BRAND-NEW BAND STORY

**BRAND-NEW BAND STORY** was an open audition held between WACK and the music production company, JMS. It preceded the founding of the company's joint management business, JACK.

## History

BRAND-NEW BAND STORY was announced on May 31st, 2022, in an "emergency" YouTube livestream between Watanabe Junnosuke and JMS producer, KTR.

The concept of the program was for both producers to find the "new generation's monster rock band". The winning band will then be signed to the major label, Nippon Columbia, and perform alongside BiSH and JMS' MY FIRST STORY, at an event to be held at Spotify O-East on October 21st, 2022.

Auditions were opened on the day of the announcement, and closed on June 19th. The judging panel for the competition consisted of:

* Watanabe Junnosuke (WACK)
* KTR (JMS)
* Sasaki Takeru (Nippon Columbia)
* Shikano Atsushi (Music critic)
* Ohashi Ryuta (SCHOOL OF LOCK!)
* Tanaka Kazuhiro (Natalie.mu)
* Cent Chihiro Chittiii (BiSH)

The audition was broadcast on GYAO! and SPACE SHOWER TV in August.

On July 1st, the first four bands to be featured were unveiled; totempole, Marude Tora, Saredo Neko, youth and TEAR. Three more bands were revealed five days later, as Tachimimi Scottish Fold, HEIRA and Aranami. Oddly, while four additional bands were slated to have been involved, only these three were ultimately revealed.

The bands held a joint performance on July 10th, ROAD TO BRAND-NEW BAND STORY, as part of the second round of judging. The event was free, and broadcast on GYAO! and YouTube. Leading up to this performance, short videos of each band were posted online, with the public vote being determined by the numbers of likes and shares each band's respective video received from July 5th to the July 10th performance. At this event, four bands would be selected to progress to the final round.

At the ROAD TO BRAND-NEW BAND STORY live performance, the groups that had been selected to the final round were revealed as:

1. Aranami
2. TEAR
3. totempole
4. youth

The four bands went on to compete in a training camp from July 19th to 21st. Unlike previous times, the audition camp was not livestreamed, presumably as it would be filmed for the SPACE SHOW TV special instead.

Online distribution of the BRAND-NEW BAND STORY television series began on GYAO! on August 31st, then on Space Shower TV on September 6th.

Once all episodes of BRAND-NEW BAND STORY had aired, a popular vote was held from October 14th to 20th. A new song for each band, which had been unveiled at the training camp, was also made public, with how many views and responses each song received being factored into the popularity poll.

BRAND-NEW BAND STORY ultimately concluded on October 21st, with the announcement that totempole had won the competition and would receive a major label debut. In addition, a new company formed between WACK and JMS, JACK, was founded, with totempole being the first artists to be signed.

## Bands

* **Aranami**
* **TEAR**
* **totempole** **(WINNER)**
* **youth**
* Marude Tora, Saredo Neko (Eliminated July 10th)
* Tachimimi Scottish Fold (Eliminated July 10th)
* HEIRA (Eliminated July 10th)

## Trivia

* The emergency livestream was announced on the same day that EMPiRE's sudden and unexplained disbandment was announced, and took place just a day later. This led many fans to believe that the announcement was to be about the future of the members, causing some disappointment among fans when the BRAND-NEW BAND STORY program was announced instead. Fortunately, the fate of the members was revealed the following day, during their disbandment live.