SANISAI -- Live to sing

 

With the untimely passing of singer-songwriter Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）earlier this year, I discovered that he had also been helping out a vocal group since the late 2000s.

SANISAI began their time together in 1999 when Wakako Yamada（山田和嘉子）first met Shingo Murai（村井伸吾）at university, later to be joined by Yamada's younger brother Ryuhei Yamada（山田隆平）. Putting their voices together, they found out that there was something special there so they began singing together and releasing several singles as an indies act from 2002. Up until the end of May 2005, the trio had been known as Sunny Side Up but then made the change in their name to the current SANISAI. 

In October 2007, the group released their debut single as a major act, "Live to sing" with sound production provided by Ariga who would officially enter SANISAI as the bassist and extra voice in 2020. For "Live to sing", the three of them proved their title right especially Wakako, and I enjoy the lighthearted nature of the song with the country folk arrangement. The music video is also just right.