MAN WITH A MISSION

Website | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook

Introduction:
Man with a Mission, stylized as MAN WITH A MISSION or sometimes as MWAM is a Japanese rock band which was formed in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan in 2010. This band currently consists five band members, with stage names of Tokyo Tanaka, Jean-Ken Johnny, Kamikaze Boy, DJ Santa Monica and Spear Rib.

MWAM's music style has been described as hard rock and dance rock. Their distinguishing feature is that all of the members wear differently designed wolf masks during both their concerts and their music videos. Many of their singles have been used as theme songs for a variety of anime, live-action movies, and video games.

Biography:
Before becoming popular, the band invented a back-story for why they wear wolf masks, which involves them being created as the "Ultimate Life Form" by Jimi Hendrix, who is described by the band as being the doctor of the guitar and master wolf biologist. They were then frozen in Antarctica for years. While they were frozen, they had been listening to all kinds of music from all around the world, before later escaping and emerging onto the Japanese music scene.

The earliest debut of the band was in a number of live gigs at venues in the Shibuya area. The band organized an American tour in late 2010, which was called their "Whisky a Go Go" tour and involved multiple gigs at night clubs in Los Angeles. The tour itself ended in November 2010. The end of their tour coincided with the release of their first mini album, Welcome to the New World, in November as well, which went on to sell out in a number of stores across Japan. The mini album also spent six weeks on the Oricon Top 100 for number of sales. On April 29, 2011, they released a new single titled "Never Fxxkin' Mind the Rules". After the single release, the band started another music tour on March 7, 2011, called "Man with a Mission Japan Marking Tour 2011", which included 13 different performances across Japan. Their first full debut album, Man with a Mission, released on June 8, 2011.

Soon after the release of their album, they participated in a major Japanese concert event, known as "Summer Sonic 2011" in mid-August, and also a number of other summer festivals, such as "Countdown Japan 11/12". Labeled by Eggman Magazine as the "Most Promising Newcomer", tickets to their show at the concert festival sold out within ten minutes. During the stream of concerts, their songs were also run on 27 of the major FM and AM radio broadcasting stations nationwide across Japan. On October 5, 2011, the band released an EP titled Trick or Treat, which included a number of original songs and also cover songs, such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. The members of Man with a Mission were also featured in a poster campaign by Tower Records titled "No Music, No Life?", which began on September 13, 2011.

Continuation of biography here: en.wikipedia.org

Members:
- Tokyo Tanaka (トーキョー・タナカ) - vocals, leader
- Jean-Ken Johnny (ジャン・ケン・ジョニー) - guitar, vocals, rap
- Kamikaze Boy (カミカゼ・ボーイ) - bass guitar, backing vocals
- DJ Santa Monica (DJサンタモニカ) - DJ, sampling
- Spear Rib (スペア・リブ) - drums

(Sources: en.wikipedia.org | ja.wikipedia.org | mwamjapan.info)