No’where – Recall Road (1999)
“Don’t Stay”, 1999 For Life.
No’where formed in 1997. Formed by brothers and popular actors Takashi Kashiwabara (柏原崇) and Shuji Kashiwabara (柏原収史), who would have popularity in China and South Korea, Takashi would be the frontman of the group and Shuji would be the guitarist. Presumably due to the high profiles of the brothers, No’where would become a major act immediately after its formation and signed to For Life. In August of 1998, No’where released its first single “Another World”, which would be rereleased a month later with a bonus track. The rerelease would reach number 29 on the Oricon charts, and stayed in the charts for 3 weeks, and the group then released their second single in January of 1999, “Don’t Stay”, which ultimately failed to break the Oricon charts. This failed to kill their overseas popularity, where, in particularly China, the group garnered tremendous popularity, and No’where would famously play a live in August of 1999 at the Taipei Municipal Stadium, which drew over 30,000 goers. In June of 1999, No’where released their third single “Low Down”, and later released their first full length album, “Bawl Out”, a month later, which would also be released in China. While the album had strong sales in China, it failed to break the Oricon charts, and the group went on until mysteriously disintegrating in early 2000. It has since been rumored that it was because of problems between the group and the label, which would end up folding all together in late 2001, under 2 years after No’where dissolved. Both Takashi and Shuji would continue on as actors, although Takashi would eventually retire from not just acting, but interestingly enough, public appearances in general in 2014. Shuji, on the other hand, still remains active as an actor today. The drummer of No’where, Osamu (修), would join several other underground groups, and is currently active in his own project, Osamu Metal 80’s. The bassist of No’where, Maru, would form the obscure indies group Iolite, which would also fold in 2002. Afterwards, he joined the visual metal group Cloud Nine, as well as the supergroup Hyper Rock. While Hyper Rock would eventually fold in 2004, Maru would remain active in Cloud Nine, and also joined the mysterious visual group S.R.O.D., although he would eventually leave both Cloud Nine and S.R.O.D. in 2007. After he left both groups, Maru would move to Los Angeles and join the hard rock group Lovechild under his full name of Yoshitake Tanakamaru (田中丸善威). When Lovechild eventually dissolved in early 2010, Yoshitake then temporarily joined another local LA band, Otto’s Child, which he ended up leaving after apparently only a month in the band. After he left Otto’s Child, he then retired from the music scene in general, eventually moving back to Japan and starting his own business, Tanakamaru (タナカマル), which he remains the head of today.