Negoto - Going Major and Keeping It Real

This was not recent news but I have meant to write about Negoto for some time.

Negoto is a girl-band consisting of 4 girls and was an indie band until their eventual major debut September last year and produced by the label Ki/oon Records, which has also produced the likes of L'Arc〜en〜Ciel, RHYMESTER and ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION.

The members were originally a 3 piece band formed in 2006 consisted of high school girls, of which the guitarist was from a different school. The following year the guitarist quit the band but later changed her mind and invited a long time friend to play the bass, therefore forming the current line-up of Negoto. At that time they did not think of going pro, and was content being a cover band and played for fun. Negoto's first live performance was January 2008.

In that same year in 2008, armed with only 3 original songs they took part in a Tokyo FM Radio and School of Lock (no, that's not a typo ^-^ ) produced teenager-only rock festival called Flash Riot (other notable acts that took part at that time were Galileo Galilei and DOMINO). At that time Negoto still did not have any plans to go pro, because all the members were in their final year of high school and merely took part in the festival with the intention of doing something memorable. Eventually, Galileo Galilei won the grand prix, but Negoto's talent did not escape the organizer's ears as Tokyo FM, School of Lock, and Sony Music awarded the band with a "special judge's award". In the spring of 2009 all of the band members entered university. But perhaps the special award spurred something in their hearts, and therefore they finally decided to go pro.

From the beginning of 2010, Negoto went to performed live in some live festivals. By some stroke of luck, in Zepp Tokyo's produced "GIRL'S POP FACTORY 10" show because the popular band Stereopony who could not make it for the show, and Negoto was chosen to step in as the opening act. Subsequently, Space Shower TV then chose Negoto as their "Power Push Artiste" in September 2010. Finally, Negoto went major with their debut mini-album 'Hello! "Z"' in that same month, peaking at 23rd in Oricon charts.

Negoto have been touring ever since their debut. On 2nd of March 2011, they released their first single "Charon", in which some of you have seen a glimpse of in our previous post here.

Some excerpts from their Power Push interview:
Currently the members are juggling their music with their studies, trying to balance their university lives with their tours, studio recordings and songwriting. As a result their day to day activities are jammed packed.
Ever since the single "Charon" was chosen for the official commercial soundtrack for au's LISMO android phone their friends started to notice them and quickly rushed them with lots of attention, which is beginning to become overwhelming for the young girls.
Vocalist Sachiko said that since they have decided to continue their studies and doing music at the same time, they expect their lives will be busy but they do not tire of it. They make use of whatever time possible to balance their practices and songwriting, even riding on the trains. She notices that somehow songwriting is easier on the train. :)
At the time when their mini album was released, Negoto members began to think that the music that they play was not only for themselves only anymore, but for the fans and audiences. So they sat down, and in two hours free-played and came up with a song that was catchy and may be widely accepted by all - their first major single "Charon". The words for the song took a little longer though.

Personally I like how the members of Negoto keep their level-headedness in their journey of turning professional as a band. The vocalist especially remind me of Whiteberry, nasal and loud. And I liked the bassist Yu's style. They are, however, still young and still a new face and have a long way to go in their music career. But I think they will be successful and have a lot more to offer. In their tours, they performed many originals that are not in the single release nor in the mini album either, so we can expect more releases from them in the future.

Charon PV

ねごと カロン PV
Uploaded by plutoatom. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Loop from the mini album Hello Z

ねごと - ループ (PV)
Uploaded by wonderful-life1989. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Loop (Live)


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Trivia:
1) When choosing the band name the members were thinking 3 syllable hiragana words, it came down to kururi, midori and negoto. They settled for the last one. Negoto( ねごと ) means "talking in sleep" or "sleep talk" , in which the members think is symbolic, because you could just freely say anything you want, and subsequently do anything freely.

The profile:



(From left)
Bass & Back. Vocal 藤咲佑 Yu Fujisaki
Vocal and & Keyboard 蒼山幸子 Sachiko Aoyama
Guitar & Back. Vocal 沙田瑞紀 Mizuki Masuda
Drum & Back. Vocal 澤村小夜子 Sayako Sawamura


Negoto Official Site
Negoto MySpace
Negoto Twitter
Negoto Channel on USTREAM


Audio Samples

Charon カロン


Suisei Syrup (Comet Syrup) 彗星シロップ


Friends フレンズ