Bellella/ Background Information
From Clumsy Media
Bellella (ベルーエル, Berueru) is a Japanese electro-pop rock indie band. The group was first initially formed in August 2012, and members started writing and playing covers on the local streets. They quickly gained popularity online and was signed under Clumsy Media. Their debut was first hinted March 20, 2013 with an image posted online consisting of the members.
The group consists of four members: Mae Takahashi (leader), Eva Chinen, Keito Yamada and Rei Sagami.
History
2011-2012: Formation
The band originally started in August 2011 with high school students Asuka Fuinma and Yumi Sagami, while both attending the same after school coaching classes, they decided to form a band and starts to perform together, during every weekend in the shopping district of Osaka. Since they had minor experiences with writing music, they mostly played covers of other songs. It was decided once they found school life too overwhelming the band would break up. One day, whilst performing, by accident they met Mae Takahashi among the audience, who was actually an active trainee under entertainment label Clumsy Media and together formed a practice group named Bell.
Soon the band started getting offers from clubs in Osaka and Kyoto but they were unable to accept these offers as Takahashi was a signed trainee and was forbidden to perform for profits as stated in the contract she signed. Shortly atfer, Fuinma quit the band and decided to concentrated on her studies instead. In response Takahashi took Sagami to the label office and auditioned together as a trio and were offered an exclusive band contract the very next day. During their training stages the company scouted two additional members: Eva Chinen and Keito Yamada from a series of private auditions in order to make a four member band. Both new members were approached after company officials came across their self-submitted videos online. Their name was formally changed to Bellella, a combination of their former name and the name of the restuarant the group of four visited to celebrate a new beginning.
In order to practice their stage presence, the band toured around six major cities of Japan on a indie band tour for free. They also performed at Sakura-Con, one of the largest anime conventions in the United States. In July, they performed in front of 10,000 people at France's Japan Expo and also at Hong Kong's Animation-Comic-Game Hong Kong in August.
2013-current: Debut
On May 5, their debut album "Freeway" was released. It was recorded over a period of six months at the Clumsy Media Studio located in Tokyo, Japan and was produced by DJ Heather, musician Koss, Junji Ishiwatari and the group's leader Mae Takahashi. A guitar-concentrated-pop album, Freeway has up-tempo and rock-oriented songs. Upon its release, the album received beyond positive reviews from music critics. It debuted at number one on the Oricorn Daily Music Chart, with the first-week sales of 130,000 copies, and became a massive commercial success. Five official singles were released from the album. Its lead single, "My Freeway", earned the group a Japan Golden Disk Award for Best Band Performance and Best Band Debut Track.
