THE HIGH-LOWS

During the same month that the last album of THE BLUE HEARTS was released, vocalist Komoto Hiroto and guitarist/vocalist Mashima Masatoshi went on to create a band called ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓. Joining them was pianist/keyboardist Shirai Mikio, who had been a support member of THE BLUE HEARTS became a part of this new band. Later, they added Oshima Kenji on drums and Shirabe Sakito on bass, which completed the band. Already in their first year of existence, they released two singles and an album.

↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓’s first tours saw great attendance and it was most likely due to the fact that the members’ previous bands were rather popular. Their next tour was a thirty date two-man with the British rock band, the Tom Robinson Band. In 1997, ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ toured with American groups The Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, consequently bringing the young group immense fame.

The band continued to steadily release items and tour in various live houses across the country. In 1999, ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ released their Baumkuchen album and followed up with a seventy date tour. The following year was very successful for the band and they performed several lives. They also built up a camaraderie with the bands The King Brothers and The Neatbeats and from then on, these three bands would frequently appear at each others' lives and events.

For the next few years, ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ didn’t tour very much and instead concentrated more on releases. However, in 2003, they returned to tour in many places, one of which was the famous Fuji Rock Festival, one of Japan’s biggest music events. In a shocking turn of events, Shirai left the band that same year. His departure was a huge loss for ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ as he was deeply involved with many of the musical compositions. Later, Shirai formed THE BIG HIP together with THE BLUE HEART’s former drummer.

To compensate for the change in dynamics, the band held themselves back during 2004. ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ contributed a song to the soundtrack of the film "Zebraman" and released a single in June, leaving their fans eager for more. The band finally started touring again in September and released the album Do!! The★MUSTANG.

However, this turned out to be only a brief come-back. At the end of 2005, the band announced their split. To finish it off their, ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ released a best of album and three DVDs in 2006.

Not too surprisingly, Komoto and Mashima continued to stick together and formed the band THE CRO-MAGNONS in the summer of 2006. They are still active and some of the characteristics of THE BLUE HEARTS and ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓’s music can be found in their music again. There is no information available about the whereabouts of the other former members.