ayabie

ayabie was a major rock band whose music over time evolved into a mainstream music style sound. The mood of their music fluctuated wildly, ranging from catchy, happy tunes to heavy songs which inspired headbanging. They were not afraid to cross genres when it came to their music and used it to their advantage, attracting fans not only in Japan, but all over the world.

Formed in 2004, the group held their first concert, a free one-man, at Takadanobaba AREA on May 8th, at which they sold their Kagen no sakura, ame maxi-single, followed by the release of another single, Romancer, which was limited to just one thousand copies. ayabie was unstoppable and immediately started organizing tours, one of which was a joint tour with Alice Nine.

Their next maxi-single, Chousoi sou yori san rin, made it into the top 10 of the Oricon indies chart, this accomplishment followed by Gothic Party breaking into the top 100 of the Oricon major charts. ayabie ended their first year together with performances at Takadanobaba AREA and at Yokohama Akarenga Souko on December 31st.

Though their first year was very busy, the band didn't slow down at all as the new year began. ayabie released a mini-album in January, followed by a maxi-single in February and then their first full album in March. The band launched into a new tour and, on April 1st, held a sold-out one-man live at Shibuya O-East. They released a single that same month and, instead of resting after their blitz of releases and tours, ayabie announced that they would be releasing a new single on the 10th of each month over the summer.

In October, they released their second mini-album, EquAL pRayer 2 aLL, and began another tour, EquAL pRayer 2 U. However, their biggest news came at the start of that month as, after enlisting the help of support drummers since their inception, ayabie announced that Kenzo would be joining as their official drummer, making the band a quartet.

2006 promised to be another eventful year for ayabie. An official fan club was opened and they immediately kicked off the year with the release of two new singles. In April, they announced that they would be making their first overseas appearance in Finland, followed by lives in France and Germany in June. They were well received by their international fans, especially in Finland where their concert sold out, and they seemed to enjoy themselves as well.

The band then returned to Japan and resumed their usual insane pace, releasing FAINT/Topaz at the end of June. When July came, however, it brought a shock to ayabie's fans: guitarist and band leader Ryohei announced he would be leaving ayabie. Despite that news hanging over the band, they released their third mini-album at the end of July and went on another tour, which would be their final with Ryohei as a member. His last live with the group was at Shibuya AX on August 30th.

Ryohei went on to form a new band and, after a brief period of inactivity, ayabie announced, to the delight of their fans, that they would be releasing a new single and new full-length album, Virgin Snow Color, in November as well as heading out on a new tour that would take them all over Japan. Also in November, Yumehito, formerly of Soroban, who had initially played as a support guitarist after Ryohei's exit, was made an official member of ayabie, once again putting their number at five.

The band distributed numerous singles during their Virgin Snow Color tour and even returned to Europe in May 2007 before performing at the 10th anniversary celebration of Takadanobaba AREA and setting off on their Brilliant Parade summer tour. A limited release single, Yubiksaki, and mini-album, Rikkaboshi, were released later in the year, along with their SummerTour'07 The Brilliant Parade DVD.

They kicked off 2008 with a performance as part of stylish wave ILLUSION '08 vol.1-2 at Zepp Tokyo and released their first PV collection soon after, on February 13th. In March, Melt Away was released and, in April, the announcement of the band's first USA tour and another trip to Europe came to much surprise and excitement.

ayabie performed three dates in Europe and went on to the USA to perform at four different locations for their eager American audience. Upon their return to Japan, they released their single, Mikazuki no kiseki, and another live DVD, spring tour Mizu ni tokeru yuki - 2008.04.30 at Shibuya-AX. Not taking much of a breather, ayabie started their Mikazuki no kiseki tour, which took them from the beginning of August to the middle of September. At the end of the year, Melt Away reached number 19 on the Oricon Indies Top 20 for 2008: albums & singles.

In March 2009, ayabie began their Japan-wide tour, Indies Last tour ending at Tokyo’s Shinkiba STUDIO COAST in April. The last show was also used for the live DVD The 7th color 〜Indies last tour FINAL〜 to be out in September 2009.

ayabie left their indie label, Speed Disk, and joined the J-pop label Tokuma Japan Communication, home to popular artists such as PERFUME and ALI PROJECT, which inevitably changed their music style and tamed their clothing choices. They announced their major debut single Aitakute, formerly titled Kiraboshi, almost a year after their last release back in 2008. The single was available in three versions including one featuring their portraits created in collaboration with popular manga artist Mayu Shinjo.

Not long after their major debut, Natsu monogatari was announced and its songs were used for TV ending themes - the title track for "Ongaku Senshi MUSIC FIGHTER" and Yubikiri for TV Tokyo's "Kaiun! Nandemo kanteidan."

Despite of ayabie's success, in June of 2010, it was announced that vocalist Aoi would be starting a solo career. Due to his commitments now lying elsewhere, the other band members thought of starting a new band with a different name. However, after serious contemplation, they realized the best idea was to continue with the ayabie name (changing its typography to AYABIE) and have guitarist Yumehito take care of the vocals. The last show with Aoi took place on December 31st, 2011 at the Over The Edge '10 event at Shibuya CC.Lemon Hall. Since then, the new lineup has released an album and a single, with more expected in the near future.