Official Hige Dandism -- Pretender

 

Into Hump Day we go and it's feeling like a scorcher out there already. We actually activated our air conditioner for the first time this year, and it says something when I have to turn on my fan in the morning considering that I spent 17 torrid Tokyo summers. However, to be fair, our home seems to retain an unusual amount of heat longer while going outside is refreshingly cool.

Anyways, Official Hige Dandism（Official髭男dism）is a band that I've wanted to write about for a while now, and that Airi Suzuki（鈴木愛理）song which I had posted a few weeks ago was actually created by the lead vocalist Satoshi Fujihara（藤原聡）. Therefore I figured that it was time to do so...plus I had always wondered about the origins of the band's name.

First off, the band got together for the first time in June 2012 when Fujihara was attending Shimane University. He met up with a couple of buddies in his music club, bassist Makoto Narazaki（楢﨑誠）and drummer Masaki Matsuura（松浦匡希）, and then another friend from outside the university, lead guitarist Daisuke Ozasa（小笹大輔）. In short order, they held their first live performance the following month with their first mini-album coming out in April 2015. Incidentally, according to an interview through the LINE blog (via the J-Wiki bio on the band), Narazaki was the one who came up with the name of Official Hige Dandism somewhat tongue-in-cheek because he felt that it visually and phonetically created a rather large impact and therefore would be easy to remember. 

Their inaugural single, "No Doubt"（ノーダウト）was released in April 2018 but it was their 2nd single, "Pretender" from May 2019 that put the band on the national route to fame and fortune. The bright pop/rock melody actually surrounds a wail of frustrated resignation from a guy who finally realizes that the woman he loves will simply never reciprocate and it's time to let go. The message by songwriter Fujihara must have hit a chord with audiences since it broke the Top 10 at No. 9 on Oricon and even hit the top spot on Billboard Japan, becoming a million-seller.

"Pretender" also got Official Hige Dandism their first invitation onto NHK's Kohaku Utagassen after which they got their second appearance last New Year's Eve. The song is also on their 2nd full album "Traveler" released in October 2019 which earned the band top spots on both Oricon and Billboard Japan with the album finishing at No. 17 that year and then even finishing 2020 as the 10th-ranked album. 

The song was even used as the theme for the movie "THE CONFIDENCEMAN JP". As for the official music video, that was filmed in Taipei, Taiwan.