We’ve been waiting for the right time to post this. We wanted to post this in April, when Sakura was in bloom, but obviously we were too busy.
This is something to celebrate and we want you to celebrate together with us!
We rarely do this kind of celebration.
(We don’t usually post “album anniversary”, “debut anniversary” or that kind of stuff.)
But this year 2025 is a very important anniversary year for us. and we want to share this with you. With all our friends and fans!
30 years ago, around this time, Tak and Marie met for the first time, at a high school in a local city in Aichi, Japan.
We have been hesitant and feeling awkward because it means now we are freaking old!😆
Some people may think we are still 27 years old, (and we look younger than average due to rock’n’roll, being Asian, God’s grace and love), but yes, we are actually not that young and we are basically teenage kids from 1990’s! (We like to call ourselves “The Smashing Pumpkins generation” instead of Xennials or whatever😉)
But hey, the important thing here is we have been together, still in love, for 30 years now and it’s a celebration of true love!!!
Yes. In 1995, around this time, Tak and Marie first met. That was, in the hindsight, the very beginning of Imari Tones.
Very soon after that, Tak said “We should get married!” and Marie said “Yes we should!”. (Very impressive – but teachers, parents, all the adults around us were not very impressed. It took us a long time to prove to them our love was real.)
“I wanna start a band” – That’s what Marie said in her “Tanabata” wish card. After seeing that, Tak started a band for her. Marie and Tak played together in their high school band, playing a song titled “Kimi Ha Mammoth”.
Inspired by love, Tak wrote more than 100 songs in his high school days. Those songs are the essential part of Imari Tones’ music, even though we didn’t have a name yet for this lifelong musical project of ours back then.
Meeting Jesus Christ was inevitable for us because we believed in Love. We believed that there was some spiritual truth behind art and music – something bigger than fame and success.
Guided by Love and Rock’n’Roll, we eventually met Jesus. (Do you know how fortunate it was, because if you are from regular Japanese family, there is very little chance to know who Jesus is!)
The moment we met Jesus, we knew it was Him all along. Because God is Love, and Jesus is the originator of Love! (If my English is correct😉)
We decided to dedicate our music to God.
And probably, that’s the beginning of Imari Tones you are familiar with…?
We started our band for personal love, but now we are playing our music for something much bigger – God’s Love.
–
Love, Happiness, Faith.
These are the things that are important to us.
Fame, Fortune, Success.
These things we don’t care so much. After all, we are not very good at business side of things. (and we consider we are lucky😉)
–
Our music is very personal. We don’t write our music to play in front of 10,000 people.
We write and play our music for personal and spiritual reasons.
But if our music inspires you in some way, we are very happy.
– 2 things we want to tell you.
1.
It’s a real celebration! Please celebrate with us, because we never thought we could come this far. 30 years and still happily in love. Still rocking for Jesus, with our unique little band: The first ever Christian metal band from JAPAN!
2.
Please allow us to post and share our “throwback” contents.
Starting now, we allow ourselves to post stuff from the past. Songs, photos, movies and stories. We’ve been avoiding this, because we wanted to focus on NOW and PRESENT.
But now, we are ready to look back and appreciate our past. Because we are proud of all the things we have done.
Yes, we are sharing “Imari Tones history” with you.
At the same time, NEW and CURRENT Imari Tones is in the works. Because now we have Kenshin, the young talented drummer.
We thought we were going to slow down and going full on “nostalgic mode”. But God told us to “go on” and “make more music”.
So yes, we will work harder😆
(While appreciating our past)
Also…
We decided to start Patreon, because we want to make more music!
https://www.patreon.com/imaritones
It’s beginning!
If you want to support this one of a kind band from Japan, please consider joining our Patreon!
With your support, we will be able to give you “Christian Samurai” album and take on the world!💕
Imari Tones are now young again!
Let’s rock the world together!