The music video for RADWIMPS’ surprise new track SUMMER DAZE is now available on the rock band’s official YouTube channel. The SoundCloud link is also available.

RADWIMPS – SUMMER DAZE

https://soundcloud.com/radwimps_official/summerdaze

The inspiration behind the new track stemmed from the global depression that has carried over from 2020. Lead singer Yojiro Noda’s friend and creative director Kunichi Nomura hoped to create a summer anthem that would make people feel a little better. With such pure intentions, a number of other creative minds gathered to contribute to the project, including art director YOSHIROTTEN, photographer Tomoyuki Kawakami, and up-and-coming model NANAMI KEYES.

RADWIMPS – SUMMER DAZE Music Video

SUMMER DAZE is a gift from RADWIMPS to everyone to enjoy during the summer of 2021, in the hopes that everyone can find some joy during this warm season.

Comment from lead singer Yojiro Noda

In 2020, music festivals were cancelled across the board. I was looking forward to 2021 and had such high hopes, even if it seemed as though things wouldn’t get better. I talked about this to my friend Kun-chan (Kunichi Nomura) about it.

“It’s going to be another depressing summer, isn’t it? Let’s at least make a summer anthem that will make people feel just a LITTLE better when they hear it. Something that will make you feel like you can run anywhere, and just dance through everything. Let’s just condense all the dazzling things about summer into one song.”

That’s how SUMMER DAZE came to be.

As summer got closer, we gradually decided on the arrangement, and when we played it for our friends, they just started dancing. We started getting excited to make a music video, and as time went on, more and more creators wanted to join us. Everyone had to work during the day, and at night we’d have meetings and location scouting sessions. It was the first time for us to do everything on our own, including making the music, T-shirts, producing the video, jacket shooting…everything.

Consider this a gift from us to you, everyone living through summer of 2021. It will be uploaded to SoundCloud and YouTube for free. We hope that you’ll be listening to it while you create some wonderful summer memories.

Thanks again to YOSHIROTTEN, who took time out of his busy schedule to help us; to Kawakami, the cameraman; to Kasai, who worked tireless on the video; to Nanami, who ran full-speed through the streets at midnight; and, of course, thanks to Kun-chan.

I wish everyone a bright summer.

The music video for Utakata-Uta (RADWIMPS feat. Suda Masaki),theme song for the blockbuster movie It’s a Flickering Life, will be released on YouTube at 22:00 on August 13, 2021.

The video was directed by Suda Masaki and produced by Yamada Kento, who has worked with RADWIMPS multiple times in the past.

You can set a reminder to watch the video as it premiers on the RADWIMPS official YouTube channel.

Utakata-Uta / Official Music Video on YouTube Premier

The Utakata-Uta is the first RADWIMPS feat. Suda Masaki tag-team production, garnering widespread attention from fans and media. The video features Suda Masaki and Noda Yojiro, who play Gou and Terashin in It’s A Flickering Life. Their characters work in the same movie studio and discuss their dreams for the future. 

The project started upon the completion of filming, when Noda Yojiro gave the demo to film producer Yamada Yōji as a heartfelt gift.

While it wasn’t written as a theme song, the producer was so impressed by the demo that he designated the song as the movie’s official theme song, saying “The song connects the past and present, reality and fiction, even reaching heaven. I was convinced that having Suda and Noda, who played Gou and Terashin, singing it would complete the film.”

Noda was full of love and respect for the movie, commenting that “When Mr. Shimura died, I wanted to leave something like a lingering scent and weave things such as the emotions that we had felt throughout the lyrics. Even if the world we build is purely a sound, that sound is something that will last forever.” 

The song is full of nostalgic melodies and impressive singing from both Noda Yojiro and Suda Masaki, while the lyrics overlap with the feelings and situations of their characters, Gou and Terashin.

Yojiro Noda, the lead singer and songwriter of Japanese rock band RADWIMPS, has written a new song entitled Nekojarashi for a television commercial in Japan.

The commercial in question is for Kirin’s “Gogo no Kocha” (Afternoon Tea) brand of drinks, which is promoting a new theme beginning this month: “Happy Tea, Afternoon Tea.” Japanese actress Kyoko Fukada is the face of the brand’s new commercial, which promotes how there is happiness to be found in those casual moments in our everyday lives even if we do not notice them.

The first in the series of new commercials for Kirin Gogo no Kocha shows how there are many moments of happiness felt when spending time with loved ones, like friends and family, during an ordinary day. Yojiro Noda’s new song, which he wrote for the commercial, too is themed on happiness, with its lyrics and gentle melody which is a perfect fit for the commercial. Check it out below.

Yojiro Noda said: “The strengths that humans get used to is something amazing. Both the good and bad. For our own reasons, we seem to love and treasure having the breakfast we are so used to, the voice of someone saying ‘I’m home,’ the route we take back going home. The trick to living a fun life in this world might not be being overambitious, but the ability to notice those little joyful moments. Another thing is the existence of our selves with whom we spend every day with. Before we know it, we realise we didn’t actually know what that meant, so we take notice and live our lives knowing it. The me that I don’t even know might still be hidden away. That’s what I wrote this song about.”

He concludes: “I’m also currently doing band sessions and writing stuff together with the other RADWIMPS members. I hope you look forward to that too.”

Rakuen (“The Promised Land”) is an upcoming film written and directed by Takahisa Zeze, who is known for his masterful work on the suspense mystery drama films 64: Part I and 64: Part II. Set for release on October 18 this year, the film is an adaptation of best-selling Japanese author Shuichi Yoshida’s short story of the same name. It will star Gō Ayano, Hana Sugisaki, Kōichi Satō, Akira Emoto, and Nijirō Murakami.

It was revealed last month that film’s main theme Ichiru (“Thread of Hope”) was written, composed and produced by RADWIMPS frontman Yojiro Noda. He is joined by popular singer and actress Mone Kamishiraishi on vocals. Kamishiraishi provided the voice for Mitsuha Miyamizu in the 2016 hit anime film Your Name which RADWIMPS wrote the music for.

A music video for the song has just been released. It has also been revealed that the song will be released as a digital single on October 14, 2019.

The music video was directed by Takahisa Zeze and Atsushi Unno, the director and assistant director for Rakuen respectively. It was shot in July, with most of the filming taking place in Nagano where the story is set. Zeze expressed his wish for Kamishiraishi to feature in the background of the film itself in the music video. The video features iconic locations from the film, including the Y-shaped road―quiet possibly the most symbolic. The video features not only actual scenes from the film, but newly-shot scenes too made just for the music video.

Speaking about the music video, Mone Kamishiraishi comments: “I was given the opportunity be part of the making of this music video with the Raken film team gathered together, including Zeze, the director. I am honoured to have been able to visit such iconic scenes from the film. It was a really memorable moment, and an experience I will keep for me with live.”

She continues: “I listened to Ichiru a bunch of times while we shot the music video, but that feeling I had when I first heard it and my heart shook, and how moved I was when I first let my voice out to sing it, have gone unchanged. Yojiro [Noda] said, ‘I hope this song becomes a ray of light at the end of the film.’ I have always been able to feel that, from the lyrics to the power it holds and the music that pulls on your heartstrings.”

She concludes her statement saying: “I believe this is a song that purifies the heart, like a cold breeze, even if you’re going through hard or unfair times. So listen to it on repeat and take that message from it. And I hope you enjoy watching the music video. We shot it with much love.”

In Rakuen, a little girl is kidnapped along a Y-shaped road but the perpetrator isn’t caught. 12 years later, another girl is kidnapped along the same road. A man living close to the area of kidnappings lives together peacefully with his pet dog who is a coping mechanism to help forget his wife who passed away. He is pushed into deeper isolation after coming into disagreements with the locals in the area which causes him to lose his mind, leading to an incident nobody could have imagined. The truth to everything lies behind the two kidnappings and three peoples’ fates.

©2019 “Rakuen” Production Committee

Takayuki Yamada is an actor whose name represents Japan in both name and reality. He is producing in the upcoming drama movie Day and Night starring Shin’nosuke Abe.

This completely original film tackles both the virtue and wickedness in humans. The story follows characters who juggle between what they find right and wrong as a result of a family have their life snatched away.

It is directed by Michihito Fujii who has worked on both drama series such as Million Yen Women and film like 7s. His latest film, We Are, was released on December 7, 2018.

Day and Night’s main theme song Kimagure Kumo was written, composed and produced by Yojiro Noda (RADWIMPS, illion). The song was released digitally on January 25, 2019. Noda received an offer to write the song from the film’s producer Takayuki Yamada.

Hear the song in the latest preview for the film below.

The song features vocals by Kaya Kiyohara who plays the role of Nana Ōno in the film.