14 Facts About Ichiro Yamaguchi

Ichiro Yamaguchi is the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the Hokkaido rock band Sakanaction.

Ichiro Yamaguchi grew up listening to a wide variety of music, as his father ran a business that acted as a cafe during the daytime and as a bar at night.

Ichiro Yamaguchi's father had lived in Europe for many years, so often played music such as the German electronic band Kraftwerk.

Ichiro Yamaguchi began to play music naturally, learning how to play the guitar after picking up an acoustic guitar that was in his parents home.

Ichiro Yamaguchi was inspired to write lyrics by the large number of second hand books his father bought, such as those of Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai, Chuya Nakahara and Yoshiro Ishihara, as well as haiku poets Santoka Taneda and Shuji Terayama.

In 1998, Ichiro Yamaguchi formed a band with his high school friends from Sapporo Daiichi High School, called Dutchman, which performed British rock-inspired music.

Ichiro Yamaguchi kept the name Dutchman for his solo project as a DJ, where he created techno and club music.

Ichiro Yamaguchi thought it would be interesting to mix electronic music with Japanese-style "folky melodies," and when Yamaguchi was asked to remix the song "Shiranami Top Water" for the compilation album Music for Pardisco in 2004, he found it difficult to create the entire song by himself.

In 2012, Ichiro Yamaguchi began writing music for dramatic productions, such as the band's single "Boku to Hana", which was written specifically for the drama Sanjunana-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku: Kenshui Junjo Monogatari.

Ichiro Yamaguchi collaborated with them again in 2012 to write their single "Moment", which was used to promote the Tokyo Broadcasting System broadcast of the 2012 Summer Olympics, and debuted at number one on the Oricon single chart.

In 2010, Ichiro Yamaguchi was a featured vocalist on Base Ball Bear's album Cypress Girls, on the song "Kimino-Me".

Ichiro Yamaguchi collaborated with Base Ball Bear vocalist Yusuke Koide in 2011 to write the song "Kodona no Kaidan" for idol singer Shiho Nanba, who released the track as a single.

In September 2015, Ichiro Yamaguchi collaborated with electronic musician Aoki Takamasa and fashion brand Anrealage to create a catwalk soundtrack for the brand's appearance at the Paris Fashion Week.

In 2010 right before the tour for the band's album Kikuuiki, Sakanaquarium 2010 Kikuuiki, Ichiro Yamaguchi suffered sensorineural hearing loss, and permanently lost hearing in his right ear.