Background Akihito "Aki" Morimoto (
guitar and
vocals) and Kazuto Maekawa (
bass) first met in high school in
Osaka. Aki learned English by listening to the lyrics of his favorite bands. called
Caducious. Aki and Maekawa remained in Tokyo. Aki followed his passion for fishing) and Maekawa joined The Apollos (a Japanese
funk band) for a short time as
session bassist. Maekawa introduced their drummer, Tomoharu Ito (known as Gian, due to his similar appearance to a well-known Japanese comedian of that name) to Aki. Gian, Maekawa, and Aki started practicing together shortly afterwards.
Early years The band's first public performances was as an 11-piece group and gained a reputation for performing almost naked. Gian was arrested in
Hong Kong and fined HK$100, and released their first full-length album,
Maybe... I Think We Can Beat Nirvana. They followed this with
Live Punctured. In 1999, Electric Eel Shock recorded
Slayers Bay Blues on an
eight-track recorder, and made enough copies to begin their first concerts abroad. They had lined up a handful of dates in and around
New York, including
CBGB,
Go Europe In early 2003, the band received an email invitation from journalist
Bob Slayer to perform in London. On January 16, 2003, Electric Eel Shock landed in London for five hastily arranged gigs. The five shows became twelve gigs in ten days. The band relied exclusively on `the
London Underground as their only form of transport. in Denmark, headlining the
Rockit Hong Kong Music Festival, and supporting the Canadian band
Danko Jones on a 40-date European tour. At the start of 2004, Electric Eel Shock went into the studio for the last of the
Go sessions. Although these were still produced on a relatively low budget, and paid for by the band, this was the first time that they had used a studio and sound engineer as opposed to a practice room, kitchen or cupboard. The results,
Go Europe! /
Go USA!, were licensed around the world and the band went on a promotional tour that took in 25 countries and 27 European festivals.
Beat Me The band's European base camp for much of their touring in 2004 was the Suicide Motel in
Utrecht, Netherlands, which Bob Slayer set up with Frank Suicide the guitarist of the Dutch band
Wasted. Whilst spending time in the Netherlands, they developed their friendship with
Grammy-nominated
producer, Attie Bauw, (who had worked with
Judas Priest and the
Scorpions) that they had met in Amsterdam during the Danko Jones tour. Electric Eel Shock were soon making plans with
Bauw headlining festivals, and playing with the West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. in 2006 and played festivals in Europe.
Transworld Ultra Rock Electric Eel Shock released
Transworld Ultra Rock on October 1, 2007. The album was the first release on their own label
Double Peace Records. The band toured throughout Europe in support of the new album, later appearing as a support act on
The Presidents of the United States of America's
These Are the Good Times People tour. The album was released by P-Vine records on November 16, 2007 in Japan.
Sugoi Indeed Electric Eel Shock joined
Sellaband on 2 May 2008 to raise the funds to record their next album. On 25 June 2008 after 55 days the band successfully raised $50,000. The press release describes
Sugoi Indeed as an album full of classic rock hand-crafted in Japan. Attie Bauw, who produced the last two EES albums, was at the controls again, only this time he engineered the basic tracks and Electric Eel Shock took the production reins on the album themselves. The album was licensed to several labels around the world and was released in October 2009.
Crowdfunding Electric Eel Shock has strong support from their fans and became one of the first bands without previous significant record label success to fully embrace crowdfunding. In 2004 they raised £10,000 from 100 fans (the Samurai 100) by offering them guestlist for life. Two years later they became the fastest band to raise the 50,000 budget through SellaBand. The album
Sugoi Indeed has been licensed to Universal Records in Japan and various independent labels around the world. EES and their UK based manager
Bob Slayer became consultants on first SellaBand and later PledgeMusic. Having played an important role in establishing the viability and model for crowdfunding in music, they have now launched their own crowd funding site
Fan-Bo.com. Launched in June 2012, Fan-Bo is a place where fans of Japanese pop culture can support independent bands, artists, writers and other creatives. ==Discography==