Yorushika

Website | __Twitter | Instagram | Spotify__

Introduction:

Yorushika is a Japanese rock duo under record label Universal Music Japan (2019-), having previously been under record label U&R Records (2017-2019). The group consists of N-buna (stylized as n-buna), a former vocaloid music producer and Suis, a female vocalist. The duo as of now is very secretive about their identity, and has never revealed their faces nor held many concerts. As a band they have only ever held two concerts, one in July, 2017 and another one in August, 2019.

The band's music is described as "passionate", "positive" and "upbeat", which serves as a signifcant contrast to the heavier lyrics. The lyrics often explore ideas such as love and human emotion and take inspiration from works of literature by Masuji Ibuse and Jules Verne. The group's name "Yorushika" is taken from the lyrics in their song "Kumo to Yuurei": "Yoru shika mou nemurezu ni" (meaning "I can only sleep at night"). Their eye-designed logo mark is a motif of two moons facing each other, which also serves as a clock hand, portraying the time "from 6:00 to night".

Biography:

Prior to the formation of the band Yorushika, N-buna already had a rather large following on the site Nico Nico Douga, a Japanese video hosting site, where he would first start releasing vocaloid music back in 2012. A year later in 2013, he would release a song titled "Toumei Elegy", which would peak on the platform's daily vocaloid rankings. Additionally, N-buna has produced two albums through U&R Records, a subsidiary of Nico Nico Douga's owner DWANGO Co., Ltd.

According to an interview with Japanese entertainment news website Natalie, N-buna and Suis met through a common acquantance, and at the time Suis was a longtime fan of N-buna's vocaloid work. Suis then later first appeared as a guest vocalist during N-buna's two solo concerts in Tokyo. After this N-buna reached out to Suis to form Yorushika as part of N-buna's effort to find a "more human" voice to use in his music, as opposed to the usual vocaloid. Since then, the two have released two EPs and three full albums, all of which have charted on both the Oricon Albums Chart and the Billboard Japan Hot 100 Albums Chart with their latest album "Plagiarism" reaching number one on the latter. Yorushika's popularity grew explosively through these rankings, with critics noting that the lyrics seemed to strike a chord with the younger audiences.

In 2020 Yorushika were nominated for the MTV Europe Music Awards in the category "Best Japanese Act".

They also won the "Top 5 new Artists" award at the 34th Japan Golden Disc Award.

Their faces and detailed personal profiles have not yet been disclosed to the public as they want their audiences to listen to their music without "preconceptions".

Members:

n-buna (ナブナ) – guitarist and in-charge of lyrics, composition and arrangement
Suis (スイ) – vocalist

Support Members:

Mitsuyasu Shimozuru (下鶴光康) – guitarist
Tatsuya Kitani (キタニタツヤ) – bassist
Masack (マサック) – drummer
Tetsuya Hirahata (平畑徹也) – pianist