Friends is a four-member rock group consisting of Emi Okamoto, who goes by Emison does the vocals, Ryōhei Nagashima plays the bass, Tarō Miura does guitar along with vocals, and Rui Sekiguchi plays drums and also contributes to the vocals. Hirose Hirose was the one who formed the group in 2015. Hirose wanted to put together a group for his twenty-fifth birthday. He was a member of the band Nicoten, wanted to work with a female vocalist so he reached out to Emison who, at the time, was a member of the band The Love Ningen, because he had worked with her in the past. Then Hirose invited Nagashima to the group because they needed a bassist. Lastly, they reached out to Sekiguchi to be their drummer. One night out Emison saw the sign for a bar called Philippine Pub Friends and took a picture of it to send to her bandmates. They really liked the name of the bar Friends, so they started using it. Finally in 2016 Miura formally joined the group and that was the full group until last year when Hirose decided to step away from it. In that time the group has released seventeen singles and one album which was released last year.

The band aims to create friendship, love, and the subtleties of everyday life through a variety of pop sounds, along with exquisitely intertwined originality. The listener hears that in every song. Friends create a nice, fun, upbeat sound that draws the listener in. One of my favorite songs by them is their song “Tokyo Konya”. It has such a fun, delightful air about it and their harmonization is done well. Their latest release is their EP “Superb”, and “Yoru wa Kirai” is a ton of fun as well.

Their Twitter stays up to date with all of the news for the group along with their Official Website. Lastly, be sure to check out their song “Tokyo Konya” in the video below.

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