MONKEY MAJIK is a band formed in Sendai, Japan in 2000. The band consists of two canadians brothers, Maynard and Blaise Plant, and two Japanese members, drummer Takuya “Tax” Kikuchi and bass player Hideki “DICK”. MONKEY MAJIK’s music is energetic pop-rock with lyrics in both English and Japanese. One of the Plant brothers, Maynard (blanc.), came to Japan in 1997 as an English teacher and speaks fluent Japanese. He then later invited his brother, Blaise Plant, to Japan to form a band due to the interest of music that they shared. They have 6 original albums, 14 singles and 2 compilation albums.
The band’s first big hit was the single Around The World, the theme song of the TV drama Saiyuuki-Journey to the West. In 2007 they worked on a number of collaborations with other J-pop artists, including hip-hop duo m-flo (“Picture Perfect”), Seamo (“卒業、そして未来へ。”) and the 吉田兄弟 (“Change”).
The album 空はまるで (Sora wa Maru de), was released July 25, 2007. 空はまるで is MONKEY MAJIK’s fourth original full-length album. The first press of the album includes two bonus tracks from the MONKEY MAJIK × MONKEY MAGIC single. The song 空はまるで was used as the Yokohama Type image song and became the first song in Japanese History to reach #1 on USEN Request Chart before being released.
On September 2008, they released another album, TIME and the album opened its first week at #2 on the Oricon Chart. They also made a collaboration with 土屋アンナ for the song GINGER that was featured in her album, NUDY SHOW! and was used for the Asahi Ginger Draft commercial song.
In 2009 they released two singles: アイシテル and 虹色の魚 / Open Happiness / MONSTER. Early 2010 they released the single SAKURA and a new compilation titled MONKEY MAJIK BEST 10Years & Forever containing songs from thank you to the newest single. The compilation also contains a song titled Fast Forward which was used as the opening theme for the anime Nurarihyon no Mago.
Later 2010, they announced the 6th album and a brand new single. The new single titled ぬらりひょんの孫 オープニングテーマ EP contains the tracks Sunshine and Fast Forward, both used as opening themes for Nurarihyon no Mago and the single was released November 24, 2010. The album, titled westview was released in February 2, 2011. They released a compilation album titled RARE TRACKS in March 2, 2011, containing b-sides from singles and random songs used to movies and animes.
