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Artist
Sawao Yamanaka
12+ albums
indieJ-rockPop-Rock
about
Sawao Yamanaka, born December 7, 1963 in Hokkaido prefecture Japan. Learned how to play guitar from his older brother Hidetoshi Yamanaka at the age of ten and began his career as a rock star in 1988 at the age of 25 after dropping out of college. His first band The Coinlocker Babies recieved mild success locally, but didn't last a year when Sawao and former rival Kenzi Ueada joined forces to start what is considered the most prolific Japanese rock band in history, the pillows in 1989. Sawao formed side projects when he wasn't working on new music for the pillows. The first side project was with his older brother Hidetoshi called The Spiky Brothers. They released two albums and called it quits. In late 2001 Sawao started his own label which he named Delicious Label, initially to help band mate Yoshiaki Manabe release his solo project Nine Miles, but the label has been gaining momentum since releasing new material for old friends and adding to the roster new bands. He went solo for the first omnibus album showcasing new material from the bands on his newly formed label, "My Room is Delicious" in 2002, and released 4 songs total: Birthday, Wrong Vacation (disc 1); Clare Butterfly, Nobody Can Find Me (disc 2). Circa 2002-2003 he formed a band called Hayashi Hideo with 2 members from Mr. Children and Kenji Fuji from My Little Lover: they managed a 3 song demo and a handfull of concerts before they split. In 2005 Sawao teamed up with Yoshihito "JIRO" Wayama from Glay and Shinpei
