Garnet Crow

Summary

The origin of the word "Garnet" in "Garnet Crow" emerged from the band's aspiration to achieve a musical depth akin to the depth of the color red often found in garnets. The word "Crow" was attached for its phonetic resonance. A further consideration in creating the band name was the enduring image left behind when it is translated to the eerie "scarlet crow" (深紅のカラス) in Japanese.

Since inception, the four-person line-up of Garnet Crow has remained constant. The two female and two male band consists of lead vocalist Yuri Nakamura (中村由利, Nakamura Yuri), keyboardists Nana Azuki (ＡＺＵＫＩ七, Azuki Nana) and Hirohito Furui (古井弘人, Furui Hirohito), and guitarist Hitoshi Okamoto (岡本仁志, Okamoto Hitoshi). Furui is the band leader, but members are introduced in official sources with vocalist Nakamura receiving top billing. In 1999, the four members of what was to become Garnet Crow collaborated on the creation of a demo tape for singer Mai Kuraki's all-American independent record label. Upon hitting it off during the production process, they decided to seize the opportunity to create a band of their own. At that time, three of the members were already involved with the record production company Being Group distributing for and supporting other artists, leaving Nakamura as the sole newcomer. Nakamura herself was aiming for a position that didn't require her to front for the band like a musical director, but her associates made recommendations for her and she ended up in charge of vocals and musical composition.

In the creation process roles are clearly divided, with primary duties like composition, creation of lyrics, and editing for most Garnet Crow songs being handled by the members themselves. Particularly Nakamura's scores and Azuki's lyrics are the core foundation for all the band's songs. The works' roots lie in the Neo Acoustic genre, and at the time of its debut Garnet Crow's own musicality was hailed as "21st Century Neo-Neo Acoustics." From the 1999 debut and lasting nearly 2½ years the band mainly focused on CD production, but in 2002 Garnet Crow went live for the first time and since then has performed publicly more than 20 times, primarily in Japan's three major metropolitan centers: Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto. Using the experience of their public performances, Garnet Crow began to consciously produce music with the live setting in mind, incorporating elements of Latin American music and Canzone into their work.

There exist undisclosed gaps in the individual members' personal work histories. And, until the release of the 2002 single "Yume mita ato de," Garnet Crow did not once appear on television. It is thought that the check on mass media exposure for Being Group-affiliated artists was a media control strategy by the company. However, since 2002 the band has performed on TV music programs. The members themselves have left remarks suggesting that television performances make them extremely tense.

History

Members

MINIQLO

The band have a subgroup, which is known as MINIQLO. (This comes from the phrase "Mini Garnet Crow".) The two members of Garnet Crow involved in this are Nakamura Yuri and Okamoto Hitoshi. Yuri sings and plays the piano, while Okamoto provides the chorus vocals and plays the guitar. MINIQLO have started to perform at Garnet Crow live concerts. So far, they have released two mini-albums, "Paralyzed Frequency" and "above all else!!", each of which features their versions of three Garnet Crow songs. So far, these CDs have only been available at 2010 live venues, and "above all else!!" was sold at the 2010-2011 Special Countdown Live.