Monkey Majik is a Japanese band composed of two Canadian brothers, Maynard and Blaise Plant, who both perform vocals and guitar, drummer tax and bassist DICK. The band is sometimes referred to as a "hybrid-band", as half of the members are foreigners and the lyrics are sung in both English and Japanese.
Much of the band's music has been cross-promoted via television programs, commercials, and movies. The band has been chosen as “Goodwill Ambassadors” for the 80th anniversary of Japanese-Canadian relations[1].
Monkey Majik is managed by Edward Limited and are signed to binyl records, an avex subsidiary. Their live recordings are handled by Under Horse Records, a record company the band was signed on to before their major label debut.
The band, even after mainstream success, is still based in Sendai, located roughly 350km from Tokyo. This is contrary to the majority of musicians in Japan, whom most often move to Tokyo after mainstream success.
Maynard Plant moved to Japan in 1997[2] to teach English after graduating from Queen's University where he was president of the Alma Mater Society. He was able to learn Japanese while working as an Assistant Language Teacher. Blaise moved to Japan in 2001, after studying Drama at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta and spending some time as a solo-artist.
In 2002 Monkey Majik released their first EP called TIRED, a self-financed release limited to 1,000 copies available at Tower Records in Sendai. The EP attained the number one sales position for the store for six straight weeks. In 2003 the band released the first full-length album "SPADE", once again only available at Tower Records in Sendai. The album retained the number one in-store sales position for 13 consecutive weeks. "SPADE" was released nation-wide in 2004. The band's second full-length album, "eastview", was released in 2005. In the fall of the same year the band signed on to major label avex.
Their first major release single through avex was "fly" in 2006. The single was commercially successful, reaching #19 on the Oricon charts. "Fly" was quickly followed by the release of their second single, "Around the World", which was used as the drama Seiyuuki's theme song. "Around the World" became their break out single, reaching #4 on Oricon charts and charting for 13 weeks. "Around the World" sold 164,299 copies in 2006, becoming the 62nd most selling single of the year in Japan.
In 2007 Monkey Majik released their fourth full-length album "Sora wa maru de", where the titled song "Sora wa maru de" became the first song in Japanese History to reach #1 on USEN Request Chart before being released.
Their most recent album "TIME" opened it's first week at #2 on the Oricon Chart.
Francais
Monkey Majik est un groupe originaire du nord du Japon, plus précisement de Sendai. Ils entrent dans le monde de la musique en 2000 avec leur premier album "Lily", sans franc succès et les albums suivants, "Spade" (2003) et "Eastview" (2005) passeront un peu inaperçu. En 2006 paraît leurs dernier album "Thank You" qui conclut un début d'année remarqué. En effet, après le succès du single "Fly", beaucoup de projets leur sont proposés comme par exemple le générique de Saiyuuki, un programme de la chaîne Fuji Tv. C'est ainsi que sort le single "Around the World" qui accroît leurs popularité au point que les chanteuses du groupe "Bennie K" demandent à Blaise Plant (le chanteur du groupe Monkey Majik) de chanter ensemble.
La chanson "Endless Summer" (fruit de la colaboration du groupe Bennie K et de Blaise Plant") montre que le groupe a parfaitement intégré la musique hip-hop, même s'il présente un style plutot pop, pop-rock. Leur dernier single "Picture Perfect" est le fruit d'une collaboration avec m-flo, les stars de la scêne hip-hop japonaise.
Parlons plus précisément de la composition du groupe. En effet, il diffère des autres groupes par le fait qu'il est composé de deux Canadiens Maynard e Blaise Plant (frères, vocaliste et guitariste) et de deux japonais, dont un batteur Kikuchi Takuya et un bassiste DICK. La présence des deux Canadiens dans se groupe souligne l'internationalisation de la scène musicale japonaise, qui est très influencé par les rythmes occidentaux mais attire également de plus en plus de musiciens étrangers à se faire produire dans le pays du soleil levant.
More info/Plus d'info :
Monkey Majik websiteNautiljon.comWikipedia 
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