Air Swell (stylized as AIR SWELL) is a 3-piece Japanese rock band hailing from

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

but currently based in Tokyo. They describe their style as a mix of

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (Kamen Rider), Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an altern ...

, industrial,

britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s United Kingdom, British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. Musically, Britpop produced bright, catchy alternative rock, with significant influences from British guitar pop of the 1960s and 1970s. B ...

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock Music genre, genre and subculture that emerged during the in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, particularly in Seattle and Music of Olympia, Washington, O ...

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and heavy rock resulting in a multi-layered-instruments-and-vocals rock sound.

History

At the heart of AIR SWELL is singer/guitarist Hamaken who is not only the band's composer, lyricist and music arranger but is also a concert promoter / event organizer of his own Kuroshio Drive. They started with two self-produced mini albums in 2010 ''your fairytale is neverending'' (released on 21 Feb 2010) and ツナガルキズナ (released on 20 August 2010). Currently, their music is distributed by JMS ''(Japan Music System)'' which is a music distribution company handling mainly indie artists in Japan. Their first album under a record label (INNOVATOR Records) is ''RIMFIRE'' (released on 2 August 2012) and their first album to be distributed by JMS. Hamaken showed a wide range of songwriting and music arranging with a variety of songs from their signature multi layered rock sound such as the song "FAST LANE" to the

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

バッドボーイズセレナーデ ("Bad Boys Serenade"). ''RIMFIRE'' also features singer

Hiro Hiro may refer to: People * Hiro (given name), includes lists of people with the given name * Hiro (photographer) (1930–2021), Japanese-born American photographer * Hiro (singer) (born 1991), French singer * Hiroko Shimabukuro (born 1984), Japa ...

from the band

My First Story My First Story (マイ・ファースト・ストーリー、マイファス、MFS) is a Japanese Rock music, rock band from Shibuya, Tokyo. Formed in 2011, the band currently consists of vocalist Hiroki Moriuchi, guitarist Teruki Nishizawa, bas ...

in the song "JAP POPPER". The two bands met through the small clubs and Livehouses circuit and Hamaken invited Hiro to be a guest singer in the song, saying he liked Hiro's voice. They then released a mini album ''THE ART OF PSYCHO'' on 5 June 2013 with the 1st track "I will pay back" chosen to be made into an MV. JMS A&R Executive Kentaro Suzuki put them into the ''BONEDS'' 4 Bands Split Album project to help expose 4 selected bands under JMS namely AIR SWELL, BLUE ENCOUNT, SWANKY DANK and

in 2013. Each band was asked to contribute two new songs to the album and AIR SWELL contributed "No Going Back" and ゴブリンズスケルシォ. The latter song features screaming vocals by U from the band ANGRY FROG REBIRTH. The album ''BONEDS'' was released on 30 November 2013 by INTACT Records. It was followed by a successful 9-city joint Tour of all the four bands. In April 2014, they performed as opening acts alongside SiM on ''

Skindred Skindred is a Welsh band that fuses heavy metal with other genres, most notably reggae. Formed in Newport in 1998, they are well known for their energetic and involving live performances and have won several awards including "Best Live Band" a ...

's Japan Tour'' for 4 dates. The band released a mini album entitled ''All Lead Tracks'' on 4 June 2014. This time, Roach's singer taama was invited as a guest singer on one of the tracks バイバイゲロメタル. This album peaked at number 51 on the

Oricon Albums Chart The Oricon Albums Chart is the Japanese music industry standard albums popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Oricon originally published LP, CT, Cartridge and CD charts prior to the establishment of the Oricon A ...

. In October 2014, bassist Taisuke announced his withdrawal from the band. He cited his reason as ''"circumstances that made him unable to give 100% to the band anymore"'' but did not elaborate more to the public. He played his last show with AIR SWELL on 26 October 2014 at Yokohama FAD which was them playing as the guest band for MY FIRST STORY's 虚言NEUROSE Tour. The band then continued with bassist Hiromitsu who started as a support member at the time. Just like Taisuke, Hiromitsu is a

finger-picking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

bass player. They started working on another album and ''MY CYLINDERs'' was released on 25 March 2015 with Hiromitsu already an official member by then. This album peaked at number 57 on the

. AIR SWELL reunited with their BONEDS rival bands for BONEDS Special Night on 17 July 2015 at Shinkiba Studio Coast, Tokyo. In June 2016, the band released a special edition CD entitled ''ツナガルキスナ – unplugged mix'' to donate the proceeds from the sales to the victims of

2016 Kumamoto earthquakes The were a series of earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.0 mainshock which struck at 01:25 Japan Standard Time, JST on April 16, 2016 (16:25 UTC on April 15) beneath Kumamoto, Kumamoto City of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, Kyu ...

. AIR SWELL released another EP ''SIX KILLS'' on 25 January 2017.

Band members

;Current members * Hamaken – vocals, guitar (2006–present) * Hiromitsu – bass, vocals (2014–present) * Yudai – drums (2006–present) ;Former members * Taisuke – bass (2006–2014) ;Timeline

Discography

Albums

Mini albums

Singles

Compilation appearances

Collaborations

References

External links

AIR SWELL Official Website

AIR SWELL Official Twitter

AIR SWELL Official Facebook

AIR SWELL Hamaken Twitter

AIR SWELL Yudai Twitter

AIR SWELL Hiromitsu Twitter
{{Authority control Japanese alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 2006