HARU NEMURI STORY BIO
From a young age, Japanese artist Haru Nemuri has been obsessed with translating the sounds in her head into music, but it wasn’t until after being unexpectedly inspired during a high-school trip that she began actually trying.
Haru and a friend had been told by their chaperone to go to sleep and not turn the TV on in their hotel room. Instead, they did exactly that and found themselves mesmerized by a Japanese band called CreepHyp playing on a music TV show. On the spot, they began discussing starting a band of their own. “My friend decided to play the guitar and be the vocalist, and I decided to play the synth,” she says. “We needed a drummer and bassist, and we took our time looking, but we couldn’t find anyone. So, I had to try something else.
Indeed, not many teenagers are inspired equally by American post hardcore icons such as Fugazi and Japanese avant-garde music legend Susumu Hirasawa, but therein lies the magic of Haru Nemuri and the work she has created over the past nine years.
Haru has always made music for herself first, but now the world is listening — even if they can’t understand a word of the Japanese language in which she sings, raps and frequently screams. Haru has built a dedicated following thanks to extensive touring in Japan and other parts of Asia, and sold out numerous shows in Europe on her first trip there in 2019, which included a performance at the legendary Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona. “In any region of the world, there are some things people can’t express in words, and sometimes even after writing lyrics, there are other feelings that I have left in me,” she says. “That’s when it’s time to shout. If people feel connected and supported by that, I’m really happy about it.”
On her 2018 debut album, “Haru to Shura,” Haru crafted songs with elements of “modern urban innocence, constraints and homogeneity, which therefore created a feel of tension and compactness.” Over time, she says her beats and riffs have developed “a feel of more wideness in natural space” that would have been difficult to produce before. “I am now able to create sounds that are further closer to the ideal,” she adds. “When I have ideas for songs, I am just an intermediary to help bring them to life. I strive to fulfill that role.”
At the upcoming shows, Haru is hopeful she can inspire her fans to (safely) “shout together, from their gut. I usually tell them to dance. If it can be a show like that, I’d be really happy to see it. I’d like to let all of that out on stage.”
As for the single “Déconstruction”(2nd Alubum ”SHUNKA RYOUGEN"), Haru says the theme was inspired by the “binary opposition” inherent in differing ideals such as good and evil or socialism and capitalism. “They’re actually being influenced by each other,” she observes. “If one doesn’t work, we go to the other. The world goes in a circle in that way. It has been going on for ages, and there’s not a real good answer. We need to break that and deconstruct that.”
HARU NEMURI is a Japanese singer-songwriter, a poetry rapper, and a composer.HARU NEMURI had debuted as called the “singing ultimate weapon”.
In April of 2018, she released the long-awaited first full album “Haru to Shura”. “Haru to Shura” has been featured in many countries overseas, including American famous music Vlogger "Anthony Fantano", and this album on streams has already gotten 20 million streams. She has performed in some music festivals overseas and some of her solo shows overseas were sold out.
In 2019, she performed in various large music festivals in Malaysia and Taiwan, and in March she held an Asian tour including shows in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taiwan, and Japan. In April, "HARU TO SHURA" on vinyl was released from a French label. Just after a few hours when the vinyl had been released, the first press of the record were sold out and had to be immediately re-pressed, where the additional presses were also sold out.
From May to June, she performed at the "Primavera Sound 2019" which is one of the huge music festivals in Europe, as well as 15 shows in 6 countries as her first European tour, including an outdoor music festival in Germany. More than half of the shows on the tour became sold out which her tour became a large success.
In January 2020, she released "Fanfare," followed by "Riot" in March. Her first original album in two years, Lovetheism, was completed, accompanied by three music videos filmed in Russia under the extreme cold of minus 30 degrees Celsius. The album received widespread acclaim from international listeners. In June, the album was released on vinyl by a French label, and she became the first Japanese artist selected for the Midem Talent Exporter in Cannes, a showcase for emerging global talent.
In 2021, she released "bang" in January, "Inori Dake Ga Aru" in March, "Seventh Heaven" in May, "Old Fashioned" in July, and "Déconstruction" in October. In 2022, Haru Nemuri finally did her first North America tour which had been postponed 4 times. Successfully all the shows were sold out. and she was invited to sang a song with Pussy Riot as a guest vocal on SXSW. In April, she released her second full-length album “SHUNKA RYOUGEN” which was given a score of 8.0 by Pitchfork. From October, she did “SHUNKA RYOUGEN” tour across 30 cities around the world. Ian MacKaye, who is the member of the greatest band of Hardcore ‘FUGAZI’, came to the show at Washington D.C.
And in 2023, she was chosen as one of ‘RADAR : Early Noise 2023’ artists by Spotify and she is going to perform for ‘SUMMER SONIC 2023’ and do the Europe tour for the first time in these 4 years. She has been drawing attention and announced to release her new work named “INSAINT”.
On this planet where to live and to survive results in to resist, which unreasonable things such as discrimination, exploitation and violence have been under the acquiescence or negligence of public. Haru Nemuri is angry, screaming trying to deconstruct it. .
More on HARU NEMURI
Haru is an endlessly restless artist; she’s still working on new songs in the studio, and an endless fury motivates the heart of her music, from its punk and riot grrrl ethos to the frantic, anthemic core of its poetry. She describes her vocal style as poetry rapping; her impassioned, breathless delivery tears into capitalism, the patriarchy, a climate apocalypse, and melds with an arresting blend of J-rock, shoegaze, and post-hardcore. When she sings, soliloquizes, screams, it’s as if there’s no one else in the room but herself, and you can hear the crowd collectively hold their breath. In 2023, Haru was honored as one of Forbes Japan ‘30 Under 30’.
Her album, ‘SHUNKA RYOUGEN’ out now, was heralded by publications like Pitchfork, The Fader, Paste Magazine, noting, “blending elements of J-pop, rap, and hardcore, the experimental Japanese artist’s latest album presents a convincing balance of nihilism and hope,”.
After world tours, festival appearances, and two LPs, the 30-year-old Japanese rockstar has captivated the world with her idiosyncratic poetry. Haru’s trailblazing music seamlessly blends genres—from the punk magnetism of Karen O and Fugazi, to the glittering shoegaze of Shinsei Kamattechan, or the experimentation of Björk and Susumu Hirasawa. Armed with only her vocals and a laptop, her shows mesmerize crowds from Europe to Asia to America, the great majority of whom don’t even speak her language.
---------- “Haru Nemuri’s debut album pushes J-pop/rap in an exciting direction by channeling Japan’s rich history of underground rock music.” The Needle Drop
---------- “Her full-length debut, which came out earlier this year, is packed with sonic ideas that each evolve in three minutes or less. Maybe it’s this brevity ? the immediate payoff ? that makes her music so rewarding.” Stereogum (40 best new bands of 2018)
---------- “Haru Nemuri’s new single “Kick In The World” sounds like if you put a bunch of razor blades in a blender and let it rip.” Stereogum (best song of the week)
---------- “Haru Nemuri has begun to feel like a scene essential, like one of the most important voices coming out of [Japan], and possibly even [all of Asia]. Pushing noise pop to ludicrous new highs of immediacy, and pushing the sonic limits of guitar sounds’ brittle-ness to even higher planes.“ Overblown
---------- “Haru Nemuri falls into the J-Pop artist category, but “Haru to Shura” falls far from any stereotypes of the genre. It’s abrasive, rough, and blends a challenging mix of noise rock and poetic rap. Nemuri’s passion vocalizes through jagged and volatile instrumentals. If you’ve ever been itching to explore experimental artists outside of your country/comfort zone, this is it!” College Music Network!
---------- “The other side of j-pop / Made in Japan? Better said it could only happen in Japan.” Primavera Sound
This is the Japanese pop music of new generation, and her spirit is “Rock and Roll.
HARU NEMURI NEW EP
INSAINT
“In the world we live in, being "common" and "physically healthy" individuals is often incredibly challenging. This is because the very structure of society itself often embodies exploitation, inequality, and discrimination. Once you deviate from the norms, you're often treated as a different kind of person, sometimes ridiculed, and your existence may be marginalized, which can gradually make it difficult to maintain your sanity. For everyone who feels left behind by the system and the confines of what is considered "normal," who continue to doubt themselves and suffer while living in the present, may this album, the hardcore punk of 2023, the feminism, exist for you. It was created with all my prayers.” - HARU NEMURI