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Radwimps Band's Guitarist Akira Kuwahara Goes on Hiatus
posted on by Alex Mateo
Rock band RADWIMPS announced on Friday that guitarist Akira Kuwahara is going on hiatus, and acknowledged a report that he had an extramarital affair. The band will continue on with remaining active members Yōjirō Noda and Yūsuke Takeda. The band's members and staff will discuss the situation before making a final decision on the band's future. Noda and Takeda also expressed concern for Kuwahara's wife and child and vowed to consider Kuwahara's wife and child as part of their own family for life.
The Weekly Bunshun magazine reported on Thursday on an alleged extramarital affair between Kuwahara and a former model on August 18, before the band's performance at Fuji Rock Festival '21.
The members of RADWIMPS include vocalist and guitarist Noda, guitarist Kuwahara, bassist Takeda, and drummer Satoshi Yamaguchi. The band formed in 2001, although three of the original members left the band in 2004 (to be replaced by Takeda and Yamaguchi). Yamaguchi has been on hiatus since 2015 due to chronic health issues. The band released their first single "Moshi mo" independently in 2003 during their third year of high school, and also released their first self-titled album independently during the same year. The band made their major professional debut with their fourth single "Nijūgoko-me no Senshokutai" in 2005 under Toshiba EMI.
RADWIMPS are notable for providing the complete soundtrack to Makoto Shinkai's your name. film, which opened in Japan in 2016 and became a major box office success. RADWIMPS composed over 22 tracks for your name.'s soundtrack, as well as the film's theme songs "Zen Zen Zense (movie ver.)," "Sparkle," "Yume Tōrō (movie ver.)," and "Nandemo Ii ya (movie edit/movie ver.)." The soundtrack is the first RADWIMPS album to top Oricon's weekly album chart, where it stayed for two weeks. The soundtrack earned the Special Award in the 58th Japan Record Awards, as well as the Soundtrack Album of the Year award for the Japan Gold Disc Awards for 2017. Additionally, the soundtrack won Outstanding Achievement in Music at the 40th annual Japan Academy Prizes in March 2017. RADWIMPS produced English versions of the film's theme songs.
Similarly, the rock band provided the soundtrack for Shinkai's latest film Weathering With You.
RADWIMPS performed the theme song for the "We Are One!" mini-series of five short drama videos commemorating the 100th One Piece manga volume and the 1,000th One Piece anime episode.
Source: RADWIMPS via Hachima Kikо̄
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