VAMPROSE. The songs "Pocketful of joy" and "Visions in my Head" were used for a TV commercial for IXY digital camera by Canon. In 2006, the band performed "Kiri", which became the opening theme to the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series ''

Ergo Proxy ''Ergo Proxy'' is a Japanese cyberpunk anime television series, produced by Manglobe, directed by Shūkō Murase and written by Dai Satō. The series ran for 23 episodes from February to August 2006 on the Wowow satellite network. It is set i ...

''. The song was also released via the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

on May 25, 2006. Monoral also released their second major album, ''Turbulence'', on July 4, 2007 and ''Via'', on October 29, 2008. After the release of ''Via'', they toured in Latin America, Europe and China.

Collaborations

Monoral's support members are the guitarists Akira Yasue and Hirama Mikio (former member of

Tokyo Incidents , also known as Tokyo Incidents, is a Japanese rock band formed by Ringo Sheena, after leaving her solo career. The band's debut single " Gunjō Biyori" was released in September 2004, and they ended activities in February 2012. The band sold 2. ...

) and Daigo Kakijima on the Drums. Former support guitarist Eric Zay played for rock group

FAKE? Fake? is a Japanese rock musical project led by vocalist Ken Lloyd. Originally a duo, guitarist Inoran left in 2005. Lyrics are mainly in English and sometimes in Japanese. History In late 2001 Oblivion Dust vocalist Ken Lloyd joined up with Lu ...

, another former guitarist Tomoya Tsusui has his own band called Tobyas. MONORAL have collaborated with various other artists such as

Fumiya Fujii is a Japanese musician, actor and former lead singer of The Checkers born in Kurume. His younger brother is Naoyuki Fujii, a musician and former sax player for The Checkers. His eldest son is Fuji TV announcer Kōki Fujii. He formerly belonged t ...

, Lisa from

M-flo is a Japanese hip hop group consisting of record producer DJ Taku Takahashi, Verbal and Lisa. Lisa left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career and the remaining members then started the M-Flo Loves... project working different vocalists fo ...

and

Mondo Grosso , also known by his stage name Mondo Grosso, is a Japanese musician, DJ, record producer and composer currently signed onto Avex Trax's Rhythm Zone label. Previously he was signed to Sony Music Japan's FEARLESS RECORDS division and released album ...

, either through songwriting or performances.

Discography

;Studio albums *''Petrol'' (July 13, 2005) *''Turbulence'' (July 4, 2007) *''Via'' (October 29, 2008) ;EPs *''In Stereo'' (July 25, 2001) *''Ammonite'' (March 24, 2004) ;Singles *"Visions In My Head" (November 2, 2005) *"Kiri" (May 25, 2006) *"Tuesday" (May 9, 2007) *"Casbah" (July 30, 2008) *"Safira" (September 3, 2008) *"70 Hours" (November 25, 2008) *"Origins" (August 28, 2010)

References

External links

*
Anis Official Website

HAUNTED RECORDS

VAMPROSE

Official HearJapan Page

J!-ENT's Wynne Ip interviews MONORAL - NOV. 2008
{{Authority control Sony Music Entertainment Japan artists Japanese indie rock groups Japanese alternative rock groups Japanese rock music groups Rock music duos Musical groups from Tokyo