Press Kit

“All for the world peace.
And rock is forever.”

The Darjeeling is a five-piece rock band from Oita, a coastal city on Japan's southern island of Kyushu — far from Tokyo's music industry, and proud of it. Formed in 1984 by high-school classmates, the band has carried the same lineup spirit for four decades: UG (vocals), NAOKI (drums/chorus), Kibe (bass), Wakky (guitar) and Satoshiani (keyboards).

Their music is straight-ahead Japanese-language rock built on one conviction, stated in their slogan: “All for the world peace. And rock is forever.” The 2015 debut album “No Nukes” confronted nuclear issues head-on in the aftermath of Fukushima. The 2020 second album “Te” (Japanese for “hand”) — 16 tracks including remastered versions of the debut — asks its listener a blunt question: “Look hard at yourself in the mirror. Are you living all-out?”

The Darjeeling are lifers, not careerists: five men who kept day jobs, families and their hometown, and never stopped playing. Their story is the story of every local band that refused to quit — and their mission now is to prove that a rock band from rural Japan can reach the world without leaving home.