While their road to success has been a long one, rock band Good Morning America's persistence and ingenuity has finally begun to pay off in a major way.
Good Morning America’s story begins in 2001 with a previous band called for better, for worse that was formed in Hachiouji by bassist Shinjirou Tanaka (now going by the nickname Tanashin) and guitarist Koichi Watanabe, who were classmates in high school. Later on, they recruited Shingo Kanehiro on guitar and vocals and drummer Shinsuke Noguchi and began playing local shows. At the time, they had an emo/melodic punk sound, with mainly English lyrics.
In the years that followed, the band took part in many compilations, but released very little under their own name. Their first mini-album heartstrings came out in 2004, and the band released a split mini-album called When The 8th Spring Has Come... with their close friends TOTALFAT the next year.
Sadly, even after six years of hard work, for better, for worse were still not drawing many fans to their shows, and the band suddenly announced that they would be going on hiatus. During this time, the members decided to make some major changes to their approach. Coming to the conclusion that their band name was too hard to remember and that their English lyrics were only adding to the disconnect, they renamed themselves Good Morning America and focused on creating music in Japanese. They made their return to the music scene in July 2007, and their first demo was revealed that November.
Unfortunately, the next year would see Noguchi leave the band. Good Morning America bounced back quickly, however, announcing the arrival of new drummer Pegi the same month.
The year 2009 brought another string of demos and saw the band contribute to a number of compilations. Good Morning America also began planning omnibuses of their own around this time. In 2010, they released a compilation called Aa, yoi ongaku koko ni arimasu, and they have continued to release a new volume each year featuring different bands from the indie rock scene. Their first mini-album Sora bakari mite ita was released that year and promoted with a nationwide tour, which ended with a sold out show at Shibuya O-Crest in February 2011.
Seeing that the band was beginning to pick up momentum and hoping to draw in even more fans, Tanashin developed a new character for himself, bleaching his hair and donning a pair of large sunglasses and tight shorts. While the change might have been a shock for longtime fans, his shrieky, energetic MCs and goofy antics have since become one of Good Morning America’s calling cards, helping them to stand out more on the scene. Tanashin opens most of the bands shows by coming out through the crowd in a ridiculous costume - past examples of which have included a wedding dress, a robot costume, a crab hat and full Elsa (from "Frozen") cosplay - and treating the fans to some of his ear-splitting singing.
Still, the band also has a cooler side, which they showed off in the PV for the title track of their next mini-album, Wallpaper Music ja odoritaku nai ze, which featured the members in suits with girls in swimsuits dancing around them. The video drew a very positive response, and the band reacted by bringing the girls out during a few of their live performances to energize the crowds. The final show of their tour, which was also their first one-man live, took place at Daikanyama UNIT and was later documented with a DVD. The band closed the year with a performance at COUNTDOWN JAPAN 11/12.
In 2012, following up on the second volume of their omnibus series, which came out the previous October, Good Morning America organized a festival called Aa, yoi Live koko ni arimasu. 2012 at Shibuya O-EAST. Their next mini-album Kagayaku hou e was followed by a number of other festival appearances. The band’s first one-man tour Hanamuke no uta Tour was held in December, and all five dates sold out.
Good Morning America’s years of hard work were rewarded in 2013 when they inked a deal with the major label Nippon Columbia. They made their major debut with the album Mirai e no Spiral on May 8th and spent the summer playing at some of the biggest rock festivals in the country, including the Rock in Japan Festival, Rush Ball and Summer Sonic.
2014 was the biggest year yet for Good Morning America, as they were chosen to provide the ending theme for the Majin Buu arc of the anime series “Dragonball Kai”, which exposed their music to many more fans both in their home country and overseas. The band was kept busy afterwards with a long stream of promotional appearances at Tower Records, including a popular event where Tanashin acts as the shopkeeper for the day and in-stores where Kanehiro, Tanashin and Watanabe arrived cosplaying characters from the series. Their second full-length album in Tokyo City was released in October and followed by a long, successful tour.
The year 2015 was just as exciting for the band. They spent much of their time touring, released a self-titled album, and even performed at the legendary Nippon Budokan on November 27th. Before the big day, they gathered photos from fans online and compiled them into a mosaic image of the members - a gesture of appreciation for the people whose support brought them to the Budokan and continues to make Good Morning America a band to watch out for in the future.
