After over 20 years as a member of rock band
MUCC, vocalist
Tatsuro recently announced that he has launched a solo project.
Tatsuro explained that due to the combination of various circumstances, such as extra time he had due to the coronavirus pandemic and the recent departure of
MUCC's drummer
SATOchi, he decided it was a good time to strengthen his
individuality through solo work. He stated that he began working on the project with
Fusafumi Adachi, an ex-member of
FUJIFABRIC who he has known for over a decade, entrusting him with everything from control of the budget to management
tasks.
Tatsuro will make his solo debut with the simultaneous release of two albums on February 2nd, 2022. The first, titled
= (equal), is said to compile songs that he wrote. It will feature appearances from a number of guest artists, including
ELLEGARDEN and
Nothing's Carved In Stone guitarist
Shinichi Ubukata,
MERRY vocalist
Gara and
DEZERT drummer
SORA.
The other,
Hikagaku houteishiki, is said to be a collaboration album featuring songs written by artists he is friends with. Artists who contributed to the release include
Adachi,
Shuuji Ishii from
cali≠gari,
Eijun Suganami from
THE BACK HORN, singer-songwriter
Yoshinori Sugimoto,
TAKE from
FLOW,
nao from
Arlequin,
Akira Nakayama from
Plastic Tree,
Preppy Boys Slippy (
ZIGZO frontman
Tetsu Takano &
Tooru Yoshida),
Yuuya from
SID, and more.
Regarding the concept of
Hikagaku houteishiki,
Tatsuro stated that it aims to capture what would happen if he sang for a variety of different bands. He explained that he left the decision about what kind of songs he would sing completely
to his collaboration partners, and with that in mind, it was exciting for him because he could not say "no", no matter what kind of song they came up with.
Both albums will be available in two editions. The deluxe limited editions of both will feature jacket art that
Tatsuro created himself, as well as a bonus acoustic CD and a download card with illustration data and other contents. There
will also be live-limited editions of each available at half the price, without the aforementioned bonus contents.
In addition,
Tatsuro will embark on his first solo tour,
Hajimemashite Tatsuro desu., on January 15th. Each date from the tour will feature two separate showcases - one for each of the albums.
Tatsuro's solo project is also scheduled to perform at the annual MAVERICK DC GROUP event
JACK IN THE BOX, which will be held at Nippon Budokan on December 27th this year. This will be on top of his appearances as part of
MUCC and the all-star session band.
For more details on
Tatsuro's solo work, fans can visit his
official website and follow his solo project's new
Twitter and
Instagram accounts.
