Tanimura Shinji was born in Kawachinagano, Osaka on Decemeber 11, 1948. He … Read Full Bio ↴Tanimura Shinji was born in Kawachinagano, Osaka on Decemeber 11, 1948. He was exposed to music by his mothers shamisen playing and his sisters high school folk dancing at a young age. He spent his late elementary and junior high school years being one of the only overweight kids in his school. In junior high he began writing poetry and learning guitar. There weren't any instruction manuals in these days, so he had to practice by ear while listening to records and the radio and trying to figure out the notes. Throughout high school he continued to practice, write songs, and copy American folk songs. In high school he formed the band 'Rock Candies' with some friends. The band gained some local success in his college days, and the money earned paid for his food and expenses. He also began exercising and lost the weight that had plagued him through his school days.
Rock Candies continued to become more successful as an amateur band amongst students in the Kansai area. In 1970, with the band still an unsigned amateur act with no releases, they made the insanely ambitious decision to tour around the streets of the US. He went to a festival at the Shea Stadium in New York where acts like Steppenwolf, Paul Simon, and Richie Heavens were performing. The last act was Janis Joplin (in perhaps her last live, or close to it) and though he had never heard her he was heavily impacted by her performance, calling it "the greatest encounter of my life". They continued their tour around the states, staying in cheap hotels and eating the bare minimum. The person sending money to them from Japan ran off and they ended up completely broke on the streets of Mexico. With the help of an outrageous lie from one of the members of the band, they ended up playing at a Mexican festival of 50,000 people, and were escorted there with limousines and motorcycles. They eventually managed to stumble back to Japan with the help of various new friends along the way, and decided to start the company Young Japan on the flight back home.
The begins of Young Japan were nothing too impressive, but included James Brown's first [and rather lackluster] performance in Japan. As things got desperate, Tanimura's partner Hosokawa Ken went so far as to invite 20 French strippers to the company and try to have some sort of big event to make money. Unfortunately it went no where and the money they had to pay the girls pushed the company further and further into debt. They made yet another ambitious move, and rented out a boat to go to Guam with the band Garo to perform on board, as well as Young Japan's bands (Alice, Ban-Ban and The Mussyu). After this, Tanimura met Alice's Horiuchi Takao and the group started out as these two members. At this same time, Tanimura started several very successful late-night radio shows as well. Alice, now three members, became successful and they paid of their previous 150 million yen debt. This was the beginning of great things for Tanimura, and was also married this year and soon after had his first son. In 1974 the members of Alice each embarked on solo albums, and Alice also continued on successfully for years.
In the early 80's, Tanimura embarked on a tour throughout Asia and had a sizable impact on China. In the late 80's he aimed his sights at Europe, working with the London Symphony Orchestra, performed with the opera orchestra of Paris, and recorded an album with Vienna Symphony Orchestra Project in Italy. In the mid-90's he worked with famous US producer Phil Ramone, who said to him "The music of the next era will only come from Asia". There is some truth to this over 10 years later, as Asian music has become more accepted and liked throughout Europe and America. In 2001, 20 years after the start of their hiatus, Alice had a reunion tour and played at Budokan. In 2002 he produced a special festival event in China, and brought with him artists such as Gackt, Hamasaki Ayumi, and Sakai Noriko. In 2003 he was invited to head Shanghai's conservatory modern music department and is passionate about focusing his efforts on the furthering of music within China and strenthen the bridge of Japanese-Chinese relations.