HEY-SMITH? Meet Japanese Punk Band From ‘Tokyo Revengers’ Arc – Billboard

Japanese punk band HEY-SMITH has introduced that they had been tapped to carry out the ending theme for the Tenjiku Arc of the TV anime Tokyo Revengers. The tune, “Say My Title,” is the band’s first new tune in a 12 months and its first anime tie-in.

Fashioned in 2006, the six-piece band has undergone a number of adjustments in membership earlier than deciding on its present lineup in 2015: guitarist and vocalist Shuhei Igari, bassist and vocalist YUJI, saxophonist Mitsuru, drummer Process-n, trombonist Kanasu, and trumpeter Ken Iikawa. In 2020, it signed with veteran American punk label ASIAN MAN RECORDS and commenced streaming its album Life In The Solar World Version world wide. HEY-SMITH is a melodic punk band with its personal horn part. Their most well-known songs embody “Infinite Sorrow,” which riffs on the melody of the Farandole from Georges Bizet’s “The Woman from Arles,” “Be the One,” which mixes the heavy sound of metallic with an brisk melody, and “NOT a TV present,” which they performed on their first look on a music TV program in 2018. HEY-SMITH’s chief, Igari, is accountable for each the band’s lyrics and music. By their music, the band has at all times shared the core ethos of punk, that folks want to talk up and make themselves heard to allow them to proceed to dwell free and have enjoyable.

HEY-SMITH performs virtually 150 exhibits a 12 months and is called a dyed-in-the-wool dwell band. In 2022, regardless of the pandemic, they did a tour of all 47 Japanese prefectures. In the course of the summer season, they’re invited to play in festivals and exhibits with different bands throughout the nation, performing virtually each week. In addition they arrange their very own outside competition, “OSAKA HAZIKETEMAZARE FESTIVAL,” spearheading their very own motion.

In 2017, they solely performed two solo exhibits. Even in their very own excursions, they virtually at all times play with opening acts. The members of the band resolve on their openers themselves, reaching out to bands that they’ve seen in exhibits and been impressed by. They select bands that placed on good exhibits, no matter how lengthy they’ve been taking part in or how well-known they’re. This evokes HEY-SMITH and livens up the music scene.

Listeners aren’t the one ones supporting their blistering dwell performances and different actions. In addition they get pleasure from stable help from different bands, and there are numerous episodes that present how they’re really a “band beloved by bands.” For instance, in 2019, whereas Igari was hospitalized for pneumothorax surgical procedure, the remainder of the band carried out in a present referred to as “Kyoto Daisakusen 2019.” The members of SiM, coldrain, dustbox, and 04 Restricted Sazabys got here collectively to assist the band by means of this pinch. The present featured an incredible on-stage collaboration of various artists.

HEY-JUMP is a powerhouse, a reputation acquainted to everybody who’s into Japanese bands, particularly those that go to see dwell music. Now, they’ve created the ending theme to the TV anime Tokyo Revengers. This should have come as a shock to lots of people. When the announcement was made, the jacket of their new single, “Say My Title,” was additionally unveiled. The jacket options the members of HEY-SMITH changed with Tokyo Revengers characters. Folks should even have been stunned by the brand new jacket — but, on the similar time, discovered it an ideal match.

“Say My Title” was launched on the identical day because the second episode of the anime was broadcast. The tune begins with YUJI’s high-pitched vocals, a driving rhythm, and a melody performed by the horn part. Igari then leaps in with a shouted vocal line. Listening to the tune, it’s simple to think about the scene of an viewers going wild at a dwell present, kicking up a cloud of mud because the heavy sound of the music washes over them. The tune’s theme of preventing for hope and freedom displays HEY-SMITH’s personal punk spirit. However, on the similar time, the lyrics “You might be my hero and also you cry/I do know I do know I do know I do know/we defeat every part” evoke the story of Tokyo Revengers and its characters, equivalent to Takemichi Hanagaki, who leaps again in time again and again to vary a bleak future, and his girlfriend Hinata Tachibana, who maintains an dependable religion in Takemichi. The tune is ideal as a brand new HEY-SMITH tune and because the ending theme of the Tenjiku Arc of the TV anime Tokyo Revengers. Clocking in at simply 1 minute and 48 seconds, it’s a brief tune with no second of fats, an electrifying demonstration of the band’s abilities.

On October 11, HEY-SMITH launched the only “Say My Title.” This can even mark the foremost debut of HEY-SMITH on Pony Canyon. What’s extra, they’ve introduced that on November 1, they’ll be releasing a brand new album, Relaxation In Punk. This will likely be their sixth full album and the primary in virtually 5 years. Following their album launch, on November 16, they are going to be beginning their largest tour ever, the nation-spanning Relaxation In Punk Tour. They’ve already introduced present dates as much as April 10 of subsequent 12 months, however their tour schedule ends with “And extra…” so new dates are more likely to be added. Right here’s hoping that the band’s main label debut will usher in an much more lively interval within the band’s historical past.

–This text by Chinami Hachisuka first appeared on Billboard Japan