| hitorie | |
| Native Name: | ヒトリエ |
| Native Name Lang: | ja |
| Years Active: | 2011 – present |
| Past Members: | wowaka |
Hitorie, sometimes stylized in all caps or lowercase, is a Japanese rock band formed in 2011 by lead vocalist and guitarist wowaka along with bassist Ygarshy and drummer Yumao under the name . Backing vocalist and fellow guitarist Shinoda joined in 2012, and the band renamed to its current name the same year.[1]
In an interview with Natalie, wowaka disclosed that after releasing "Unhappy Refrain", he became mentally exhausted and distanced himself from the scene to protect his well-being, feeling that the pressure for fame and success had overshadowed the authenticity of the music.[20] He met Yumao and ygarshy online later that year and formed the band, previously named .[21] In 2012, Shinoda, an acquaintance of both ygarshy and Yumao, was invited to join. They met via Skype, and Shinoda joined the band, which was renamed to Hitorie. wowaka says he chose the band's members "with assertiveness":
"As music makers, we gather together people who are assertive in their instruments, performances, and music. Actually, I don't think there are many bands of that type. However, Hitorie's music is assertive in that way. I think that is our strength."[22]In December, they released their first mini-album " independently at Comic Market 83 (C83).[23]
On April 2013, they released their first EP "non-fiction four e.p." independently. Although an indie release, it reached over 10.000 copies sold.[24] Later that month, they held their first one-man live named "hitori-escape" in Tokyo.
On November 4th, they held their first sold-out show (Extraordinary Shibuya Edition)" at shibuya eggman. The same day, they announced their major debut under their own label, "", under the Sony Music umbrella.
On January 22 2014, they released their first major single "", which played in radio stations all over Japan and was selected for FM802's heavy rotation.
Less than a month later, on February 19th, they announced their first mini-album after their major debut, titled ". wowaka described the mini-album's title as "This is the easiest way to express “this is what we sing and play” and “this is the root of what we do as a band and music”. I wanted to make the title of the album a big grouping, since the album will be a work of art."[25]
In April, they performed a one-man tour in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, named ", which sold out all venues, including the Ebisu LIQUIDROOM, one of the most popular live houses in Shibuya.[26] [27] They also participated in multiple rock festivals, such as the ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2014, WORLD HAPPINESS 2014 and RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2014 in EZO, gaining more support from fans throughout the country.
On November 26, they released their first full-length album "WONDER and WONDER", which featured their debut single "Senseless Wonder". In an interview, ygarshy says the album "displays all the weapons I have at my disposal":
"For me, for the time being, I feel that it is an album in which I have put out all the weapons I have at my disposal. There are songs that you can jam to, there are songs with a purpose in mind, and there are songs like “Senseless Wonder” that make use of my original weapons.We can do anything now, can't we?"wowaka described the album as:
"I think that until now, I probably had some kind of ego in a bad sense of the word. I can say that now. But in a more pure sense, we have become a band with a one-of-a-kind coolness that only the four members of Hitorie can bring to the table. That is what I originally wanted to do. That's why I think this album has a cool, tingly, tense feeling as a band. In fact, the process of making it was quite stressful (laughs)."In December, they held their "WONDER and WANDER" tour, over 12 locations nationwide. In Tokyo, their performance at Akasaka BLITZ was sold out.
On July 1st, 2015, they released their 2nd mini-album ".[28] As promotion for the album, all of wowaka's posts on social media, especially Instagram, were in black and white. This went from March 1st, to December 10th.[29] On the same month, they held their one-man tour "", with an additional performance in Sendai. Various venues were sold out.
On November 4th, they released their new single ", and re-released their first 2 indie releases as " on streaming services. [30] The release featured remasters of most of their old songs, as well as feature a re-recording of "Kara no Waremono", the first song to be written by wowaka for the band.[31]
On January 27th, their 3rd single " (stylized as one-Me two-Hearts)", was released as the opening theme for the anime series "". It was Hitorie's first song to be featured in an anime series.[32] The anime received mixed reviews by fans and critics alike, citing a convoluted story and disappointing adaptation. However, Hitorie's opening theme was praised by many for being memorable, even outside the anime's context.[33]
On February 24th, they released their 2nd full-length studio album "DEEPER".[34] The cover art is from an art exhibition called "STILLSCAPE" by photographers Tetsuya Nagato and Taro Mizutani.[35] In March, they started their one-man tour "one-Me Tour “DEEP/SEEK”", over 14 locations nationwide. The tour final was at Shinkiba STUDIO COAST, and was very successful.[36] On August 8th, they released their first live movie and album featuring the performance.[37]
On November 1st, they started their one-man tour "HITORI-[E]SCAPE 2016 tour "5"" over 5 venues nationwide.[38] On the 1st of December, they released their 3rd full-length studio album "IKI",[39] their 2nd full-length album release on the same year. A talk and autograph event to commemorate the release was held in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka.[40] The album's title, stylized in English, is based on the japanese word "生きる", which means "to live". It was previously named "HUMAN". Tomoko Ariizumi of MUSICA, says:
"This album “IKI” is a work in which wowaka, after a long period of trial and error since he formed the band Hitorie, was finally able to fully liberate himself in his music, and finally give birth to a pure and true voice. This human liberation inevitably led to the full flowering of his potential as a musician and expressive artist."A live album tour to commemorate the album's release, named ", was performed in over 20 locations nationwide starting on January 27th 2017.[41]
On August 22nd 2017, wowaka released his final vocaloid song, " for Hatsune Miku's 10th anniversary compilation album Re:Start.[42] A cover version by Hitorie featuring wowaka's vocals was released 2 months later, on October 22nd.[43] The song was recorded with Hitorie on both versions, and wowaka sings the chorus on the original vocaloid version, while Miku can be heard on the Hitorie version.[44]
On December 6th, they released their new mini-album "ai/SOlate",[45] featuring "Unknown Mother-Goose" as the lead single.[46] The title is a double entendre, as it can be interpreted as "isolate" or "愛 ("ai", love in Japanese) so late". As promotion for the album, all tracks, excluding Unknown Mother-Goose, and " (Absolute)", had short music videos released by the members on social media. The first video released was for the song "NAI.", which was directed by,[47] who directed the music videos for "" and "One Me Two Hearts". The theme was "white". Tanabe's comment on the video:
"Immaculate purity. White, not yet soiled by any other pigment. Beautifully pure. Within that gleaming beauty lurks a swarm of moths. I tried to use the contras" of lurking moths upon an innocent smile to emphasize the idea of ‘white’."[48]The second video released was for the song "Loveless", during their national "IKI" tour, and was directed by, who also directed the music videos for "" and "". The video's theme was simply "pink".[49] Shimada's comment on the video:
"The color pink was the only prompt I received, so my initial inspiration was to use the hues of skin. With closeups on the tonality of the girl’s skin, and the combination of soft-colored flowers… The video turned quite feminine, yet still with a slightly bare and ominous aura to it."[50]The third video released was for the song "Namid[A]me".[51] The title is a play on words with the Japanese words (means "tears")", and " (means "rain")". A literal translation would be "rain of tears". The video was recorded by "", which appeared on the album cover for "Monochrome Entrance" and the music video for "Talkie Dance". The video's theme, was described by Ryuka herself:
"I recorded low-key streetlights and the highway at midnight, to enhance a low-key setting."[52]The fourth and final video released was for the song "". It was directed by Kakimoto Kensaku, who also directed the music video for "Little Cry Baby".[53] The video's theme was "red". Kakimoto's comment on the video:
"In the present country we dwell, what is red, I ask. From nuclear power, the mass media, vested interest, to politics as a whole… Just thinking about it there’s no end. If you know it’s red and yet get too scared to voice how red it is, then at that point it’s already bright red. Every bit of imagery in this video was forged from layers of reds, so the act of releasing this video into the world is virtually red in itself. Red is an amass of energy, I think."[54]On January 17th 2018, Hitorie performed alongside UNISON SQUARE GARDEN on their two-man live "nexUs Vol.4" at Akasaka BLITZ.[55] On the 28th, they started their "UNKNOWN-TOUR 2018 “Loveless”" in over 10 locations across the country.[56] They also performed overseas for the first time, at additional performances in Taiwan and Shanghai.[57] On October 4th, they started their first overseas tour, called "HITORI-ESCAPE in CHINA “RED HOT POT TOUR”".[58]
On October 28th, their fourth single "" was released as the seventh ending theme for the anime series .[59] A month later, on November 28th, the physical version was released with 2 additional songs. One of them was a new song, titled "RIVER FOG, CHOCOLATE BUTTERFLY". The other, was Hitorie's cover of "", one of wowaka's vocaloid songs.[60] Shinoda said in an interview that the song was one of his favorites and the one that he wanted to play live the most, however wowaka, exhausted from the release of "Unhappy Refrain", neglected the idea. After performing the song in rehearsals, wowaka felt compelled to record the song and include it on the single.[61]
On January 7th, 2019, Hitorie announced their 4th full-length studio album "HOWLS". It released on February 27th, and featured their single "Polaris".[62] It was preceded by two singles from the album, "SLEEPWALK", and "".[63] On the talk and listening party to commemorate the album's release, Yumao revealed that, unlike all their other songs, "SLEEPWALK" was produced solely by wowaka. Although he was hesitant to include it on the album, Yumao heavily pushed wowaka to include it. Production on the song begun after ygarshy suggested that wowaka should write a song by himself again.[64] Similarly to "Loveless" on "ai/SOlate", it's one of their few songs to have a more pop-like sound. On the 1st of March, they announced their 2019 tour "Coyote Howling".[65]
On April 8th, in an announcement on Sony Music's official website, it was disclosed that wowaka had passed away 3 days prior, on April 5th, in his sleep. The cause of death was acute heart failure. He was 31 years old. A private funeral was held with his family and friends.[66] They cancelled their previously announced tour and offered refunds to all concert-goers, and said the band's future was "currently undecided".
The band's members left messages for wowaka in the same announcement. ygarshy (Bassist) said:
"Even now, I'm still waiting for that moment when wowaka starts playing guitar on stage.Shinoda (guitarrist) said:Everyone will be in the audience, and when the leader of the band, waving his right hand, makes a huge sound, the happiest time of my life will begin.
No matter how much I bluff, honestly, I still can't get anything done.
I'm not hungry, and I don't sleep well.
I can't think back to the time when I met wowaka.
I can't stop crying.
I am so sorry that I can't show you the performance with the 4 of us anymore.
Still, I am the only bassist that wowaka chose in this world, so I will never stop playing the bass that wowaka told me he loves.
Leader, you can come and listen to me anytime.
I'll get better tomorrow."
"Sorry leader, I'm going to borrow [the] Jazzmaster for a little while longer.Yumao (drummer) said:I don't know how long it will take, but I will pay you back, so please wait over there."
"wowaka, I don't have anything in particular to say about us in depth at length, but wowaka writes the song, we pick up the instruments, the song is finished, we play it live, and we make the sound. And we sounded great, didn't we?On June 1st, a memorial concert for wowaka was held, named "". The venue was selected to be the tour final of their cancelled "Coyote Howling" tour.[67] The concert started with a video of their performance on the "IKI" tour. Later, Shinoda, Yumao and ygarshy took to the stage, with Shinoda being the vocalist and guitarrist. He entered the stage holding up wowaka's signature Fender Telecaster.[68] They performed "SLEEPWALK" live for the first time. Before the performance, Shinoda said "I'm not used to this, but I'll sing with a hand mic." After the performance, Shinoda said "That must've reached heaven." Before the end of the set, Shinoda said: "To be honest, we haven't decided anything like 'what we are going to do from now on'... but at least we won't break up." He then introduced the last song, “I'm sure everyone can sing this song. Let's sing it loud enough for wowaka in heaven to hear." They then performed "Rolling Girl", wowaka's signature vocaloid song, with Shinoda's vocals. The concert's encore was a live recording of "Little Cry Baby", from their 2017 "IKI" tour.I'm sorry I annoyed you with all the clumsy things I said in my inarticulate writing.
Thanks again. I'll keep working hard."
On September 2nd, it was announced that the previously unreleased recordings of their 2018 tour "Loveless" and 2017 tour "IKI" would be released as a single live movie, named "HITORIE LIVE TOUR UNKNOWN 2018 “Loveless”- 2017 “IKI”".[69] Various songs from the performance were released on the band's official YouTube channel.[70] The live movie was released on November 4th, which is wowaka's birthday. A day later, they started their 2019 tour "HITORI-ESCAPE TOUR 2019". It was also officially announced that Shinoda became the band's new vocalist.[71]
On August 19th, they released their first greatest hits album, named "4". Shinoda chose the name to celebrate the time spent as a 4-member band.[72] A tour named "ヒトリエ (Hitorie, in Japanese) BEST ALBUM RELEASE TOUR “4”" was scheduled to be held in 21 locations, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They instead performed a paid live-streamed concert named "".[73]
On December 7th, they held a free live-stream concert on their YouTube channel named "HITORI-ESCAPE 2020". On the same day, they also announced and released their first single as 3-piece band, named "curved edge".[74] The lyrics and music were written by Shinoda, and the song talks about his inner turmoil after wowaka's passing. The song's title was inspired by the term Straight edge, a subculture of hardcore punk whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco, and recreational drugs in reaction to the punk subculture's excesses. Shinoda says "I'm a proper adult so of course I'm not straight edge, I'm more twisted and curved." It is also a reference to the curved edge in swords.[75]
On the livestream, they also announced their 5th full-length album, and their 1st album as a 3-piece, named "REAMP". It released on February 17th, 2021. It is their first album to feature songs composed by more than one member, as ygarshy and Yumao wrote 2 songs, each. ygarshy composed "dirty" and "", and Yumao composed "faceless enemy" and "YUBIKIRI". Shinoda composed the remaining songs, and also wrote all the album's lyrics.[76]
On April 21st, they started their 2021 tour "ヒトリエ Amplified Tour 2021", over 16 locations.[77] On May 1st, their 5th single, "3 min 29 sec" (3分29秒) was released as the opening for the first season of the anime adaptation of 86 (Eighty Six). The physical version was released on July 2nd, featuring a new song called "milk tablet", and instrumental versions. The Blu-Ray/DVD version contained a recording of their online concert ".[78] The song peaked at 22nd on the Oricon charts.
On January 19th 2022, they released their 2nd live movie and album of their 2021 tour, named "Amplified Tour 2021 at OSAKA".[79]
On January 26th 2022, they released their new digital single "". It was composed by Yumao, and Shinoda wrote the lyrics.[80] On February 8th, they started their 2022 tour "HITORI-ESCAPE TOUR 2022".[81]
On April 30th, their 6th single, " (Wind, Flower)", was released as the ending theme for the anime adaptation of Dance Dance Danseur. The physical version was released on May 25th, and featured a new song, "undo", and instrumental versions. "Kaze, Hana" was composed by Yumao, and Shinoda composed "undo" and wrote both of the songs' lyrics.[82]
On June 22nd, they released their 6th full-length studio album, and 2nd album as a 3-piece band, named "PHARMACY".[83] The album contained their previously released singles, "3 min 29 sec", "Stereo Juvenile" and "Kaze, Hana". As with "REAMP", all 3 members wrote music for the album, however Yumao wrote 3 songs, and ygarshy only composed 1. Yumao composed "Kaze, Hana", "" and "Stereo Juvenile", while ygarshy composed "Quit." Shinoda composed the remaining songs' music and wrote all the album's lyrics. Shinoda designed and created a cat plushie inspired by the one on the album's cover art,[84] named "", and was sold as an official merch item.[85] The album's release tour, "Summer flight tour 2022" was held starting on July 16th. The tour final was held at Zepp Haneda.[86]
On December 2nd, a one-man live named "" was held at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of their indie debut.[87] On March 10th 2023, they started the "", featuring 9 performances in 8 locations nationwide.[88] On November 8th, they started their "HITORI-ESCAPE TOUR 2023" with 15 performances in over 13 locations nationwide.[89] On the same day, their new digital single, "", was released. Shinoda wrote the lyrics and music, and describes the title and song as "the feeling you get when playing an electric guitar." He also drew the album's cover art.[90]
On January 22nd 2024, Hitorie released the single "", to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their major debut. The first track is a re-recording of the original song, arranged as a 3-piece. ygarshy plays wowaka's rhythm guitar line in the song's intro, on the bass guitar. The second track is a remaster of the original song with wowaka's vocals and guitar.[91] The same day, a new artist photo of the band was released, and on the 23rd and 24th, the "HITORI-ESCAPE 2024 ～10-NEN-SAI～ (Tenth Anniversary)" concerts were held. The first day's theme was "red", and the second was "blue", featuring 2 completely different setlists, with the band's most popular songs, as well as unreleased songs. It was also announced on the 24th that Hitorie would be performing their "HITORI-ESCAPE 2024 10-NEN-SAI ～日比谷超絶野音～ (Hibiya's Transcendent Wild Sounds)" concert at Tokyo's Hibiya Park Concert Hall.[92] They started their nationwide tour on April 7th.[93]
On April 15th, their released their new digital single, "on the front line" which was released as the opening to the second part of the second season of the anime adaptation of Mushoku Tensei. The song was composed by Yumao and Shinoda wrote the lyrics.[94] The song peaked at 28th on the Oricon charts.
On April 20th, they performed the first of their 3-part two-man concerts named "HITORIE presents VERSUS Series". Where other artists and Hitorie would perform, one after the other. On April 20th, the first artist to perform was Tatsuya Kitani at Osaka BIGCAT. On June 6th, Kiro Akiyama performed on the Ebisu LIQUIDROOM. The final artist was revealed to be The KEBABS, at Shibuya CLUB QUATTRO on August 21st.[95]
On April 26th, Hitorie was invited to the YouTube channel THE FIRST TAKE, created by Sony Music Japan. On the first video, they performed "Unknown Mother-Goose".[96] On the second video, released on May 8th, they performed "on the front line".[97]
On May 11th, 15 years after wowaka's first vocaloid song, 10 years since Hitorie's major debut, and 5 years after wowaka's death, Japanese publishing label KADOKAWA released the book "". It features all lyrics written by wowaka, both on his vocaloid works and Hitorie songs, and also features unreleased songs such as "NOTOK". It also features comments by the band members, and fellow vocaloid producers and friends, such as Kenshi Yonezu, Jin, Pinnocchio-P, and Tabuchi Tomoya of UNISON SQUARE GARDEN.[98]
On June 5th, they released their double A-side single "". Alongside the titular tracks, it features 2 new tracks, "selfy charm" which was composed by ygarshy and written by Shinoda, and " (Someday in Sakura)", which was composed and written by Shinoda. This is the first release to have songs written by all 4 members.
On September 15th, they performed their previously announced "HITORI-ESCAPE 2024 10-NEN-SAI ～日比谷超絶野音～ (Hibiya's Transcendent Wild Sounds)" at Tokyo's Hibiya Park Concert Hall. It was their biggest concert so far, and was completely sold out.[99] Before the concert's encore, Shinoda announced they would hold another tour in January 2025 around Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to conclude the 10th Anniversary tour. It was named "HITORIE 10-NEN-SAI FINALE TOUR". They also released a new artist photo, and announced their 7th full-length studio album, to be released on January 22nd. The Blu-Ray edition will contain the aformentioned concert.
After this, they performed the unreleased song included in the wowaka Lyrics Collection book, "NOTOK". On November 4th, it was announced the song would be released 2 days later, on November 6th, with a CD release available on November 27th. The song contained wowaka's vocals and music, which was re-constructed based on vocal data from a demo wowaka left before his passing, and his lyrics and music. The art cover was created by Furukawa Honpo, the same artist who drew wowaka's Unhappy Refrain album art cover. [100] The CD release will feature another unreleased song by him, named "daybreak seeker" which was written during the production of the album "HOWLS", and Hitorie's covers of "" and "". Aside from NOTOK, all other songs on the CD are sung by Shinoda, but all songs are written by wowaka.
On November 30th, it was announced that Hitorie's 7th full-length album was named "Friend Chord". Scheduled to release on January 22nd 2025, it features the previously released singles "on the front line" and "Juggernaut", as well as a new version of "NOTOK", with Shinoda being the vocalist.[101] On the same day, they also announced the album release tour, "Freaky Friendship Tour 2025", and their first ever collaboration, with vocaloid producer "balloon" (also known as Keina Suda), on the song "WOLF". It's set to be released on December 11th.[102]
As of November 2024, hitorie has released 8 studio albums, 3 live albums, 5 mini albums, 8 CD singles, and 8 digital singles.[103] [104]
