Ichiro Yamaguchi
山口 一郎
A man playing a guitar
Ichiro Yamaguchi performing with Sakanaction in Iwamizawa, Hokkaido in 2013
Background information
Born (1980-09-08) September 8, 1980
Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan
OriginJapan
GenresRock, pop, electronic
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar
Years active1998–present
Member ofSakanaction

Ichiro Yamaguchi (山口 一郎, Yamaguchi Ichirō, born September 8, 1980), is a Japanese musician. He is the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the Hokkaido rock band Sakanaction.

Biography

Ichiro Yamaguchi was born in Otaru, Hokkaido in 1980.[1] He grew up listening to a wide variety of music, as his father ran a business that acted as a cafe during the daytime and as a bar at night.[2] His father had lived in Europe for many years, so often played music such as the German electronic band Kraftwerk.[3] The business would occasionally hold performances for musicians, such as Japanese folk singer Masato Tomobe.[3] This variety made it feel natural for Yamaguchi to create multi-genre music.[2] Yamaguchi began to play music naturally, learning how to play the guitar after picking up an acoustic guitar that was in his parents home.[3] The first songs he learnt on the guitar were Kaguya-hime/Iruka's 1970 folk song "Nagoriyuki" and Takuro Yoshida's "Kekkon Shiyō yo" (1972).[3] He was inspired to write lyrics by the large number of second hand books his father bought, such as those of Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai, Chūya Nakahara and Yoshiro Ishihara, as well as haiku poets Santōka Taneda and Shūji Terayama.[3]

In 1998, Yamaguchi formed a band with his high school friends from Sapporo Daiichi High School, called Dutchman, which performed British rock-inspired music.[3][4][5] Yamaguchi acted as the band's vocalist and primary songwriter.[6] Yamaguchi and the band were scouted and trained by Victor Entertainment, however the group never formally debuted with Victor.[7] In 2002, the band released Demonstration, an album compiled of seven demos the band recorded between 2000 and 2002.[6] After six years together, Dutchman broke up due to creative differences, when Yamaguchi tried adding electronic elements into their music, especially on the song "Mikazuki Sunset". It was originally performed with a rock sound, but Yamaguchi felt that a purely rock arrangement did not create the imagery he wanted to express, and incorporated dance music.[1][8]

After the band broke up, Yamaguchi kept the name Dutchman for his solo project as a DJ, where he created techno and club music.[5][9] Yamaguchi had the idea that it would be interesting to mix electronic music with Japanese-style "folky melodies".[5] When Yamaguchi was asked to create remix of the song "Shiranami Top Water" for the compilation album Music for Pardisco in 2004, he found it difficult to create the entire song by himself.[6] These two reasons led him to ask Dutchman's former guitarist Motoharu Iwadera to start working with him again, and the pair created the band Sakanaction.[5]

After three additional members of the band joined, Sakanaction made their major debut in 2007, with the album Go to the Future under the Victor Entertainment sublabel BabeStar Label.[5] After the band's second album Night Fishing (2008), Yamaguchi and the other members of Sakanaction moved to Tokyo in the spring of 2008,[10] and were moved to the main Victor Entertainment artist roster.[11] moving from Hokkaido to Tokyo in the spring of 2008. In 2010, the band had their break-out hit "Aruku Around", debuting at number three on Oricon's single charts.[12]

Since "Aruku Around", the band has seen greater commercial success, with their albums Documentaly (2011) and Sakanaction (2013) both certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.[13][14] In 2012, Yamaguchi began writing music for dramatic productions, such as the band's single "Boku to Hana", which was written specifically for the drama Sanjūnana-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku: Kenshūi Junjō Monogatari.[15] Increasingly, songs Yamaguchi has written for Sakanaction have been used in dramatic works, including "Music" (2013), used as the theme song for the Fuji Television drama Dinner, "Eureka" used as the ending theme for the film Judge!, "Hasu no Hana" (2014), written for the film Close Range Love and "Shin Takarajima" (2015), written for the live action adaptation film version of the manga Bakuman.[16]

Aside from Sakanaction, Yamaguchi has collaborated with several musicians. In 2010 he wrote the song "Magic Time" from Johnny & Associates veteran boyband SMAP's 20th album We Are SMAP!. He collaborated with them again in 2012 to write their single "Moment", which was used to promote the Tokyo Broadcasting System broadcast of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and debuted at number one on the Oricon single chart.[17] In 2010, Yamaguchi was a featured vocalist on Base Ball Bear's album Cypress Girls, on the song "Kimino-Me". He collaborated with Base Ball Bear vocalist Yūsuke Koide in 2011 to write the song "Kodona no Kaidan" for idol singer Shiho Nanba, who released the track as a single.

In September 2015, Yamaguchi collaborated with electronic musician Aoki Takamasa and fashion brand Anrealage to create a catwalk soundtrack for the brand's appearance at the Paris Fashion Week. The composition, Reflects, was released digitally on January 20, 2016, and features two versions of the set: an eighteen-minute live binaural recording of the composition as it was used at the event, and Reflects Live Rec 2015, a thirteen-minute real-time live studio recording of Yamaguchi and Aoki creating Reflects.[18]

Since 2012, Yamaguchi has served as a host for a segment on the Tokyo FM radio show School of Lock!, called Sakana Locks!.

Personal life

In 2010 right before the tour for the band's album Kikuuiki, Sakanaquarium 2010 Kikuuiki, Yamaguchi suffered sensorineural hearing loss, and permanently lost hearing in his right ear.[19]

Discography

Extended plays

Title Album details
Reflects

Production discography

List of songs that feature songwriting, production or vocals by Ichiro Yamaguchi outside of his work with Sakanaction
Title Year Album Notes
"Magic Time"
(SMAP)		 2010 We Are SMAP! Lyrics and composition. Charted at number 100 on the Billboard Japan Radio Songs sub-chart.[20]
"Kimino-Me" ("Your Eyes")
(Base Ball Bear + Ichiro Yamaguchi from Sakanaction)		 2010 Cypress Girls Featured artist. Released digitally three months before Cypress Girls, on June 23, 2010.[21][22]
"Kodona no Kaidan" (こどなの階段, "Stairs of Childhood/Adulthood")
(Shiho Nanba)		 2011 Mizuiro Generation Composition. Collaboration with Yūsuke Koide of Base Ball Bear. Released as a single, reached number 28 on the Oricon single charts.[23]
"Moment"
(SMAP)		 2012 Non-album single Lyrics and composition. Released as a single, reached number 1 on the Oricon single charts,[17] certified gold by the RIAJ.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 "サカナクション GO TO THE FUTURE" (in Japanese). Victor Entertainment. April 26, 2007. Archived from the original on May 25, 2007. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Hiroko Takahashi. "INTERVIEW" (in Japanese). Victor Entertainment. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tetsuo Hiraga (January 21, 2010). "『サカナクション』 SPECIAL INTERVIEW" (in Japanese). Hot Express. Archived from the original on July 6, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ "profile" (in Japanese). Ichiro Yamaguchi. Archived from the original on December 6, 2002. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Masashi Tazawa (May 7, 2007). "サカナクション、デビューアルバム『GO TO THE FUTURE』インタヴュー" (in Japanese). Barks. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 "Discography" (in Japanese). Ichiro Yamaguchi. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ Tatsuya Yashiro, Masahiko Yamaura (December 7, 2011). "サカナクション ニューアルバム『DocumentaLy』担当ディレクター ビクターエンタテイメントGMpV制作部 杉本陽里子氏インタビュー" (in Japanese). F.B.Communications Inc. & Magnet Co.,Ltd. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  8. ↑ Madoka Suzuki (2008). "サカナクション 音楽はアート。". Shift Japan. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ "profile" (in Japanese). Ichiro Yamaguchi. Archived from the original on December 11, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  10. ↑ Masaki Mugikura (January 1, 2009). "サカナクション インタビュー" (in Japanese). Excite. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  11. ↑ Shinji Hyogo (2011). "特集 サカナクション". Rockin' On Japan (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 17, 2015. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  12. ↑ "赤西仁・LANDS、映画発キャラクター13年4ヶ月ぶりの首位". Oricon (in Japanese). January 19, 2010. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  13. ↑ ゴールド等認定作品一覧 2011年10月 [Works Receiving Certifications List (Gold, etc) (October 2011)]. RIAJ (in Japanese). November 10, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  14. ↑ ゴールド等認定作品一覧 2013年3月 [Works Receiving Certifications List (Gold, etc) (March 2013)]. RIAJ (in Japanese). April 10, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
  15. ↑ Yuichi Hirayama (May 20, 2012). "サカナクション山口一郎ロングインタビュー後編は新曲「僕と花」と「ルーキー」のリミキサー石野卓球について" (in Japanese). EMTG. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  16. ↑ "サカナクション、映画「バクマン。」で主題歌＆初の劇中音楽" (in Japanese). Natalie. July 1, 2015. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  17. 1 2 "Moment SMAP". Oricon (in Japanese). Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  18. ↑ "山口一郎×AOKI takamasa、パリコレ参加時の音源を配信リリース" (in Japanese). Natalie. January 20, 2016. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  19. ↑ サカナクション・山口一郎が語る。傑作"ルーキー"誕生までの壮絶な日々. Rockin'On Japan. 2011-02-28. Retrieved 2013-09-10.
  20. ↑ "Billboard Japan Radio Songs". Billboard Japan (in Japanese). Hankyu Hanshin Holdings. July 30, 2010. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Base Ball Bear×サカナ山口コラボ曲、早くも配信決定" (in Japanese). Natalie. June 21, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Kimino-Me - Single". iTunes Japan (in Japanese). Apple. June 23, 2010. Archived from the original on June 26, 2010. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
  23. ↑ "週間 CDシングルランキング 2011年06月27日付". Oricon (in Japanese). Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  24. ↑ "ゴールド等認定作品一覧 2012年8月" [Works Receiving Certifications List (Gold, etc) (August 2012)] (in Japanese). Recording Industry Association of Japan. September 10, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
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