Sandii & the Sunsetz were a Japanese

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

band that collaborated from 1979 until the #1990s. The Sunsetz, led by Makoto Kubota, and Sandii started as separate artists, and each have a separate discography. However, their collaboration provided a particular body of work that is representative of the period, and which successfully blended Eastern, Western and pop influences.

Career

Early days

- born Sandra O'Neale - was born in

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 American father of Irish and Spanish ancestry and a Japanese mother. Her father was in the U.S. Navy, and she spent her early life in Japan, but moved to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in her early teens and began to study

hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of t ...

and Pacific dance. After becoming accomplished as a singer and dancer, Sandii released her first record "Perusha Neko" under the name Sandi Ai. Returning to Japan in 1975 she was befriended by

Kyu Sakamoto was a Japanese singer and actor. He was best known outside Japan for his international hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō" (known as " Sukiyaki" in English-speaking markets), which was sung in Japanese and sold over 13 million copies. It reached numbe ...

, who helped her to get a job as a DJ on

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

TV in Japan. Sandii performed during the interval of the "World Popular Song Festival" in late 1975, and secured a record deal with

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

. Sandii's debut album, ''Sandi Ai'', is a mix of Japanese originals and covers of well-known songs by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

and

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

. The album was not a great success, and Sandii left Toho for Discomate Records. In 1976 Sandii performed at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival as a non-competitor interval act, and the next year she won the prestigious “Grand Prix Best Vocal Performance” award with the single "Goodbye Morning", her best selling record to date. Sandii met Makoto Kubota in 1976, when he was a guest on her NHK TV show and afterward joined his band ''Yuyake Gakudan'' ("Sunset Gang") as a backup singer. Makoto was an accomplished musician with broad influences, and the collaboration went on to be critically acclaimed, though never quite achieving the popular success expected. The music of The Sunset Gang was very influenced by blues, Southern and West Coast rock, but later they became increasingly interested in Hawaiian and Okinawan music. At this time Sandii also became friends with the future members of the

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is conside ...

, frequent collaborators with the Sunset Gang;

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for ...

naming her "Sandii" because of the connection with Hawaii. However, until 1980 Sandii used a variety of names for different session work e.g. "Sandra Hohn", " Sandi A. Hohn", even "Sandy Ayako". On the soundtrack of ''

Lupin The Third , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène ...

'' Sandii performed the songs "I Miss You Babe" and "Love Squall"; the latter was a single release paired with the theme of the TV series by

Yuji Ohno is a Japanese jazz musician. Ohno is known for his musical scoring of Japanese anime television series, particularly ''Lupin III'', and most famously the 1977 series '' Lupin III Part II'' and the feature film ''The Castle of Cagliostro''. Ea ...

In 1978 Sandii sang the end title theme for the Japanese release of Agatha Christie's ''

Death on the Nile ''Death on the Nile'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 1 November 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at s ...

'', which became a top 20 hit in Japan. This gave Sandii and Makoto the opportunity to record a follow-up album. With limited time and budget, the album ''Mystery Nile'' consists of disco and pop cover versions including "

Dancing Queen "Dancing Queen" is a Europop and disco song by the Swedish group ABBA, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''Arrival'' (1976). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Andersson and Ulvaeus al ...

" by

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

. Sandii and Makoto used fake English names on the record - "Sandy O'Neil" and "Theo Layer". Other guest appearances include the albums ''Dead End'' and ''Monkey Magic'' by

Godiego are a Japanese rock band, consisting of keyboardist and composer Mickie Yoshino, vocalist Yukihide Takekawa, guitarist Takami Asano and Yoji Yoshizawa, bassist Steve Fox, and drummer Tommy Snyder. Over their 40-year career (with hiatuses), Go ...

plus ''Melting Pot'' by Yamamoto Sho, whose backing band became

Ippu-Do was a Japanese synthpop trio of the early 1980s led by singer/songwriter Masami Tsuchiya. History Ippu-Do debuted in 1979 with ''Normal'', made up of Tsuchiya on vocals and guitar, Akira Mitake on keyboards, and Shoji Fujii on drums. Between 1 ...

(including future

member

Masami Tsuchiya is a Japanese singer-songwriter and musician, coming to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and guitarist in the group Ippu-Do. His subsequent output includes solo work and collaborations. Tsuchiya's career in music started with ...

). In 1979, again using the name "Sandy O'Neil", Sandii released the disco track "Hey! King Kong", which failed to become a hit. The same year saw Sandii's first guest appearance with the Yellow Magic Orchestra on their album ''

Solid State Survivor ''Solid State Survivor'' is the second album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1979. Later, ''Solid State Survivor'' was released in 1982 in the UK on LP and cassette, also in 1992 in the United States on CD, bu ...

''. Right at the end of '79 the Y.M.O. and Sandii began to record her debut for Alfa Records, ''Eating Pleasure'', featuring lyrics by

lyricist,

Chris Mosdell Christopher John Mosdell (born 9 November 1949) is a British lyricist, poet, author, composer, vocalist and illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City, United States. He has collaborated with an extensive array of musicians and artist ...

, who, as he had done for YMO's

also wrote the bulk of the lyrics for ''Eating Pleasure''. At this point Makoto also wound up the Sunset Gang and Sandii & The Sunsetz were born. The two groups had the same members, but Sandii became lead vocalist. The collaboration with Mosdell would go on to produce some of the band's biggest hits over the next four years. Sandii and Makoto are on record as saying they were influenced by the sound and success of Blondie and later became friends with

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...

and

Chris Stein Christopher Stein (born January 5, 1950) is an American musician known as the co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie. He is also a producer and performer for the classic soundtrack of the hip hop film '' Wild Style'', and write ...

1980s: The Sunsetz

Their first show as Sandii & The Sunsetz was opening for Yellow Magic Orchestra at

Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. While its primary purpose is to host martial arts ...

in December 1980. In 1981 their next album ''Heat Scale'', again featuring lyrics by

, was released in 17 countries - most international releases adding tunes from "Eating Pleasure". From the release of "Heat Scale" until the next album release "Immigrants" (with a title song penned once more by lyricist

) The Sunsetz spent a lot of time in the UK, recording with

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan. The band's androgynous look and increasingly ...

and

Fun Boy Three Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio/ref> band, active from 1981 to 1983 and formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left the Specials. They released two albums and had seve ...

producer Dave Jordan.

Sounds In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

and

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

gave The Sunsetz extensive coverage which gave the group a lot of credibility in Japan, leading to increased record sales. Their live act gained many fans in the international music industry following their support slot on the final

world tour. The Sunsetz went on to tour and play festivals with

Eurythmics Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...

Inxs INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...

, Blondie and

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

. Their extensive touring and TV appearances in Australia in 1983 allowed them to achieve the #11 charting hit single "Sticky Music" (lyrics by

). Sandii & the Sunsetz also wrote songs for pop idol

Akina Nakamori is a Japanese Singing, singer and Actor, actress. She is one of the most popular and best-selling artists in Japan. Akina achieved national recognition after winning the 1981 season of the talent show ''Star Tanjō!''. Her debut single "Slow M ...

, including her hit "Babylon". The group had problems with international distribution and promotion and were unable to replicate that success worldwide, but had an avid cult following.

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Ot ...

saw Sunsetz guitarist Keni Inoue play in his distinctive plucking style (as heard on "Open Sesame") and asked to be taught the technique. In 1985 Sandii & The Sunsetz left Alfa Records for Toshiba-EMI, whose greater financial muscle gave the group a better budget to work with. Following a collaboration with

Stephen Duffy Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born 30 May 1960 in Alum Rock, Birmingham, England) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist and then drummer of Duran Duran. He went on to record as a solo perform ...

("Something Special") the group released the rock influenced "La La La La Love", released as "Banzai Baby" outside Japan. Although a strong album musically the group were disappointed that it was not promoted internationally, despite following the guidance of the record company, and opted to follow their own creative vision for subsequent releases. This led them to reggae, dancehall and other Jamaican styles which heavily influenced the final Sunsetz albums "Rhythm Chemistry" and "One Love".

1990-present: Latter days

In 1990, the group had another re-invention, just using the name Sandii, although they would carry on using "& The Sunsetz" for live appearances well into the 1990s. Sandii and Makoto decided to concentrate on the Asian market and subsequent releases sold in greater numbers, helped by Sandii recording key songs in up to four languages. In 1996 Sandii recorded the first of her "Hawaii" albums and became increasingly involved in

Hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of t ...

culture.
Sandii now runs two Halau hula, Hula schools, in Harajuku, Tokyo and Yokohama and has a TV series on

, contributing to the popularity of

dance in Japan and allowing Sandii to release roughly two albums a year of Hawaiian and other Pacific style music. In late 2005 Sandii achieved the rank of

Kumu Hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visual ...

and celebrated with an event at a shrine in Ise, with old friend

providing the music. Makoto Kubota is still a major music producer in Japan, always exploring new directions in world music.

Sandii Discography

Singles

*(''as Sandi Ai'') "Sandi Ai" (Toho Records, 1975) (included the singles "Ai No Melody" and "Kuzitsuke no yurushite") *(''as Sandi Ai'') "Perusha Neko" (Pineapple Records Hawaii, USA, 1975) *(''as Sandy'') "Goodbye Morning" (Discomate Records, 1976) *(''as Sandra Hohn'') "Love Squall" (Vap Records, 1978) *(''as Sandy O'Neil'') "Mystery Nile" (Toshiba-EMI, 1978) *(''as Sandy O'Neil'') "Hey! King Kong" (Toshiba-EMI, 1979) *"Drip Dry Eyes" (Alfa Records, 1980; lyrics: Chris Mosdell) *(with

) "Something Special" (Ten Records/Virgin, 1985)

Albums

*''Eating Pleasure'' (Alfa Records, 1980; title track lyrics by

) *''Pacifica'' (EMI/Eastworld, 1991)

Compilations

*''Come Again – Remixes and Rare Tracks'' (Eastworld, 1991)

Sandii & The Sunsetz discography

Singles

*"Sticky Music" (Alfa Records/WEA, 1983; lyrics:

) *"Viva Lava Vida" (1984) - AUS #45 *"Immigrants" (1984) - AUS #100 *'Babes in the Woods" (

Eastworld Eastworld is a Japanese jazz and pop music record label owned by EMI Music Japan (former Toshiba-EMI), under Universal Music Group. Artists *Minako Honda *Jennifer Connelly *Marvin Peterson *Original Love *RC Succession *Sadistic Mika Band * San ...

/Toshiba EMI, 1985)

Albums

*''Heat Scale'' (Alfa Records, 1981; title track lyrics by

) *''Immigrants'' (Alfa Records, 1982; title track lyrics by Chris Mosdell) *''Sticky Music'' (Sire Records, 1983) - AUS #11 *''La La La La Love~Banzai Baby'' (Eastworld/Toshiba EMI, 1986) *''Rhythm Chemistry'' (Toshiba EMI, 1987) *''One Love'' (Toshiba EMI, 1988)

Compilations

*''Viva Lava Liva: 1980–1983'' (Alfa Records, 1984; a different version was released in Australia) *''Orientation (Best of 1985–1988)'' (Toshiba EMI, 1990) *''East Meets West'' (A&M, US/Canada, 1989; compilation of material from 1980 to 1988) *''Twins – Super Best of Sandii and Sunsetz'' (Alfa Records, 1996)

Other

*"The Bomb the Bass Remix" (Alfa Records, 1991) *"The Sunset Gang" (Dixie Fever, 1977; also several other albums by Sunset Gang during the 1970s with Makoto on lead vocals)

References

External links

Official site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandii and The Sunsetz Japanese pop music groups Winners of Yamaha Music Festival

Career

Early days

1980s: The Sunsetz

1990-present: Latter days

Sandii Discography

Singles

Albums

Compilations

Sandii & The Sunsetz discography

Singles

Albums

Compilations

Other

See also

References

External links