In October 2001, the three founding members Houjou Masaki, Matsuura Masaki and Fuji Toshimitsu had already made their first appearances at various events, but ANATAKIKOU didn't officially form until 2002.
In May their first demo tape, Lily, containing three songs, was released. The radio station FM802 played their song and held had an interview with the brand new band. This brought them enough publicity to get a contract with Sonata Records. The demo tape was rerecorded and Lily was released nationally, as their first single, in November 2002. Record shops in the Kansai area provided audio samples in their stores, thus boosting sales. As a result of the extensive promotion, the single entered the indie charts at #5. This success led to several concerts in major cities across Japan.
In the following two years, they continued to release singles under Sonata Records. Their major debut with Victor Records came in 2005 with the release of their long awaited first album, sweet montage A. In July, shortly after completing their first nationwide tour, ANATAKIKOU released a second album, Gradation'12.
2006 proved to be a very active year for the trio, release-wise. First, they released the single Cinderella, which was used as the ending theme to the music TV show "CDTV" and helped the group to gain more recognition. Two digital singles were released soon after, as well as their third album, Message Pie. The following year saw more new releases, as well as a number of tours and other performances.
Unfortunately, 2008 brought no new releases from ANATAKIKOU and, so far in 2009 there has been no news about any new works either. This year did bring another important announcement from the band, namely that main vocalist Houjou Masaki would be leaving the band in order to pursue a solo-career. Despite this loss, the two remaining members are continuing the band together along with support member Sugimura Mina.
We’re curious to see how this change in the line-up will affect the band’s music. Hopefully they will return to the studio and treat us to some new songs soon!
