| Head Phones President | |
|---|---|
Head Phones President in New York City 2010. |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | HPP, Deep Last Blue |
| Origin | Nagoya, Japan |
| Genres | Alternative metal, experimental metal, nu metal, hard rock |
| Years active | 1999–present |
| Labels | Sound Ship (2000–2001) Ex Tribe Records (2002) Howling Bull Records (2003) Tribe Gate Records (2004) Tyhoon Japan (2005) United Asia Link (2007) Spiritual Best (2009) Tower Records (2010) |
| Website | headphonespresident.com |
| Members | |
| Anza Hiro Narumi Batch |
|
| Past members | |
| Kawady Take Okaji Mar |
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Head Phones President (stylized as HEAD PHONES PRESIDENT) is a Japanese metal band formed in 1999. Their sound is a mix between experimental metal, alternative metal, nu metal and hard rock. They are noted for having a female vocalist, which is uncommon in heavy metal music.
They have played various festivals, including Loud Park Festival '08, Taste of Chaos, Independence-D '07 and a headlining appearance at Addict XX, sharing the stage with the likes of Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, Story of the Year, In This Moment and Mucc, to name but a few. They have also played in the U.S., Sweden, Australia, neighboring Asian countries, and South America.[1]
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After vocalist Anza Ohyama ceased performing with the Sailor Moon musicals in 1998, she embarked on a solo career for almost two years,[2] receiving help from guitarist Hiro and his brother Mar.[3] They had a desire to play heavier music, so together formed the band Deep Last Blue. They found bassist Kawady and drummer Okaji and managed to release their first single, "Escapism" in 2000, after changing their name to Head Phones President. Bassist Kawady left soon after and was replaced by Take the following year.
Playing at small venues all over Japan, they started to gain more popularity. In 2002 the group released the EP ID, after which Take left due to family reasons and was replaced by Narumi.[3] That year Head Phones President had their first international tour, including a stop in New York City.[4]
Head Phones President's first album Vary was released in late 2003, after which the band returned to America for another short tour and started releasing CDs in the United States.
Okaji left the band in October 2004, desiring to make his own music. They recruited support drummer Batch in January 2005 (he was made an official member in 2009). They continued to tour Japan, taking intermittent breaks to allow Anza to work on her solo career.[4]
Head Phones President released their first DVD, Toy's Box, in August 2006. The band desired to tour Europe, and in February 2007, they went to Sweden for two performances.[4] In November, they performed at the animation convention, Pacific Media Expo in Los Angeles, California. Their second full length album, Folie a Deux, was released on December 12.
In July 2008, they played the Formoz Music Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, they returned to the city again in July 2009.[4] On October 7, 2009, the mini album Prodigium was released on the Spiritual Beast label, and was mastered at West Side Music by Alan Douches (Mastodon, The Agonist).
On September 3, 2010, they released the self-cover album Pobl Lliw, which includes rearranged versions of old songs as well as some all new tracks.[3] On September 19, 2010, Head Phones President performed at D'erlanger's "Abstinence's Door #005" with Defspiral and Girugamesh. The concert was streamed worldwide live on Ustream.tv.[5] The band returned to New York City to play three shows as part of Frank Wood's "10 Days of Wood" music event in November. On November 24, 2010, the band announced that guitarist Mar had resigned from the band due to unspecified personal reasons.[3] The band publicly wished him well and stated that they will continue activities without him.[6]