Thats not entirely untrue either though is it? As far as I can tell they blew up pretty soon after Oshimai was released…. How many other bands get the kind of treatment they did after releasing a 2 type single with a total of 4 songs? It doesnt bother me tbh, but I am still convinced they are somewhat a manufactured project that was SUPPOSED to be successful. Whether this was before or after Oshimai is irrelevant imo, at some point they got grabbed and pushed by companies who can do good things for them.
I like the band a lot, they got a couple of iffy songs for my taste but generally the music is great and im glad they’re doing well but am not going to kid myself they got to where they are now through YEARS of slog and struggle like a lot of bands. Im not even talking VK only, to progress as fast as they have simply is not natural.
Isn’t there a contradiction here?
Lime’s story actually goes against the idea that “they were manufactured to be successful.”
Kizu was formed by Reiki. He had wanted to play with Lime for a long time, and at that time Lime had just left his previous band, Lezard, which was also on Free-Will (Someone from the agency strongly invited him, so he agreed, but it wasn’t really the kind of music he wanted to do). Lime was clearly valued by the agency, and that’s probably how Kizu ended up on Free-Will.
Of course, being in an agency like that is an advantage — you get access to good services. But they are not the only band there, and the results are very different for everyone. What’s important is that Kizu are still an indie band and have complete creative freedom.
Kizu are not the only band that got attention quickly, but unlike many others, they showed a very high level of live performance and didn’t lose momentum after a few successful singles.
How many other bands get the kind of treatment they did after releasing a 2 type single with a total of 4 songs?
They had the same kind of start as many other bands: the same taibans, the same magazines… But the demand for their solo shows was higher. The venues and the quality of visuals grew together with the audience interest, they didn’t receive any really special privileges.
After Laime left Lezard, he played with Reiki, but Yue was the first to join Reiki in Kizu.
This is true. A lot of bands have their first song do really well and then immediately kill all momentum with the next 2-3 singles and disband a year later. Kizu had enough quality songs + good live performance which made them stand out a lot.
I’ve been wondering lately. What does Kizu do between activities they post like once every 3 months a year and I’m assuming the limited live shows they do is not paying for 3 months of rent and groceries so I’m just curious cause I never see them outside of Kizu
They’ve been releasing music less often for a long time, and you don’t really make much money from music in the streaming era anyway. Their DVDs sell well though. The Budokan DVD alone probably brought them a lot of money.
Live shows are also a good source of income for them. They play fairly large venues, and since they’re an indie band, most of the money goes directly to them, and fans buy a lot of merch.
They also have paid blogs, and sometimes they do blog members-only lives. Those shows are often in venues of around 1,000 people and they always sell out. Not all subscribers attend, and many fans are subscribed to multiple members or even all of them.
The subscription is about 500 yen per month, so it’s possible that just the blogs alone already cover their basic living expenses.
Do you think Kizu is actually going to release the album next month? They haven’t posted any updates about it, except for the song they’re selling at the lives, which is obviously gonna be on their album. They haven’t shown the songs that come with it, haven’t even shown the artwork of the album.
It could be tactic to be quiet
… It could be panic that they still don’t have the album done
But yeah, personally I have no idea if they will release it or not
So true. I dont get why everyone always expects a certain amount of singles, videos, snippets etc when the date is set. Like just wait til the stuff is released and take it for what it is then? Is a music video/one song really going to change someone’s mind if they buy the album or not…? Doubtful. So I just wish people could be more patient and stop commenting on how there have been no drip feeds despite the release date being close. A band operates on its own schedule….
