The history of the Moonriders begins with its predecessor band, Honey Pai.
Hachimitsu Pai started out as a backing band for Morio Agata after a historic encounter between Morio Agata and Keiichi Suzuki in March 1970. Together with Happiendo, they pioneered Japanese rock music with a unique Japanese sensibility. The band broke up, leaving behind the album “Sentimental Street” (1973) and the single “Kimi to Tabi Bag” (1974). In addition to former members Keiichi Suzuki, Toru Okada, Masahiro Takekawa, and Tetsuro Kashibuchi, the Moonriders were formed in 1975 with new support members Kazuo Shiina and Hirofumi Suzuki, Keiichi’s younger brother.
In order to stabilize the economic foundation of the band’s activities, they began backing Agnes Chan. In between these activities, Keiichi Suzuki began working on his solo album, “Fireball Boy,” which was released on January 25, 1976 under the name “Keiichi Suzuki and the Moonriders.
The following year, in 1977, he released his first original album “Moon Riders” under the name “Moon Riders. The band’s sound began to change from its previous American orientation to a more European one. The change in direction also affected the members’ relationships, and guitarist Kazuo Shiina left the band after a live performance on March 24, 1977. Yoshiaki Shirai, a member of Hot Landing, joined the band as a new guitarist.
The band, now an iron-clad lineup, continued to consistently release new albums, changing their sound at a dizzying pace.
Istanbul Mambo” (October 25, 1977) introduced a stateless element, while “Nouvelle Vague” (1978), with its full-frontal modern pop style, already brought them closer to new wave. The new wave approach was spurred on by “Modern Music” (1979), and “Camera = Fountain Pen” (1980), with its theme of “soundtracks for fictional movies,” was a radical deconstruction/reconstruction of the new wave approach. His attitude of cutting through the cutting edge of the times was further accelerated. He moved from Crown to Japan Records and completed “Mania Mineira” (1982), making use of a number of experimental methods. However, the record company was reluctant to release the album because of its too radical content, so he decided to postpone its release. The album “Hyakkei Aozora Hyakkei” (1982), which was produced without a moment’s delay, broke through into the “blue sky beyond the avant-garde,” and was the first to present a pop style in Japan that reversed the radicalism of post-punk.
In “Amateur Academy” (1984), after moving to the RVC/Dear Heart record company, the band developed a post-modern world in the style of the Moonriders, with a sound that fused the digital and the physical and a symbolic title. In the same year, they moved to the newly established MIDI, but without releasing any works, they moved to Pony Canyon. Together with Yukihiro Takahashi, they established the T.E.N.T. label and released Animal Index (1985) and Don’t Trust Over Thirty (1986), but at the same time as they closed the 10th anniversary of their debut, they went into a long hiatus.
After that, each member pursued their own multifaceted activities as soloists, songwriters, and producers, but in the 1990s, the group reunited and made a complete comeback in 1991 with “The Last Supper,” released by Toshiba EMI. After the release of “A.O.R.” (1992), which highlighted the beauty of melody, the group moved to Funhouse in search of a new venue. In “reminiscence mode,” he released “Beautiful Young Generation HIGH SCHOOL BASEMENT 1,” a collection of covers, and “Le Cafe de la Plage,” a collection of reggae-arranged self-covers (both in 1995), in rapid succession, but the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the Aum Shinrikyo Incident, and other unsettling events in the world were also in full swing. In June 1995, when the world was in a state of unrest due to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Aum Shinrikyo Incident, Masahiro Takekawa was involved in a hijacking incident. Therefore, “Night of the Moonriders” (1995) became a heavy work reflecting the atmosphere of the times.
In 1996, the 20th anniversary of his debut, he produced “Bizarre Music For You” with various guests, and held a grand 20th anniversary concert.
In 1998, he transferred to Cune, and for “Lunar Hymn,” he entrusted the basic tracks to a variety of young artists, who arranged them freely. The band’s “meaning” was questioned through the innovative method of asking young artists to arrange the basic tracks as they wished. In 2000, “Six musicians on their way to the last exit” was a collection of home recordings by each member. The album concluded the 20th century by questioning “what the band should be in the future” through the accumulation of individual work.
Following the release of “Dire morons TRIBUNE” on Dream Machine in 2001, which showed the band’s unique individuality and presence, the band established their own independent label, Moonriders Records, in 2004. The band consistently released a series of albums, including “P.W Babies Paperback” (2005), “MOON OVER the ROSEBUD” (2006), and “Tokyo7” (2009). Although things seemed to be going well from the outside, something happened here that no one expected.
In November 2011, the band announced an indefinite hiatus. At the end of 2013, Tetsuro Kashibuchi passed away. After that, the band repeatedly revived and went on hiatus, causing fans to be both happy and sad, but in December 2021, at a public press conference after a live concert, Keiichi Suzuki declared that he would “continue the band for the rest of my life. The hiatus was lifted.
In 2022, the band released its first album in 11 years, “It’s the moooonriders. In February 2023, Toru Okada passed away. The album “Happenings Nine Months Time Ago in June 2022” was released in March 2023, containing the improvisation sessions before his death. Even as they approach the 50th anniversary of their debut, the band will not stop moving forward as they continue to explore new and unprecedented territory.